Inflaming Ambitions, Eklavya Model Residential School, Liang, Sundergarh, Odisha

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Project Details

Category: Education – EMRS
Project: Inflaming Ambitions
Organisation: Eklavya Model Residential School, Liang, Sundergarh, Odisha
Start Date: 2007
Website:

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Manisha K was part of the group of 43 students selected to travel to New Delhi to meet up with the Hon’ble President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu. She was the only one selected from her school at Liang, Sundergarh. Similarly, Mukta Rani Majhi and Sarita Rani, class X students, appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-UG (NEET) for admission to MBBS and BDS colleges across India and qualified it from among 50 students. I am now looking forward to moving to Bhopal from the next academic session and fulfilling my ambition to become a surgeon, said Rani, born to a marginal farmer family. 

There are many such encouraging stories of ambitious students, who otherwise were devoid of access to good education. 

It takes about 23 kilometres of drive deeper into the forest outside Sundergarh District, Odisha to reach Eklavya Model Residential School (EMRS) in Liang. It was set up in 2002 and is a fully English medium school from Class VI to XII. Sprawling 22 acres, house to 420 residential students (equally divided amongst girls and boys) offering CBSE curriculum, fully equipped with two fully operational computer labs, smart class, English language lab, science labs, e-library and reading room, sports arena, gives the impression of being in one of those in any of the metro cities. It is home to students belonging to tribes including Gond, Bhuyan, Kishan, Oram, Khadia, Munda and Sabar.   

Students are studying contemporary modernised curricula and have ample opportunities for overall academic and personal growth. All the students belong to the poor tribal communities from nearly areas that did not have access to quality education earlier. In the absence of this, most of the students would gradually drop out of formal education. The setting up of EMRS has changed this and a large number of students are getting attracted to the school.

Shivnarain Behara, Principal In-Charge says, all facilities provided to students are free of cost. This includes accommodation, uniforms, books and sports facilities. There is no fee charged to the students. We have 22 faculty with an average of 15 years of experience, which is at par with any of the other schools, adds Behara. 

He is proud of his academic achievements. The school has achieved a 100% pass percentage for Class X for the last three consecutive years. For XII, it had only a science stream so far and the results have gradually improved. From the 2024-25 academic year, the school will also start Arts and Commerce streams. There are no cases of any students taking admission and leaving it halfway through. “We are amongst the top-10 amongst EMRS nationally and for Xth we are at the top in the state”, said Behara.

The school has produced students who have gone on to become administrators. One of the students, Anjuni Kujur is posted as District Commissioner in Deogarh, Odisha; Ganesh Oram, Trinath Pradhan, Sajay Barla amongst others are with SAIL, Rourkela. Some others are teaching at Odisha Adarsh Vidyalaya as Junior Lecturers. 

In extra-curricular, the students are getting exposure at the national level. Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS), Himachal Pradesh, is one of the premier mountaineering institutes in India. Three of its students including Vivek Khandurna were selected for a month-long training. They are now training other students at the school as Master Trainers. 

The school has tied up with Amazon Future Engineer programme and students are learning coding online. This programme is a comprehensive childhood-to-career programme aimed at increasing access to computer science education for students from underserved and tribal communities. 

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