Reach one, teach all

Vidyagyan schools are changing the way students engage with education to make them community leaders

In many sleepy villages of Uttar Pradesh, this is considered the exam to crack. Coaching centres do brisk business, training applicants for it. Every year, 140,000 apply and fewer than 600 make it. This isn’t, however, an engineering or medical entrance test. Applicants who clear two rounds of screening and a stringent background check gain admission into Class VI at Shiv Nadar Foundation’s Vidyagyan Schools in Bulandshahr and Sitapur in UP. It’s the equivalent of the golden ticket for people living in some of the most backward areas in north India. Spending as much as Rs 21 lakh per student over seven years, the two schools hope that with world-class educational inputs, they will eventually be able to create a new order of educated, thinking individuals with strong rural roots. 

“Our mandate is to work with the most meritorious students from families that have an annual income of less than Rs 1 lakh,” says principal of the Bulandshahr campus, B Banerjee. The residential campus, with its 10:1 student-teacher ratio, state-of-the-art science labs, art, sports and music facilities and spiffy hostels, is huge. All Vidyagyan students stay on campus and their every need — fees, school books, project materials, clothes and health — is taken care of. 

Vidyagyan has a refreshingly different perspective of its work and the task ahead. “This isn’t a charity,” says Banerjee. “We always tell our students that they’ve earned a scholarship.” Students are motivated to apply themselves not only academically, but also socially. “We expect them all to make a difference in their own communities when they grow up,” he says, “and encourage them to start early.” Here’s a sampler of what some of them have done: Sudeeksha started an initiative to empower women called “Voice of Women” and has worked dedicatedly to encourage girls to go to school, and fight against sexual harassment on the roads. Nischal Bhardwaj, who graduated earlier  this year, worked with a mental health NGO and also organised career counselling sessions for his peers in the village high school, to help them identify opportunities outside the village. “I simply wanted my friends in the village to be able to see the world outside,” he says.

Another student, Sumit, has developed apps to improve school security, library management and mess administration. “Our aim is to nurture and enable high- achieving individuals who will go on to become role models in the community,” says Banerjee.

Indeed, as one walks through the immaculate campus with students studying quietly in every classroom, a sense of purpose is palpable. A group of seniors sits in a study room, preparing for the upcoming SAT exam. “They have been exempted from classes for the time being so that they may devote all their time to the preparation,” says Banerjee. They have hired a special teacher to help coach for the SATs, while a busload of students goes twice a week to train for engineering and medical entrance tests. Banerjee explains that student access to coaching is purely based on merit. “We administer a qualifying test and only those who make the grade get coaching.” 

Critics would argue that with this kind of funding, Vidyagyan could make a bigger impact by lowering admission standards and admitting more students. Banerjee disagrees. “Our mandate is to work intensively, but only with the brightest of the bright and poorest of the poor,” he says. “We won’t be able to maintain such high standards if we admit more students.” They hope for a trickledown effect so that Sudeeksha, Anshuman and their cohorts go on to become role models and catalysts of social change. 

Seven students are headed to top US universities this year. Previous batches have seen NTSC scholars, admissions into top fine arts colleges in India as well as dozens of engineering and medical college qualifiers. This year’s alumna, Manvi Chaudhary, will be going on a full scholarship to Wellesley College, one of the top US destinations for liberal arts. Several students face financial constraints after they pass out from Vidyagyan. “We plan to develop an alumni and donor network to support them at this stage,” says Banerjee. 

Meanwhile, a fresh batch of sixth graders starts its innings at Vidyagyan and the bumpy playing field between the rural and urban, rich and poor students in UP is slowly but surely being levelled — a handful of students at a time.  

To learn more, visit www.vidyagyan.in 

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