Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s appeal to elected representatives from the state to adopt schools under the “Mo School” programme, a unique initiative, reflects his vision on strengthening the education system in the state, with focus on government schools, which have been forced to play second fiddle to private schools primarily because of lack of resources. The Chief Minister remains keen to create a level playing field for students drawn from different social strata.
Patnaik had launched the Mo School campaign, the only one of its kind in the country, in response to the philanthropic interest from the alumni of Odisha schools residing outside the state and even abroad. This programme aims at creating a platform for people to connect, collaborate and contribute to revamping government and government-aided schools.
The Chief Minister obviously believes that a robust and vibrant school education system holds the key to the brighter future of the state which needs to groom its children to be successful citizens to contribute meaningfully to the development of Odisha and the country as a whole.
A tribute to the visionary thinking of Patnaik, Mo School is a unique concept that has created a citizen-government partnership for strengthening the education system. The programme that aims to foster and facilitate volunteerism provides a platform to individuals as well as associations of different kinds to contribute to the development of the school ecosystem in in the state.
The most important feature of the programme is that it leverages the experience, success and influence of the alumni and their worldwide network to boost school education in the state. Thus, it creates an enabling environment to harness the vast human resource and intellectual capital of the state.
The other important objective of the programme is to groom schoo children to become dreamers, doers, makers, explorers, and entrepreneurs. The focus is rightly on government and government-aided schools which enrol the maximum number of students, a sizeable chunk of them coming from less privileged backgrounds. Of the total of 72,21,218 school-going children in the state, 53,68,135 study in government schools and another 5,75,313 in government-aided schools.
While the Chief Minister has also launched some other important initiatives such as Adarsh Vidyalayas to boost the education system, his prime concern has been providing adequate opportunities to students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds like the ones studying in government-run schools. Recently, he had announced reservation of seats for them in medical and engineering colleges.
This was followed by waiver of fees for the matriculation examination to be conducted by the Board of Secondary Education this year. The decision, which is set to cost the government Rs.27 crore, will benefit more than six lakh students studying in government schools. Aware of the financial distress caused to the people by the corona pandemic the Chief Minister made this gesture to ensure that students are not deprived of the opportunity to take the first crucial examination of their careers due to monetary problems.
The student community of the state, especially the students of government-run schools, will forever remain beholden to the Chief Minister for such initiatives. It is hoped that Patnaik’s appeal to elected representatives to adopt schools in the state also generates a good response.
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