Vision
Transform Education to Transform Individuals to Transform Society.
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The vision of Ek Asha is to build 21st Century Social Change Agents to bring about a sustainable social transformation by providing holistic education to underserved children.
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Mission
Our mission is to build self-sustainable and accessible learning ecosystems to impart holistic, child-centric, and 21st-century education to underserved children ensuring character development gets precedence over competence and continuous seeking becomes the way of life.
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Provide holistic, child-centric, experiential learning to instill scientific temper and character.
Values
To meet the vision and mission of Ek Asha Trust by adhering to these core values:
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Promote and embody diversity, inclusion, justice, and equity
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Maintain utmost integrity, commitment, quality, and transparency
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Work in local, national, and global contexts
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Engage and co-learn with communities, organizations, and learners
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Share and support others aligned with the organizational objectives
A MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDER
For a society to rise, every single individual in it must rise first!
Education is the key to bringing sustainable social transformation. It is essential to relook at the way we educate our young generation. The focus of education must shift to quality, character, competency, and skill needs of the 21st century. After all, the world needs critical thinkers who are competent, compassionate, and skillful.
Such education must reach the bottom 70%, especially the underserved children in rural villages and slums to ensure collective socio-economic growth. At the same time, different approaches must be taken to cater to the needs of children from different demography.
The making of a capable and responsible human being doesn’t happen merely by birth or accident, it requires deliberate efforts. For us, what matters, in the end, is the quantity of quality-human beings we are able to produce.
The journey of social transformation begins with the self. Therefore, we all must look at ourselves first, as we are role models for our youngsters.
Together we can and together we are!
THE DREAM THAT DRIVES US
To build a society,
Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high...
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
by Rabindranath Tagore
THE MESSAGE THAT GUIDES US
Be the change you want to see in the world!
by Gandhi
OUR GOAL
To build a unified and sustainable approach to implementing EK ASHA's educational objectives.
Create a global pool of capable volunteers to shoulder various responsibilities under the defined initiatives.
Identify individuals and corporate stakeholders to fund the programs.
Partner with communities, NGOs, CSRs, and Govt. agencies to provide educational support to underserved children.
To build educational content, curriculum, tools, and above all ecosystems to provide holistic and child-centric education to rural, underserved children and bring measurable outcomes.
To build a people's movement by involving people and organizations from all walks of life. When people participate and contribute, they feel good, they get attached, they take responsibility and the goodness spreads.
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"Let the goodness be contagious"
OUR APPROACH
OUR INITIATIVES are our approach to building the next generation of capable, sensible & compassionate people!
Vidya Vanam - a gurukul
(A residential school for holistic learning with a center for Education Research)
"Opening in April 2024"
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A School for Changemakers: A green residential school for up to grade-10.
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Center for Research on Education: Pedagogy, COE, Teacher's Training...etc.
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School of Sustainability & eco-Architecture: 26 Acres of lush green with forest, farming & livelihood.
"The world needs, human-making education, not life-making education"
- Swami Vivekananda
ThinkCenters
(Ensuring wider impact in villages, orphanages, govt. schools and slums)
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Chatashalee (Village ThinkCenters): A safe, caring, and child-friendly learning space for grades 1 to 5.
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Online Thinking Class (OTC): A creative learning space for grades 6 to 10 for worldly exposure.
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TinkerLab: A STEAM-BH lab that encourages learning by doing to prepare students to be problem solvers of tomorrow.
"Education is not the learning of facts, but it is a training of the mind to think"
- Albert Einstein
EK ASHA & SDG
EK ASHA's inception, objective and educational approach is inherenly alligned to that of United Nations SDG 4
The inception of EK ASHA TRUST is to eliminate the inaccessibility of quality education, making it reach the most vulnerable. Therefore the entire education program of EK ASHA is inherently focused on SDG4, i.e. to ensure quality education accessible to the underserved irrespective of their gender, caste, creed, religion, physiological, or any other socio-economic differences with an aim to build a just, equitable, progressive and happy society of capable, sensible and skillful global citizens, in a sustainable manner.
In essence, our goal is to promote "Life long learning" and build a society of "Simple Living and High Thinking".
Quality Education
Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning
SDG Alignment:
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4.1 Free primary and secondary education
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Achieving proficiency in reading and mathematics
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Ensuring children complete their education
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4.4 Provide education on information and communications technology (ICT) skills​
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4.5 Eliminate all discrimination in education
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4.6 Universal literacy and numeracy
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4.7 Education for sustainable development and global citizenship
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4.a Build and upgrade inclusive and safe schools
EK ASHA & NEP
EK ASHA fosters human-making education. It's pedagogy is holistic and is aimed at unlishing the full potential of each child
Education is fundamental for achieving full human potential and developing an equitable and just society. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is a landmark document that aims to revamp India's education system. The NEP 2020 is a comprehensive framework that addresses various aspects of school education, including curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and teacher training.
Key NEP-2020 guidelines relevant to EK ASHA's objective and philosophy of education:
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Inclusive Education (Provide universal access to quality education)​
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Child Centric Education (Recognize, identify, and foster the unique capabilities of each student)
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Foundational Literacy and Numeracy
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Holistic and Multidisciplinary Education (no specific emphasis on any subjects)
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Emphasis on conceptual understanding, creativity, and critical thinking
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Teach ethics, human and constitutional values
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Include life skills such as communication, cooperation, teamwork, and resilience
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Multilingualism and Cultural Integration (Respect for diversity and local context)
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Promote educational research
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Teacher Training and Professional Development
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Technology Integration in education and Strengthening school infrastructure
OUR PEDAGOGY
Laying the foundation of holistic and human-making education to build a just and equitable society!
We have a HOLISTIC & STUDENT-CENTRIC approach to education. We believe, (A) Education is not only training of the HEAD or sharpening of intellect but also the training of the HEART and HANDs, (B) Inquisitiveness and continuous seeking lay the foundation for learning to begin, (C) Interest of each child is encouraged and fostered to develop into passion, at their individual pace, (D) As the inner potentials are unleashed, students are taught to complement each other and not compete, (E) Dreaming is important and are encouraged beyond constraints and given skills to realize, (F) "Practice makes a man perfect" - Practice not just on pen and paper but to make it a way of life or way of being.
Our approach to education carefully balances academic, physiological, emotional, and socio-cultural activities and develops the child's self-confidence and self-reliance, while fostering personal integrity and a sense of responsibility. The aim of this education is to shape the character by inspiring and igniting the love for life-long learning and to enable them to fully develop their unique capacities and serve humanity.
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For us:
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"Everyone is a genius! But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, It will live its whole life believing it’s stupid".
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"If a child can’t learn the way we teach, we need to teach the way a child could learn".
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"Mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled".
1. Teach "How-To think" not "WHAT-TO think"
What would happen, if there was no Moon?
A good question leads to a deeper understanding. Learning starts when we acknowledge, "We don't know" and we begin to seek.
Inquisitiveness leads to question(s); A good quality question leads to seeking; Continuous seeking leads to deeper learning.
