Everything you wanted to know about ‘Ekal Vidyalaya’
What is Ekal Vidyalaya?
Ekal Vidyalaya is a movement involved in integrated & holistic development of rural & tribal India. The main activity undertaken in this movement is to run one-teacher schools (known as ‘Ekal Vidyalayas’) all over India, in the remotest rural & tribal villages to take the education to every child.
The Ekal movement aims to help eradicate illiteracy from rural and tribal India following the philosophy of rural development based on the criteria of equality & inclusiveness across all the sections of the society.
Ekal is now the largest grassroots level non-governmental education & development movement that operates in the remote villages of India.
Ekal Vidyalaya is primarily supported by individuals which perhaps makes it a largest individual donation based movement in the world.
Here are a couple of videos which deliver an excellent introduction to the Ekal Vidyalaya movement in Hindi:
And here are couple of videos, in English, which share more on Ekal’s purpose and success:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAouGIi0Ro4
What has been their reach thus far?
Ekal runs nearly 52,000 schools reaching over 15,00,000 (15 Lakh or 1.5 million) children within the ages 6–14 across approximately 52,000 villages across India.
What does it cost for Ekal to run an Ekal school?
To run a single Ekal school for one year, it costs around INR 20,000, the equivalent of US $365 per year or US $1 per day. This includes teacher’s honorarium, classroom materials, books for students, and supporting administrative costs.
Utilisation of INR 20,000 for one year to operate one Ekal school:
- 60% teacher honorarium
- 27% training & capacity building of teachers & volunteers
- 4% teaching materials
- 9 % administrative and other
Since Ekal relies on the self-motivation of teachers driven by the spirit of volunteerism rather than monetary incentives. The teacher honourarium is called “Maan-Dhan” — literally translated as ‘Respect-Money’. 60% of Rs.20,000 which is spent as honourarium for teachers translates to Rs.12,000 per annum or Rs.1000 per month. Teachers are motivated by the respect they get from the village community for running an Ekal school than having monetary incentives to teach children.
Ekal Vidyalayas follow an informal way of teaching and do not need any fix infrastructure or building. The Vidyalaya conducts its activities from any common place available in the village, even under trees, and therefore the spend on infrastructure is very limited.
How does Ekal raise money to run these schools?
Ekal funds are raised from three main sources — Individual donors from Urban India, well-wishers and patronages of Ekal movement living outside India across different countries and funds under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds from corporations.
Do village communities fund their own Ekal schools as well?
Yes. It takes between 5–8 years for a school to reach full self-sufficiency — which means that the families in the villages and nearby small towns can raise all of INR 20,000 necessary to fund their Ekal School each year. It is heartening to note that 16% of schools were partially or fully self-sufficient in year 2015.
Can i support one school? Can i see the progress of the school myself?
Yes. Donor who support an Ekal school get direct access to that village thereby creating a direct link between the donor families with the village where Ekal School is operating.
What is the minimum amount i must donate?
Ekal only asks for Rs.20,000 per school. Ekal requires you to make a commitment of atleast 3 years, as it requires that much time to begin a new school and stabilize its functioning.
You can ofcourse donate any amount as well. This Ekal deposits as ‘Fixed Deposits’ in its bank and uses the interest income to run Ekal schools and related projects.
Which all states does Ekal run its schools in?
<coming soon>
Are there testimonials for Ekal’s success?
Yes. Here are some videos, including that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi applauding the efforts and impact of Ekal Vidyalays.
Are there any 3rd party audits or certifications or reports of Ekal’s work and grassroots impact?
<coming soon>
Who is the current management team of Ekal?
The Ekal Global team is headed by Dr. Subhash Chandra, Founder and Chairman of Zee Entertainment.
What is Srijan Foundation’s role in Ekal?
Srijan Foundation Trust is a registered non-profit that runs projects focussed on economic and spiritual revitalization of India and its ancient civilization. Srijan Foundation has no formal role in Ekal. It, via its trustees and volunteers, only supports Ekal in its mission and goals to reach 100,000 schools. Srijan Foundation has been running similar non-formal schools in New Delhi (KishanGarh village) and earlier in two villages in Odisha (in Puri distt). In Ekal, the trustees of Srijan Foundation find the necessary scale and momentum to make a large-scale impact; instead of running its own non-formal schools across the country, supporting Ekal and making it succeed, is the better option which promises to deliver maximum results.
