The Hindu Business Line : `New model of education needed for rural India'

A new, alternative model of education is needed in the villages across the country to trigger rural development and rejuvenation, said Dr B.V Parameswara Rao, founder of the Bhagavatula Charitable Trust.

Dr Rao, who gave up his career as a researcher in nuclear science in the US in the late sixties and founded the trust, has been engaged since then in the field of education in his native village near Elamanchili and several other villages in Visakhapatnam district.

His methods are studied with keen interest by NGOs from different parts of the country and often replicated with suitable modifications.

Dr Rao runs 150 schools in the district with the assistance of the Union Government. He says the Government schools in villages are grossly inadequate for various reasons and the private schools are beyond the reach of the masses. Even in the private schools, the quality of education imparted is not satisfactory.

"Therefore, we have motivated and involved the local people. Often, semi-literate, or even illiterate, parents have evinced great interest in getting their children educated," he said.

To acquaint the representatives of NGOs from the six States of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal with the methods employed by the trust, a five-day workshop was conducted this week. Dr B.R. Dwaraki, who previously worked in the Gandhigram Rural University (Tamil Nadu), said the model developed by the trust was highly commendable. "The educated youth in the villages are employed as teachers and, though they are paid less than the Government teachers, they seem quite happy," he said.

In response to a query from a visiting reporter, Dr Rao said the Union Government was spending over Rs 4,000 crore per annum on rural development and "99 per cent of it is spent through the Government agencies and departments. Only 1 per cent gets routed through the NGOs. There is no accountability for the 99 per cent. All questions are raised only about the 1 per cent."

Admitting that there may be a few black sheep even among the NGOs, he said the best way of deploying the funds was through carefully identified NGOs. "Even if 10 per cent of the funds is spent that way, it will make a huge difference in villages,'' he said.

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