Pavendhar Bharathidasan Government Primary School (PBGPS) in Koonichampet is taking all the right steps to maintain the fame it has achieved in the recent times.
After receiving the Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya award in 2017 and 2018, the school has now become a launch pad for rural students in Puducherry, who aspire to join the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) school at Kalapet in Puducherry.
Since the school began providing additional coaching for its students to take up the JNV Selection Test in 2008, it has now become a recruiting centre for the JNV school. Initially, the school used to send its students in single-digits to JNV. But the number saw an increase in the last four years, with 30 students securing admission to the Kalapet campus this year alone. The school made its first big jump in 2018 by sending 13 of its students to the Kalapet campus.
In 2019, 20 students from PBGPS secured admission to JNV. Though the number dropped to 10 in 2020, the number of students who cleared the exam in 2021 increased to 27. “This year it’s an all-time high. Thirty rural students from the same school getting admitted to a JNV in the same district is a rare achievement. It’s a commendable academic performance,” P.T. Rudra Goud,Director of School Education, told The Hindu. He gave the credit of this achievement to a teacher, S. Sasi Kumar, who won the President’s Award in 2018.
Mr. Kumar said the school has now become synonymous with the Navodaya entrance. “Parents now mainly admit their wards in the school for getting an admission to Navodaya Vidyalaya. There is a heavy rush for the admission. Parents from financially and socially underprivileged sections in the nearby locality are keen on getting their wards admitted to the school,” he said.
Around 150 students from the school are now studying in the Kalapet campus. Mr. Kumar provides free additional coaching to students after school hours. Initiatives taken by the school, such as the provision for separate bathrooms for girls and boys, to get the Swachh Vidyalaya award had improved the overall ambience of its campus.
The school now boasts quality infrastructure, akin to many private schools in Puducherry. The previous Congress government had announced a cash award of ₹1 lakh to the school, when it received the Swachh award.
