Five Indian students hoping to better their lives and that of their communities are among the top 100 candidates in the Class Act Canada contest that is offering up to one million dollars in higher education giveaways.
“The entries were amazing, educational and poignant,” said Dean Duperron, president of the Sprott-Shaw College, who is behind the contest which will eventually award a free higher education for 10 individuals.
Nearly half of the entries came from Asian countries while Canada had 31 applicants shortlisted. Philippines had the most entries with 25 from any Asian country.
Entries came in from countries as diverse as Micronesia, Ukraine, Peru and several African nations.
The 100 candidates will now seek votes in Round 2 on classactcanada.com where the applicants are vying for a chance to live and learn in B.C. for free.
Over 50,000 people in 63 countries cast about half a million votes to select the top 100 candidates in the Round One of Class Act Canada.
“I hope my fellow Canadians and people around the world will join me in voting for the candidates they feel will do the most with the free education at Sprott-Shaw,” said Duperron.
Duperron, who was homeless and reduced to begging for change in order to survive for part of his teens, believes that education and knowledge are the touchstones of opportunity.
Class Act Canada, allowed 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 were identified through a process of online public voting. A second round of public voting will now 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.
Harbinder Singh Sewak, the president of the Vancouver-based New Market Multimedia Inc., which designed the global social media viral program said the Class Act Canada campaign harnessed the power of the Internet to make a change.
“Class Act Canada for a first time campaign unleashed the potential of social media websites,” he said.
“It’s a unique way of doing good in today’s world,” said Sewak, who is also one of the judges in Class Act Canada.
The other judges are Brian Peckford, the former Premier of Newfoundland, Craig Kielburger, co-founder of Free The Children,  Dianne Watts, the mayor of Surrey, Darcy Rezac, the managing director of the Vancouver Board of Trade and Wayne Moriarty, the Editor-in-chief, The Province newspaper.
The Asian Development Bank in a recent report said developing countries in Asia need to improve the quality of their education systems as many graduates lack the skills needed in today’s rapidly changing workplace
“The shortage of skilled workforce in the Asia-Pacific Region, male and even more so female, has been a major bottleneck in economic and social development,” ADB Vice President Ms. Ursula Schaefer-Preuss said at the launch of the research report on education.
The report, titled “Education and Skills: Strategies for Accelerated Development in Asia and the Pacific,” is intended as a guide for ADB’s future operations in the education sector. ADB has provided some 7 billion U.S. dollars in loans for education since 1970, the Manila-based lender said.
Many developing countries in Asia have had tremendous success in expanding access to primary and secondary schooling. However, this is now fueling a spike in demand for post-secondary opportunities.
“Demand for higher education is booming and is expected to double in five years and triple in 10 years in many (of ADB’s) developing member countries,” according to the report.
“But this expansion will continue to be haphazard, spawning many institutions of inferior quality,” the report said.
The report called for greater emphasis on technical and vocational education and training.
The report also said that governments need to find innovative approaches to education financing, including public-private partnerships.
It also calls for the mainstreaming of information and communication technology as a means to improve education content and delivery.
The Vice President said that greater emphasis needs to be put on getting girls into schools.
According to a recent publication “A Future Within”, a joint publication by ADB with it partners, which tracked the region’s progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals, more than one-third of the countries are off-track in achieving gender parity in tertiary education.

SIDE BAR:

You can view and vote for the top 100 candidates at www.classactcanada.com

31 Canada
25 Philippines
5 India
4 Nigeria
4 Korea, Republic of
3 Kenya
3 Brazil
3 Malaysia
2 Russian Federation
2 China
2 Cambodia
2 Japan
2 Pakistan
1 Haiti
1 Ghana
1 Peru
1 Zambia
1 Mexico
1 Uganda
1 Spain
1 Indonesia
1 Ukraine
1 Costa Rica
1 Italy
1 Viet Nam