Nayagarh: The Similisahi Project Primary School, which had been inured to poor attendance until a couple of days ago, is witnessing cent per cent attendance these days. The reason behind the sudden surge in attendance is inclusion of some sports equipment.
Similisahi school has eight classes from Class I to Class VIII with total strength of 125. “All the students attending classes was never before seen in this school. With the addition of sports equipment, a change for better has taken place. Since last one month, all the students are attending classes,” a teacher said.
In a bid to attract students, six primary schools in Nayagarh district were supplied with sports equipment last month. These equipment were procured by utilising HDFC bank’s CSR grant and with the assistance from Integral Rural Development Programme and Gram Vikas.
These days all the students are coming to the school. And a positive atmosphere has developed since the students are becoming more interested in their studies. Needless to say, when game period comes, they are just having the time of their lives. At 3:00pm, students can be seen coming out of their classes in queues and waiting for their turns to play with the equipment.
The inclusion of these equipment has brought a lot difference to our school, admits Similisahi Project Primary School’s headmaster Purnachandra Ghadei.
Officials of Gram Vikash informed that with prior consultation with Anthhill Creations, a Bangalore based organisation known for making low cost playing equipment, they have designed the equipments basically using worn out tyres. These equipment are not only interesting to play with, but also help students do physical exercises while playing around.
The other five such schools to get these are – Ikiri Primary School and Udayapur Primary School under Nayagarh block, Padmadeipur Primary School and Bhadikila Primary School under Odagaon block, Biridihi Primary School under Khandapara block.
Senior citizens here have heaped praise on those who have roles in bringing such transformation. “Children are no longer asking for staying back at home. It is because they are getting ample amusements as their counterparts in English medium schools. If such facilities are made available in all the government schools, then they would definitely win back parents and students,” they observed.
PNN