Gramin Shiksha Kendra

Gramin Shiksha Kendra was formed in 1995-96 after a series of initiatives undertaken in the area on forest management and conservation, livelihoods, people centric development and education by a group of development professionals working closely with the people. The experiences led the group to initiate GSK as an organization that would work on a long term plan in the area beginning with education and making the community more actively involved with the development processes in the area. Education and an improvement in the schools system was considered to be the most crucial input and GSK developed a strategy by which these could become the starting point for a change process in the area.

GSK believed that setting up good examples of what quality education should be was a starting point for helping communities understand what to aim for. The four schools set up since 2005 have demonstrated a system of education which is child centric, helps the children learn at their own pace, is relevant, has been able to equip them to be able to develop as confident young people. While the approach to teaching and learning has been different, the children have been able to perform well in the examination conducted by the state education board as well. The community has been closely observing the process and is now actively involved with the management of these schools. The four schools called Uday Pathshalas are based in Bodal and Faria in Khandar block and Jaganpura/Khava in Sawai Madhopur block of the district. Uday Urban is based in Sawai Madhopur town. Each of these schools is evolving as a ‘resource school’ in the local area wherein children and teachers of government schools have access to libraries, assistance in understanding educational concepts and will also soon have science laboratories. Our plan is to have one such resource school for around 25-30 government schools.

This has led GSK to extend its work to government schools in the area through an initiative called Vistaar which has been working to introduce improved class room processes, better management and active utilization of improved teaching and learning methodologies within the government schools. We have been working in close coordination with the district education department, the DIET and the school teachers. GSK is part of a steering group for this project which is chaired by the Collector of the district. The project is currently operational in 14 schools.