SINGAPORE, 15 NOVEMBER, 2018: The occasion of Children’s Day saw proud moments as deserving students were awarded scholarship certificates in a formal award ceremony organised at the SMART Campus today. The school decided to hold the ceremony on the occasion of Children’s Day as it is the most appropriate day to celebrate children’s rights and privileges.

GIIS Scholarship Programme 2019 is a notable initiative by the school to recognise multiple talents among students by providing a wide range of scholarships that encompass qualities beyond academics.

Over hundreds of students were awarded scholarships during two different ceremonies held individually for the primary and secondary sections. Proud parents were also a part of the ceremony who witnessed their child receive prestigious scholarship.

For the primary section, the scholarship award ceremony started by a welcome song followed by an inspirational classical dance performance. Ms Rekha Verghese, the Vice Principal, then addressed the audience and urged the students to use the scholarship as a means and not the end. She shared a motivational quote by Albert Einstein, “Education is only a ladder to gather fruits from the tree of knowledge, not the fruit itself”, and reminded the students to make the best use of this golden opportunity to get more such recognition in future.

The award ceremony for the secondary section was an equally enthusiastic event where the audience was entertained with a brilliant dance performance by students and a motivational speech by the Principal, Ms Melissa Maria, who congratulated the students on the occasion of Children’s Day and on their achievements that earned them the scholarship. She said that GIIS will always promise its best to its students.

Parents were highly enthusiastic about their wards getting rewarded for talents that go beyond academics. Ms Sujata Vijaya, mother of Sneha Vijayakumar of Grade 10 IG A, expressed her happiness over the fact that GIIS is recognising and rewarding students not only for their achievements in school but also for accolades won outside the school. Another parent, Ms Ranjita Mukhopadhyaya, mother of Pracheta Mukhopadhyaya, felt proud that her daughter’s achievements in the field of art are recognised and rewarded by GIIS in the form of scholarship.

GIIS has instituted 7 scholarships as part of their initiative to ensure that ‘no child is left behind’. For this cycle, the three most prestigious scholarships that were rolled out were the Mahatma Gandhi Universal Values Scholarship, the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Future Skills Scholarship and the Global future skills scholarship.