Gram Vikas Residential School: Promoting Tribal Community Development in Odisha through Industry-best Education Practices
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In today’s dynamic and hypercompetitive business landscape, it is extremely crucial for individuals to have proper education that comprises both theoretical and practical knowledge of the subjects to be employable. Thus, parents today leave no stone unturned to ensure that their kids get the best education and even admit them to residential schools that are a long distance away from home. While students do get high quality education in these boarding schools, it is also equally important to create a warm, caring and loving atmosphere for students so that they don’t miss their homes and excel in their academics. Although UDISE’s latest report reveals that there are over 45,000 boarding schools currently operating across India, only a handful of them are able to impart effective learning to students in a homely ambience.
Among such highly esteemed residential schools, one school that stands a notch higher than the rest through its student-centric approach is Gram Vikas Residential School (GVRS). The foundation stone of GVRS was laid in 1982 by an NGO named Gram Vikas with a vision to provide quality education to children from the tribal communities in Odisha. Initially started with just one branch in Konkiya (Ganjam district), GCRS today has four branches located in remote areas across the state – two in Ganjam and one each in Kalahandi & Gajapati districts, with 120-130 teaching faculty and 1,700 students.
Promoting Students’ Holistic Growth
In terms of academic performance and excellence of students, GVRS primarily focuses on two aspects. Firstly, the school provides its students with every possible support and mentoring so that the top performing students can achieve the best grades possible. Secondly, GVRS has maintained a healthy teacher-student ratio of 1:25 and ensures that each student gets individualized attention from teachers so that none of them gets left behind or achieve bottom-most grades in their exams. Additionally, the school is also a part of the Global Service Program of The American School in Switzerland through which students and faculty from numerous schools in Europe, US, Russia and Japan visits GVRS every year to witness and participate in its village development and education works. As a result, local students also get the opportunity to interact with foreign students and broaden their perspectives.
GVRS provides a wide range of infrastructure amenities across all its schools that include a full-fledged library, a fully equipped computer lab, separate hostels for boys & girls, dedicated staff quarters, facilities for indoor & outdoor games and many more. Additionally, each of GVRS’ schools have an on-campus Atal Tinkering Lab through which students are encouraged to indulge in
Among such highly esteemed residential schools, one school that stands a notch higher than the rest through its student-centric approach is Gram Vikas Residential School (GVRS). The foundation stone of GVRS was laid in 1982 by an NGO named Gram Vikas with a vision to provide quality education to children from the tribal communities in Odisha. Initially started with just one branch in Konkiya (Ganjam district), GCRS today has four branches located in remote areas across the state – two in Ganjam and one each in Kalahandi & Gajapati districts, with 120-130 teaching faculty and 1,700 students.
Promoting Students’ Holistic Growth
In terms of academic performance and excellence of students, GVRS primarily focuses on two aspects. Firstly, the school provides its students with every possible support and mentoring so that the top performing students can achieve the best grades possible. Secondly, GVRS has maintained a healthy teacher-student ratio of 1:25 and ensures that each student gets individualized attention from teachers so that none of them gets left behind or achieve bottom-most grades in their exams. Additionally, the school is also a part of the Global Service Program of The American School in Switzerland through which students and faculty from numerous schools in Europe, US, Russia and Japan visits GVRS every year to witness and participate in its village development and education works. As a result, local students also get the opportunity to interact with foreign students and broaden their perspectives.
GVRS provides a wide range of infrastructure amenities across all its schools that include a full-fledged library, a fully equipped computer lab, separate hostels for boys & girls, dedicated staff quarters, facilities for indoor & outdoor games and many more. Additionally, each of GVRS’ schools have an on-campus Atal Tinkering Lab through which students are encouraged to indulge in
science project and other subjects of their interest so that they can also get the practical exposure to various subjects. Most importantly, GVRS also has all necessary facilities for students to indulge in other extracurricular activities, and even has dedicated interest clubs such as Science Club, Movie Club, Poetry Club, and Drama & Theatre Club.
“Since we have separate quarters for our faculty, they are always available to the students and get fully involved in the students’ daily activities. We also have a kitchen garden that is run by the students through which 50 percent of our vegetable requirements are fulfilled. Also, we don’t have any janitorial staff, and our students & teachers jointly manage the cleanliness of our entire campus. Further, we lay strong emphasis on promoting weightlifting as a sport and have dedicated spaces & coaches allotted in each of our schools. As a result, many of our students have represented India internationally and won numerous awards for the country”, says Mahesh Madiath, COO, GVRS.
Contributing towards Tribal Community Development
Understanding that most of their students’ parents are unschooled and lack a proper understanding of the numerous career opportunities that exist for their kids, GVRS also provides career counseling sessions to its students and their parents. The principles of each school them self have an individual counseling session with every 10th class students’ families, understands their background, and taking into account the child’s personal interests and the factors that might lead to the betterment of the tribal community, advise the families on what career options might best suit their child.
“Ranked among the top 100 NGOs in the world, Gram Vikas is engaged in the development of tribal communities in the state with special emphasis on the education of girl children. Thus, we ensure to maintain a boy-girl students ratio of 50-50 across all our schools. We have no admission criteria and first priority is always given to SC/ST students. Thus, we are proud to say that 95 percent of our students are from SC/ST background and are among the very few institutions in India currently to have such astounding numbers. Overall, we strive to improve the livelihoods of the tribal communities by giving them an opportunity to achieve their dreams of having a fruitful career in their lives”, adds Mahesh.
The Way Forward
Owing to such industry-best practices, GVRS has been conferred with numerous awards that include ‘Best School Award’ by Odisha government (2018 & 2019), ‘Best Residential School’ award at International School Awards (2019), ‘Prakrutimitra Award’ for its contribution to environmental conservation, and ‘Best Sports School’ award in Ganjam district for its excellence in sports. Additionally, the institute was also declared the winner of DFC – I Can Festival in 2018. “The demand for admissions in our schools is almost 10x of what we can provide today. Thus, we plan to open two more branches and increase our total student admissions to over 5,000 in the next 4-5 years. In line of this, we also plan to invest in developing infrastructure across our existing branches to accommodate this new influx of students. Since most of the parents and students are requesting us to extend beyond 10th class, we will soon be expanding our courses to at least class 12th”, concludes Mahesh.
“Since we have separate quarters for our faculty, they are always available to the students and get fully involved in the students’ daily activities. We also have a kitchen garden that is run by the students through which 50 percent of our vegetable requirements are fulfilled. Also, we don’t have any janitorial staff, and our students & teachers jointly manage the cleanliness of our entire campus. Further, we lay strong emphasis on promoting weightlifting as a sport and have dedicated spaces & coaches allotted in each of our schools. As a result, many of our students have represented India internationally and won numerous awards for the country”, says Mahesh Madiath, COO, GVRS.
GVRS has maintained a healthy teacher-student ratio of 1:25 & ensures that each student gets individualized atten-tion from teachers so that none of them gets left behind
Contributing towards Tribal Community Development
Understanding that most of their students’ parents are unschooled and lack a proper understanding of the numerous career opportunities that exist for their kids, GVRS also provides career counseling sessions to its students and their parents. The principles of each school them self have an individual counseling session with every 10th class students’ families, understands their background, and taking into account the child’s personal interests and the factors that might lead to the betterment of the tribal community, advise the families on what career options might best suit their child.
“Ranked among the top 100 NGOs in the world, Gram Vikas is engaged in the development of tribal communities in the state with special emphasis on the education of girl children. Thus, we ensure to maintain a boy-girl students ratio of 50-50 across all our schools. We have no admission criteria and first priority is always given to SC/ST students. Thus, we are proud to say that 95 percent of our students are from SC/ST background and are among the very few institutions in India currently to have such astounding numbers. Overall, we strive to improve the livelihoods of the tribal communities by giving them an opportunity to achieve their dreams of having a fruitful career in their lives”, adds Mahesh.
The Way Forward
Owing to such industry-best practices, GVRS has been conferred with numerous awards that include ‘Best School Award’ by Odisha government (2018 & 2019), ‘Best Residential School’ award at International School Awards (2019), ‘Prakrutimitra Award’ for its contribution to environmental conservation, and ‘Best Sports School’ award in Ganjam district for its excellence in sports. Additionally, the institute was also declared the winner of DFC – I Can Festival in 2018. “The demand for admissions in our schools is almost 10x of what we can provide today. Thus, we plan to open two more branches and increase our total student admissions to over 5,000 in the next 4-5 years. In line of this, we also plan to invest in developing infrastructure across our existing branches to accommodate this new influx of students. Since most of the parents and students are requesting us to extend beyond 10th class, we will soon be expanding our courses to at least class 12th”, concludes Mahesh.
