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Rev Dr Jose Aikara
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ev Dr Jose Aikara asked for nothing in return from the Heavenly Father for his warmth and wisdom, his caring and cautions, his advice to humanity and assistance to the poor and needy, but only His grace from above and he has received it abundantly even before he asked. When Fr Aikara (so has he been called by his nearest and dearest) came to Mysore in the summer of 2001 he had taken along with him the greatest of weapons of a social reformer, his morale, which had been gifted by the Almighty and sharpened and used by him for not less than three decades. Born in an ancient and aristocratic family (Aikara) in 1947 to A S Abraham and Mariamma Abraham, Fr Aikara was called to join His Royal Priesthood in 1967. In 1977 he was ordained a priest of the Congregation of Mission (CM). In 1976 he obtained his BD (Bachelor of Divinity) and in 1980 became a BSc in Botany from Loyola College, Chennai. After taking his master’s degree from Madras Christian College in 1982 he went to the North. He was destined to be the founder Principal of De Paul School, Berhampur, Orissa, in 1987. In 1988 he took his BEd from the University of Berhampur. The soft-spoken and sweet-smiling priest became a Doctor when the University of Berhampur awarded him a PhD in Botany (Photo Periodism) in 1994.
Treasurer, ASISC. He received another national award for his contribution to the field of education from Union Human Resource Minister Kapil Sibal in 2009. Rev Dr Aikara is currently a member of the ICSE Board, the ICSE Examination Committee and ICSE Finance Committee. He has been given a third term as ASISC National Secretary-Treasurer till 2012. It was in the summer of 2002 that Rev Dr Jose Aikara came to the tranquil ambience of the Brindavans of Mysore in search of a piece of land to pioneer a school which would be named after St Vincent De Paul. Fr Aikara knows that history beckons DPIRS as his school prepares to break new grounds by entering into a tie-up with GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education, Cambridge University) and thus to house hundreds of young aspirants for whom education in India and abroad has become a passion as well as an obsession. However, Mysore witnessed a mysterious slumber in the field of education during the last decades of the 20thcentury. It necessitated an educational resurge and the advent of the 21st century saw the birth of a different school of thought: DPIRS, Mysore. Paying a visit to this centre of learning itself is a unique experience.
If you drive out of the City of Mysore and leisurely make your headway towards the Brindavan Gardens along the pucca road flanked by the arid paddy fields—harvested and to be gleaned—you will unwittingly be heading through some of the most picturesque landscapes of the city outskirts, spotted with the large manorial mansions Rev Dr Jose Aikara with Kiran Bedi, Rev Dr Jose Aikara with Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, and solitary farm the supercop former President of India houses with the Certificate (ASISC), Orissa, and in 1996 he success- winding country approach roads. All will baffle your alacfully completed his LLB from Berhampur University. In ritous senses as to whether you have lost your way to 1997, he got his name enrolled in the Orissa High Court, DPIRS, but do not get mystified. You haven’t. At the Paand the same year witnessed great accreditations be- per Mill Circle you will turn your wheels to your left on ing conferred on him. In 1997 he received a national the Srirangapatna-Hunsur Road and suddenly start adaward in the field of education, was elected to the ICSE miring the huge gateway of DPIRS where you will be Board, Delhi, and also to the Standing Committee of cordially stopped for a few queries which are customthe ISC and ICSE Examinations. Rev Dr Aikara became ary at any such centre of learning. You will soon be the Vice-President of ASISC National in 1998 and the invited by a world of diverse fauna and flora: from the same year became its National President. In 2000 he lippy lizards to the sparring sparrows and from the redgot a transfer from De Paul School, Berhampur, to red roses to chic-choc cherries. Visakhapatnam and in 2001 was appointed Provincial As you are on a stroll, touring the campus (a testing Superior of the South Indian Province of the Congrega- time for your fitness and stamina to tour the 50 acres, of tion of Mission, a congregation of priests founded by St which playgrounds alone occupy 18 acres), you will Vincent De Paul in the 17thcentury. In 2003 he founded presently be captivated by the scenic beauty of girdling De Paul International Residential School (DPIRS), gardens with bowers and fountains, the Aquatic Centre Mysore, and in 2004 obtained his MBA from Pune Uni- (10-lane and half-Olympic size), the most modern stateversity. In 2005 Rev Dr Aikara went to Tanzania and of-the-art auditorium (the best in the city) and so on. started two English-medium schools. In the same year The interactive classrooms (Smart Class he was elected to the office of the National Secretary- Programme) of DPIRS have emerged as lively and acIn 1995 Rev Dr Aikara was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Association of Schools for Indian School
PASSLINE
August 31-September 30, 2011
tive processing units. It marked the advent of an era where the students are not merely mute spectators but self-discovered power-houses ready to be commissioned. “DPIRS is a different school of thought: an international school with a sheer Indian perspective and perhaps the only school with a teacher-student ratio of 1:5, says Rev Dr Aikara. De Paul is the alma mater of students hailing from more than 13 countries. The school monitors each of its students very closely in pursuit of their self-discovery: to be the “Lighted Ones to Lead the World”. Some of the academic and co-curricular features at DPIRS are: classes from KG to +2; ICSE and IGCSE up to Std X; ISC, GCE and PU for Std XI and XII; GCE ‘O’ and ‘A’ level; TCL (Trinity College, London) Music; synthetic tennis courts; 400m track stadium; 4 concrete basketball courts; half-Olympic-size 10-lane swimming pool etc. The most important point in DPIRS is the space. There is a space for everyone and everything: a space to grow and to bloom; a space to forget and forgive; a space to cut the uncut and a space to break and make. The same space can be felt in the large classrooms, the sportive playgrounds, the aromatic refectory, the chirpy orchards, the homey dorms, the inviting library, the soothing nursing-room and the nostalgic corridors. This is a school where each of its students identifies that he/she is destined to occupy his/her space and to lead the world one day. Thus, DPIRS is a place which does always provide its children with a space to learn, unlearn and relearn. This is what that makes the school “A School of Different Thought”. The great visionary in Rev Dr Aikara fully exploits the gravity of the situation in whatever he does. It’s a delight to work with him and observe him work: a rare combination of experience, maturity and authenticity. His voice has become the most trusted and powerful voice in the field of education in the recent years. “Say what you can do and do what you say” is his slogan. He doesn’t have any false pride as far as what he is going to do. One will love to admire his simple, unassuming way of functioning well supported by his high EQ and soaring IQ. So extraordinary, in fact, that Fr Aikara’s list of accomplishments in bringing a paradigm shift to the lives of the poor and the needy and to the dispossessed and the unwanted—particularly in the notoriously dilapidated and crime-infested suburbs of Orissa—would warrant our immediate appreciation and approval. He knows that he is playing the good Samaritan when he wipes the tears from the pain-ridden ruts of the hapless cheeks. Contact: De Paul International Residential School, Belagola P O, Srirangapatna Taluk, Mandya District, Karnataka, INDIA Pin: 571 606 Ph: 0821 3290401, 3290402 E-mail: dpirs@yahoo.co.in, aikarajose@yahoo.com -Response Feature