‘MIRACLES’ of Fr Furtado who stands tall like a ‘PILAR’

In the field of education, academicians lay more stress on curriculum in the process of moulding the minds of  children. But besides acquiring knowledge from books, they fail to impart love for nature and general knowledge which can help them in the long run.

Fr Pio Furtado, resident of Merces and a member of the Society of Pilar, completed his B.Ed training in 2004. Having served in various positions and after being ordained a priest, he stepped into the field of education in 2008.

Fr Furtado’s was first appointed as the principal at Our Lady of Piety High School, Collem. There he strived to educate the children, who belonged to the migrant population and achieved 87 per cent success rate.

Fr Furtado’s next appointment followed at Miracles High School, Sanguem in 2012, where he is continuing with his selfless service for the past 5 years. This co-ed school has around 652 students mostly belonging to migrants from Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Odhisa, who serve in the mines and farms.

“My main aim is to educate those who are under the impression that they cannot be educated and education is beyond their reach,” informs Fr Furtado. “With regards to their wards,” he adds, “the migrant parents have high ambition.”

This year the Miracles High School was selected as the Best Quiz Team, with participation in the Navhind Times Quiz wherein 240 schools were actively involved and the school bagged the fourth place at the all-Goa quiz competition. The school also participated in a quiz contest organized by Bhatikal Model High School, Margao, with involvement of 24 schools and Miracles High School won the runners-up prize.

Besides participation in inter-school contests, the Miarcles High School, Sanguem has also been organizing inter-school quiz competition for the past five years in memory of the founder, late Fr Philomena Costa. For the past four years, the same school has also be holding wealth-out-of-waste exhibition successfully, which has witnessed 100 per cent participation from classes I-X.           

Fr Furtado focuses on the all-round development of the students and conducts daily assembly in the school with 100 per cent participation which helps them to overcome stage fright, besides garnering confidence to face the public, showcasing their talents and learning more about team work.

There’s also preparation and presentation of the wall paper for all classes from I-X. “In a week, six boards are prepared and in a year around 220 wall papers,” informs Fr Furtado. “Each class is divided into six groups and these groups prepare wall papers for a week. Then the next class follows and with the assistance of the teachers, creative works come into existence with themes relevant to society, nature, values and sports,” he elaborates.

Perhaps this is the only school in Goa with such a rare activity on a routine basis. In order to keep students tuned to nature, under the guidance of the class teacher, each class is allotted a plot of land (4×6 metres) where teachers and students are involved in carrying out kitchen gardening.

Vegetables such as lady’sfinger, chillies, onions, brinjals, drumsticks, cucumber, long beans and ‘zhukini’, a rare variety of vegetable found in foreign countries and used for salad preparation are grown on a big scale. “People were under the impression that ‘zhikini’ would not grow in Goa,” informs Fr Furtado, “but we had a bumper crop this year, besides a good yield of the African corn (maize).”

Miracles High School, Sanguem was the only school in Goa to win an award for growing and supplying organic vegetables to the agriculture department. “The same yield is later sold to the general public by the government through various horticulture corporations,” concealed Fr Furtado.

“This year there was also a bumper crop of brinjals with a collection of 6-7 kg of brinjals on alternate days,” Fr Furtado said. Other than vegetation, plantation of a variety of banana and mango saplings has been carried out this year. “Around 60 mango saplings have been transported from Ela Fram, Old Goa and Ratnagiri.”

Piggery, poultry and rabbits feature in this huge school complex. “The aim of introducing these is to give a good exposure to the differently abled children and help them to carry such trades at a low cost budget and make a decent living,” informed Fr Furtado.