Change management of Satyabadi High School, Pradhan urges Odisha CM

BHUBANESWAR: UNION Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday requested Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to hand over the management of Satyavadi Bana Bidyalaya (renamed as Satyabadi High School) at Sakhigopal in Puri district to Lok Sevak Mandal.

In a letter to the chief minister, Pradhan said the aim and objective with which the open-air school was established in 1909 by a group of young nationalists under the leadership of Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das has deviated from its original goal.

He said the school acted as a nerve centre during the Independence struggle and the students and teachers not only participated in the freedom struggle in a most significant way but also actively contributed to the social evolution and services in the state.

The union minister said the school and some rare memorials of Pancha Sakha times are in ruins. “The need of the hour is to free the school from the clutches of the government administration and convert it as a social initiative or common property resource. This would be possible if the school is handed over to Lok Sevak Mandal, a non-profit organisation, which has been successfully managing schools in Delhi and Kanpur,” the letter said.

He said the new education policy will play a significant role in the transformation of India. The new policy has been framed keeping the characteristic spirits of Gopabandhu Das and Lala Lajpat Rai to awaken the consciousness of swaraj and self-reliance through education.

“We have to work towards fulfilling the values and objectives for which the Bana Bidyalaya was established. Hope, you will consider my proposal and take the lead in the transformation of the 113-year-old school to fulfil the dreams of these great men,” Pradhan said.

After taking over as the union education minister, Pradhan and Union Railways Minister Ashwini aishnaw visited the school last year and paid homage to Gopabandhu Das.