SCHOOLS FOR THE NEEDY

THE AIM IS TO GIVE MERITORIOUS DESTITUTE KIDS A SECURE ZONE OF LEARNING

- Prashant Srivastava

Komal Sharma, an 11-year-old girl from Lucknow who lost her parents in the Covid pandemic, wants to become a computer studies teacher. To make her dream come true, the orphan needs the impossible to happen-someone to bear the expenses of a quality education, as well as her daily needs. But hope, in the form of a new chain of government schools, is on the way. On June 11, Komal, and many like her, wrote the entrance exam for a newly built Atal Residential School-the start of an education project close to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's heart. Named after former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the chain of schools will provide quality education from Classes 6 to 12 to children of construction workers, labourers and to those whose parents died during the pandemic.

According to senior officials in the Yogi government, Atal Residential Schools are conceived on the lines of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVS) for talented rural children. The project has been allotted Rs 1,200 crore in this year's budget. In the initial phase, such schools have been set up in all 18 divisional headquarters of the state. Later, each district will have them. Along with free boarding, lodging and tuition fees, students will get free uniforms, books, stationery and satchels. To be managed by the UP labour department, the first 18 Atal Residential Schools, their entrance exams and selection process complete, will start functioning from July 2023. The schools will be affiliated with the CBSE and will hold annual entrance examinations to select students.