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Prakash Javadekar interacts with students from Prayas Residential School.
On a visit to Raipur for the inauguration of IIT Bhilai, Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar interacted with the students of the Prayas Residential School. Started in 2010, the Prayas initiative today educates 461 students including girls.
On Sunday morning, children from Naxal-affected areas of a government school in Raipur had an appointment with the Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar. The minister met the students at school for an interactive session and ended up promising the children that he will appeal to professors of prestigious higher education institutes to deliver lectures on various subjects at their school.
Bhuvneshwar Markam, a class XI student at Prayas residential school, hailing from the Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, said he wants to be a collector when asked by Javadekar what he wants to be.
“My father was killed by Maoists. Now I want to become a collector so that I can work for the development of my area and bring about change in Maoists’ thinking,” Markam told the Minister, who was visibly moved by the reply.
In 2010, the Chhattisgarh government had initiated the Prayas school initiative which would go on to work towards educating children from Naxal-hit areas. Today 461 students including girls are studying at Prayas including Markam. Javadekar wanted to take a firsthand account of the school and hence he visited the school during his Raipur visit to inaugurate the new Indian Institute of Technology which will be based in Bhilai in the state.
Another student, Ramkishore, who is from Kanker district, told the Minister he did not want to become an engineer or a doctor, but wants to be a teacher so that he can help thousands of other children like him become doctor or engineer. Javadekar later lauded the initiative saying that the school was transforming the lives of children from Naxal-affected regions.
“I will appeal to the lecturers at prominent institutions of higher education like IIT, IIM and NIT to come to Prayas and deliver lectures on various technical subjects,” he said. “Prime Minister has put a thrust on ‘Sabko Shiksha, Achhi Shiksha’ (quality education to everyone). Prayas is a successful example of this motto.”
The Prayas initiative doesn’t end by providing children from Naxal-hit areas residential schools but prepares them to take the entrance test to the prestigious IITs. 74 students from Prayas have made it to NITs, 27 to IITs and 450 to various other engineering institutes and 8 to the medical colleges since 2012.