ENARADA, Hyderabad, December 6, 2015
By Guruprasad
The tribal and underprivileged students in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh can soon dream of a world-class education.
The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), one of the world’s largest tribal schools is all set to make its foray into the Telugu speaking states at the earliest, according to its founder Dr Achyuta Samanta.
Addressing a press conference at Hyderabad on the sidelines of the KIIT alumni meet on Sunday, Dr Samanta said, “I will soon meet Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekara Rao seeking support to set up KISS on the outskirts of Hyderabad so that around 1,000 kids can get world-class education from class one to 12. As for as Andhra Pradesh was considered, I had the privilege of meeting N Chandrababu Naidu earlier who had appreciated the KISS efforts. As of now, I have written to Mr Naidu seeking his appointment for which he responded positively. So, we hope to set up schools in the twin states soon. With this, KISS is moving ahead with the roadmap of setting up a school in every state of the country and every district of Odisha.”
Dr Samanta recalled as to how many wonder the secret behind successful models like KISS? “I can stress that anyone can create a university like KIIT but not KISS. It needs crores of rupees to set up a free school like KISS. However, I never take a single pie from any of the kids. This has been possible only due to my passion. I am a bachelor and my only motto in life is poverty alleviation through education. This model has been upheld by United Nations as the most successful model,” Dr Samanta said adding that it was time for the corporates to follow Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who had announced of donating 99 per cent of its fortunes for charity.
KISS bowls over CMs
The KISS model has bowled many Chief Ministers across the country. “The recent example was Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Singh Yadav who came in a special charter flight just to visit KISS campus in Bhubaneswar and spent a night with tribal kids and offered support to set up a similar school in Lucknow. Similarly, when I met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recently, he was surprised with my offer of starting a free school for the underprivileged/tribal kids. Mr Kumar said he has been getting offers from entrepreneurs for setting up only international schools for elite students. However, he had never got an offer to set up a world class tribal school that too for offering free education,” Dr Samanta recalled in the Hyderabad press conference adding that Jharkhand Chief Minister has also assured of providing 30 acres of land near Ranchi for setting up the KISS school. The KISS school in Delhi offers free residential school for 1,000 kids in Delhi while 25,000 indigenous students are being trained at KISS campus in Bhubaneswar.
Sir I want school children’s application