How Odisha's 5T campaign is changing the state's school system

Hunched over a keyboard, 14-year-old Aryan Tarai, in a race against time, is muttering under his breath. It is a Friday morning, and headphones muffled to his ears, he is perched on the edge of his seat inside the computer laboratory of the Puri Zilla school, the oldest and largest government school in the temple district.

- Debabrata Mohanty

Around him, are 12 other students, peering into desktop computers, eyes dilated in an intense focus. Almost frantic, he punches the keyboard and clicks on the mouse furiously, attempting to drag the icon of a cat across the blue background on his screen. There are 20 minutes left for the period to end, and the task ahead of Tarai is to build a videogame called "Making your cat fly" using Scratch - a free, block-based coding language that can create digital stories, games and animation.

"The class is going to end soon, and I have to finish this," Tarai says, through gritted teeth. Next to him, Jnanapragyan Grahacharya, a year older and in a grade senior, peeps over to offer some advice. Hovering around them, is mathematics teacher Swagatika Pradhan. "For most students in classes 9 and 10, this computer class is the most sought-after. They would all be very happy to just sit here and code away even if two periods are devoted to the subject," Pradhan laughs.

In another classroom a few feet away, a second mathematics teacher Rojalin Priyadarshini looks on as a student solves a problem on a smartboard, powered by broadband, installed two years ago. He uses a digital pen, and draws up the 3D model of a cube. It wouldn't do for the stern mask to slip in front of her students, but Priyadarshini is quietly pleased. "The smartboard had helped me to get the students to understand mathematical concepts visually. It has completely changed the way I teach," says Priyadarshini.

Built in 1853, and with a current 1,650 students from classes from 1 to 10, the Puri Zilla school has a lasting legacy in Odisha's education story. It is this pastel green-and-white coloured building in the bustling station bazaar locality from where social activist and first Odisha Congress president Gopabandhu Das, teacher renowned Acharya Harihar. and philosopher Pandit Nilakantha all emerged.