Sans scholarships, Sainik School rises & shines again

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Kapurthala, September 8

It has been a fight against all odds for the students and staff of Sainik School in Kapurthala. Sans any disbursement of scholarship amount for the past two years, the school cadets have made a commendable achievement this time. As many as 15 cadets have cleared the entrance to National Defence Academy Khadakwasla this year, keeping the morale of the students and their parents up.

The selected cadets for NDA 136th and 137th courses for which entrance was held twice this year include –Harman Singh Bajwa, Tapeesh Gautam, Gurkamalpreet Singh, Jasnoor Singh, Kashish Suneja, Amritpal Singh, Ankit Alok, Rishav Chandel, Abhit Singh, Rohit Thakur, Akashdeep Singh, Harkirat Singh, Kartik Singh, Nidish Bains and Amit Shukla. Five of the selected cadets have their parents serving as teachers in the same school.

Group Capt Shakti Sharma, principal, Sainik School, Kapurthala, says, “It is a very proud moment for us. Our cadets have broken the 30 year old record of the school. One of our cadets was rejected medically after clearing Services Selection Board (SSB) interview and as many as four cadets are still in the process of appearing in the SSB interview and are expected to clear the same which could further raise the tally to 20.” Abhit Singh, a passout from the school, said, “I had appeared in the NDA in April but my final selection has been announced now. In the meantime, I had joined B.Tech in Computer Sciences at Chennai. Now that my NDA has got cleared, I will be able to complete only the first semester.”

Abhit’s father is SDO with BSNL and mother is serving as a teacher in government school at Amloh. He narrated his experience, “The Sainik School environment was completely different from other private schools. We had a morning preparation session from 6 am to 7 am, followed by school and another four hour round in the evening. Even after dinner, we kept studying past midnight”.

Kartik, another student, said, “I appeared for the entrance in April. SSB interview came in August and final recommendation came after medical clearance recently from Command Hospital Bangalore. I am yet to get my all-India rank. My inspiration also came from the campus. My dad Randhir Singh is geography teacher here. I will be the second in my family to join the armed forces as my grandfather has served as a Havildar.”

Mriginder Singh Bajwa and Harjinder Kaur, both parents of Harman Bajwa, are teachers on the same campus. “It cannot be a more satisfying for parents to see their son settled in a career at the age of 17. Seeing old boys on the campus, our son had been nurturing this dream since his childhood. The school has a big role to play,” they beamed, adding that their son had already left for his training.

Another proud parent, Paramjit Singh, who works as programme executive at All-India Radio, Jalandhar, said, “My son Jasnoor was in Harman’s batch. Since my wife Narinder Kaur is teaching English in campus, we are staying inside. The rigorous schedule that the children are made to follow on the campus and training in maintaining discipline has a big role to play in shaping the future of these children.”

Giving the credit of the achievement to the dedicated efforts of the staff, the principal also informed, “In the present session, 52 cadets will take NDA-II test this month. The school had made elaborate arrangements for preparing the cadets for the written test and the training for SSB interview would commence shortly. The school had been working relentlessly to provide all the facilities and required training for their entry to NDA.”

PROBLEMS GALORE

• Sainik Schools were established as a partnership between state and the Centre. While many state governments are taking keen interest in improving the existing infrastructure and setting up new schools, the Punjab govt is reportedly not.
• The government has not released the scholarship for 2014-15 and 2015-16 sessions, now even the subsequent batch has been inducted. 
• Further, there has been no revision in the scholarship amount which was revised more than 10 year ago. This has resulted in bright but poor students not joining the school for lack of funds. 
• Rs 1 cr grant after three years of demand for maintenance and repair of the existing structure. The school had projected a demand of Rs 3.5 crore. The PWD has, however, made an estimate of Rs 12 crore for the maintenance of the building.
• The school is housed in the more than 100 year old Jagatjit Palace and more than 50 year old hostels and other buildings. The tale of neglect by the state government doesn’t end here. 

NEXT SESSION ADMISSION SCHEDULE RELEASED

• The admission forms for admission to class VI and IX will be available in school office from October 17. All-Indian Sainik School Entrance Exam will be conducted on January 8.