For the tenth year in a row, all the 61 students who appeared Class X exams this year at the Gram Vikas Residential School in Kankia, in the Ganjam district have passed their board exams. The top scorer among the students was Nadeep Gamango, of Kanheipur village in Gajapati district, with 87.83%, following his lead were Jyotish Naik, of Sargiguda village in Kalahandi district, with 81.5%, and Harapriya Mallik, of Vikaspur village in Ganjam district, with 76% marks.

While they have faced consistent success, the school has faced a fair amount of challenges along the way. The biggest challenge in recent memory came as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a decrease in enrollment. In response to this, the school amended its policy of only accepting students from other Gram Vikas schools, and began admitting those from government schools as well.

This change in student body composition, coupled with the fact that all of the incoming pupils had been away from school for an entire year due to shutdown of schools during Covid, presented teachers with a far wider range of academic abilities to assess than previous years.

Nevertheless, a strategy was devised to address this disparity. Students were given weekly tests, as well as more comprehensive monthly tests, so that their individual learning levels could be measured. Students were then placed in one of several sections – from remedial to advanced – corresponding with their performance on these assessments. This personalised approach was instrumental in ensuring that everyone received the education that was most appropriate for them and, thus, were able to reach the level of passing.

To illustrate how this played out in practice, headmaster Debendra Nath Dash provided the example of an orphaned student, who had previously attended a government school, and who had been admitted to Gram Vikas Residential School at the request of the block chairman, welfare officer, and local MLA: “When tested on her academic abilities, upon admission, she was not even able to write the alphabets or the digits nor could write in Odia. Thus, everything had to be taught from the beginning – the alphabets, digits so that she could up with speed.”

The headmaster believed that every student in the school is getting a proper education; therefore, rather than aim for the highest possible marks – which only caters to students who are already learning at a higher level than others – the focus is instead directed toward attaining the 100% pass rate – the most inclusive metric for success.

The last decade has demonstrated that Gram Vikas Residential School is committed to this inclusive success, even in the face of obstacles. As to whether there are any specific teachers who have significantly contributed to this pattern of continued success, Headmaster Dash assures that this question cannot be answered, as there would be no success without the collaboration of all teachers, working together as a unit.

The Gram Vikas Residential School have graduated 1422 first-generation learners (595 girls) from Adivasi communities in 173 habitations in Odisha.

Acknowledgement: Samir Lal, an intern from University of Sussex, UK has contributed to the story.