Regional (Junior) College

Podia is a quiet corner of Malkangiri, and that is where our junior college is set up. It’s a bit of a trek for some of the students who live in the more remote parts of the district, but they manage to make it here by bus or bicycle. The college building is a simple structure with a corrugated roof in some parts. When it rains hard, you can barely hear the teacher speaking because of the noise on the metal. We have a small field in the front where we hold the morning assembly. It’s a very local operation. Most of the staff live nearby, so we all know each other and the families of the students. We don't have the big facilities you see in the cities, but we have enough desks and blackboards to get the job done. The office is small and usually has a few parents sitting on the wooden benches waiting to talk about their children's progress. Life in Malkangiri moves at its own pace, and the college follows that. We deal with the usual things like keeping the water tank filled and making sure the fence stays up. It’s an honest place where kids come to finish their higher secondary education so they can maybe go off to a bigger town for work or more study later on. We just try to keep things running smoothly day by day without too much extra fuss.