Musings from the Field

Whole of the last month I spent in our field areas in districts of Khandwa, Dewas, and Chhindwara. I along with my companions, conducted 26 village community meetings and visited and surveyed many more tribal villages where we will set up more Seva Kutirs. We also surveyed the infrastructure of a number of govt residential schools like Kanya Shiksha Parisars and Eklavya schools in MP where the per student cost come to a mind boggling 1.04 lac per annum (we have been running 24*7 365 day residential institutions in Bengal at one-third of these costs. The huge difference is mainly because of remuneration levels in the govt institutions. But on the whole it is great to see govt investing in education in tribal areas. The Eklavya and KSPs have the potential to become the equivalent of JNVs (Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya) that are without doubt the best example of quality delivery in school education in govt system. The KGBVs (Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas), residential schools for girls in select backward pockets, which too have been in existence for a while, can raise their levels much further.