If we didn’t know Smt Shama Gautam, we would never have found this school and if Amit Gautam hadn’t joined Aon Hewitt, I wouldn’t have met him … And yes, if he hadn’t joined the East team, I would have never had as much sunshine at work. Alongwith sunshine I also got introduced to his mom, Shama aunty, an inspiring woman. Shama aunty not only was a single parent, having lost Amit’s father early in life but she also was a great teacher. She never gave up and supported several other students besides bringing up Amit wonderfully well. She taught at the Govt. Senior secondary school, Bhali for nearly 15 years and retired from here in 2012. Her students miss her still and the school has her stamp all over it. It’s serving several small villages near this place and many of the communities that are economically backward. The school has nearly 350 students and nearly 60+ students in 12th standard.

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Computer lab at the Bhali school … remember the dot matrix printer ? it works well still.

The school is about 8kms from Shahpur on the road to Pathankot. It’s a small dirt road that cuts to the left and will be missed if you didn’t know. On Saturday (April 25th) we visited the school and got a chance to address the 12th standard students. Most of them wanted to study at ITI, some wanted to do Fashion designing there, some wanted to do automobile engineering and several opted for electrical engineering. Nearly 75% of the class wanted to go to ITI. Some four boys and one girl said they wanted to join the army and atleast three girls said they wanted to join the police force. Just a couple of girls thought of becoming nurses and another couple wanted to be teachers. Just one student wanted to go abroad and do business. Very few “new” career options came up so I shared some ideas … These are really bright students and just need the exposure ! Special mention also for Pavan Sir who takes enormous efforts to bring better exposure to his students.

From the Bhali school we went to the Govt school at Hatli. Again we wouldn’t have known about this school if we didn’t know Shama aunty ! Shama aunty’s dear friend Rachna ma’am teaches at this school and the same experience was repeated – great students and even more dedicated teachers and principals. Got the chance to address the 12th standard students here too.

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In Himachal Pradesh, the Governemnt schools seem to be doing really well and ShikshaDaan will certainly announce scholarships for students from these schools. We have already announced 5 to 10 scholarships each for the Bhali and Hatli schools. Ticket size ? Under ₹2500 per annum for 11th or 12th standard students. Please go ahead and donate at http://www.shikshadaan.com.