Vishal Chawla has a dream.
A dream to study in Canada so he can improve the lives of rural children in India.
Chawla, 22, is an electronics engineering graduate who wants to pursue a course in business so that can help establish community outreach programs.
Towards that end, he is one of the many around the world who has entered Class Act Canada – an innovative philanthropic program organized by Sprott-Shaw College to help change the world one student at a time.
Illiteracy is the mother of all our problems in India says Chawla in his video application that can be viewed at www.classactcanada.com.
“I have been giving free tuition to poor children for many years as I believe education is very important for any person to survive.”
“This can eradicate many social evils so I give tuition at home to the students up to 10th grade during my summer and winter vacations... I really enjoy helping the children, he told The South Asian Post.
Chawla, from Chandigarh , India who leads all applicants with more than 13,000 votes, wants to establish a non-profit group with his Sprott-Shaw education to help eradicate child labor in India by setting up rural schools.
In 2008, the International Labour Organisation said there are nearly 165 million child labourers between the age of five and 14 in India.
These children providing for their families resort to working rather than going to school
Despite growing investment in the education sector, 40 per cent of India’s population is still illiterate and only 15 per cent of currently enrolled students make it to high school.
With 400 million children, India has the largest child population in the world.
According to Child Rights and You (Cry) a not-for-profit corporation which advocates children’s rights, including the right to education, “less than half of India’s children between the age six and 14 go to school”.
Of these, just over 30 per cent make it to grade eight.
A World Bank report said that fewer than 40 per cent of children in India even attend secondary schools.
Chawla hopes Class Act Canada will help change that.
Many of those who have submitted applications to Class Act Canada, from South America, China, Philippines, Africa and Canada also have similar hopes of making a better world.
Class Act Canada, allows an individual to enter a 60-90 second video via the Internet outlining “what I would do with a degree/diploma from Sprott-Shaw College”.
The top 100 applicant finalists will be identified through a process of online public voting. A second round of public voting will then select the top twenty vote getters.
A third round of voting will rank the top twenty.  Judges will then select the top ten Class Act Champions. The ten deserving students from Canada and around the globe will be awarded an all-expenses paid education at a Sprott-Shaw Community College campus in British Columbia, Canada, valued at up to $100,000 per scholarship.
The prize will include a degree/diploma course at Sprott-Shaw College (BC campuses only), books and tuition, airfare to and from hometown, food and lodging, and transportation to and from the selected Sprott-Shaw College.
Sprott-Shaw is a 22-campus global post secondary institution with campuses in Canada, Jordan, India, China and Vietnam. The institution employs 250 people globally and educates over 4,500 students in 140 programs annually. It is the oldest college in B.C.
Dean Duperron, president of Sprott- Shaw who launched the program described Chawla’s video application as simple, touching and to the point.
“If I can help him, and he can help others, my goal is achieved,” said the 53-year-old Duperron, whose fundamental philosophy of Class Act Canada lies in - “Education and life gave me a chance, now my family and I want to give back.”
The Class Act Canada initiative, which has gathered worldwide publicity to showcase B.C. as an international educational hub comes as expert on Canada-India relations urge Canada to launch a vigorous ‘education diplomacy’ to woo Indian students.
Ryan M. Touhey, a professor who has authored a study titled “A new direction for the Canada-India relationship”, says India is a huge education market for Canada and Ottawa should lose no time in wooing Indian students.
Currently, Canada gets only about 4,000 Indian students each year, compared to 80,000 going to the US, 40,000 to Australia, and 25,000 to Britain.
“Canada has done a poor job of attracting Indian students. Even New Zealand attracts about 6,000 students — more than Canada,” Touhey, who teaches history at the University of Waterloo near here, told IANS.
Quoting World Bank figures, he said the international education market is worth about $300 billion annually.
Being second only to China in sending the number of students abroad, he said India could be a huge education market for Canada which needs to combine its ‘education diplomacy’ with ‘public diplomacy’ to raise its profile in India.
Highlighting Canada’s poor advocacy efforts in India compared to the US, Britain and Australia, Touhey said the Canadian High Commission in Delhi received just $50,000 in 2007-08 to promote higher education opportunities in Canada.
“This is a pathetic figure,” according to him.
He said Canada should learn from Australians who have gone about wooing Indian students through their ‘Brand Australia’ education marketing campaign under the Australia India Council (AIC) since 1992.
As a result, he said, the number of Indian students in Australia rose from just 300 in 1994-95 to 40,000 in 2008.
“By contrast, one of the frequent criticisms of Canada in India is that it is unclear what Canada offers,” he said in his paper.
Encouraging Indian students to study and develop their skills in Canada will also spell long-term diplomatic benefits for the country, said Touhey, who echoed the sentiments of Indian diplomats in Vancouver and Ottawa.
Citing the benefits to America of its Fulbright Programme which has produced nearly 300,000 scholars so far, Touhey said students coming here will “remember Canada fondly when they emerge in positions of influence and leadership” in their country.
Canada should develop its own scholarship and exchange programmes targeted at Indian students and forge research linkages with Indian research institutions, Touhey said.
He said recruiting Indian students will only solidify research, people-to-people, trade, political and cultural linkages between the two countries.
Indian students will now have the added incentive of applying for permanent status while still in Canada, he said.

CLASSACTCANADA.COM

The Class Act Canada contest will award 10 deserving students from around the world with an opportunity of a lifetime – an all-expenses-paid education in British Columbia, Canada.

Provided by Sprott-Shaw Community College, B.C.’s education leader in business, healthcare, tourism, hospitality, administrative and international studies, each of the 10 prizes includes up to three years of post-secondary education and free living expenses for the duration of each student’s studies in Canada.

All an eligible student has to do is submit a 60-90-second video clip in English themed, “What would I do with my degree/diploma from Sprott-Shaw!”

Audio clips of the same length, or a written submission with pictures of no more than 200 words will also be accepted, in English only.

Applicants will have to complete a short online ENTRY FORM and upload the video to www.classactcanada.com.

Applicants will also be asked to post their video on one or more social networking sites like YouTube, urging friends and family to vote for them.
A panel of judges will select the applicants with the most votes after three phases of voting. They will then select the 10 Class Act Canada champions.

All applicants must check the RULES & REGULATIONS for the contest on the Class Act Canada homepage (www.classactcanada.com). All international applicants must be 19 years of age or older and be legally entitled to enter Canada as students.