Respected trustee members, invited guests, parents, teachers and all my dear children. Great evening and Namaste!

"Isha Vasyam Idam Sarvam Yat Kincha Jagathyaam Jagat Tena Tyktena Bhujeetha", these are the words of the wise sages from the Ishopanishad that caution us to use the gifts of nature judiciously and preserve them for the prosperity. A school should educate its students about the importance of natural resources and their sustainability is the responsibility of everyone. The theme of our annual day "Aikyam Mama Bharath" is chosen to awaken patriotism in our students, in connection with the Aazaadi ki Amrit Mahotsav and create awareness among people about the conservation and preservation of natural resources.

You all must have heard about the National Education Policy 2020 and its implementation from the academic year 2023-24. As a CISCE-affiliated school i.e. (CISCE now), we have already been following most of the requirements suggested by NEP and our holistic curriculum caters to the other changes prescribed in the policy. You may remember the recently held Exhibition "Kala Srijan" which manifested the talent and the skill of our students in co-scholastic areas. The good news for the parents is that from the next academic year onwards we have included Art, PE and Home Science as optional for ISC students. Augmented reality and Coding are the other two additions to our curriculum for the next academic year.

Sustainability improves the quality of our lives, protect our ecosystem and preserves natural resources for future generations. Hence it is required to be added as a part of the curriculum in all schools. At this juncture, I would like to add that even before NEP was announced we had incorporated some of the 21st century skills and sustainable development goals in our teaching-learning process.

Counseling has become the need of the hour in all schools, fortunately, VPS students are receiving the benefit of it from the early stage of the school's inception. We have an in-house counselor to guide students, conduct aptitude tests and interpret it in layman's language to parents and tea time talks by expert achievers to orient students on different career options. The choices they have in careers, how to achieve the choice and which colleges are the best options? VPS, is a member of the IC3 movement which works for counseling in every school and believes that every teacher has to be a 10% counselor.

With great pride, I want to announce that the first-ever IC3 conference in Gujarat is to be held in this very on-premises next week on 2nd February. Colleges from India and abroad have registered for the event and we expect a grand turnout. It is a one-day conference and our students and teachers will gain expertise and exposure that will add to their personal profiles. We at VPS believe that we have to bring change with time, upgrade ourselves and the systems in this 21st Century.

Let me come back to our theme. And achieve sustainable goals we need to protect the environment religiously. In Vedas it is said "Dasa Putro Samah Vrukshah", one tree is equal to 10 good sons. For the survival of birds and animals, we need to plant trees. The number of little sparrows we used to see every day is also dwindling. To protect them we need sparrow houses. We are distributing the sparrow house to students on Monday. Please see to it you place it properly and save sparrow.

Re-accreditation process of NABET was another attainment this year. All these achievements are possible for us as it is a system-driven school and teachers are well-trained to do multiple tasks. Heartfelt thanks to the Trustees for their unconditional support in all our endeavors and for the augmentation of the infrastructure. Thanks, parents, my staff and students for acting spontaneously and positively as and when the need arises and for being part of the VPS family.

To conclude…. I pray
Let everyone in the world be happy and peaceful.
"Lokah Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu"

"Vasudhaiva Kutum Bhakam"

We take an oath to conserve water and to use it wisely. We will treat water as the most precious treasure that we possess and consume it accordingly. We pledge to motivate our family, friends and neighbours to use water wisely and not waste it. It is our planet and only we can save it!!!!

Thank you all for being a part of water saving drive.

Dr Alpa S Kotadia - Executive Director And Senior Principal