Balangir District - Education

Education

During medieval period some Brahmin settlements developed under the patronage of the Somavamsi Kings. Important among these centres are Vineetapura (Modern Binka), Suvarnapura (Modern Sonepur), Royara (Modern Rohila), Ranipur, Jharial etc. These places as known from copper plate records and other archeological finds, were important center of culture during the medieval period. During the rule of the Chauhan Kings, Sanskrit education was greatly encouraged. King Vaijal Deo, one of the early Chauhan rulers of Patna state has compiled an admirable lexicon, known as Vaijal Chandrika ( also known as Prabodh Chandrika)

The spread of education was not very remarkable in Balangir district during the 18th and 19th century. Wandering teachers called Abadhanas were holding primary classes in towns and villages where they were teaching only reading, writing and arithmetic. The village Pathsalas were maintained by villagers where the Abadhanas were bing engaged for teaching. Western education came to the dist towards the end of the 19th century AD. It was in 1894 that an English School was started in Balangir Town by the then Maharaja Ramachandra and English education was introduced.

During India's independence Balangir district had 39 High Schools for boys and 4 for girls and 119 Middle English Schools including 11 for girls .The total number of boys and girls in Secondary schools was 11,906 and 1,550 respectively.