Avinash Dongre’s family understands so little of what goes on at an Indian Institute of Technology that he tells them he is “completing Classes 13, 14, 15 and 16” at IIT-Delhi. The final-year BTech student has also given up attempting to explain to his family what exactly mechanical engineering is. He simplifies it, telling them he is studying “gaadi aur bike-wala engineering” – engineering of cars and motorcycles.
“They have no idea,” he said. “My people were more excited about my getting into a JNV” or Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya. Dongre comes from Solnapur in Maharashtra. Half the year, his parents farm a tiny plot of land in the village. The remaining six months are spent laying bricks in various parts of Paithan, about 11 km from their home.
Dongre narrowly avoided that fate. In 2007, his Class 5 teacher suggested that he take the admission test for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, a government residential school, in Aurangabad. He and nine other students from his Solnapur school sat for the test. He was the only one to get in. Having been coached for the engineering entrance test through a programme run by Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya and a non-government organisation, Dongre came to IIT-Delhi in 2014. He cleared the test on his first attempt.
Pankaj Sanodiya, from Kedarpur Khurd in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, and Satyajit Kumar from Dharamnagri in Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh also came from Navodayas to IIT-Delhi. Both are from farming families, although Satyajit Kumar’s father also paints signboards to supplement his income. Sanodiya is studying electrical engineering and Kumar, biotechnology. A year later, Akash Kumar, from Bihar Sharif in Nalanda, Bihar joined the mechanical engineering course.
Transforming lives
Since coaching its first batch of students for the all-India joint engineering entrance examination or JEE in 2009, the Navodaya Vidyalayas have sent 1,100 students to IITs and another 840 to the National Institutes of Technology. More than 800 students have graduated and are now employed. This year, 322 of the 378 students in the coaching programme have cleared the Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) conducted by the IITs.
It has transformed lives. Sai Sandeep Rangisetti, whose father is a cook with a catering company, can now think of buying a home in Kodad, Telangana. Rangisetti, a computer science graduate from IIT-Kharagpur, works with an online retail company in Bengaluru.
The itinerant lifestyle of his parents meant that Dongre’s younger sister was married off last year aged just 18, and there are wide gaps in his younger brother’s schooling. “Conditions at home were not [conducive] to education,” said Dongre. “But now things will change.”
How it started
The first two Navodayas were established in 1985-’86. Claiming more investment per child than any other type of public school in the country, education activists consider this system to be discriminatory. But they also cite their case as an example of what can be achieved with adequate funding. There are now close to 600 Navodayas. The schools admit students from private and government institutions, with a preference for rural children, through entrance tests at Class 6 – arguably a violation of the Right to Education Act, 2009, which forbids screening of any form in primary school – and Classes 9 and 11.
In 2007, the Dakshana Foundation, a charity with bases in California, US, and Pune, Maharashtra, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. They “pick the best after Class 10” through a test, move them to seven selected Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and coach them to take engineering entrance examinations through Classes 11 and 12, said Sharmila Pai, from the foundation. Dakshana sponsors the coaching and works with local partners who take care of both the regular science syllabus and special training for entrance tests.
Dongre, Satyajit Kumar and Sanodiya moved from their district Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas to one of the seven selected Navodayas in Bundi, Rajasthan. Akash Kumar went from Bihar to another one in Kottayam, Kerala. Mousumi Das went from Nadia, West Bengal, to Bengaluru. This year, she made it into a pre-preparatory course in an IIT on her second attempt but plans to take up a seat in a National Institute of Technology instead.
The 33% reservation for girls in Navodayas does not extend to the coaching programme. “In my senior’s batch, only five of 50 students were girls,” said Das of the Bengaluru class. “In my own batch, 11 out of 50.” There were none in Dongre’s. “Parents hesitate to send them far,” explained Das. “All the girls who were with me in primary school, for instance, are now married.”
Das, 19, who is visually-impaired, belongs to Debogram village in Nadia, West Bengal. Her father supplied veterinary medicines to the village till he fell ill from a nerve disorder.
About 45 students from the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya-Dakshana programme are at IIT-Delhi, estimates Akash Kumar. Since Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas draw students from private schools too, some have the resources to leave the Navodayas after Class 10 and go for private coaching, often in Kota. “You cannot do that while studying in a JNV [Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya],” explained Dongre. “Students are not allowed to step outside the campus.”
In Class 13
They take to campus life at the IITs without much difficulty. “We are used to staying in hostels,” said Rangisetti. They have been managing on their own since joining the residential Navodyas in Class 6. There is also a strong network of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas alumni who help ease every successive batch into the IIT system. Neither Pai of Dakshana nor any of the students could recall hearing of a Navodaya student dropping out of, or failing, an IIT.
While they are proud of their resilience and independence, some do struggle to keep their grades up, said the IIT-Delhi students. Facebook claimed most of their first year. “We suddenly had full access to the internet and wasted all our time,” said electrical engineering student Pankaj Sanodiya, laughing. They also struggle with English – the medium of instruction. “We did not get remedial classes because we cleared the English proficiency test,” said Sanodiya. But performance varies widely. “Most can maintain a grade of 7.5,” said Rangisetti.
They do not shy away from participating in cultural or sporting activities either. Satyajit Kumar played table-tennis and cricket and danced. Sanodiya, in the disabled category, played chess.
Indian Engineering Services
Having seen their children crack major public exams, parents have a touching faith in their ability to land on their feet. “My parents think that even if I do not get an offer during the placements, I will manage something,” said Akash Kumar.
Satyajit Kumar hopes to pursue an MBA degree next, but for most, securing employment takes priority. Akash Kumar and Dongre have taken loans – Kumar from the IIT branch of the State Bank of India, and Dongre from Pune-based charity Shree Bhagwan Rao Napate Foundation. Sanodiya has borrowed money from relatives. Although, these three students are from reserved categories and get more subsidies than general category students, even the cost of board and lodging is a burden.
They would like to follow in the footsteps of Navodaya alumnus T Ashok. The students have never met him but Satyajit Kumar confessed bashfully: “We see him as a hero.” Among the early beneficiaries of the programme, Ashok studied in IIT-Bombay, and apparently landed a job with a software multinational company in the US.
However, the group is sceptical about its own chances in job placements. These require more than academic credits – there are reports of shrinking opportunities for engineers and cost of engineering programmes is rising. Rangisetti’s own placement last year was deferred, leaving him anxious till January. Plus, they said that they would rather continue in their own fields than take coding jobs that typically come their way. Sanodiya and Dongre are both preparing to take the test for the Indian Engineering Services.
Meanwhile, their friends back home are getting married. One of Sanodiya’s friends tied the knot in May. “He does not have a job but is preparing for competitive exams,” said Sanodiya, laughing. “That is what villagers do – constantly write exams for banks, state administration. They do not know what they are signing up for. But [my friend] has a farm and occasionally drives a tractor.”
Sanodiya was just warming to the theme of villagers’ lack of options when Dongre gently reminded him: “We would have been doing that too if there was no Navodaya Vidyalaya.”