Nurturing Talent, Eklavya Model Residential School, Bhawanipur, Sundargarh, Odisha
Nurturing Talent, Eklavya Model Residential School, Bhawanipur, Sundargarh, Odisha
Problem
- Shortage of schools
- Poor educational infrastructure for tribal students
- No additional facilities in existing schools
- Fee for private schools was a deterrent
- High dropout rate in other government schools
- Poor aspirations
- Zero learning outcomes
- Migration of students during Covid
Solution
- EMRS was set up
- Fully residential school with modern facilities
- All expenses borne by the school – free of charge for students
- English medium curriculum, aspirational for parents and students
- Exposure to ICT, modern pedagogy
- Encouragement to participate and excel in sports
- Talent hunting
Outcomes
- Wide academic, extra-curricular and sports exposure
- Tribal students have become aspirational
- Some have joined administrative services
- Some went for higher studies in the field of engineering and medicine
- Some are already teaching in other schools
- Migration reversed and retention improved
- Curriculum at par with anywhere in the country
Project Details
Category: Education – EMRS
Project: Nurturing Talent
Organisation: Eklavya Model Residential School, Bhawanipur, Sundargarh, Odisha
Start Date: 2004
Website:
Bhawanipur EMRS was an equal sufferer during COVID-19 as any other institution. The school was shut and students were told to return to their homes during the entire period of lockdown. When the school re-opened, many students chose not to return and took admission in nearby schools, particularly the 11th and 12th-grade students.
Sanghamitra Panigrahi joined the school as its Principal in March 2021 and was assigned the task of stopping migration and increasing retention. Five PGTs who joined concurrently and the entire faculty (mostly PGTs) of the school worked together to achieve this common goal. Today the school has 409 students out of a total strength of 420 which is equally divided amongst boys and girls. It was not an easy task to bring it back to its pre-Covid days, says Panigrahi adding that every teacher of the school went out and met with the parents of the student and convinced them to return to school. Retention has improved and there are no dropouts.
The school was set up in 2000 and started operations in 2004. Admission to the school is through an entrance exam and once admitted, all facilities and amenities come free of charge – books, bag, uniform, hostel, food, sports kits etc. On average Rs 109,000 is spent on each student per annum.
It is a fully residential English medium school spread over 22 acres and has a full-size football field and a hockey field. The children mostly belong to Kishan, Xalxo and Bhuyan tribes that are known to have good physical capabilities. Exploiting this, the school has been giving them good exposure to sports including football and hockey.
Providing good educational facilities with all-round development has been the objective. The school boasts of a Tinkering Lab, unheard of in a school situated in the deep tribal area. The school has a science lab, an e-library and a reading room. Each student must attend the library.
The popularity of the school has increased and there is fierce competition amongst the community to seek admission to the school. Three of its students recently qualified Odisha Administrative Service (OAS). There are many students went for higher studies. For instance, Biswajit Majhi studied MTech from NIT, Rourkela; Sangeeta Tirkey was admitted to Government Engineering College, Bhawanipatna; Chinmaya Dandsena went to IGIT, Sarang; and, Jyoshna Majhi studied Nursing. Gita Kalo decided to be a teacher.
In sports also, the school has done well. During the National EMRS Sports Meet 2023, the hockey boys team emerged as champions and won gold. The girl’s hockey team was the runners-up. Priyaranjan Rao, who is the PE Teacher and Coach says, that both the teams worked hard to reach the national finals. Boys hit gold and girls were the runners-up. We provide state-of-the-art branded sports kits to our students so that they feel confident and can come up and compete with others as equals, said Rao.
Hockey team members like Rajan Minj and Krishna K are proud to have represented the school and defeated Gujarat by 10 goals – the final score being 10-0. We get jerseys, hockey sticks, balls, pads and safety gear all free of cost and good quality, says Minj.
Puja Xalxo’s talent for being a singer was discovered by one of her teachers. Puja was put on music and vocals training and she qualified for the nationals in semi-classical. She is both a solo as well as a group singer. The national championship took place in Uttarakhand. For a long-jumper, Priyanka Kishan, a science student and a runners-up in 2023, this was her first sports exposure. She is now determined to hit two goals – a gold in the long jump and to quality NEET, as she wants a career in medicine. She lost her father when she was small and her mother, who worked as a casual laborer, brought her up. Getting admission to EMRS was a dream come true for her mother.
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