Odisha to construct extension buildings of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya

BERHAMPUR: The Odisha government has decided to construct the extension buildings of the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) with an investment of around Rs 15-crore in Ganjam district in order to to accommodate more girl students in the hostels, official sources said. Presently 17 KGBVs are functioning in different blocks of the district and each hostel is accommodating 100 girl students of Class 6 to 8.

The government has sanctioned the construction of the extension buildings of each hostel to accommodate 100 more girl students of Class 9 and 10, said district project coordinator, Samagra Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) Binita Senapati. The cost of each extension building was around Rs one crore, she said. "We have already floated a tender for construction of extension buildings of 15 out of 17 KGBVs in the district", she said. The new hostel buildings are expected to be completed in a year.

The construction of the new buildings in the KGBVs in Rangeilunda and Khallikote blocks faced land problems at present, she said. "While the new building design in the Khallikote block would be changed to construct the new hostel building, we are searching for the land in the nearby hostel of the KGBV in Rangeilunda block", she said.

The KGBV scheme was launched by the Central government with an aim to boost education among the girls, where they are being provided free residential education. The scheme was to benefit the school girls who are deprived of education and those who are in financial distress in rural areas and to arrest the school dropout among the girls.

However, with facilities being offered only till Class 8 in KGBVs, it was observed many girl students of poor families were dropping out for lack of adequate facilities after class 8. As a result, it has been decided to introduce the same residential facilities in the hostels of KGBVs to even girls enrolled in class 9 and 10 in the nearby schools from next year, sources said.

In some other states, including Uttar Pradesh, the hostel facilities in the KGBVs were extended to the girl students from Class 8 to 12, sources added.

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