Shiv Nadar Foundation scouts for 40-acre land in UP

VidyaGyan, wherein Foundation had so far invested about Rs 500 crore, runs two boarding schools at Bulandshahr and Sitapur districts

Shiv Nadar Foundation is scouting for 40 acres land in eastern Uttar Pradesh for its educational initiative VidyaGyan.

VidyaGyan, wherein the Foundation had so far invested about Rs 500 crore, runs two boarding schools at Bulandshahr and Sitapur districts in UP for the underprivileged rural children.

“We have planned to open another school in eastern UP and are on the lookout for about 40 acres of congruous stretch of land in any of the three districts of Varanasi, Allahabad and Gorakhpur,” Foundation trustee and VidyaGyan Management Board chairman T S R Subramanian told Business Standard  here.

Based on CBSE pattern, VidyaGyan schools conduct classes from VI to XII. The students are picked up from government schools on merit and on selection offered quality education free of cost until standard XII.

The Foundation aims that VidyaGyan would not only be successful in providing quality education to the poor children, but its model would be replicated by other philanthropists and even governments.

“On an average, we spend over a lakh of rupees on each student every year on education, boarding, lodging, clothing etc. This way, the Foundation would spend nearly Rs 10 lakh on every student during the 7 year period in school,” he informed.

Meanwhile, the Foundation today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the UP government to identify class V pass students and conduct the admission test for VidyaGyan.

“With this arrangement, we want to engage the state in this initiative and ensure only genuine and meritorious students appear in the admission test,” Subramaninan, who is a former union cabinet secretary of India, said.

Shiv Nadar, the founder promoter of IT major HCL Technologies, has already pumped in Rs 4,000 crore in various philanthropic educational initiatives in India, including Shiv Nadar University in Greater Noida, which has received Rs 1,000 crore.