(ANS – Guwahati) – The Salesians of Don Bosco are planning an ambitious programme called “Don Bosco School Improvement Mission” (DBSIM), which is dubbed internally, as DBVision 2020! The programme is expected to make an impact on the lives of over 100,000 young people in the course of six years.

“It’s an exciting opportunity to join Don Bosco in Assam, India, and reform the education sector in North East India. DB is planning soon to carry out a comprehensive quality development of all its educational institutions to meet the new and emerging challenges of providing internationally competitive education to young people in the region.” says Fr Johnson Parackal, project coordinator and director of DB institute of Management in Kharguli Guwahati.

Currently, there are some 800 Salesians in three provinces (Dimapur, Guwahati and Shillong) in the seven states of the region. This Don Bosco group in the region manages the first Catholic University in India along with 548 schools, 12 Technical Institutes & Vocational Centres, nine colleges, and other educational programmes for disadvantaged youth.

Calling on volunteers and professionals to join the mission, project coordinator Fr Parackal says, “Volunteers or Professionals are invited to be part of this exciting journey with young people of NE in any capacity, offering professional expertise and competencies… They should have at least a Post Graduate Degree in their respective area of interest and should have proficiency in English Language, and pledge their service for two years at least.”

Among the urgent areas of expertise required are:

1. Leadership and Management training for DB Principals/Teachers;
2. Teacher Training in methodology or subject specialization like Mathematics, Science, English, Computers and Social Studies;
3. Technology Integration into training programs and learning methodologies;
4. Web and/or Database development;
5. Resource mobilization; Infrastructure development;
6. Quality Assurance (Monitoring and Evaluation Systems).

The core team of selected experts will be paid regionally competitive fees. Don Bosco Institute Guwahati will offer volunteers board residency and local travel allowance, the priest said.

Published 10/12/2013