Education Institutions at and as HEART of the developmental endeavours for INDIA of the future

One of my dreams has been to settle in the hinterland of India (either in the mountains or by the sea side) amidst a verdant, ever green forest, running a school (preferably) that makes a huge difference to community in a small way, at the same time being the model school for the entire nation.

One of my dear friends from Career Launcher, Nishant Pant, has taken such a leap and we have been interacting on what such a school be like. This morning I got an email from Nishant and I just responded.. The kind of work he intends to do is so inspiring, I thought of blogging this interaction….. just to keep inspiring myself, and perhaps a few others too..

Dear Sir,

I am writing a bit late to you as I was in process of moving houses. However, if you remember the conversation we had the other day over telephone…sir I require a bit of your help in making the school here a ‘hot-bed’ for lively and lovely activities- in this context, if you could work your contacts through some celebrities (artists, dancers, writers, theater people) to visit and conduct some good workshops here…..

Sir, Haldwani is a typical moufussil town like many other towns in India, where the thing which sells is really an electrifying personality or a well-established name. To quote an example, people here might become very happy on meeting a Chetan Bhagat or a Virat Kohli. Someone, like an Amartya Sen or a Harsha Bhogle may not work, at least as a large ‘crowd-puller’.

In fact, I have for now put the idea of SPIC MACAY on the back-burner.

Looking forward to your reply.

Dear Nishant,

Glad to receive your mail. I am really excited about your vision. I am seriously planning to be there with family soon (whenever we get a 3 day weekend break), in oct/nov.

I suggest you look at making the school a hot bed of activities that no one else can imagine…A few random thoughts, visualizing what I will do when I head to mountains and establish a centre for development in the school.

Instead of getting heroes from outside (we will to enable to broaden our vision), we need to create heroes from within, especially those with a vision and also skill sets, unmatched. We will find them.

I am sure you can do these regular workshops yourself –

a. Workshops for parents and teachers – I can send you ppts on Multiple-Intelligence and how parents and families can help the children really blossom.

b. Workshops on science and maths, kabaadSeJugaad etc – pour through www.arvindguptatoys.com; you can see his other videos also

c. SPIC MACAY is a big hit in all rural areas with dancers doing lecdem, become a member of the SPICMACAY groups on FB you will get to know what all happening and you can seek. You can be the anchor to the entire Kumaon area and organize one in a quarter. It is a big puller.

d. Also you keep an eye on artists in the remote areas of Kumaon who are very good and create their workshops and even once in a month/quarter mela for them to come and share as well as sell their wares..
We can implement the idea of creating our school as a community centre for development, HEART (ref Prof. Srivathsan’s idea) of the real India –

H – Healthcare : At our school or nearby villages…co-opting a few doctors; a net-enabled centre…
E – Education : of course this will be the starting point for everything..
A – Agriculture : how tech can facilitate farmers; taking initiatives to help farmers produce better
R – Rural Development – igniting a few initiatives

T – Tourism and Artist – centre for enabling and facilitating

look at http://www.vigyanashram.com pabal creating a school to promote entrepreneurial mindset, transforming the whole district

Agastya foundation (http://www.agastya.org) doing remarkable work to promote sciences and maths among children and communities

There are many many more videos of these and also of many such initiatives, I think all these can come together in your vision of excellence and enablement.

You can create a model school for the whole of UTTARAKHAND.

Just think BIG. With the kind of focus Modi is bringing in, we can do a lot.

looking forward to more interactions..

Love and wishes.

I am blogging this interaction… very exciting and I am sure it will inspire many..