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Interview Sanskar is the essence of education ?Shyam Gupta, Yojana Pramukh, Ekal Vidyalaya Shyam Gupta, Joint General Secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Yojana Pramukh of the Ekal Vidyalaya movement, told Organiser that by the end of 2011, Ekal Vidyalaya karyakartas would reach every village where there is no facility to provide primary education to children. How is the Ekal Vidyalaya different from any government school? The government can give information only on learning of alphabets or primary mathe-matics. We believe education is that learning which brings out the best in the students and for which cultural input, that is sanskar, constitutes an essential part. Ekal Vidyalaya is different because it provides education which is based on the cultural background of the local population, i.e. the Vanavasis. It is known that the government has failed to educate the children living in remote areas despite possessing a large network, then how do you plan to achieve it? There are two points because of which the government has failed to achieve its target. First of all, it was lack of motivation and second, lack of mass participation. We have covered these two aspects through our system of education. As far as motivation is concerned, we have based our curriculum on the local requirements and environment. And the teacher we appoint is a person from the same village. The second important point is that the full-time karyakartas of the Ekal Vidyalaya are deeply edicated to the cause. The local Gram Samiti runs our schools everywhere. The government could never dream of this type of concept. That is why we are different and we are successful. How much do you pay to the teachers of Ekal Vidyalaya? We do not pay any salary, but, we just pay a small honorarium to help them meet their daily expenditure. What are the subjects that you teach in the vidyalayas? There are seven subjects. Language and arithmetic is common; besides these, we give five more subjects like moral education, basic science, health, yoga and creativity. Thus we develop creativity and confidence among the students through these five extra subjects. Missionary schools are more popular and they claim to be more successful as compared to schools run by others like you. Please comment. In the above two propositions, the second is wrong. They are not successful. Had they been successful, the entire scenario would have been very different to what it is today. They were not able to win the confidence of the local people, and that´s why the total conversion is 10 to 12 per cent in the tribal belt. Earlier, as they were the sole people working in the tribal belt, they were enjoying a certain degree of monopoly. Secondly, they ensure good publicity for themselves and thereby create an atmosphere to show that they are successful. The Ekal Vidyalaya is concentrating only on providing primary education or has it any plan to solve the unemployment problem of the remote areas? I understand and I agree that unemployment is a problem. But, we see the root cause of unemployment, about which the government is not aware and neither does it know about the potential of such vidyalayas. How can the government provide service to everybody? The Vanvasis have to stand on their own legs and for that they must acquire confidence. For gaining confidence, they must seek primary education. We think that primary education is the basic input for their economic development and that´s why we have focused only on primary education. Why don´t you utilise government-sponsored projects to fulfil your dream? There are two aspects. One is getting grant from the government. I know it is our money and we should always try to get it. But we do not want to depend upon the government alone because we feel it is the responsibility of the society to impart the best of what they have to the deprived children. So our programme is not only an educational programme for the Vanavasis, but it is a programme to make our urban family responsible to the society. There are two facets: one, education for the tribal people, second, a cultural awakening of the urban families toward their national responsibilities. That´s why we want mass involvement in our programme. We are focussing on the literacy movement and our target is to provide primary education by the end of 2011 to all the villagers.

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