S. Vishnu Sharma
It was a moment to celebrate for schools as they won awards for finding creative solutions for civic issues at Actizen Contest. The competition is an initiative by Desh Apnayen Foundation.
The nation-wide contest’s details were shared with thousands of schools by the Foundation. Over 11,000 students registered for the two-stage contest and hundreds of them engaged in community service activities. Students from top 10 schools and their Actizen mentor teachers pitched their ideas for solving civic issues bothering the cities.
PSBB Millennium School, OMR, Tamil Nadu was picked by the grand jury for the Actizen trophy and the first place in the contest.
Schools win awards
Calorx Public School, Ghatlodia, Ahmedabad and DCM Presidency School, Ludhiana for the second and third places respectively. Jury also made a special mention of St. Mary’s English Medium High School, Nellore for their outstanding ideas. Top prizes included educational scholarships for the students and laptops for the schools. Certificates were given to all participants.
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Jury members analysed the ideas and then selected winners. Ashok Bhansali, philanthropist, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, filmmaker, Kiran Khalap, brand consultant, Mini Menon, journalist and author, Vallabh Bhanshali, founder of Desh Apnayen Foundation and Cyrus Guzder, Pioneering industrialist and heritage conservationist were the jury members.
The Desh Apnayen Awards 2019, now in its fifth edition were also presented to the top 10 Champion Schools. These are part of 800 schools that the Foundation has partnered with over the past five years.
The awards went to Appasaheb Bhaurao Patil English Medium School, Satara, Gurukul Academy Ponda, Goa, HVB Global Academy, Our Lady of the Rosary High School, Pawar Public School, Dombivali, Samaritan Help Mission High School, Smt. Chandabai Pagariya Jain Matriculation Higher Secondary School, St. John Universal School, St. Mary’s High School (SSC) and The Cathedral and John Connon High School.
Bhanshali said he was happy that so many students have shown great creativity in finding solutions to civic problems that are aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals identified by the United Nations. Nothing could be a better omen for a brighter future.
Principal of Pawar Public School Manjari Srivastava said their students have experienced that they, too, need to work towards the betterment of the society. It is not only the government that does the work, but we as citizens also need to contribute.
This message is very clear to the children now. They created the questionnaires for their research work on their own without any help. That itself is an awakening, she said.