Delegates at the news meet in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, Feb. 3: St Xavier’s Alumni Association will host the sixth national congress of the Federation of Jesuit Alumni Association of India for the first time in the city, from February 4 to February 6.

Held every three years in different parts of the country, the theme of this year’s congress is “Public-private partnership for better education”.

“The chief guest of the congress will be Archbishop William D’souza, the archbishop of Patna,” said J.K. Sinha, the president of St Xavier’s Alumni Association, at a news meet today.

Human resource development (HRD) department minister P.K. Shahi and principal secretary Anjani Kumar Singh will be the guest of honour and the special guest at the function. World Union of Jesuit Alumni president Thomas Bausch, Jesuit Alumni Association of India president Santosh Rollands and Patna Jesuit Society provincial Father Joy Karyampuram will also be present at the programme that will be followed by a cultural event.

Father Norbert Menezes, the national advisor of the Jesuit Alumni Association of India, said: “We have the required infrastructure to provide education to children. We will work together in the congress to come up with methods of achieving this goal.”

Father George Nedumattam, principal, St Xavier’s High School, said: “More than 400 delegates will attend the programme.”

Amulya Kumar Singh, the secretary of St Xavier’s Alumni Association, said: “Delegates will discourse on the chosen subject on the second day of the event. N.K. Singh, a member of Parliament and an alumnus of the school, will deliver the keynote address.”