Development of Indigenous Students through KISS Model of Holistic Education: An Assessment

Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) is an educational institution which is only one of its kinds in the world. It offers free education along with free boarding and health care facilities to 40,000 indigenous children in its residential campus at Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. The Founder of KISS, Professor Dr. Achyutananda Samanta established this institution in 1993. Since its inception, the purpose of KISS has been to transform the lives of thousands of indigenous children through quality education. It believes in the holistic development of such children and there by the development of our society by inculcating critical social skills and life skills in them which are core to the curriculum. Thus, the scholastic as well as the co-scholastic activities formulated and transacted through the curriculum designed by KISS focus on the physical, psychological, intellectual, emotional and social well-being of the indigenous children. The basic objective of this paper is to present the KISS Model of Education for the holistic development of the indigenous children and make an assessment of its effectiveness. This paper is based on case study and observation methods. Qualitative analysis has been done to project the outcome of the KISS Model of Holistic Education. The institute has been imparting teaching through Mother-Tongue Based Multilingual Education, English Access Micro-Scholarship Program, Employability Training Program and many such programs to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals by keeping its mission towards zero-dropout education system and gender equality. Besides these, Life Skills Education, Art Integrated Education, Sports Integrated Education, and Vocational Education as highlighted in National Education Policy, 2020 are too imparted in KISS for developing the ideology of peace and harmony among indigenous children. Looking at the performance of the students in various fields, it can be concluded that KISS Model of Holistic Education is running successfully in making the lives of indigenous children meaningful and productive.