The Challenge:
India’s fabled demographic dividend needs to be underpinned by quality education. Currently despite about 95% enrollment rate in primary education, millions are unemployed or under-employed. The quality of education, especially in provincial schools, is abysmally low.
Only elite schools in India’s metropolises prepare students for individual and economic empowerment. Such schools are beyond the reach of about 80% of our population, even though many recognize the direct link between quality education and economic opportunities.
India’s demographic profile is a double-edged sword. If India fails to reap the benefits of its demographic dividend, it risks social chaos: frustrated and unemployable youth are socially marginalized and easily led to crime. The aspirations of the young can easily be dashed if they cannot meaningfully participate in a economically progressive, multi-cultural society.
The Solution:
Knowledge Society seeks to address these challenges with an initiative to build a chain of networked residential English-medium CBSE-affiliated schools in provincial India. Middle-income families in India are willing to go the extra mile to ensure quality education for their children. The Society seeks to meet this need by providing high-quality education at affordable costs in schools set up in select small towns, which are easily accessible by road/rail.
By equipping the young with the means for individual empowerment and opportunity, by instilling in them the values for creating an equitable, democratic and ethnically-diverse society, Knowledge Society seeks to invest in India’s potential to be a global leader.
Gyanarth Public School, Daspalla, Odisha
A Proven Model: Current Status
- Notified Area Council with 2.5 lakhs population approximately
- 110 km West of Bhubaneshwar, Odisha,
- Bordering the erstwhile Naxal Area of Odisha
- Primary source of livelihood: Agriculture and Trading
- Received Land donated by eminent Philanthropist in Mother’s memory
- Started school in August 2022
- Nursery to Class 3 in April 2023
- Nursery to Class 6 in April 2024
- Strong response from parents
- Children enjoy coming to school
- Strong Teachers from different parts of Odisha
“Learning by Doing and Experiencing”