June 12, 2009
Media contact: Anne Russell
Cell: 604-798-3709
Office: 604-795-2826
anne.russell@ufv.ca
UFV honours Dalip Singh Gill for founding Punjabi school in Abbotsford
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Dr. Dalip Singh Gill |
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Dalip Singh Gill was pretty comfortable in his career in India. He was rising in the ranks of the education ministry after starting out as a teacher and headmaster. And he wasn’t a young man. “I was very happy with my life and not looking to immigrate,” he recalls.
Still, something pulled him to British Columbia. He’d been here to visit for his nephew’s wedding in 1982, and was impressed by both the natural beauty of Canada and the way multiculturalism was so woven into the tapestry of Canadian culture. “There were so many people from so many countries bringing their values and language but living mostly harmoniously,” he says.
So when he learned that there was no school where Indo-Canadian children could learn about their culture, heritage, and ancestral language, he accepted the challenge of being founding principal of the Dasmesh Punjabi School in Abbotsford. It’s for this contribution to the local education environment that the University of the Fraser Valley is recognizing him with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree at its June convocation ceremonies.
The Abbotsford school started small in 1983, with just a few students taking weekend Punjabi lessons at the local gurdwara. A day school was opened in 1986 with just Grade 1 and 2 and a total of 11 students and one teacher. The school was certified by the provincial government as an independent school.
The school moved into its present campus in Matsqui Village in 2005, and now boasts 550 students from kindergarten to Grade 10, and 35 teachers.
The school has been instrumental in preserving the Punjabi heritage in the Fraser Valley by offering two additional courses to the standard provincial curriculum: Sikh studies and Punjabi language.
Gill was the man behind this phenomenal growth, both as administrator and chief fundraiser and community relations manager.
These days when he walks the school grounds at recess, the newly retired Gill is still greeted warmly by dozens of children, who call him “Uncle” and rush to bow to him as a gesture of respect.
He points proudly to photos of former students on the wall, most of whom have gone on to university, and some of whom are now practising lawyers and accountants, or in medical school. These achievements make the move from India that he and his late wife Mrs Jaswant Kaur Gill undertook worthwhile.
“I wanted to do something for my community and there was a need here in British Columbia,” he said. “Our guru Dasmesh teaches us to recognize all human beings as equal and this was a place to put this into practice, especially since there are people from so many cultures living together here.”
Gill also played a role in the grassroots community campaign to raise funds for the UFV Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies and the Regional Innovation Chair in Canada-India Business and Economic Development. And back when he was getting the Dasmesh school off the ground in the 1980s, he took accounting and computing courses through UFV Continuing Studies.
Although he officially retired in February, Gill keeps busy by being the appointed representative for independent schools on council of the BC College of Teachers. He also enjoys spending time with his four daughters, sons-in-law, and nine grandchildren.
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