Bidadi, November 14, 2019: In line with its mission to support and enrich neighbouring communities through sustainable solutions, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, today, inaugurated the newly constructed Government Model Higher Primary School at Bidadi. Equipped with modern facilities, the school will benefit the school children thereby, creating a wholesome environment for the overall growth of the students, ensuring improvement in the standard of their learning experience.

The refurbished Government Model Higher Primary School was inaugurated by Mr. A Manjunath, Hon’ble MLA, Magadi Constituency, Mr. C M Lingappa MLC, Mr. Basappa President Zilla Panchayat Ramanagara, Mr. Ganakal Nataraj President Taluk Panchayat Ramanagara, Mr.  Somashekaraiha, Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI Education), Takuya Nakanishi – Senior Vice President TKM, Mr. Naveen Soni, Vice President, Toyota Kirloskar Motor along with other Town Municipal Corporation Officials and elected representatives.

Built post-independence, the Government Model Higher Primary School at Bidadi has around 260 school children, providing education to students studying from Standard I to VIII. However, due to its dilapidated condition, the school was under-utilized and not able to provide required facilities to school children in the community.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor took up this project, under its CSR initiative and restored the school infrastructure at a grass root level. The school now is upgraded and equipped with modern facilities including: six new classrooms with restored furniture, computer room, laboratory, sports room, toilets for students, kitchen, dining hall, and a library. This upgradation of the Government School will benefit a larger number of school children in the community and help them avail advanced facilities at the school.

Commending TKM on its relentless efforts towards the betterment of the society, Mr. A Manjunath, Hon'ble MLA, Magadi Constituency said, “Development of rural education plays an important role in economic and social betterment of the people. We are glad that responsible corporates like TKM have been consistently working towards ensuring quality school infrastructure in rural Karnataka.  Earlier the school was in a dilapidated condition and students and staff were scared to sit inside the classrooms. We hope more such organizations will come up to work together in bridging the gap in rural education system. Such initiatives will definitely help in bringing up the literacy rate by encouraging more and more parents to send their children to schools. With the dedicated support from TKM we hope will be able to bring about a positive transformation by providing holistic solutions for quality education “

Inaugurating the upgraded Government Model Higher Primary School, Mr. Naveen Soni, Vice President, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “Quality infrastructure and quality teachers have a huge impact on the learning outcomes and consequently, the retention of children in schools.  Lack of clean, safe, accessible and adequate school infrastructure have been responsible for increasing school dropouts in Rural India. The need of the hour is to create a safer and comfortable learning experience for the school children.”

He further added, “ Education is the premise for any country’s progress and as a responsible corporate citizen, over the years, we have been working with Government to upgrade school building with functional toilets, provide learning aids, engage with teachers for their skill enhancement to build a conducive environment. Aligned with our commitment to improve education for the underprivileged in the community, we hope the upgraded Government School will help foster better learning for the school children to learn and grow, and be the change makers for tomorrow.”

Toyota Kirloskar Motor, over the years, has initiated several projects to accelerate access to quality education in Karnataka. Recently, the company distributed school supply kit consisting of bags, books, geometry box’s, drawing books and crayons to 24,500 students across first to tenth grades in Government schools at Ramanagara district. Toyota also initiated school health programme to address the malnutrition, anaemia and eye problems of government school children in Ramnagara district. With this project, TKM is aiming to cover around 10,000 school children.

 As part of its CSR intervention and supporting Government of India’s “Swachh Bharat Mission”, TKM introduced Project ABCD (A Behavioural Change through Demonstration) in 2015, covering 58,518 children in 1004 schools at Ramanagara district (Karnataka) to improve public health and sanitation in villages. Project ABCD has been significantly contributing to the Government’s Sustainable Development Goal of ending open defecation in India.  

This program impacted the children to motivate the parents to construct toilets at the homes.  Total 12634 household toilets have been constructed since last 4 years. All children of 687 schools under ABCD program have 100% sanitation facilities at home.

 Toyota remains committed to bring in more enriching and sustainable CSR projects for the holistic development of the community members, thus effectively contributing to the underlying cause of positive societal development and bring in a change towards transformation of the larger community.