Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let us all welcome our Project 'Asha Kiran' intiated by our very own Club Rotary.Well, this Project as its name signifies means Ray of Hope. The hope is infact an endeavor by us to bring back the school dropouts back to school.

There are many reasons why children are forced to drop out from school such as lack of financial assistance from their home, non-cooperation and support from family members especially with regard to girl child, major illness of near and dear ones prompting them to leave their education midway,lack of basic facilities such as toilets within the school premises. These and many other reasons forces children to drop out from school.

Hence, our Project Asha Kiran firmly believes that through our endeavors we can bring back the school dropouts back to school.

In keeping with the ultimate vision of Rotary which believes in creating a better community and an enhanced lifestyle. It is the need of the hour, that we do not leave any stone unturned to spread literacy among children.

In the recent decades though India has made significant progress on access to schooling and enrollment rates in primary education but dropout rates and low levels of learning remain challenges for the state and central government. As the U.S. has a longer history of public education than India there are opportunities for India to learn from the successes and failures in the American education system and to collaborate in tackling shared challenges, such as the best use of technology in primary education.

Nevertheless, Primary school enrollment in India has been a success story, largely due to various programs and drives to increase enrollment even in remote areas. With enrollment reaching at least 96 percent since 2009, and girls making up 56 percent of new students between 2007 and 2013, it is clear that many problems of access to schooling have been addressed. Improvements to infrastructure have been a priority to achieve this and India now has 1.4 million schools and 7.7 million teachers so that 98 percent of habitations have a primary school (class I-V) within one kilometer and 92 percent have an upper primary school (class VI-VIII) within a three-kilometer walking distance.

Despite these improvements, keeping children in school through graduation is still an issue and dropout rates continue to be high. Nationally, 29 percent of children drop out before completing five years of primary school, and 43 percent before finishing upper primary school. High school completion is only 42 percent. This lands India among the top five nations for out-of-school children of primary school age, with 1.4 million (6 to 11 year olds) not attending school. In many ways, schools are not equipped to handle the full population – there is a teacher shortage of 6,89,000 teachers in primary schools, only 53 percent of schools have functional girls’ toilets and 74 percent have access to drinking water.

Additionally, the quality of learning is a major issue and reports show that children are not achieving class-appropriate learning levels. According to Pratham’s Annual Status of Education 2013 report, close to 78 percent of children in Standard III and about 50 percent of children in Standard V cannot yet read Standard II texts. Arithmetic is also a cause for concern as only 26 percent students in Standard V can do a division problem. Without immediate and urgent help, these children cannot effectively progress in the education system, and so improving the quality of learning in schools is the next big challenge for both the state and central governments.

Rotary believes in the philosophy that every child should receive primary education as we work in the concept – that no child should be left behind.Rotary's empowering educational initiatives includes- Technology based affordable high quality education at affordable rate. Free tuition fees for children of daily wage earners.Scholarship in the form of reduced tuition fee for meritorious students from disadvantaged background.

Furthermore, Rotary also aims to provide hygienic midday meal service to government schools in its bid to boost kids to join schools and continue their schooling. Well, our project Asha Kiran which categorically means ray of hope also aims to spread literacy in many other ways.But first and foremost it aims in reducing the dropout rate of the kids from schools which happen due to many reasons.

Further, it also aims to educate the girl child as Rotary firmly believes that development of a Nation is directly linked to education of the ladies.As educated ladies become effective mothers, wives and working professionals as well. Project Asha Kiran's aim is to prevent girl dropout rate from schools.There are still many places in India where girl education is not entertained as many people still believe there is no point in educating a girl child as inevitably they go to a different household after marriage or rather their main chore includes only housework. Such stereotyped thinking has to be abolished for a developing Nation like India.

We can especially retain and prevent the girls from dropping out of school if we construct and maintain hygienic toilets with running water for them within the school premises. Through our Project, we will certainly help in addressing this major problem concerning the girls.

We through our Project Asha Kiran, would like to spread education and eradicate illiteracy by firstly reducing the school dropout rate.As it's a fact that education can spread only when there are receivers of education, I hope Iam right??

So let us all unite together and work towards spreading literacy and doing our level best to prevent the droput rate from our schools.

Through our Club Rotary let us fulfill the vision of our great leaders which says 'Padhega India toh Badhega India'.

Thank you so much!!e believes every child deserves primary education as we work in the concept – No child should be left behindmpowering educational initiative includes:Technology based affordable high quality education in rural areas at minimal cost, Free Tuition fees for children of daily wage workers, Scholarships in the form of reduced tuition for children from disadvantaged background. People believes every child deserves primary education as we work in the concept – No child should be left behind.at minimal cost, Free Tuition fees for children of daily wage workers, Scholarships in the form of reduced tuition for children from disadvantaged background.