Vikalp Gyan Kendra
l Home l About Founder l Resignation l Political Agenda l Donate l Contact Us l
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
We,
at Vikalp Trust, have embarked on the task of providing ‘Cultural values to the
children, employment to the youth and high-technology low-cost production
technology to the farmers’. We intend to direct the village society
towards a holistic development through proper education, a change of
attitude, promotion of organic farming and developing a sense of togetherness.
Working
towards this end, Vikalp Trust has undertaken to establish a chain of ‘Vikalp
Gyan Kendras’ in villages which would be CBSE pattern mixed-medium
co-educational schools, operated in coordination with Vikalp Dairy and Vikalp
Organic Farms, providing education to village students comparable to that of
the urban public and English schools, and at the same time, being different in
following respects:
-
The students will be given the best of modern education, at the same time keeping them firmly rooted to their culture. In them, due respectability will be developed for their culture and traditions, for the village institutions, and for the local skills and the national characters.
-
The education will mean much more than mere degrees. The courses will be designed to develop proper vision in the child and to discover their genius and enhance the same. The students will be imparted such skills, suiting the society and their personal interests, as may enable them to be a worthwhile and respectable contributor to the society, through self-employment, even if they have to dropout at any stage of education.
-
The students will be provided free study-materials and stationary up to Class VIII and there would not be any provision for home-work. All the study material will remain with the school.
-
Necessary means will be provided for proper personality development through quality entertainment and recreation, sports and physical training, self-defense training, language sessions, development of hobbies etc. as per their individual interests. The motive will be to develop better citizens instead of manufacturing stereotypes.
-
The wards of the poorest will be enabled to study by provision of compensatory labour or employment or barter through Vikalp Dairy and Vikalp Organic Farms.
-
New optional subjects will be taught, e.g. non-conventional energy, veterinary science, diseases and their prevention or cure, agriculture, plant nursery, accounting and banking, government administration and law, etc.
-
There would be a scheme of career advancement for the teachers, not only in terms of salary but also academically, so that they may take teaching in Vikalp Vidyalayas as a career and not merely as a time-pass. They will be associated with other programs as well like adult education, community development and other social programs.
These will be done by designing appropriate
syllabus, providing appropriate training and associating the schools with the
village society, as closely as possible, drawing it’s resources from the
society and giving it back with added value.
These Vikalp Gyan Kendras will be developed as Community
Development Centers for the surrounding villages, operating after school
hours, on following lines:
-
Providing healthy and educative entertainment through provision of DTH television and internet.
-
Promoting optimum utilization of government welfare schemes through education of prospective beneficiaries and coordination with government agencies.
-
Promoting awareness of relevant new technologies, e–krishi choupal, organic farming etc.
-
Promotion and upgradation of local handicrafts and rural cottage industries
Vikalp
Dairy and Vikalp Organic Farms
will be developed in coordination with Vikalp Gyan Kendras through integrated
approach for optimum utilization of available resources. Following
programs will be promoted:
-
Farming through completely organic means i.e. using organic manure, organic pesticides and herbicides.
-
Latest technologies will be adopted in consultation with agricultural scientists who will also be enjoined to educate the farmers about these technologies.
-
Use of non-conventional energy will be promoted. Special emphasis will be given to multifarious use of bio-gas.
-
High-return farming of medicinal and aromatic herbs will be done.
-
Floriculture, sericulture, apiculture, fisheries etc. will also be done with an integrated approach.
-
The waste of dairy and other associated activities like floriculture, sericulture and apiculture will provide inputs for the organic farm.
-
Integrated water management including rain harvesting and micro-irrigation.
These farms will serve as models for farmers to
learn and adopt. Also, efforts will be made to educate the farmers towards
co-operative farming.
These efforts, carried out with determination,
cooperation and strength, have the incipient capacity of converting the
villages into nuclei of development. This socio-economic development of
villages may have far reaching implications like:
-
Overall development of country as our economy is agriculture based.
-
More of the population will contribute to the productive pool. With only a tiny fraction of population getting worthwhile education, we have achieved a good position in the world scenario; can we imagine our position with 70% of the population getting quality education ?
-
Migration towards cities may cease with development of villages.
-
Economic strengthening of villages may lead to mitigation of social evils, crime, and may promote equality in social status of women.
We
intend to proceed towards this end through these gyan kendras in the districts
of Varanasi and Chandauli. We hope that these gyan kendras may serve as a
model for other agencies to come forward and together we may be able to
propagate them to whole of India.