Updated 4 August 2009
The Mahdi school in Bhavnagar, India started in a villa in 1997 with 72 students. In 2006, the school moved to its newly built campus. As at July 2009, there are 1,497 students from Nursery to Standard 10 and 403 of these students are sponsored. The school runs in two shifts – Gujarati Medium in the morning and English Medium in the afternoon. Besides following the syllabus of The Gujarat State Board, the school promotes personal development of the student and encourages extra curricular activities. Below are some of the activities of the last 12 months.
MARCH 2009: ENGLISH LANGUAGE OLYMPIAD, HYDERABAD
87 Students of Mahdi School took part in the English Language Olympiad in Hyderabad. In spite of coming from the Gujarati Medium Section of Mahdi School, the students did very well at the Olympiad. Each of the students received a certificate of achievement. It is the policy of Mahdi School that the English Language has to be very strong in all the students, even those who are in the Gujarati Medium. Over the last two years, all the teachers have also been given in house crash courses of the English Language.
FEBRUARY 2009: SANSKRIT COMPETITION, JAMNAGAR
1,000 students took part in the Bhavnagar District Sanskrit Competition that took place in Jamnagar in February 2009. Standard 7 student of Mahdi School, Ruhina Belim came first, having scored 99 out of 100 points. This was a great achievement for a Muslim student from a Muslim School. She was awarded the “Roumya Chandrak”.
26 JANUARY 2009: REPUBLIC DAY CELEBRATIONS
In this programme, Husain Bhimani was promoted as role model, while the students of Standard 9 were given the responsibility to lead and thus develop their communication skills.
Husain was the chief guest at The Republic Day flag hoisting ceremony. Husain had come first in Mahdi School, scoring 86% in the Standard 10 Gujarat Board Examination in 2008.
In the whole programme, students of Standard 9 took an active role. They had set up the flag pole, the stage, the mike system and so on. During the ceremony, one student in full military uniform escorted Husain to the flag pole. Four students led the singing of the national anthem. One student acted out a story from Indian mythology. The rest of the students acted out a mime.
NOVEMBER 2008, HANDBALL TOURNAMENT
The Mahdi School team, comprising Dilawer Naqvi and Hasnain Nayani won the handball tournament in Bhavnagar and went on to play in Narmada and Bhuj.
OCTOBER 2008: SCIENCE FAIR
The Science Fair is organized in India every year at the local, district, state and national levels. The Science project of Mahdi School students reached the state level at Himmatnagar this time. The students, accompanied by their teacher went there. Their project was on Disaster Management. The students had to explain their project to the visitors and to the judges and answer their questions. The students were Taukir Abbas Gabhrani and Zavin Fatema Bhojani.
VISIT OF ALHAJ MOHAMMED VISRAM AT MAHDI SCHOOL
On 3 June 2009, Alhaj Mohammed Visram, the past chairman of ZCSS of The World Federation visited Mahdi School. He met the trustees and the academic staff of the School. He toured the new Mulla Asghar Memorial building which is a three story structure being used for 3 years of nursery education for 480 students. Mohammedbhai seemed impressed with the building and the students’ work. He also made some useful suggestions. The school is grateful to him for visiting and looks forward to more visitors from The World Federation.
