Delhi Province of the Society of Jesus proclaims the message of the Gospel and involves itself in the empowerment of the poor predominantly through school education. It runs six major schools and two upcoming schools. The oldest school in the Province is St. Xavier’s Sr. Secondary School, C-Scheme, Jaipur, established in 1942 while it was part of the Patna Province. The second oldest is St. Xavier’s Sr. Sec. School, Raj Niwas Marg, Delhi started in 1960. St. Xavier’s Sr. Sec. School, Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, St. Xavier’s Sr. Sec. School, Behror, Rajasthan, and St. Xavier’s Sr. Sec. School, Shahabad, Delhi were established more or less in the same time. The most recent major school is St. Xavier’s Sr. Sec. School, Nevta, Jaipur which was begun in 2014. The developing schools in the rural set up are St. Xavier’s School, Ropar, Punjab, and St. Xavier’s School, Mahua, Rajasthan. Altogether, the Province is catering to more than 15,800 school students without counting the children of balwadis. About twenty percent of our children are from the underprivileged sections who are on concessional fees, some are even given full fee concessions. Our commitment to the poor are also manifested by the special assistance given to them in terms of special personal care and coaching classes so that they able to move with the mainstream. All our schools provide co-education and more attention is given to promote girls’ education. As a policy all catholic children from the vicinity of the school, are given admission in our schools. Transparency in our dealings particularly with regard to admissions is stressed in our schools.

A brief report on the activities of Education Commission in the year 2015-16.

Province Education Commission Meet
The commission meets at least four times a year along with the Provincial and his consultors. Besides these meetings, we have an annual meeting of all the Jesuits working in the schools along with their lay and religious collaborators in the month of June. The members are updated with the current trends in education through experts.

Common Province Policy with regard to Scholarship and Admission
A common Province policy has been drafted and sent to all the schools with the approval of Fr. Provincial and his consultors pertaining to scholarship given to the children of teachers, office staff and other maintenance staff. The policy also deals with the formation of admission committee, staff recruitment committee, maintenance of proper records like ACR, Minutes of the Managing Committee Meeting, PTA Meeting, Staff Meeting, and other school related matters.

Workshop on protection of children and other vulnerable adults from sexual abuse
A core group of experts was constituted by the Provincial for conscientizing the teachers and other employees of our institutions with regard to the protection of children and other vulnerable adults from any form of harassment. A common booklet with all the details both in English and Hindi was printed and distributed to all the employees of our institutions. The core team visited all our institutions and conducted a day- long seminar for the employees. At the end of the seminar all the employees including the Jesuits were asked to sign an undertaking and the copies of the same are maintained in the respective school offices.

Emphasis on Value based education
Reiterating the importance of value based education in our institutions all the Principals were asked to organize workshops and seminars to motivate and convince the teachers about the importance of value education. Dr. Vincent Shekar, SJ of Loyola College of Chennai was invited by the PCE to conduct seminar in our institutions.

Aadhyayan
The audit of St. Xavier’s Sr. Sec. School, Jaipur was conducted by Adhyayan. The school secured State Gold. The other schools will be evaluated by Adhyayan in near future.

Introduction of Humanities in Class XI
Due to various reasons some of our schools discontinued humanities in Class XI. Taking in to consideration the changing global and national scenario, most of our schools have decided to re-introduce humanities in class XI & XII w.e.f this academic year.