New Delhi / Odisha, Aug 05: Omkar Gadi Foundation, a Basudevpur-based non-profit foundation established by Best Power Equipments Group(https://bpee.com), working across education, healthcare and community development in Bhadrak district of Odisha, today announced that children from its Community Learning Centres have secured admission into some of the state’s most competitive residential schools, including Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya (OAV), Ekalavya Model Residential School (EMRS), Kalinga Model Residential School (KMRS) and SSD Residential Girls’ High School. Run in partnership with the Klorofeel Foundation since April 2025, the centres provide government school students in the Arandua and Binayakpur Gram Panchayats of Basudevpur Block with structured after-school academic support specifically designed to close foundational learning gaps that continue to affect children across rural India.
The scale of what these children have overcome becomes clear against the national picture. A policy report released by NITI Aayog in May 2026, drawing on the government’s latest school data including UDISE Plus 2024-25 and Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), found that India’s school infrastructure has improved sharply over the past decade even as learning outcomes have not kept pace. More than three in four Class 3 students in rural India still cannot read a Class 2-level text, and roughly two in three struggle with basic arithmetic, according to the same underlying data. The report also notes that national enrolment in government schools has slipped to just over 49 per cent, down from 71 per cent two decades ago, as more families turn to private schooling in search of better outcomes. That trend raises the stakes for community-led interventions that work within the government school system rather than around it.
Odisha has posted one of the sharpest post-pandemic recoveries in the country on foundational reading, with government school reading levels climbing by around 10 percentage points between 2022 and 2024, yet its rural classrooms continue to work against thin teacher support and the same infrastructure constraints seen nationally. Against this backdrop, children from two Gram Panchayats in Bhadrak have not just kept pace; they have competed for, and won, seats in institutions that draw applicants from across Odisha.
“I have sat in these Community Learning Centres and watched a child who once struggled to read her own textbook go on to clear an EMRS entrance exam. We didn’t set out to build a coaching centre; we set out to build confidence. Once a child believes she belongs in that classroom, the results follow, and that is what we intend to keep investing in, village after village.”
Suryasikha Satpathy, Director, Best Power Equipments, and Trustee, Omkar Gadi Foundation
Since April 1, 2025, the Community Learning Centres have delivered supplementary instruction in foundational literacy, numeracy, problem-solving and critical thinking, led by trained local facilitators outside regular school hours. The model pairs small-group, personalised coaching with activity-based, learner-centric teaching, using quizzes, projects and hands-on exercises in place of rote learning. Students preparing for the OAV, EMRS, KMRS and SSD entrance examinations receive dedicated coaching through mock tests, practice papers and doubt-clearing sessions, backed by continuous facilitator training, regular assessment, remedial support and active parental engagement that carries the learning environment into the home.
Klorofeel Foundation, an education-focused non-profit, brings expertise in pedagogy, teacher capacity building and educational research to the partnership, while Omkar Gadi Foundation contributes community trust, on-the-ground infrastructure and a broader development mandate that includes health awareness camps, livelihood support and community welfare programmes in Basudevpur. The two organisations describe the collaboration as a replicable model for how community-based and education-focused non-profits can jointly address rural learning poverty, one Gram Panchayat at a time.
Siba Prasad Satpathy, CEO, Omkar Gadi Foundation, said the results reflect years of groundwork rather than a single season of coaching.
“The data tells us where the problem is. But it is the child sitting in a Community Learning Centre after school hours, working through a worksheet with a facilitator who knows her by name, who tells us the solution is working.”
Siba Prasad Satpathy, CEO, Omkar Gadi Foundation
With its first cohort of successful admissions now enrolled in residential schools, Omkar Gadi Foundation and Klorofeel Foundation plan to expand the Community Learning Centre model to additional Gram Panchayats within Basudevpur Block, while deepening facilitator training and parental engagement in existing centres. Both organisations describe the initiative as a long-term commitment rather than a one-time success story, aimed at ensuring that a child’s postal address in rural Odisha no longer determines the ceiling on their education.
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