Bhubaneswar: Encouraged by the support of the alumni to ‘Mo School Abhiyan’, the Odisha government is now planning to collaborate with them for improving schools, which are 50 to 100 years old, across the state and infuse fresh life into them.
A decision in this regard was taken at the executive council meeting of Mo School Abhiyan held here on August 31 under the chairpersonship of Pradeepta Kumar Mohapatra.
A government statement said a long-term plan will be devised to infuse fresh life into these schools in collaboration with the alumni associations and foundation. Reviving these schools was a request that came from a large number of alumni bodies.
Mo School Abhiyan is one of its kind initiative in the country, which aims to encourage and inspire the alumni to contribute to the growth and development of the alma mater. The programme was launched by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the Children’s Day in 2017.
Key points that emerged out of the executive council meeting:
1. The project cost has touched Rs 100 crore since the launch of Mo School Abhiyan.
2. 12567 projects worth Rs 64530387 were sanctioned in August 30 meeting for 708 schools.
3. With this, 12,105 projects for 9950 schools in 308 blocks with a grant of Rs 67,09,22,856 has been sanctioned.
4. The total number of contributors stands at 1,49,536 and contribution received at Rs 33,60,01428 as of August 2019.
Under Mo school Abhiyan, school children will also be groomed after school hours with the alumni support, said member secretary Bhupender Singh Poonia.
“By leveraging the experience, success and influence of the alumni and its vast network, a proper learning ecosystem beyond classrooms will be made available for achieving desired learning outcomes in schools,” he said.
This pilot initiative will be taken up in 5,000 villages this year and then extended across the state by next summer holidays, he added.
The state government had recently appointed Susmita Bagchi as the new chairperson of the programme.
