St Mary’s night school lights up minds of poor and underprivileged students

One could learn a lesson or two from St. Mary’s Multipurpose High School and Junior College at Vashi. The school for the last five years has made a social commitment of educating the underprivileged by running a night school in its school premises.

A building to match any corporate establishment with modern classrooms - this is an upscale city school which is giving its services to educate the underprivileged. St. Mary’s Multipurpose High School and Junior College at Vashi has been running a night school for the last five years for the underprivileged children of the city. Starting with just 60 students initially, the school now boasts of more than 200 enrolments. Not only are studies completely free, the students are also provided school uniforms, books and snacks.

St. Mary’s School work in association with an NGO called Aarambh headed by Shobha Murthy. The NGO identifies the students and sends the underprivileged children to the school. The school makes sure that the education provided to these night school students is at par with the day school classes. Running from first to 6th Std, the school is planning to increase its standards to Xth increasing the opportunities for the students.

10 year old Sampada Khandare and 15 year old Reena Yadhav both hailing from Turbhe love coming to school, to talk to their teachers and parents, to learn to love and care. The solution to the life that most under privileged children have is education in a loving environment that nurtures the growth of the children. These students are disciplined and hardworking, probably more than the regular students. One would agree to this once they meet 14-year-old Shekhar Manjulkar. Shekhar is visually impaired but this has not stopped him from finding his dream. Studying in sixth standard, Shekhar says that he never thought that he would ever go to a school but thanks to St. Mary’s, this dream had become a reality for him. Shekhar lives with his parents, a brother and sister at Turbhe. His favorite subject is social science, especially history as it tells him about the past. Shekhar wants to become a professor. Teachers at St. Mary’s say that it is a satisfaction to educate these students, as they are raw, waiting to be molded into good and responsible individuals of the society. Someone wise once said that “education is a producer of wealth, in a large sense, which leads to prosperity, which in turn leads to a high civilization.” At St. Mary’s Multipurpose School, this lesson is well learnt.