Bhavishya Yaan Annual Felicitations

On August 3, 2016 we celebrated the Bhavishya Yaan Annual Day felicitating the 121 students who had successfully passed in their SSC exams at the N M J Municipal Secondary School.

Starting in 2009, the first batch of Bhavishya Yaan comprised of 40 students from the Ambedkar Municipal School at Worli. Today, in its 7th year, nearly 700 children benefit from this program. In making this possible, is the contribution made by our partners Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, who welcomed the program and seamlessly integrated it within the school premises; Vidya, our knowledge-partners for providing academic inputs for English and Life skills; Info Troopers for their training in computers, principals, teachers and our Rotaryannes Jaya Prasad, Avaan Vakharia, Rinku Suchanti, and Poonam Surana who each mentor a school.

Gracing this momentous occasion was Mayor of Mumbai, Mrs. Snehal Ambekar. Like every year this year too the students performed well, with nearly 50% student scoring over 70%, while over 33% students secured distinction. The toppers for the year were Ms. Mamta Sunil Jadhav from the Byculla School and Ms. Pallavi Supal from NMJ School, with 92.4% and 92.2% respectively. It is also important to note that some of our students have scored as high as 89% in English, which is also a big achievement.

In his welcome speech, Satyan Israni, Chairman – Bhavishya Yaan Committee said, “Today, while each of the five schools is fully equipped with a state-of-the-art computer laboratory, LCDs, Videos, etc., we had also run an E-learning pilot project in two schools, namely Ambedkar School and NMJ School, since 2015 and it was a great success. Therefore, we have expanded the E-learning to all BY school, and within a few days each school will have its teaching done through this module.”

Soon the student of each of the schools confidently displayed their new found talents, be it in the form of a skit depicting the life of a BY student, the soulful rendition of R. Kelly’s ‘I believe I can fly’ or even the display of Yoga. “Two things that I am very passionate about are health and education, and as the President of the Rotary Club of Bombay I want to ensure that we focus on these. Bhavishya Yaan, the brainchild of Rtn Ramesh Narayan, is one of the best initiatives on education by our club. It is well conceived and well executed with the help of Rotaryannes, the school Principals and teachers.”

“Our Chairperson, Satyan Israni’s focus for this year is to move to e-learning. I believe, this way, we can reduce personal dependence and also scale up to more schools than the 5 that we are presently working with. We are also looking at ways to extend nutrition to all five schools from the present two,” reiterated President Dr. Mukesh Batra.

The students NMJ School then made a short presentation on what Bhavishya Yaan meant to them, and felicitated Mayor Mrs. Snehal Ambekar with a bouquet of flowers and a painting made by them.

Addressing the audience, Mrs. Ambekar said, “As a matter of great pride I would like to share that I too am a student of a Municipal school, and today I am holding the position of a Mayor!”

“While BMC is doing everything in its capacity to provide quality education, and despite the pass percentage of our school which has now gone up to 85%, parents are yet very sceptical about admitting their kids in a Municipal school. However, with the support of Bhavishya Yaan and Rotary Club of Bombay, I am hopeful that next year we will be able to achieve cent per cent result.”

“Also, through the various programs what I saw was the confidence of these children. So whether they will become doctors or engineers, one cannot predict, but what can be assured is that they will become good citizens. And that’s what is important.”

“I will always be obliged to Rotary Club, Bhavishya Yaan and Vidya for having rightly chosen the Municipal schools.”