Lifetime Achievement in Education Leadership: Achyuta Samanta

Having born in Kalarabank, a remote village in the Cuttack district of Odisha, Samanta was one of the six children of an employee at a steel plant. Samanta, along with his siblings experienced acute poverty after his father died in a train accident in 1970. In his interview to EducationWorld that published a cover story on KISS/KIIT in April 2012, Samanta said, “It had become a routine for us in those difficult times to have one square meal in a couple of days. My mother did not have a second saree to change into after having a bath at the village river.”

Continuing his education at the village school, Samanta went on to earn a scholarship to the SCS College in Puri in 1984. During the course of his study, Dr. Achyuta Samanta also supported himself by delivering private tuitions. His self-studying of 18 hours every day while surviving on Rs. 200 per month, reaped results in 1987 when he got a Masters in Chemistry from the Utkal University. This accomplishment landed him the job of a lecturer at D.K. College in Jaleswar. After contributing to the college for a duration of 4 years from 1987 to 1991, Samanta moved on to Maharishi College, Bhubaneswar. In 1993, despite suffering societal indifference and public ridicule, Samanta started promoting KISS or Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences. Since that time, KISS has successfully graduated 3, 248 Class X and 2, 241 Class XII tribal children, thus transforming Eastern India and more importantly Odisha into one of the fast-track industrial regions and states in India.

              

Samanta started promoting KIIT or Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in 1992 and the university introduced its first undergraduate programme in 1997. Since then, the institute has laid the foundation of 23 professional education schools that offer courses in medical, nursing, dental, law, business management, rural management, fashion, film and media sciences, spiritualism, yoga and bio-technology. Currently, the KIIT boasts of 1, 200 faculty members and 2, 300 support staff offering their services to more than 15, 250 students. The KIIT also features 19 world-class campuses spread over a built-up area of 8 million square feet, covering 350 acres of land across Bhubaneswar.

KIIT ranks among the top 100 non-IIT engineering colleges in India and has contributed 11, 957 graduates, 7, 914 postgraduates and 61 doctorates to the Indian society. KISS that offers free of cost undergraduate and K-XII education to 15, 000 first generation students speaking 30 tribal dialects, is an even greater achievement of Dr. Achyuta Samanta. Featuring a 50 kw solar power unit; fully mechanized kitchen that serves 45, 000 meals every day in a dining hall with a seating capacity of 10, 000 and an RO water filtration system that supplies 100, 000 litres of potable water regularly, KISS is the largest boarding school in the world. It covers a built-up area of 600, 000 square feet with 15, 000 students residing in its 10 dormitories well-equipped with 11, 000 2-tier and 3-tier beds along with 800 toilets and 800 shower-bathrooms.

For such amazing contributions towards the upliftment of Indian education and the tribal children, Dr. Achyuta Samanta has been presented the Lifetime Achievement in Education Leadership 2013 Award by the Board of Directors and Editors of Education World.