IIM- A Alumnus Turns Dream into Reality

Imparting quality education is the need of the hour in India. The slogan “Padhega India Tabhi to Badhega India” is the agenda of the government presently. A man who is in true sense helping the government and the society at large in achieving this goal is Mr. Pankaj Jain, an engineer from IIT-Roorkee and a doctorate from IIM-Ahmedabad.

Mr. Jain had a dream to provide quality education to out-of-school slum children even in the absence of quality teachers. In order to turn his dream into reality he opened an organization in the year 2000 named “Gyan Shala”. Gyan Shala presently has nine centres in various states including Surat, Kolkata, Patna, Lucknow, Kanpur and Muzaffarpur. Gyan Shala provides the students well designed curriculum and study material. This ensures that students are provided with good quality of teaching and teachers. Jain was himself a teacher and had taught at the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) for 14 years. In his long career of 14 years, he realized that education is becoming extremely dependent upon a team of good teachers headed by a good leader or principal. Jain knew that India neither had adequate number of teachers nor were the teachers too dedicated. This programme focusses on those children whose weaknesses cannot be taken care of by their parents due to low family income. Gyan Shala makes use of hired spaces in slum areas. This cost effective model hires teachers. The approximate cost of education is between Rs. 3000-5000 per year per child. As per the assessments conducted by an institution called Educational Initiatives, an organisation that does student assessments found Gyan Shala’s students to be doing better in studies than those in municipal schools. In the past, Gyan Shala has been funded by organisations such as the DFID, Qatar Foundation, Michael and Susan Dell foundation, ICICI Trust, Bajaj Trusts, Tata Trusts, SBI Trusts, Shroff and Nalanda Foundation, among others. Due to a decline in its funding it had to reduce a number of its centers. The founders are still hopeful and they look forward to a bright future for both Gyan Shala and India.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/how-an-iim-a-alumnus-is-taking-education-to-the-slums-at-rs-5-000-a-year-118081800691_1.html