BHUBANESWAR: As many as 142 high schools transformed with modern facilities under the 5T initiative of the Odisha government were dedicated virtually by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday. Inaugurating the schools at the two-week-long School Transformation Festival that also began on the day, the Chief Minister said the future of the country is built in schools. “Although children make up a third of the population, they are the country’s future. And, school is the most important time in a child’s life”, he said.
The transformed include 30 high schools in Cuttack district, 23 in Balasore district, 10 in Kandhamal district, 12 in Nabarangpur and the highest 67 high schools in Sundargarh. All of them have been refurbished with amenities like smart classrooms, e-libraries with reading rooms, modern laboratories, sports infrastructure, safe drinking water facilities and lavatories.
Naveen said that the 5T High School Transformation programme aims at helping children develop in all sectors, be it education, sports or music. “I want the children of my State to take lead in all sectors, learn about new technologies, dream big and move forward in life with confidence”, he said.
The journey started about eight months back with the State government’s commitment to bring onto a common platform five diverse stakeholders of 1,072 schools such as local elected representatives, parents, teachers, alumni and students to instill a sense of ownership. Taken up within the 5T governance charter, funds were made available to each school in the most transparent way and work was executed with time and quality audits led by community.
Work has been completed within a record time of 250 days. The Chief Minister informed that transformation of 1,025 high schools in all 30 districts has been completed and the process of dedicating them began on the day with inauguration of the 142 schools. The festival will continue till November 24. While he had directed the officials to complete the transformation of 1,072 schools by November 14, the Chief Minister said that it is due to their dedication and hardwork that a majority of the target could be achieved on time.
On the occasion, students of the five districts spoke to the Chief Minister virtually and expressed their opinions on transformation of their schools. Among others, Chief Secretary Suresh Mohapatra, 5T Secretary VK Pandian and Mo School Chairperson Sushmita Bagchi were present.Earlier in August, the CM had inaugurated 50 transformed government schools in Hinjili constituency of Ganjam district.