project akanksha

[Type text]

Project Akanksha

Dindori

District Administration,

Dindori

Project Akanksha

[Type text]

Project Akanksha

Preface:

Dindori is one of the most backward, tribal dominated districts of Madhya Pradesh and also

perhaps, one with the most abysmal indicators of socio-economic and educational

development. Till a decade back, the average literacy levels in the district were one of the worst

in the country. With a predominant presence of the Primitive Tribal Group (PTG) Baigas and

also a sizeable population of other disadvantaged tribal groups like Gonds; education as a

priority in the way of living had made very recent inroads into the conventional expectations of

a tribal household. Since the district shares a 100 km long border with Chhattisgarh and has

been classified as Naxal affected, provision of quality educational services to every child is of

paramount importance.

Project Akanksha has been envisaged as a platform to facilitate tribal students for admissions to

premier engineering institutes in the country by way of coaching them for Joint Entrance

Examination (JEE). Often, shortfalls in teaching staff in government institutions and issues of

quality in tribal districts deprive bright students from economically and socially disadvantaged

families from fully harnessing their latent potentials with the result that students from such

families are placed in a position of disadvantage vis-a-vis their peers. Project Akanksha aims at

alleviating this capacity differential by augmenting the resources, skills and specialized

knowledge components that are intrinsic to any learning environment.

Objectives:

• To identify, select and counsel students with an aptitude for technical education for

engineering/medical discipline

• To create a learning environment where the best resources – educational, physical and

motivational are made available to a motivated learner in an environment conducive to

learning

• To trigger an educational spiral where the educational achievements of the selected

students are utilized to actuate more and more young students into the fold of

higher/technical education

• To share the infrastructure so created with other students from across the district in an

e learning space, utilizing the available VC room infrastructure

• To harness advancements in technology in a manner that the best training institutes in

the country are made to interact systematically with students from the remotest

corners of the district

[Type text]

Project Akanksha

Process:

District Administration initiated parallel processes for the selection and counseling of students,

empanelment of the educational service provider and provision of necessary infrastructure

Fig 1: The three parallel streams that converged into the Project

Selection of students:

District Administration initiated process for selection of 50 students from Class XI and 20

students from Class XII for a 2 and 1 year JEE coaching program

Fig 2: Selection of students - Process

Project

Akanksha

Selection of students

by way of district wide

common entrance

examination

Selection of coaching

agency by way of open competitive tender

process

Provision of

infrastructure

• Physical

• Electronic space for e

classes

• Boarding and Lodging facility

•Those passing out with I div in

Stnd X qualified for CEE

•Database of all eligible and pre qualified students created

•Extensive publicity via media , meetings and vcs with block functionaries for participation of

students in CEE

Pre selection

process

• CEE designed by Resonance

Eduventures

•CEE conducted across 7 centres in respective block headquarters

•1158 students appear for the CEE

Common Entrance

examination •Extensive counselling sessions for

selected and wait listed students at respective block headquarters

•Reservation criteria adhered to in

the selection process

Counselling

sessions

[Type text]

Project Akanksha

Key facts about selected students’ profile-

Selection of coaching agency:

An agreement was entered into between the Assistant Commissioner Tribal Welfare, District

Dindori and Resonance Eduventures Private Limited, Kota, Rajasthan for the provision of

coaching to selected students via e classes for a minimum of 20 hours per week.

Out of 70 slected students;

• 69 students belong to BPL families

• 51 students hail from ST households including 3 students from PTG (Baiga)

households

• 6 students hail from SC households and 12 students are from OBC families

Open tenders floated for

empanelment of coaching

institute

Preference accorded to e

classes from the point of

economy

Strigent technical

evaluation criteria for

filtering off incompetent

bidders

[Type text]

Project Akanksha

Provision of Infrastructure:

Figure3: Infrastructure components

Selected students were offered admissions in Government Excellence School, Dindori. Vacant

seats in tribal hostels from across the district were pooled to make way for creating

establishment space for a 50 seater boys’ hostel which has been housed in a recently

completed BRGF building. Detailed tender processes were followed for procurement of

•Selected students

admitted to Govt. Excellence School, Dindori

•Pick and drop facility to Akansha hostel for girls

50 seater boys'

hostel with

•library, study room

•spacious dormitories

•kitchen and dining room

20 seater girls'

dormitory in SSA's

hostel

•recreation centre

•study room and library

•independent kitchen

and dining space

Two large VC rooms

for e classes

•Polycom VC equipment

•Dedicated lease line for

high quality video streaming

•RF conn. to SWAN

[Type text]

Project Akanksha

materials and necessary infrastructure. The 50 seater residential hostel now boasts of well

maintained, spacious dormitories along with a well furnished library cum study room and an

independent kitchen cum dining space for boys thereby offering a clean, comfortable and

homely environment for study. Girls have similarly been accommodated in a spacious SSA’s

girls’ hostel equipped with a modern library, study room and recreation centre.

Coaching classes are held in two state of art videoconferencing rooms set up in two

independent classrooms of the Akanksha hostel. The VC equipment supplied by VC equipment

major Polycom combined with high quality video streaming enabled via a dedicated lease line

to the two VC rooms facilitates a high definition videoconferencing experience. Two

subsequent layers of redundancy that support the underlying lease line base are SWAN

connectivity via RF link and broadband via WiMaX. HD projectors and 52’ LCD screens carry the

video link thereby accentuating the impact of VC hardware. The classes are held live in an

interactive manner with the faculty of Resonance Eduventures focusing on building the

conceptual understanding of the students and actively discussing their questions and doubts . A

district level resource person empanelled for every subject sits through the e sessions for the

aid and assistance of students. Resonance Eduventures, Kota shall also provide study material

to all the students in Hindi and conduct regular exercises and tests to help the students gain

proficiency.

Project Financing:

The total cost of coaching per student per month ( @ 20 hours per week) via e classes as agreed

upon between the District Administration and Resonance Eduventures, Kota, Rajasthan is Rs.

2143. A district level committee chaired by the District Collector, subject to its satisfaction, will

approve payment to the coaching institution every month and thereby, monitor the

performance of the coaching institution. In addition a separate provision of Rs 5 lakhs has been

made towards creation of the videoconferencing space by way of procurement of necessary

electronic equipments. Funding towards the above two was sanctioned from the Integrated

Action Plan Scheme (2014-15).The Department of Tribal Welfare has facilitated necessary

infrastructure strengthening of the hostel spaces.

Coaching fee per student per month (@ 20 hrs / week) - Rs 2143

Financial provisioning from IAP for academic session 2014-15 - 15 lakhs

[Type text]

Project Akanksha

Picture Gallery:

Selected students were invited with their parents on Sept 5 On the inaugural day: Selected students with District

authorities

The ‘Akanksha’ Hostel building

[Type text]

Project Akanksha

Hon’ MP, Mandla, Shri Faggan

Singh Kulaste inaugurating the

Hostel premises

Figure

A regular VC in progress

Students attending the inaugural session in the VC room

project akanksha

Documents