For seven-year-old Jhamu of Kamathwara village in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district, Vishwanath Jadhav is his only window to the world. Jadhav is a farmer who also doubles up as a teacher for this remote tribal hamlet that has no connectivity to the rest of the country.
Jadhav is part of the single-teacher school concept of the Ekal Vidyalaya movement and provides Jhamu and 30 other boys and girls like him basic education in languages, science and mathematics to enable them to join the mainstream if they wish.
Ekal Vidyalaya, a parallel education system, is running a campaign for literacy.
And Jhamu is one of the 7,78,965 students getting free education through this system that caters only to the poor, underprivileged and marginalised who have no access to basic healthcare and formal schools.
Children like Jhamu, who toil in the fields during the day, spend three hours after work with their teacher who shows them how to read and write. He also gives them a glimpse of Indian history and progress made by the country. All this is done in a play-way method. There is no homework and no corporal punishment. No harsh words are used.
The movement has many supporters from India and abroad, including Baba Ramdev, and Acharya Giriraj Kishore of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). “India is battling with crime and internal security problems which can be overcome through education. Ekal Vidyalayas are effectively doing that, particularly in remote areas of the country,” said Ramdev during an inauguration function of Ekal Vidyalayas in New Delhi.
Taking a dig at English-oriented education system, Ramdev said: “Even through English is not on the list of the 22 languages of our country, our whole education system is dependent on it.”
The Ekal Vidyalaya movement made a humble beginning from Jharkhand in 1988. Today, it is present in 27,110 villages across 22 states. These schools operate on a single teacher non-formal teaching system that provides education up to class III. On completing this, children are ready to join the formal education system in nearby schools. The timing of the Ekal schools is decided by the local village committee after consulting the students and the teacher.
