What is life like for the first 6 girls ever to join a Sainik School?

NEW DELHI: Elizabeth Malsawmtluangi is doing what her father, Robert Lalthansanga, didn’t get an opportunity to do – preparing to join the armed forces. “I wanted to be an army officer, I could not. Now, I wanted at least one of my children to be an army officer,” said Lalthansanga, member of the Chhingchhip village council, in Mizoram.

Malsawmtluangi, 15, is one of the first six girls ever to join Sainik Schools as cadets. Conceived in 1961 by VK Krishna Menon, then union defence minister, Sainik Schools were exclusively for boys until 2018 when the six joined the new Sainik School Chhingchhhip, Mizoram, as “pilot project”. Seeing its success, the government decided to open admission to girl cadets in all 33 Sainik Schools across the country from the 2021-22 academic session and 312 girl cadets were admitted across the schools.

In another three years, the three will leave for the National Defence Academy (NDA) where, once again, they will be the first six women to train as cadets along with their male counterparts. They are Elizabeth Malsawmtluangi, Alicia Lalmuanpuii, Malsawnthari, Lalhmunghluii, Jurisa Chakma, Zonunpuii.

“We are not only students we are cadets also so I like to be addressed as a cadet. I want to work for my country,” said Zonunpuii, 14, and in Class 9 at the Mizoram school.

Also Read| https://news.careers360.com/nta-revises-sainik-school-result-2022-download-new-scorecard-at-aisseentanicin

Sainik Schools and girls

The government has big plans for the Sainik Schools. In March 2021, the minister of state for defence told Lok Sabha that the government is also planning to bring a new scheme for setting up Sainik Schools in the country in partnership with NGOs, private schools and state governments.

In January 2022, the defence minister, Rajnath Singh announced that the government has decided to set up 100 new Sainik schools.

Started in 2017 for boys only, the Sainik School Chhingchhip was the first in the chain to admit girls. Six girls were selected from among 22 applicants in 2018.

“This was a pilot project by the ministry to induct girl cadets in a Sainik school and this was the school which was chosen. The state government and the ministry of defence after consultation started this pilot project of inducting girl cadets in Sainik school”, Wing Commander Shahul Hameed, principal, Sainik School Chhingchhip told Careers360. A new school, it was already built to suit girls, meeting all infrastructural requirements.

At present there are 10 girls in all as two from the 2019 batch dropped out due to medical reasons. The small number meant that until early 2020, they didn’t have to share the bathrooms. “Life in the hostel was a little difficult initially since we missed home and parents. But now we miss hostel life,” said Malsawmtluangi.

The day starts at 5 a.m. and before breakfast there are military drills and chores. Classes begin at 8 a.m. and dinner is early – 7 p.m.

The girl cadets participate in sports activities, playing badminton every day. Then, every week, they play basketball and football, holding their own in mixed teams, including both boys and girls.

Also Read: UGC Plan: FYUP with major, minor courses, multiple exits, hybrid mode

Why Mizoram

One reason for choosing the Mizoram Sainik School was that there was less representation of students in the armed forces from Mizoram, according to Hameed. “We want to give students of Sainik school in this part of the country state-of-the-art infrastructure.”

The school presently has 300 students from Class 6 to Class 10, with 60 students in each class. The school is expected to expand to its full capacity of 420 students soon when classes start for the students of Classes 11 and 12, Hameed said.

Located at a distance of 78 kilometres from the state capital Aizawl, most of the students in the school, 67 percent, are from Mizoram. The remaining 33 percent come from neighbouring states as per the Sainik school guidelines. Ten percent of the seats in a class are reserved for girl cadets.

Also Read| COVID-19 and Edtech for Schools: The apps are here to stay

Writing the AISSEE

The students were very young, in Class 5, when they joined the Sainik School, and most of them can recall hearing their parents discussing how the entrance exam would be very tough and they would have to work hard to crack the exam in a very short period.

An All India Sainik School Entrance Examination (AISSEE) is conducted for admission to Sainik Schools, which follow the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum.

For Classes 6 and 9, admission is based on the candidates’ performance in the entrance exam. For Class 11, the basis of admission is marks scored in Class 10 board exams.

“I don’t remember much, only that my parents told me I have three days to prepare for the exam. So those three days I could sleep for three to four hours at night and the rest of the time, I was preparing from the sample question papers. My cousin sister who is now doing her BCom also did not sleep. She helped me a lot,” said Zonunpuii who was in Class five when she appeared for the exam.

Elizabeth Malsawnhuangi had a similar experience. “My father asked me to prepare for the exam and he helped me and I got selected. That is the best thing.” She continued: “I am a cadet and that gives an awesome feeling. I want to become an army officer and I am always ready to fight for my country when there is a need. But otherwise, I want to do administrative work.”

Zonunpuii aims to a be a military doctor. The elder of two siblings, she has a brother in Class 5 now but he will not be trying for admission to a Sainik School because the exam is very tough.

“My parents are the reason for me being in Sainik School. I have an elder brother and a younger sister. But my parents said I will only go to this school. I want to be an army officer,” said Malsawmthari whose father is a building contractor and her mother a nurse in a government hospital.

Covid and online classes

The students attended regular offline classes for two years. The teachers say they did not face any problem when they had to start classes online.

“All the cadets are very sincere and responded to the online classes well, with mostly 100 percent attendance. A few took off when they were not well or there were network or power-related issues,” said Vikas Choudhary who teaches sciences in the school.

All students had their own devices for online classes. “Initially the classes were conducted on Zoom, but later we shifted to Google Meet,” said Choudhary adding, “Assignments were given on WhatsApp and the corrected assignments too were shared through WhatsApp.”

These students are in Class 9 now. They are yet to be exposed to science laboratories. “It is not satisfying to introduce the students to experiments through YouTube videos, but what to do,” said Choudhary.

“We continue to have class every day from 8 am to 12.30 pm, but we are waiting to go back to school. We miss the sports activity and military exercises that we used to have every day,” said Zonunpuii.

Sainik school Chhingchhip will start functioning fully after the summer vacation when the school reopens in June said, Hameed. Until then, it is open for Class 10 students only and the girl cadets spoke from home.