Excellence in education

Described as the "fulcrum of Loreto House for three decades,” Roshan Jila has been awarded the Frank Brothers Honour for Excellence as an educationist, reports Cal­cutta Gava­shni, newsletter of the Calcutta Zoroastrian Community’s Religious and Charity Fund, in its January-March 2009 issue. Now retired, Jila told Gavashni that she still teaches, and loves it! She prepares Institute of Advanced Management in Calcutta.

Poona born Jila attended the Hutchings School there, becoming head girl in her final year. A science student who did well in class, Jila admits that she "hated the subject!” and chose to switch to the humanities instead. She proceeded to obtain her Bachelor of Arts in English Honors from Bombay’s Ramnarayan Ruia College and her MA from the University of Bombay. "I always wanted to be a lecturer in college… I started teaching in Ruia College the very day after I got my results. I taught there for five years,” Jila recalled.

Roshan Jila: chalk dust in her soul

It was only after she went to Calcutta in 1975 that Jila "realized that high school teaching suited me better than lecturing, as it was a more rewarding profession. Teaching and lecturing are two different things; teaching involves molding the child into thinking independently while lecturing is a lot less personal.” So, in 1978 she started teaching English literature at Loreto House at the plus-two level and by 1987 was appointed coordinator, progressing in 1997 to the post of vice-principal of the secondary and higher secondary sections until her retirement in 2009.

Music, theater and sports are activities Jila excelled in. "As a child I would play the piano for the school assembly.” She went on to achieve the ATCL (Associate of Trinity College London) level of the Trinity College of Music. She also played the violin and the flute, she told Gavashni. With her love for acting, Jila was soon directing plays in college. In Calcutta she has written original scripts for British Council plays for students as well as being dramatic director for several annual school performances. Her sporting skills extended to playing throw ball while in school and representing her college in hockey.

Post retirement, she says she is trying to catch up on her reading, "which I hardly got a chance to do as vice principal... Very happy and fulfilled” with her long association with Loreto, Jila reflects "I sometimes think that there’s chalk dust in every seam of my soul… However, I still need to master the skill of typing,” she laughingly admitted to Gavashni.