AGE to celebrate Platinum Jubilee this year

Team Udayavani, Jan 3, 2018, 6:17 PM IST

Manipal: The Academy of General Education (AGE), founded in 1942, will celebrate its Platinum Jubilee this year. The inaugural function will be held on January 4, 2018 at 10.00 am at Fortune Inn Valley View, Manipal.   Governor of Nagaland, Mr P.B. Acharya who is also the first batch student of MGM College, Udupi will inaugurate the celebrations which close on September 8, 2018 with the valedictory function. 

Briefing media persons on the activities, Dr H. S. Ballal, President AGE and Pro Chancellor, MAHE  said that a ten-minute video on AGE produced by the School of Communication, Manipal will be screened and senior officials of AGE would be felicitated. He said, “AGE is the mother of all educational institutions founded by Dr TMA Pai”.

Giving information about some of the major projects proposed during the year Dr Ballal said: “A new block of Madhava Krupa School for pre-primary and primary classes is nearing completion. It will have 38 classrooms with a capacity for 40 students each, two Montessori rooms each with a capacity for 40 students, five laboratories, a multi-purpose hall and so on. It will be ready by April 2018 and is being built at a cost of Rs 31 crore. The student strength is expected to go up to 5000 from the present over-2000 students.   

“A Convention Centre at Udupi similar to the one in Mangaluru is also planned at a cost of about Rupees 20-25 Crores. It will be jointly done by AGE, Dr TMA Pai Foundation and MAHE. Chairman of the Foundation, Mr Mohandas Pai personal contribution will be Rs two crore,” Dr Ballal said. A suitable area behind MGM 

College has been identified and surveyed.  It will have a central convention hall to accommodate 1200 people.

Vice Chancellor, Dr H Vinod Bhat said; “MAHE will be celebrating its silver jubilee this year. Being an important year, MAHE will contribute a Centre for Educational Research – Educational research is a systematic study that analyses various components of learning by integrating the essential human attributes to achieve specific pedagogic outcomes. To commemorate this landmark event in the calendar of Manipal, a Centre for Educational Research will be launched to introduce newer methods of teaching and create capacities that promotes the changing needs of the education system among the institutes affiliated to Academy of General Education”.

Mr Ashok Pai, Secretary of Dr TMA Pai Foundation said that the Foundation started in 1981 as an off-shoot of AGE will spend Rs five crores on the institutions run by the AGE and Foundation. This includes staff quarters and improvement of MGM ground. We are planning to create 15 facilities like basketball court etc. Dr H Shantaram, Secretary and Administrative officer of AGE and Dr G.K. Prabhu, Pro Vice Chancellor, MAHE and Trustee of AGE also spoke on the occasions. Dr Prabhu said it was decided to have a website for the institutions individually so that the alumni can be in touch with their alma mater.  

“AGE was started by Dr.T.M.A.Pai primarily to facilitate opening of educational institutions in the undivided Dakshina Kannada district.  After completing his MBBS course in 1925 and settling down in Udupi, he was keen to change the lives of the people in this region and do something good for the society in general,” he said. Topmost on Dr Pai’s mind at that time was to eliminate illiteracy, provide better healthcare and remove poverty.  All that was possible only if the youth of the region were educated. AGE helped in the establishment of high schools in Perdur, Parkala, Alevoor, Kadiyali and Agumbe.  He later started six colleges of arts, science and commerce  viz. MGM College, Udupi (1949), Sri Bhuvanendra College, Karkala (1960), Bhandarkars’ Art and  Science  College,  Kundapura  (1963),   Vijaya   College,   Mulki   (1963),   Sri Jagadguru  Chandrashekhar  Bharathi  Memorial  College, Sringeri (1965) and Sri Mahaveera College, Moodbidri (1965). Each of these colleges has a Pre-University College attached to it.

Dr.Pai also started Kasturba Medical College at Manipal (1953), India’s first non-missionary, self-financing, private medical college, and three other professional colleges under AGE — Manipal Institute of Technology (1957), Manipal College of Dental Science (1965) and Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences (1965). By starting all these professional colleges, he laid the foundation for a deemed to be university at Manipal in 1993.