Shillong, 7 November: The Seventh National Educational Conference of Don Bosco Schools (NECDBS) 2025, hosted by the Salesian Province of Shillong (INS) at St. Anthony’s Higher Secondary School, Shillong, opened with a surge of shared purpose on Thursday, 06 November 2025. From the Salesian Province of Calcutta, 15 principals joined educationists, administrators, and delegates from across India’s Salesian institutions, all gathered under the banner “Educational Excellence in the Spirit of Don Bosco.” For our delegation, the journey to Shillong was more than travel—it was a pilgrimage to renew the mission that binds every Don Bosco classroom from Kolkata’s bustling streets to the quiet hills of Darjeeling.
The day began with the Holy Eucharist celebrated by Most Rev. Victor Lyngdoh, D.D., Archbishop of Shillong, followed by the formal inauguration. The keynote address by Rev. Fr. Sebastian Kuricheal SDB, Provincial and In-Charge of School Education for South Asia, struck a chord with every principal present. Fr. Sebastian’s words—“We are called not only to prepare our students for a career but to prepare them for life”—echoed the daily reality of our schools, where children from slums, tea gardens, and border villages sit side by side with those from middle-class homes.
He reminded us that Don Bosco’s Preventive System—reason, religion, loving-kindness—remains our compass amid the National Education Policy’s call for holistic, skill-based learning. In Calcutta Province, this balance is lived out in classrooms where a child learning coding in an ICSE lab might share a bench with a night-school student mastering basic literacy under streetlights. Fr. Sebastian’s challenge to treat digital transformation as “a call for educational growth” felt personal.
The presence of dignitaries—Shri Lahkmen Rymbui, Education Minister of Meghalaya; Smt. Ampareen Lyngdoh; Smt. Santa Mary Shylla, MLA; Mr. Adelbert Nongrum, MLA; and later His Excellency Shri C. H. Vijayashankar, Governor of Meghalaya—underscored the national significance of Salesian education. Yet for our 15 principals, the true highlight was the quiet resolve to carry Shillong’s fire back home: to ensure no child in a Calcutta night school is left behind, to make every primary school a safe haven, and to turn every state-board classroom into a space where potential flourishes.
As the inaugural day ended, the Calcutta delegation stood united in Don Bosco’s dream: forming good Christians and honest citizens, one young life at a time.
The Salesian Province of Calcutta serves young people through a diverse network of institutions, including two CBSE English-medium schools, thirteen ICSE English-medium schools, four West Bengal State Board schools in Bengali, one West Bengal State Board school in English, one Bihar State Board school in English, three schools under the Nepal Board, three schools in Bangladesh, eleven primary schools, three night schools, and one open school.
