E-Paper
5 UP Sainik School girl cadets conquer NDA challenge
The training of these five girl cadets-- Hansi Malik, Priyanka, Sanskrti Sharma, Vaishnavi Tripathi and Jyotsna Yadav, selected by SSB from UP Sainik School Lucknow, will commence shortly
Cadet Priyanka, 17, from Bulandshahr, had joined UP Sainik School 4 years back with a dream to join the armed forces. Hard work and training in communication and reasoning skills and proper focus on the subjects helped her crack the NDA exam.
Priyanka is among the five girl cadets from UP Sainik School, Lucknow who have been selected by the Services Selection Board to join the elite National Defence Academy (NDA).
The training of these five girl cadets-- Hansi Malik, Priyanka, Sanskrti Sharma, Vaishnavi Tripathi and Jyotsna Yadav, selected by SSB from UP Sainik School Lucknow, will commence shortly. Apart from these girl cadets, equal number of male cadets too cleared the exam but the spotlight was on girl cadets.
“This is one of the highest ever selection of girls from a single school,” said an elated Colonel Rajesh Raghav, the school principal.
“It is a rare achievement as five girls and five boys of the Captain Manoj Pandey UP Sainik School have brought laurels to the institution. They were motivated to work on a plethora of areas, like, general knowledge, communication and reasoning skills and a thorough understanding of the selection mechanism,” he said.
Cadet Priyanka said, “SSB capsule module was especially designed for us. Experts were called to train us. Special classes were held during summer vacations for the entire batch of class 12. A number of guides were called from time to time. Regular tests and interviews combined helped us crack the exam.”
Her father Subedar Vijay Kumar is posted in Leh while her mother Krishna Devi is a housewife. It has been a total life changing moment for Priyanka who had stayed with her father for 7 years when he was posted in Kapoorthala, Punjab and also at Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
Of the 27 female seats in NDA, five were bagged by girl cadets of UP Sainik School, comprising an impressive 18.5% of the total selection.
UP Sainik School opened its gates for the girl cadets in 2018 losing its all-boys institution tag as 15 girl cadets were admitted for the first time in 57 years.
Since then, it is the first time that as many as 5 girl cadets cracked the exam. UP Sainik School was the first among Sainik Schools and military schools that had allowed enrolment of girl cadets.
Cadet Hansi Malik is from Meerut. She is happy that her dream to wear a uniform will soon become a reality. “My day started with 5:45 am roll call for physical training and ended with a night roll call at hostel at 9 pm. It has been a huge transition,” she said.
Cadet Sanskriti Sharma and Vaishnavi Tripathi also said it was a life changing experience when they got admission here. It was all a very disciplined and measured lifestyle that cadets follow at Sainik School. The lessons learnt here will stay with us for life, they said.
The five boys who cleared the test are-- Sachin Gupta, Vatsal Gangwar, Bhavesh Saini, Ritik Kumar and Ajeet Pratap Singh.
Lt Gen Raj Shukla (retired), a member of UPSC and alumni of UP Sainik School said that the institution has contributed immensely to shaping the life of cadets. Lt Gen Vishnu Kant Chaturvedi (retired) army men and alumni of Sainik School said it is an outstanding achievement. He was there between 1962-67 before joining NDA.
Sudhir Tyagi, president and Amit Jaiswal, secretary of the old boys’ association of the school, said that it was a huge achievement for the college that happened largely due to the effort of the principal and state government who worked hard with the girl cadets. It did not happen overnight as a lot of effort had gone into it.
“In all 10 out of 40 students of class 12, which is 25% have made through the selection process.” the principal said. He added students were identified through a rigorous in-house process to ascertain their potential.
“This achievement will act as a catalyst for the other students to strive hard to join the Armed Forces,” he said.
