Date: Jul 29–30, 2013
Location: Society House, Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry
India Council for Integral Education (ICIE), the education wing of Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry, hosted a two-day-long, national-level Gramodaya workshop at the Society House on July 29–30, 2013.
Gramodaya is an inclusive educational initiative that addresses a long-standing issue of appropriate education for rural masses in India, that is, it attempts to make appropriate educational opportunities available to rural children. Through a chain of schools, similar to the Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas but grounded in a rural context and experience, the Gramodaya Vidyalayas are conceived as ‘third leg’ educational institutes, grooming rural children into rural professionals.
The workshop brought together academicians, professionals, practitioners, and visionaries who think similarly onto a single platform to discuss and design the best approaches for establishing an integrated and inclusive educational system for the rural context.
The aim of the workshop was to create a holistic approach to education, with the Gramodaya model as a starting point, and design a mechanism for sustainable and replicable model to have an effective impact in a short time. The tasks included rolling out and scaling up the model, design curriculum guidelines based on the experiences of OASIS—The Innovation Laboratory (Education Innovation Fund for India [EIFI] awardee) and the Sri Aurobindo Society.
During the workshop, the focus was on evolving strategies and steps for the next level of pilot projects and how to move forward to create the framework for the 655 Gramodaya schools for large-scale implementation and integration.
The workshop was attended by the following individuals, representing their respective institutes:
- Professor Satyajit Majumdar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
- Professor H. S. Shylendra, Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat
- Professor P. K. Biswas, Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal
- Mr Sujit Sinha, Faculty Azim Premji University, Ashoka Fellow
- Ms Sikha Roy, SREEOSHI, Ashoka Fellow
- Mr Gourav Jaiswal, AGRINI, implementing GRAMODAYA in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh
- Mr Mahendra Dharwal, AGRINI, implementing GRAMODAYA in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh
- Mr Kalyan Akkipeddi, PROTO VILLAGE, implementing GRAMODAYA in Andhra Pradesh
- Mr Gijs Spoor, Ashoka Fellow and Member, UnLtd Tamilnadu, Auroville
- Dr Palanithurai, Gandhi Gram Rural Deemed University
- Dr Ramesh, Gandhi Gram Rural Deemed University
- Mr Senthil SARVAM, Sri Aurobindo Society
- Ms Chitra SARVAM, Sri Aurobindo Society
- Ms Brianna Smrke, McMaster University, Canada