Jammu and Kashmir to Implement Kerala’s ‘Nadakkavu’ Model for Modernizing Government Schools in Thiruvananthapuram

The Jammu and Kashmir government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Faizal and Shabna Foundation, a Kozhikode-based organization that introduced the ‘Nadakkavu model’ of modernizing government schools. The Nadakkavu model has been adopted by over 1,200 government schools mainly in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, as well as a few schools in West Africa. Under the agreement, the Foundation will provide funding for the project and take responsibility for its implementation, including the holistic development of the school. The model will first be introduced in the Government Higher Secondary School for Girls in Kothibagh, Srinagar, with the goal of establishing the school as a center of educational excellence that can serve as a blueprint for other schools throughout Jammu & Kashmir. The Faizal and Shabana Foundation was founded in 2007 by a UAE-based Keralite industrialist couple, Faizal E Kottikollon and his wife Shabana Faizal. The couple modernized the infrastructure and uplifted the educational standard of the 130-year-old Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for Girls at Nadakkavu in Kozhikode district in 2013, spending Rs 20 crore. The Foundation aims to promote ordinary schools to international standards through multiple interventions, including building leadership qualities among teachers and skill development among students, community enhancement, and linking students to Centers of Academic Excellence.