Modern School’s 90th Founder’s Day

Choosing the occasion of Children’s Day, union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on Sunday highlighted the plight of underprivileged children across the country who have no access to education.

Choosing the occasion of Children’s Day, union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on Sunday highlighted the plight of underprivileged children across the country who have no access to education.

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The minister, who was the chief guest at the 90th Founder’s Day celebrations at Modern School, Barakhamba Road, was addressing a a gathering that included chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal; Modern School Board of Trustees president Ashok Pratap Singh; Modern School, Barakhamba Road, chairman Bimal Jalan and principal Lata Vaidyanathan.

“There are millions of children across the country who have the hunger for learning but have no access to education. Currently, around 220 million children go to schools in our country out of which only 13 million reach up to the college level,” the minister said.

To increase the number of children who pursue higher education, the minister added, all stakeholders, including the government, schools, parents, teachers, other institutions, should chip in. “The real wealth of a nation is the youth pursuing higher education and reaching the university level and we need to work hard in tandem to build on this wealth,” he said.

Earlier, Sibal inspected the guard of honour presented by the students and members of the school band. Students

also put up an exhibition and colourful song and dance performances.

Vaidyanathan then presented the school's annual report which was followed by the prize distribution ceremony to the meritorious students.

Siddhant Kumar, who passed out of Class 12 this year, won the Rudra Award for best all-round performance, said: “If I get a chance, I would love to come back to school. I have learnt a lot during school that will help me through my journey of life.”

The highlight of the event was a ballet, Lehron Ka Utsav, through which students endeavoured to personify the river which has its own share of pitfalls, yet yearns to merge with the ocean.