LANJIGARH (Odisha): The quest for coming out successful in the matriculation examination has always been high among the school students and parents. The average and poor students belonging to remote areas of Odisha and studying in various government schools in particular have been struggling to cope-up with understanding the normal course curriculum and keep pace with the growing competition which adversely impacts their results and which in turn makes the student only a tenth certificate holder with no academic future.
Most of these children are first-generation learners who find it even more difficult to cope. Vedanta Ltd’s Lanjigarh plant, under its corporate social responsibility flagship programme ‘Siksha Sambal’, has taken the initiative of providing pre-matric tutorial classes especially in the subjects of science, mathematics and English in seven government schools around its plant periphery reaching out to more than eleven hundred students from class eight to matric.
In a programme held today senior employee volunteers together with CSR team members from Vedanta Ltd. visited the schools and to provide encouragement and best wishes to 359 students who will be appearing in the board exams this academic year. Speaking about the project Rakesh Mohan COO Vedanta Ltd Lanjigarh said that the company is committed to make a real difference to the overall educational scenario of the region.
While Vedanta DAV International school in Lanjigarh has carved out a niche in bringing affordable English medium education to many students of Lanjigarh and Muniguda block in districts of Kalahandi and Rayagada, much focus needs to be given to strengthen the support systems in government schools that will help enhance student competencies and confidence, he added.
Initiated in the year 2015 as a pilot project in Govt High school Lanjigarh and Govt SSD school Ashrampada Lanjigarh, the project has achieved significant success by improving the first division pass percentage from 25.5% in 2015 to 48% in 2018. A total of 193 out of 203 students had successfully cleared the matriculation exam last year, where two students from Govt SSD school were able to secure more than 80% marks.
Buoyed with the impact of the programme, the project has been scaled up since last year to include five more government schools covering Baniponga Education School, Govt UG High School Batelima School, Panchayat High School Chattarpur, SSD Girls High school Muniguda and SSD Ambadola.
The Siksha Sambal programme leverages the government’s educational infrastructure of the villages and is implemented by the NGO Forum for integrated development and research together with active participation of Vedanta Ltd’s CSR team and employee volunteers.
