Rethinking required about the Prize distribution at Varshikotsav

Our Varshikotsav  is going to be celebrated in a couple of weeks time. Many bright students of the Samaj will get the prizes. As usual, there will be chaos at the time of prize distribution. As usual, there will be no time to call every winner on the stage to honour them as more & more time is spent by the various dignitaries present on the dais in delivering their lectures

This is happening every year no matter who (Samaj or Yuvak Mandal) do it. Organisers are bound to fail in their mission as there is a technical hitch. Though the programme is named as કેળવણી પારિતોષિક વિતરણ સમારંભ very little time is provided for પારિતોષિક વિતરણ that too in an undisciplined way.

It is not that working committee members want to disgrace anyone or they themselves want to get disgraced but the problem lies in the system. If you look at the list of donors , there are more than 100 names both with Yuvak Mandal & Samaj who have given , by today's standard , small donation interest income from which shall be distributed as prizes to bright students of Samaj. These prizes  have to be given to specific class of students as per the wish of the donors. As such there are more categories for prize distribution. This brings in imbalance in the prizes distributed amongst the bright students. For example a 10th standard boy gets bigger prize than a M.B.B.S. doctor.

Gujarati Language is finding less favour with the current lot of parents so they send their kids to English schools. As a result there are many claimants in the English category than Gujarati category which makes Gujarati student getting bigger prize money than English learning student. Further there is very less competition in Guarati category as compared to English category. Not only that brighter students of English category are many times deprived of prizes all together. 

What is the way out ?

In our opinion, all the donations towards educational prize distribution should be merged into a single pool and all the prize winning students of what ever category they belong should share the prize money equally from the interest income arising out of this pool. As a result all the covers of prize money will become equal and they will not relate to a particular winner or a particular class of student. So who ever comes on stage in what ever order will get the cover from the dignitary  without  any tension for the organisers and with loss of very little time.

This requires careful & intelligent handling of different donors or their kins to make them understand the difficulty we face and also how  conditions have changed from the time when the donations were given and those that  prevail now.

It may look difficult at first sight but it is worth trying to make the lives of the working committee members easy and honour of the bright students of Samaj graceful.