E-Paper
Sainik School Rewa in spotlight as alumni scale new heights in armed forces
Vice Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi who will take over as the navy chief on April 30, is an alumnus of the Sainik School in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa town
NEW DELHI: The Sainik School in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa town is on a roll, with its alumni scaling new heights in the armed forces.
Vice Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi, who will take over as the navy chief on April 30, is an alumnus of the school set up in 1962 and the army’s vice chief Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi also attended the same school.
Dwivedi is the front-runner for the army chief’s post as he will be the senior-most officer in the service when General Manoj Pande retires on May 31. The government went by the seniority principle in appointing Tripathi as the navy chief.
Like several other Sainik Schools in the country, Rewa has produced a battery of high-ranking officials who have filled key roles in the armed forces, including Lieutenant Generals KT Parnaik (retd), AK Singh (retd), AT Parnaik, Vinod Bhatia (retd), Munish Sibal (retd), DS Chauhan (retd) and Sandeep Singh (retd), Vice Admirals Atul Kumar Jain (retd) and Dinesh Prabhakar (retd), and Air Marshal PK Roy (retd).
Sainik Schools were established in the 1960s under the Sainik Schools Society, which comes under the defence ministry, to prepare boys for entry into the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla. The schools have now begun admitting girls too, with the government opening new avenues for them including NDA.
Other Sainik Schools have also produced alumni who have risen to the top in the armed forces. For instance, former army chiefs Generals Deepak Kapoor and Dalbir Singh attended Sainik Schools in Kunjpura and Chittorgarh, respectively, and former Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha went to Sainik School, Purulia.
Also, India’s Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar went to Sainik School, Chittorgarh.
The performance of the existing 33 Sainik Schools led to the government expanding the scope of the model. The government has initiated a scheme for the creation of 100 more schools across the country in partnership with NGOs, state governments and private sector players working in the education sector.
The response to the scheme has been encouraging as more than 500 applications were received and scrutinised in the last two years, and approval has thus far been granted to 45 schools.
The school selection process includes an evaluation committee with the district magistrate as its chairperson, and an approval committee with joint secretary (Sainik Schools Society) as its chairperson, with the members including the secretary of the Central Board of Secondary Education.
