Three primary schools of Kalika panchayat have beentransformed into welcoming learning spaces.
For the panchayat in Jaleswar block has been adopted under the SansadAdarsh Gram Yojana of the Government of India.
Improving the condition of schools and the quality of education in the panchayat while have been identified as one of priorities, Baleswar MP RK Jena laid down a strong edifice for development in Kalika.
In order to put plans in place and execute them seamlessly, he roped in a team of experts from Swaniti Initiative and Scribble Foundation with a belief in team work and getting right people in right place.
Summer vacation period was identified for implementation of the plan.
Nine artists from the Scribble Foundation from Mumbai resided in Baleswar for about a month. In the one month time period, they not only changed the walls of classrooms to canvas of paintings having arts with mythological , historical symbols and characters , besides modern art, they also gave training and exposure to the small schoolchildren on painting.
Alisha Aranah, team leader of Scribble, said, “The month we spent in the three schools in Kalika has given us memories and taught us lessons which would be carried by us for a lifetime. I would like to believe that this journey has been a learning for the children as well as the artists.”
“We were reminded of the simple luxuries we take for granted, like continuous access to electricity and water or concrete roofs over our heads. The children, staff, and families of Kalika taught us very valuable lessons on humility and acceptance,” she said.
“It is a wonderful experience. The children not only found scope of learning art, but also we found an exposure to rural Odisha,” said another artist Reha.
“People’s participation in fixing priorities and being partners in the development process was imperative to bring about the desired transformation as our objective is that the people share their visions and aspirations so that we can together develop Kalika as an Adarsh Gram,” said MP Jena.
“For the successful rollout of the programme, a detailed roadmap was prepared by a team to guarantee learning outcomes for the children in a fun-filled environment, which would demonstrate a happy, inspiring and a congenial atmosphere of learning. I congratulate the District Education Officer and the panchayat members of Kalika for their support and cooperation during the conception and implementation of this project. I also appreciate relentless efforts of the teams from Swaniti and Scribble,” Jena added.
“In the summer break engaging the students and community over a period of one month also helped in building a team spirit and activity based learning in schools . This is definitely one of the key components of any model village,” said Utkarsh Bharadwaj of Swaniti Initiative