The newly released Malayalam movie, ‘Edakkad battalion 06’ is getting a decent response in the theatres. There is a scene in the movie that has grabbed more public attention than the movie itself; a scene in which the bride’s father is inviting guests to the resort, in Karaparamba, for the wedding party. The people nearby Kozhikode district of Kerala would have been surprised to hear about a resort in Karaparamba!
In fact, the resort which was portrayed in the movie is in Karaparamba itself, but it is neither a wedding resort nor a five-star resort, that the Congress has rented out to save their MLA’s from being bought by BJP.
Surprisingly, the building which acted as the resort, is the Government higher secondary school in Karaparamba, Kozhikode. It didn’t take much time and effort for the art director to transform the newly constructed building of the school into a resort, which has been rebuilt by the state government at a cost of 12 crores.
The 112-year old school, which was on the verge of closedown, was renovated under the aegis of an initiative called PRISM, ( Promoting Regional Schools to International Standards through Multiple Interventions) led by A. Pradeep Kumar, MLA. The Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Nadakkavu, which was transformed through the same initiative, had earned widespread attention earlier.
With a dilapidated building, the school was on the verge of closing down, before the steps to renovate the same began. Twelve years ago, the school had merely 90 students; this number used to be much over five hundred in the past.
With the recent dramatic turnaround in the basic infrastructure and quality of education, there are now more than 700 students in the school.
The government school is well equipped with smart classrooms, a two-storey library, indoor court, basketball court, reception lounge, amphitheatre, multi-purpose hall, open stage, modern labs, an industrial kitchen, and a brand new toilet complex. The power required for the school is generated in-house, with the 30 KV solar panels installed on the rooftops. The school also hosts a rainwater harvesting system, which has the capacity to store up to 50,000 litres of water. There is an incinerator to dispose of used sanitary napkins and purpose-built plants to treat other sorts of waste. As per the project coordinator, the entire renovation activities were done by following a green protocol. It is the state’s first school with a green campus.
These kinds of efforts have led approximately 2.35 lakh students to shift from unaided, (private) schools to public schools in the state, for the past two years, eventually setting up yet another ‘Kerala model’ in terms of high-tech education.