“A Model School in Each District is our Priority”

“A Model School in Each District is our Priority”

Vidya Bharati is the largest educational institution in India dedicated to the cause of imparting value-based education from primary to senior secondary level. Managing 23,000 schools through 70 committees, and imparting education to 35 lakh students with the help of 1.35 lakh teachers is indeed not an easy task. The model that Vidya Bharati has evolved over the years for quality education has been appreciated globally. Now, it is in the process of expanding its wings in higher education and also at the global level. Organiser Chief News Coordinator Dr. Pramod Kumar spoke to the Joint Organising Secretary of Vidya Bharati Shri Yatindra Kumar in New Delhi to know the future plans of the largest educational institution of Bharat. Excerpts:

What was the prime objective behind the start of Saraswati Shishu Mandir Yojna in 1952?

Five years after achieving political Independence, some karyakartas, while thinking about future education in the country, started the first school in 1952 at Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. After serious thought, the school was named Saraswati Shishu Mandir—where both the teachers and the students experience the feel of a temple. The prime objective was to prepare the young generation, which is knowledgeable, rooted in Indian cultural ethos, possess high moral character and human values. The Saraswati Shishu Mandir Yojna is basically based on the age-old Bharatiya values of life and philosophy. The idea behind the whole thinking was that the school should have the feel of a family, where the students, parents, teachers, and management are interconnected. In the beginning, plans were formulated to expand the schools in Uttar Pradesh only. Then, they were expanded to Madhya Pradesh. A Samiti, Shishu Shiksha Prabandh Samiti, was first constituted in 1958 to look after this work. Till 1977, about 600 schools had been started in different states. Then the discussion began to give it a national shape. After the Emergency, a grand Shishu Sangam of students from classes 3 to 7 was held in New Delhi in 1978 in which we had initially planned to have 10,000 students, but actually, 16,000 students participated. It was the world’s largest camp of school students in that year.