Page 219 - Education World Nov-21 Low 81.6MB

from the co-ed boarding schools to
this category because the number of
day scholars by far outnumber board-
ers.
The year 2021-22 was especially
poignant for the top-ranked Sai I n -
t e rn at i o n al Scho o l B hub an e s w ar
B
( SI S) . Dr. i j aya Saho o , the vision-
ary promoter-director of SIS, became
a victim of the Coronavirus and de-
spite being flown to Hyderabad by
a specially chartered jet for expert
treatment, passed away on June 3.
This is a tragic loss not only for SIS
stakeholders, but also for the people
and children of the eastern seaboard
state of Odisha (pop.46.8 million). A
highly successful chartered and cost
accountant, in the new millennium
Dr. Sahoo travelled the world studying
the best practices of globally admired Cheerful EHIS, Indore students: modernisation opportunity. Inset: Siddharth Singh
K-12 schools prior to establishing SIS
in 2006. of life. devolved.
ithin 15 years since then, SIS, “We are delighted to learn that we “It was my husband Bijaya’s vision
Wwhich debuted in the annual have retained our #1 national rank- and ambition to provide excellent
EWISR in 2011-12 at #84, has steadily ing in this very momentous year for quality, globally benchmarked K-12
risen in public esteem. In 2017-18, it SIS. I believe the major factor behind education to the children of Odisha. I
was ranked among the Top 3, joint #1 SIS retaining public faith and con- am determined to work relentlessly to
in 2020-21 and in 2021-22, the 11,458 fidence is that we comprehensively build on his legacy and retain the top
EW sample respondents have ranked adapted to online learning after the ranking of SIS and all our schools,”
it undisputed #1. pandemic lockdown of March 2020. says Dr. Silpi Sahoo.
In addition to SIS, during his We were successful not only in pro- A similar determination to harvest
tragically shortened lifetime, Sahoo viding academic, but our full school the unforeseen gains of the Covid-19
also promoted the fully-equipped programme including co-curricular, pandemic — forced recourse to digi-
Sai An g an P re s cho o l reputed to yoga and physical education to all our tal teaching-learning — is discernible
be Asia’s largest pre-primary (1,200 5,500 children. This was achieved in Si ddhart h Si n g h, an economics,
children) and the state-of-the-art, with the full cooperation and involve- finance and business management
globally benchmarked Sai I n t e rn a - ment of our parents’ community. Our alum of Stony Brook University, New
t i o n al R e s i de n t i al Scho o l (SIRS) parents are very satisfied with the York and currently director of the
on a scenic 40-acre green campus on holistic education SIS children have fast-track E m e ral d H e i g ht s I n t e r -
the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Road (450 received during the past 18 months n at i o n al Scho o l , I n do re (EHIS,
students). of the pandemic. They have given us estb.1982), which has retained its In-
Impressed by his success in plac- tremendous word-of-mouth publicity dia #2 and #1 in Madhya Pradesh and
ing academically peripheral Odisha and enhanced the school’s reputation. Indore ranks of 2019-20 and 2020-21.
state on the education map of India, For this, full credit must be given to Top-ranked nationally for its su-
in 2019, Naveen Patnaik, five-term my late husband who worked tireless- perb infrastructure and with high
chief minister of the state, awarded ly to take our entire teaching-learning scores under the parameters of lead-
Dr. Sahoo cabinet rank and commis- system online. I think this effort took ership, co-curricular education, cur-
sioned him to establish 314 contempo- its toll and made him vulnerable to the riculum and pedagogy and the newly-
rary CBSE-affiliated government K-12 virus,” says Dr. Si l p i Saho o , a histo- introduced parameter of mental and
schools — Odisha Adarsh Vidyalayas ry and women’s studies Ph D alumna emotional well-being services, EHIS
—in all 26 districts of Odisha. Working of Utkal University and co-promoter has comprehensively bested its city ri-
with characteristic speed, Sahoo had of SIS, SIRS and Sai Angan, on whom val, the once top-ranked Daly College,
established 214 schools before he was the responsibility of managing these Indore (estb.1882).
struck down by Covid-19 in the prime top-ranked 21st century schools has “I believe that we have been suc-

NOVEMBER 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 219