A former Professor of Economics, Badrinarayan Patra is both a Benthamite and an educationist, who made his transition into politics in 1989 by relinquishing a coveted career in teaching. He opened his innings to the State Assembly from the Ramachandrapur constituency from 1990 to 1995 on a Janata Dal ticket. He also proved his mettle under trying circumstances by winning from the same constituency in 2000 as an Independent candidate. He was elected to the Assembly from the Ghasipura constituency in 2009 on a Biju Janata Dal ticket. He was also elected from the same constituency in 2014 and is continuing as Cabinet Minister for the Departments of School and Mass Education and Science and Technology. He gathered rich administrative experiences as Minister for Housing and Urban Development from 2009 to 2011. He also made his debut as Minister of Higher Education, Sports & Youth Services from 2011 to 2014. He was also the Minister for Rural Development from 2014 to 2017. Cool, calm and poised Prof Patra prefers to maintain a low profile and believes in simple living and high thinking, for which he is endeared to the general public. Of late, he is committed to invigorating and galvanising the school educational system by faithfully adhering to the dictates of his leader CM Naveen Patnaik for strictly following the principles of three Ts, Technology, Teamwork and Transparency. In an interview to The Pioneer, he spoke to Sugyan Choudhury at his residence in Bhubaneswar.
What are the plans on your agenda for galvanising the secondary school system?
Our Government’s priority is to strengthen all the three verticals, school, students and teachers, and develop a bonding among them so that the three verticals function efficiently individually and collectively. Following strategies are contemplated to stimulate the system:
a) Rationalisation of schools
i) Closing down schools with very low roll strength or merging them with nearby secondary schools to ensure optimal utilisation of material and human resources available.
ii) Merger of same campus schools.
b) Rationalisation of teachers
c) Reinvigorating the school monitoring mechanism
d) Taking effective steps for quality improvement in secondary schools
e) Reforms in HSC Examination
How far the benefits of the school education have reached tribal and Schedule Caste population?
The tribal and SC students are getting benefits of the schemes like free bicycles, uniforms, midday meals, textbooks, etc. In secondary schools, no fee is collected from ST and SC students. The Odisha Madhyamik Shiksha Mission is running a Learning Enhancement Programme and a Special Teaching Programme for students in the KBK districts by which mainly the ST and SC students are benefitted. The SC and ST Department has created adequate hostel facilities with free boarding and lodging for SC and ST students, especially for girl. pre-matric scholarship is provisioned for SC and ST students. In the academic year 2017-18, there have been increases of 8,126 seats in rural and tribal pockets.
There are disturbing reports of mismanagement and corruption in various beneficial programme for students including MDM. How far your department has been able to weed out corruption?
Midday meal (MDM) is the largest school feeding programme in the State with a whopping 49,00,060 students taking MDM on a daily basis in 58,058 schools. As many as 1,20,314 trained cooks-cum-helpers including 15,294 SHGs, seven central kitchen agencies are engaged for this. For ensuring uninterrupted MDM and quality in the service, various innovative steps have been taken. They are:
1) An SMS-based monitoring system to track MDM consumption on a real time basis through the SMS portal. It has a unique feature of tracking MDM consumption, iron tablet consumption, cook-cum-helper absentee report. It is also available in the public domain having an inbuilt feature of welcoming, public feedback/grievance/complaints/ suggestions. This application has bagged the National SKOCH Award for its unique application and results.
2) For managing MDM mishap in unforeseen situations, Odisha has prepared Midday Meal Contingency Plan, which is operated across the State. The Government of India appreciated the efforts and requested all other States to follow the Odisha initiatives.
3) In Odisha, unlike other States, MDM is run on a decentralised mode giving the power of purchase and management to the School Management Committees. With a view to making it more transparent, there is provision of a separate MDM website, which is up to date. There are also student helpline, Monday grievance hearing and e-Abhiyog systems, writing the entitlement of children and menu of the MDM on school wall and back pages of textbooks. There is also an observation register in schools to record comments/suggestions of any visitor.
4) The message of Hon’ble Chief Minister for implementing the 4T system i.e Teamwork, Transparency, Technology and Transformation is followed in letter and spirit in the MDM management. So, the report of mismanagement/corruption in the programme is unfounded and, hence, refuted.
There are various commissions’ reports for a uniform system of education. But the various categories of schools like CBSE, ICSE and OBSE are creating confusion contrary to various commissions’ reports. How are you going to bridge the gap?
As regards implementation of a uniform education system, this is a national phenomenon. All the systems exist in the country and other States and not only in Odisha. However, the Odisha Government is taking due care to prepare the syllabus comparable to other systems, specifically like CBSE so that our students perfectly complete with the students of the other States in all competitive examination.
As reported, there has been a drop out in the ratio of students between last year and this year in regard to the +2 streams. What is your response to this?
During the past two years, the ratio has not come down. Rather, there is an increase in enrolment in 2017-18 than in 2016-17. Recently, our Government has transferred the higher secondary education to the fold of School and Mass Education and, accordingly, a new directorate has been formed from the academic session 2016-2017. Within the short span of one year, there have been increases of 8,126 seats in the tribal and rural pockets to give better access to the students of tribal and remote areas of the State for higher secondary education. This provides a scope for an increase of enrolment of 4,315 (7%) students under the SC category and 6,637 (10%) under the ST category. Similarly, there is also an increase of enrolment of 7,665 girl students in higher secondary education during this academic session.
As an educationist, what is the achievement during your tenure for the growth and development of various types of school educational system like Elementary, Secondary and Higher Secondary streams?
As per the vision of our Hon’ble Chief Minister, due emphasis is given to the three verticals of education, schools/students/teachers. The 3Ts, technology, team and transparency, are our mantra to bring improvement in the educational system. We are trying to incentivise the students to come to school. Technology-driven education is planned and pursued to enhance the level of appreciation and also to joyful reading. Our Government has recently abolished the Block Grant system for teaching and nonteaching staffs which was a longstanding demand, thus motivating them to do a better teaching job. Likewise, school infrastructure is being boosted up by creating school buildings and also enriching the school atmosphere. Besides this, Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya Schools in the CBSE syllabus one in each block have been recently opened to impart English medium teaching in rural areas. This would provide urban teaching tor poor and remotely-located students. Thus, our Government is taking up effective steps for improvement of the educational system.