Sister Cyril, pioneer in school edu, passes away

Kolkata: Sister Cyril, an Irish catholic nun who revolutionised school education in India and worked for the underprivileged for several decades in Kolkata died on Saturday at an old age home for sisters on Convent Road. She was 86.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed her profound grief at the death of Sister Cyril.

“I am deeply saddened by the passing away of Sister Cyril of Loreto Sisters, an eminent educational reformer, social worker and friend of the poor. Her death is a great loss for us. Her contribution to State welfare schemes for the empowerment of underprivileged children was immeasurable. My sincere condolences to the Loreto Sisters,” Banerjee tweeted. Sister Cyril, who was the principal of Loreto Sealdah for 32 years, had held various advisory positions in the state education committees since her retirement in 2011.

A Padma Shri awardee in 2007, she pioneered the ‘Rainbow’ project in 1983 in which students of English medium schools taught financially backward children after regular school hours on the streets.

Cyril who was born on July 21, 1936, in Ireland had come to Kolkata, then Calcutta, in 1956 and made the city her home since then. The funeral Mass will be held at 3 pm on June 27 at St. Thomas Church in Middleton Row.