Education

Education has been regarded as the top most nation-building exercise: and hence, the thrust on our action agenda. To our belief, education is the process towards fulfilling the optimal development of children and it can enable them having a productive life. Considering the challenges faced by poor children, especially in tribal households, we took education as a mission and focus residential mode of teaching-learning for all-round development of the head, heart and the hands simultaneously.

Educational Complex for Tribal Girls

In the initial phase, over two decades back in 1998-99, to address the educational need of tribal girls in Kankadahad block of Dhenkanal, AIRA with the support of Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Govt. of India opened Pravasini Educational Complex for Tribal Girls (residential) at Tandimunda in Batagaon, Kankadahad. The complex presently provides free boarding and educational services with free of cost to 240 Tribal girls from Class-I to Class-VIII; each class having 30 tribal girls students in each year. The Complex provides free education with coaching facility during morning and night, teaching learning materials, free health checkup, uniform & clothing materials, educational tour and vocational training as appropriate.
Given the recent developments and achievements, AIRA plans to upgrade this PEC in to an institution of 12 years study complex for tribal girls getting up to the rank of a Centre of Excellence in formal schooling. The output and impact is well observed in reduction of school dropout among girls in the region and in the district. On the other side, the retention aspect has scaled up to 87% in place of 21.39% in 1997.

Residential Primary School

To ensure routine schooling facility to poor tribal children from the region, the Residential Primary School was set up in 1998 with all amenities and teaching-learning process extended free of cost. The present strength of this school is 190, both boys and girls, and the benefitted student number standing at 2180 cumulatively. All the pass outs have been facilitated admission into higher classes thereby contributing to their continues study and overall growth. As observed, some of them have achieved heights in the field of sports and traditional art. At the same time, the school has given a boost to child-education among primitive tribal communities like Munda, Shabar and Kolhas in the region.

School for Scheduled Caste Children

To facilitate educational access and proper schooling of the Dalit (Scheduled Caste) children in one of the most remote region of Sambalpur district in Western Odisha, this school titled as Sangram Junior Secondary School was set up at village Bhadimara under Jujumura block in 1998-99. With all residential facility & amenities free of cost, this residential school with 100 pupil-cum-boarders (Class-VI, VII and VIII) in each batch continues till the year 2016 and later got shifted to Ambapada in Gondia block of Dhenkanal district as a demand-driven necessity, all features intact. During the past 22 years 2200 students on a cumulative count from Sambalpur, Deogarh, Angul, Dhenkanal and Jajpur districts have availed model residential elementary schooling through this school.