Inspiration - Real-Life Rancho Returns to Odisha Village, Sets Up Innovation School for Rural Kids!

                 Anil Pradhan with students from IPSRI. (Source: Facebook)
The son of a tailor-turned CRPF jawan, this brilliant innovator was earlier in the news for designing a robot that could climb electric poles and do other dangerous tasks!

Rancho, the character played by Aamir Khan in the 2009-Bollywood blockbuster '3 Idiots,' remains one of the most endearing characters ever to grace the silver screen.
If a vast majority of teachers in India knew how to impart the joy of learning like Rancho, this country would have a generation of students imparting real change in local communities. That's one way of building a nation from the ground-up.

Fortunately for the people of 42 Mouza (a cluster of villages on an island 12 km away from Cuttack, Odisha) there exists 22-year-old Anil Pradhan, a local boy, whose International Public School for Rural Innovation (IPSRI) in Baral village is imparting the joy of science, technology and innovation to young rural students for free.
Pradhan, however, found his calling after school when he enrolled into the Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Sambalpur, where besides studying civil engineering he got into the varsity's robotics society.

he decided to come back home and establish a centre for learning and innovation.
"I was born in 42 Mouza and left the area to receive a good education. But I don't want people to migrate towards the cities for a decent education. They should have that facility at home, especially for underprivileged students who don't find good schools nearby. I also found that the conventional school curriculum puts a burden on students. Such a system does not produce creative and innovative students who can find solutions for society. To address these concerns, I started this school," he tells The Better India.

"The objective of this school is to develop innovative students who will be skilled enough to solve real-life problems through science, technology and innovation. Our lessons are more practical. The teaching methodology is quite innovative which makes students learn complex subjects in a simpler and creative way. Having said that, we can't impose the same curriculum on every child. Every child is different and capable of doing something different. Rather, we have a set of experiments which helps a child understand his capabilities in a particular field," says Pradhan.

"We also have set of activities which includes playing, crafting and experimenting which helps us know, to what extent a student is inclined towards a particular field," says Pradhan.

Besides teaching them basic science and math concepts through practical applications, students are also encouraged to innovate. For example, one lesson entails students learning innovative gardening hacks with plastic bottles, which allows them to observe a seed, nurture it and see the growth before them. Besides teaching them how to utilise plastic waste instead of just dumping it, students learn the basics of biology and the art of taking responsibility (for their plant). Aside from regular Yoga and PT classes, students undertake the Swachh Campus initiative, where every day for 10 minutes every child assist in cleaning the school campus.

"They use CDs to learn about pie charts, colour association to learn the world map and they even have the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals painted on their staircase," says this Edex report on the school. Students are encouraged to memorise all the UN sustainable goals by serial number.

As the popular saying goes, "education is a gift, it shouldn't be a burden." Pradhan is determined to facilitate that spirit and give these children from low-income households in his area an education that actually means something.

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