The Nataraja Foundation has been set up to promote India's largest Mass Education Project, The Vivekanand Secondary Education & Skills Development Megaproject.
India has a shortage of 6,21,805 + Secondary Schools as a result of which 89 % of children are dropping out of School between class V and class IX as there are just not enough schools to go to.
The Vivekanand Megaproject solves this huge Secondary School shortage problem by :
1. Connecting 6,21,805 Primary Schools with 4G / 5G Telecom Networks ( Vivekanand School in a Cloud ) … by 2023
2. Building 30,000 New Secondary Schools & Skills development centers as Hub schools … by 2028
The Innovation within the project is in its financing, both on the Capex side and the Opex side. The projects innovative financing plan will help the Govt. of India raise Rs 14.95 Lakh Crores for project construction and another Rs 2.21 Lakh Crores (each year) for operating the Hub schools and Skills development centers across 29 states and 7 union territories.
Capital will be raised by means of a unique financing mechanism and structure that will access 14 different, non-conventional pools of finance with minimum recourse to Union / State Govt. budgets.
Those interested can download the Latest project files that we have submitted to the Ministry of HRD in Jan ‘ 2019 :
Once the required financial structure has been approved by the Ministry of finance, the project will move into its execution phase with the Vivekanand School in a Cloud followed by the construction of 30,000 New Secondary Schools and Skills development centers. This will assist State Governments create world class infrastructure within the school system in India at the lowest possible cost and in the shortest possible time.
This is primarily a Rural Initiative as 80 % of the Proposed New Schools will be set up at the Taluka level and below.
The Focus on the Rural economy is based on ideas provided by Dr. Arvind Panagariya ( Former Vice Chairman NITI Aayog ) . According to Dr. Panagariya it is possible to lift India’s rural economy out of poverty only if a large number of Marginal farmers are re-trained to take up other vocations and moved out of agriculture.
Today 45 % of India’s workforce is employed in Agriculture as against 3 % - 5 % in advanced economies. So the only way to lift the agricultural economy is to re-train millions of marginal farmers who own under 2 hectares of land. This is the main reason behind setting up the 30,000 Hub Schools and Skills development centers at the Taluka level and below. Once farmer distress is resolved through re-training marginal farmers and their incomes are raised substantially, the Indian Economy will be able expand very fast … in an inclusive manner.
Swami Vivekanand’s inclusive philosophy has been adopted as the Design Basis document of the Education Megaproject. The objective is to implement his inclusive philosophy ( include all religions and economic classes ) and invite the best minds back to Careers in Education through the provision of world class facilities, attractive remuneration and other benefits for teachers.
The scheme is User Centric in its design and addresses the unique needs of both Students and Teachers as opposed to the current Literacy Centric approach within the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan ( SSA ), the flagship programme of the ministry of HRDwhich has seen 89 % of Children dropping out of school by class IX and very poor learning outcomes in those children that do stay in school.
The Megaproject seeks to give effect to a Single utterance of Swami Vivekanand. " Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man. Knowledge is inherent in man, no knowledge comes from outside, it is all inside".
Vivekanand Continues " What we say a man ' knows ', should in strict psychological language , be what he ' discovers ' or ' unveils '. What a man ' learns ' is really what he ' discovers ' by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge. We say Newton discovered gravitation. Was it sitting anywhere in a corner waiting for him ? It was in his own mind; the time came and he found it out. All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in your own mind. The external world is simply the suggestion, the occasion , which sets you to study your own mind ”.
All existing programmes of the Government of India and indeed western education seek to make people literate as a Minimum. Swami Vivekananda gives a totally new perspective and forces us to ask ourselves " Who are we trying to make literate ? "
Vivekanand then goes on to say " Within man is all knowledge , and it requires only an awakening, and that much is the work of a teacher ." Swami Vivekanand therefore is saying that the teachers main role is to help the student discover himself ( i.e. his own soul ) and his full potential as a human bieng.