Principal's Message

Dr. Somnath Vibhute

(MA PhD. SET NET)

If work is worship then St. Gonsalo Garcia College has been my place of worship for the past 27 years. It is indeed a great honor to lead this prestigious college. The foundation of this great institution was laid down by founder Prin. Rev. Fr. John Rumao way back in 1984. The college was blessed by then Pope John Paul - II on 9th Feb 1986. The college was led by the legendary principals since its inception. Fr. John Rumao was succeeded by historians Fr. Joseph Wellingkar and Dr. Regin D’Silva. Then Rev. Fr. Dr. Solomon Rodrigues in his long tenure tried to develop the extra-curricular and co-curricular abilities of our institution. He was succeeded by an academician Dr. Dominic Lopes followed by a well-known poet Dr. Cecilia Carvalho.

Swami Vivekanand said, “Education is the manifestation of perfection already in the man” means ''माणसात असलेल्या परिपूर्णतेचे प्रकटीकरण म्हणजे शिक्षण'' At this college, we all the stakeholders strive hard to march forward towards this perfection under the guidance and leadership of our patron His Grace Rt. Rev. Bishop Thomas D’Souza. We are fortunate to have the guiding light of such stalwarts, inspiring us to take this institution way forward to touch new greater heights. Education is not the amount of information that is put into the brain and runs right there undigested; rather it is a process to build a character with equal development of mental and intellectual abilities to become self-reliant. We strongly believe in this and have been successfully marching towards this goal over the past four decades.

There has been revolutionary change in higher education in our country as the National Education Policy NEP 2020 is implemented from June 2024. It has multiple challenges in teaching new courses and programmes. However, I envision the tremendous capacities in our human resources, be it professors, library staff, administrative office, or technical / support staff, as they are competent enough to cater to the diverse needs of the students across different activities such as sports, cultural, social service, lifelong learning, NCC vis-a-vis academics. We believe in the culture of respecting, celebrating, and nurturing individual differences to gain the all-round development of our students. We respect democratic values, secular beliefs, and multi-religious harmony and try to imbibe this in our budding generation on the campus.

In the academic year 2024-25 we are proud to mention that the university has approved the Innovation and Incubation Start up clinic in our college. It will definitely help us to inspire and motivate the budding entrepreneurs from this college. Further, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has chosen our college for the free training to 150 students in Social Media Management and Graphic Design under the Achary Chanaky Kaushaly Vikas Kendra ACKVK of Government of India. In every new academic year we launch something new, and this year is no exception. This year the college has participated in Career Katta a 365 day online app based guidance for enrolled students and sanctioned a grant of Rs. 50,000/- for the entrepreneurship development and imparting skills for students. As a matter of great pride I state here that the Gold Medalist of the University of Mumbai in Archery belongs to our college, further our college has bagged a Gold in Group Dance in the finals of the cultural youth festival.

Learning is a continuous and multidimensional process. It involves providing a required platform for every learner to excel in the field of his or her interest. Thus, it has been our constant endeavor to identify, acknowledge, and further develop the hidden talent of the millennial. As the National Education Policy (NEP-2020) is already in place, we need to understand four aspects of experiential learning, innovative and activity based pedagogy, multiple entry and exit options and establishing an academic bank of credit is handled successfully. In order to make our youth not just job seekers but to be job creators, we have to provide them with quality knowledge and skills. We, thus strive to provide the best possible infrastructure and ambiance on the campus which will enable every learner to take their academic and skill enrichment to the new heights. Wishing you all a very happy, healthy, and fruitful new academic year 2024-25.

Prin. Dr. Somnath Vibhute