Charotar Education Society to celebrate centenary year with a difference

Ahmedabad

The Charotar Education Society on Tuesday made announcements to mark its Centenary Year celebrations beginning from April 16.

Addressing the media, senior board members from CES stated that the institution which is one of the oldest educational institutes in Gujarat would like to rollout a series of activities throughout the year to mark the centenary year. Almost all of the events are focused on inculcating values and providing a larger platform to academic and sports activities.

Glorious journey of CES

“This institute was started at a time when education was not considered priority in this region as compared to other fortunate regions in Gujarat. It was in 1916 when regions under monarchic patronage were witnessing considerably high educational activities due to direct motivation from the rulers that, a tough call was taken by Motibhai Narsinhbhai Amin who himself was a principal in 1905. There is much to praise about his efforts to give education a different meaning in the pre-independence era and his efforts paid off, as today CES has remained unaffected despite ups and downs, still following the same principles of providing value based education that is true in its true meaning,” said Nirav Patel, Chairman CES.

The school according to officials was given the title of ‘Charotar Bindu’ by Mahatma Gandhi.

Narrating CES’s active role during freedom movement Mr. Ketan D. Patel said, “The credit goes to Shri Motibhai Amin who had a vision to uplift the level of education to a level in Charotar region which is respected in the society. The institute had its chairpersons like late Vitthalbhai Z Patel, Shri Thakkarbapa, DadaSahebMavlankar (the first Speaker of the Lower House of Parlimanet). These great personalities did not just spread the light of education in the entire region but they also motivated the teachers, students, trustees to take active part in the freedom movement. When Mahatma Gandhi camped at Anand during Dandi March in 1930, the same CES ground witnessed the massive gathering of 20,000 as Gandhiji addressed them. Such was the freedom fervor that the school management decided to close the academic activities 10 days in advance as most of the students wanted to be part of the movement.”

A GLIMPSE INTO CES’s HISTORY

-The founder of CES Motibhai Amin who was principal of Petlad English medium school realized that the entire region had schools only up to Class 5 and it all started on 16-06-1906 when the boarding facilities were started for the students in Petlad. Yet the students had to go to Baroda for matric.

-In 1914 during the Old Boarders Association meeting a decision was taken to start the institution.

-In 1916 CES was formally established.

-Mahatma Gandhi bestowed the school with title of CharotarBindu during his visit to CES in 1916.

-Despite financial crunches the school management decided to return the loan of Rs 10,000 to show its protest against the Rolette Act

-The concept of circulating library was introduced in pre-independence era

-Sports, Music and Practical know how were integral part of CES foundation for students and still remain

Activities planned for celebration

Patel said, “We had series of meetings within school staff to chalk out the plan to celebrate the Centenary Year to pay homage to those who laid a strong foundation and also to motivate the present generation. Eventually we decided to celebrate 100 years by organizing series of events which could be tentatively 100, spread across 12 months. All these activities would be giving a sense of bonding both within and all associated with CE Society”.

All these activities would carry a strong motivational message according to Mr. Patel. “Divided into various segments like sports, education, culture, tradition and social arena, all the activities would involve all sections of the society not just school students and staff. The ‘anna-daan’ activity for example is designed in a way that it would change the definition of CSR. We would approach all the marriage organizers in surrounding villages and convince them not to waste food by taking extra servings and then dump it in garbage. Instead the saved surplus food would be collected from the kitchen and served to the needy persons on the same day. We have already worked out the logistics for the same and once implemented it would result in a very strong message of not to waste food. Similarly, we are going to organize the traditional games which are forgotten in the age of TV and Tabs. We are trying to convert this into a state level competition as well. Similarly, the food festival is going to be different and one of its kind. We would be calling cooks from their respective regions and cook for the people who would come to the fair. This will result in serving of authentic recipes.”

– DeshGujarat