Page 105 - Education World November 2022

Lifetime Achievement in Education Leadership Award 2022-23

Dr. Bijaya Kumar Sahoo (1963-2021)

Vikram Aditya Sahoo receives award & citation on behalf of his father the late Dr.
Bijaya Sahoo from Sumer Singh (left) & Dilip Thakore (right)

chartered accountant for whom provision of high- education was topped with a law degree from University
quality K-12 education was his life's mission, Dr. Law College, Bhubaneswar. A firm votary of continuous
A Bijaya Kumar Sahoo is widely credited for placing education, Dr. Sahoo also qualified as a works accountant
the educationally underserved eastern state of Odisha certified by the Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of
(pop.46 million) on the education map of India. In 2008, India (ICWAI) and was awarded an MBA in finance by the
he forsook a successful accountancy practice to follow his All India Management Association while practising as a
dream of establishing an internationally benchmarked K-12 chartered accountant. In 2011, he was awarded a Ph D in
school in Bhubaneswar, the admin capital of Odisha. Since commerce by The Open International University, Colombo,
then, the CBSE-affiliated SAI International School (SIS) Sri Lanka.
has established and consolidated its position as Odisha's Most recently in 2021, he was awarded the prestigious
#1 day-cum-boarding school and has been ranked India #1 honorary degree of Doctor of Literature (honoris causa) by
in the category of day-cum-boarding schools for the past Utkal University from the Vice President of India.
three years including 2022-23, in the EducationWorld Unfortunately, in June 2021, Dr. Sahoo was struck
India School Rankings. down by the Covid-19 virus and despite being airlifted
SIS' rapid rise in public esteem encouraged Dr. Sahoo to Hyderabad's premier KIMS Hospital, passed away in
to promote SAI Angan (estb.2015), billed as India's larg- the prime of his eventful life — a great tragedy for Indian
est preschool, the undergrad SAI International College of education. Since Dr. Sahoo's untimely demise, the mantle
Commerce, Bhubaneswar (2015) and the CBSE-affiliated of leadership of the SAI Group has devolved upon the ca-
SAI International Residential School, Cuttack (2018). pable shoulders of Dr. Silpi Sahoo, his companion of more
Currently, the SAI International Group's four institu- than 35 years and co-founder of SAI Group of Institutions.
tions have an aggregate 7,000 students mentored by 434 Awarded a doctorate in women studies by Utkal University,
teachers on their muster rolls. For his outstanding service Dr. Silpi has continued to build on the strong foundation
to education, in July 2019, Dr. Sahoo was appointed Advi- constructed by her late husband.
sor of the Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya Sangathan with the In public acknowledgement of the inestimable contri-
rank of minister of state to establish CBSE English-medi- bution that the late Dr. Bijaya Sahoo made to the growth,
um government schools in all 314 administrative blocks development and contemporisation of India’s — and es-
of Odisha state. pecially Odisha’s — education system, it is the sad but
A topper throughout school life, Sahoo graduated in necessary duty of the Editors and Board of Advisors of
1982 from Utkal University and pressed on to qualify as a EducationWorld to posthumously confer our EW Lifetime
chartered accountant certified by the Institute of Chartered Achievement in Education Leadership Award upon the late
Accountants of India (ICAI), in 1985. This professional Dr. Bijaya Sahoo (1963-2021).

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