BHUBANESWAR: Education is a great leveler. It holds the key to social welfare and economic prosperity. The Government is doing its best to see that education is accorded to every Indian.
Much ground has been covered. But still, there are gaps, particularlyin reaching some of the marginalized communities living in the interiors of Sambalpur district in Odisha. Aditya Aluminium, an Aditya Birla Group Company, operating at Lapanga in Sambalpur district, is working alongside the Government to take education to the people in and around this district.
Among Aditya Aluminum’s initiatives Project KALIKA aims to provide education to the rural students through various initiatives. Under this project, two free coaching centres of KALIKA are held in Pandaloi and Ludhapalli village, where over 104 students get extensive support.
Teachers at these centers undergo special training to enable them to adopt simple and effective methods of teaching. Aditya Aluminium also provides students with free study material, school bags, uniforms and stationery.
Additionally, parent-teacher (PTM) meets are regularly held to assess the students’ performance and to think of ways to enhance their skills and increase their potential. In this PTM best parents and best students for the month are awarded. Especially girl students from poor financial background aiming for higher studies are supported by Aditya Aluminium through scholarships.
This helps the poor parents to dream well about their children. Through this system girls who had discontinued their secondary education also get a chance to complete their schooling.
Sports and various competitions are organised in schools Gram Panchayat wise as well as Cluster wise and prizes are awarded to the winners. This encourages participation, and a spirit of camaraderie, besides encouraging a spirit of competition among them. Aditya Aluminium has also recoursed to innovative ways to stem the dropout rate among students, especially girls.
Last year, it successfully brought back as many as 22 children who had left school in the middle of the term. Importantly, around 60 elderly people have enrolled in the two adult education centers set up by the company.
Alongside education, Aditya Aluminium conducts student health checkups in 30 village schools where full health checkup of a student is done and the same is maintained in a health card which is monitored till the time the child becomes fully fit physically.
In its own way, Aditya Aluminium is contributing to Sambalpur’s progress by sparking the desire to learn among the marginalized communities.
