One of the major causes of the under-development in rural/tribal areas in India is the inadequacy of the educational system. There are about 100,000 villages in remote and tribal regions of India where even primary schools don’t exist. Reform is needed in the field of primary school education to address this issue. This was the genesis of the Ekal Vidyalaya movement.

The Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation is a charitable organisation that initiates, supports and runs single teacher schools (popularly known as Ekal Vidyalayas) to help eradicate illiteracy from rural and tribal India. EVF is managed by a board of trustees who are respected members of Indian society. To date, EVF has over 27,000 schools and teachers, 5000 voluntary workers, 20 field organisations, and 8 support agencies. EVF movement has spread to many countries including USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, UAE, and New Zealand.

The Ekal Vidyalaya movement was started in Australia in May 2004, and from a humble start of 30 schools sponsorship there are currently more than 350 schools sponsored from Australia.

Typically, an Ekal Vidyalaya class has between 30 and 40 children in the age group of 5 to 14 years, where children are offered 5 years of free schooling. The teachers are usually local youths who are specially trained by the EVF. A panel of reputed educationists has developed the curriculum, which is aligned with the local culture and government prescribed texts. Along with teaching basic alphabetic and numeric knowledge, great emphasis is placed on health and hygiene, character building and ethical values.

Only Rs. 15,000 (i.e. $480) a year is required to sponsor a school. To ensure ownership, a similar amount is contributed by the local community. The administrative costs are less than 10% of the sponsorship money collected.

The mission of Ekal Vidyalaya movement is to set up 100,000 Ekal Vidyalayas by 2011.This will cover nearly all the villages in India where no school exists today. EVF Australia’s goal is to sponsor at least 1000 schools by then.

Many can see the difference, but few can be the difference. May be you can.