The walls of the only primary school in Tolakani village in Odisha’s Jajpur district have been repainted. The school has a ‘Knowledge House’ with books and magazines and will soon have smart classrooms and a sports complex with projectors and interactive whiteboards.
The village school’s transformation from a run-down structure to the most demanding part has over the past year, thanks to the promise of two months, 22-year-old metallurgical engineer Hridananda Prusty, who works in Bengaluru. His salary for school. Presti – who attended Tolakani School till her class 3 before relocating to a hostel in Cuttack – will now contribute 10 per cent of her monthly salary towards the improvement of the school.
Prusty’s participation in her alma mater ‘Mo School’ is part of ‘My School’ for Oriya, a government program launched by the Chief Minister in 2017. Naveen Patnaik To transform the educational infrastructure across the state.
Amarjeet Jena, Chief Operating Officer, Mo School Program said that the objective of the campaign is to create a platform for people to connect, collaborate and contribute towards the improvement of public schooling in Odisha. The campaign has reached out to over 33,000 schools in the state and connected over five lakh alumni in India and abroad.
“We have left it to the community, village, alumni and school administration to decide and work on what kind of changes they want to implement,” Jena said.
After spending a lot of time in his village during pandemic pandemicMetallurgical Engineer Prusty of Tolakani village also started a ‘Chalk and Duster’ initiative involving retired teachers and professionals to teach academically weak students in the village. “The idea is not just to motivate them for studies but also to discover their talents. Suppose, if a student is struggling academically but is good at sports or singing, we can help that student to pursue his/her talent,” Prusty said.
Apart from alumni participation, the campaign has two other components – School Adoption and 5T School Transformation.
Under the school adoption programme, any member of the society can come forward to adopt a government school of their choice and contribute half of the development cost, the rest will be shared by the government.
In addition to financial aid, mentors can organize coaching classes or career counseling sessions for students, invite motivational speakers, set up reward or incentive schemes to motivate students, run mentorship programs and pre- Can influence the students to come forward for the development of the school.
Since the adoption plan was launched in January this year, 1,380 people, including judges, state ministers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, administrative officials, corporates, have expressed their interest.
Under the 5T Parivartan scheme, launched in February, the focus is on providing quality infrastructure and ensuring basic amenities in high schools across the state.
In Bankipali village of Sonpur district, BSF jawan Himanshu Bisi has promised Rs 1,000 every month to develop the Panchayat High School, where he studied. When he goes to school on vacation, he organizes yoga and PT classes for the students.
“It is a transparent way to donate to schools. Our contribution is not limited to just giving money, but we also participate in decision making along with other members of the village and community,” said Bisi.
Rengalpatra village in Bargarh district recently got its first primary school, in which villagers have deposited land and contributed Rs 12,06,030 for the school.
Officials said the budgetary allocation for Mo School was increased to Rs 253 crore in 2021-22, which is six times more than the previous fiscal year.
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