Page 63 - Education World September 2021

Pradhan (centre right) & students: resolute faith in innovation & problem-solving capabilities of rural youth

government schools that have limited resources, they have Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
excellent problem-solving technical skills learned from early Thanks to Anil Pradhan, the lives of Bagha and Barik
age through experimentation and trial and error. That’s how continue to change for the better. While Bagha is pursuing
they manage to keep farms and local small-scale manufactur- an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) course, Barik is a skills
ing and service firms running. I am amazed how with mini- instructor in Pradhan’s various ventures. Pradhan is in the
mal training and access to modern tools and equipment, they process of building a new dream team for NHERC 2022 and
can perform miracles. To provide proof of the high capability the two will assist him closely. “There are millions of talented
of rural youth, I began recruiting talented youngsters to build youth with unutilised potential struggling in rural India who
a team that would win the testing and highly competitive can boost India’s GDP and productivity, given the opportu-
NHERC, 2021,” says Pradhan, a graduate of the University nity,” says Pradhan who recalls cycling with his father over 12
College of Engineering, Burla (Odisha) who served as inno- km of bumpy roads to get to his village school in 42 Mouza,
vation mentor at the National Council of Science Museums, a remote area of Odisha.
Bhubaneswar, prior to promoting NPFSRI six years ago with In a nation where millions of children and youth in small
three children in a tin shed. towns, districts, and villages are denied access to quality
Pradhan’s faith in the technical innovation skill-sets of education because of grinding poverty and dysfunctional
rural youth proved justified. In July 2021, the ten-member government schools characterised by crumbling infrastruc-
team of under-19 students including Bagha and Barik created ture, imbalanced student-teacher ratios, and poor learning
history when their all-terrain automotive four-wheel rover outcomes, the NASA win is a praiseworthy success story. It is
with three gears and top speed of 25 kmph was awarded a also a telling reminder of how some well-educated, altruistic
bronze medal and adjudged the best entry from Asia, tri- individuals are breaking stereotypes and forsaking corporate
umphing over student teams from the United States, Brazil, careers and urban lifestyles to uplift socially and education-
Bangladesh, besides teams from India. The winners of the ally deprived children and youth in India’s neglected rural
NHERC 2021 were teams from Texas and Minnesota, USA. hinterland which hosts 66 percent of the country’s 1.30 bil-
Last month, Pradhan, riding on the back of the success of the lion citizens.
NASA win, was conferred the National Youth Award by the For instance, in Sukma district in southern Chhattisgarh

SEPTEMBER 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 63