Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, today addressed Ekal Vidyalaya Sangathan, Gujarat through Video Message. PM congratulated Ekal Vidyalaya Sangathan for spearheading the ‘Ekal School Abhiyan’ which aims to promote the education among rural and tribal children. He appreciated the Sangathan volunteers for their role in Nation building by imparting education and awareness to more than 2.8 million rural and tribal children who reside in the remotest locations across India and Nepal.

Congratulating the Sangathan on reaching the figure of 1 lakh schools across India, PM said that working with passion, dedication and commitment turns an impossible Goal into an achievable one. He highlighted the fact that the Sangathan has been awarded with Gandhi Peace Prize due to its commitment towards social service and for being an inspiration role model for whole country.

Prime Minister noted that the Union Government is also working enthusiastically for better Education and Skill development in India. Schemes like scholarship for scheduled tribe’s children, Eklavya Model residential school, Poshan Abhhiyan, Mission Indradhanush, and school holidays on the occasion of tribal festivals etc have helped not only in checking the school dropout rates but also promoted the holistic development of children.

PM suggested that to celebrate the 75 years of Independence in 2022, the sangathan should encourage its school children to organize special skits, musical competitions, debates and discussions to highlight the role of tribes in the Indian Freedom Movement. The competitions may start this year and complete with an all-encompassing national level competition in 2022. He added that the Ekal family may also organize a Khel-Mahakhumbh (sports fiesta) of traditional Indian sports.

PM also presented the idea of pairing private and public schools wherein students from rural background will learn from their urban counterparts and vice versa, thus boosting the idea of ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’. PM also appreciated the use of e-education and digitization by Ekal Sansthan and said that the organization may also come up with a single real time dashboard for monitoring the progress of all the Ekal Vidyalas in a comprehensive way.

Reminding the audience that the day coincides with the ‘Punya Tithi’ of “Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar’’ PM highlighted that Ekal Sangathan has succeeded in realizing Baba Saheb’s dream of imparting equal education to girls and boys. In the four decades long journey of the family, the Sangathan has remarkably promoted out of box thinking through the ‘Panchatantra Model of Education’ such as Promotion of nutrition through Poshan Vatikas, training for bio-fertilizers use in farming, imparting skills for using medicinal qualities of herbs, Training for employment and Generation of Social Awareness. He added that it is indeed satisfying to see the Ekal Vidyalaya passouts serving the Nation in the different fields of Education, Policing, Industry and the Army as well.

Prime Minister remarked that as India completes 75 years of Independence, the success of Ekal Sangathan will help in realizing Gandhiji’s ideals of Gram Swaraj, Social Justice of Baba Saheb, Antyoday of Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Swami Vivekanad’s dream of a Glorious India.

About Ekal Vidyalaya

Ekal Vidyalaya is a Movement involved in integrated & holistic development of rural & tribal India and Nepal. The main activity undertaken in this movement is to run one-teacher schools (known as Ekal Vidyalayas) all over India, in the remotest rural & tribal villages to take the education to every child.

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VRRK/KP