First and foremost, we thank all the donors and supporters who helped us raise the fund needed to implement the projects this year. Your contribution has been instrumental in bringing change in the education of 100+ children at Gorakhnath Vaidic Gurukula and Naimisharnaya Gurukula. It is our mission to create and help create an educational environment where a child evolves intellectually, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Our vision is to prepare the leaders of tomorrow who have compassion in their hearts and intelligence in their minds along with a deeper perception of life.
We decided to expand the work to other schools by looking at the impact and relevance of the previous year’s project. Bringing computer science into the gurukul curriculum has proved to be rewarding in many ways. Gurukul’s education is revered for its pragmatic approach to instilling moral values and life wisdom in children. However, due to a lack of sufficient funding and attention from the concerned authorities, gurukulas have fallen in their bad times. Most of them don’t have important subjects like science and computers. Because of this, the students who graduate from gurukul struggle to find higher education/job opportunities in society. With the addition of computers, we plan to supplement these contents.
The way education is happening in Nepal and in many parts of the world pays less attention to the development of intrinsic values of a human being. Today’s education is more focused on getting the best result on the grade sheet, not in life. Therefore, society desperately needs to incorporate the philosophy of gurukuls if we want to create a community of sensible beings. Along with cultivating wisdom and integrity, students also need to be updated with the knowledge of science and technology in the modern world. It is our small effort to merge the best of both worlds by updating the traditional gurukula education with modern subjects with the help of computer labs.
The whole idea of building a computer lab at gurukuls is to transform gurukul education such that we cultivate the intrinsic values of human beings as well as the understanding of science and technology and their application. Compared to last year, this year we made some changes to our project modules. We divided the project into two phases. In phase one, we built the computer lab and taught basic skills such as typing, painting, making excel sheets, etc. Some of the children had never touched computers before, so they were super excited and happy to be able to use them. We also conducted Typing and Painting competitions to add fun to our learning which worked well.
In the second phase of our project, we connected the internet and webcams to the lab and introduced the children to the online education module that we had prepared using E-Pustakalaya. Through that module, children could access a variety of learning materials related to science and literature. It is always a painful fact that many gurukuls and other schools in remote areas of Nepal never get textbooks and education material till the middle of the academic year. What was challenging to gather and create physically is now possible to create electronically via computer lab. Upper Class children enjoyed reading novels, magazines, and other literary works while lower-class children enjoyed playing interactive maths and science games. Apart from the E-Pustakalaya module, we also started Online English language classes via Zoom. Huge thanks to the volunteers from Opportunity Funds Program who humbly agreed to lead the Zoom classes for gurukul children. We hope that zoom classes will help to improve their English reading, writing, and speaking skills gradually.
Apart from English classes and e-learning, the access to internet and Zoom will help these gurukulas to connect with each other and with other gurukulas in the country or abroad. Children can benefit through interaction with children and teachers from other gurukulas. They were already discussing the possibilities to organise online inter-gurukula competitions. Not only this, the older students who are good at Sanskrit can also lead online Sanskrit classes for the public as very few people know how to read and speak Sanskrit. Similarly, the students can design and create a gurukula magazine. In the long run, the skills that we are offering will enable brilliant students to translate Sanskrit literature into Nepali and English language. Therefore, building computer labs at gurukula, in our opinion, will transform the learning environment of gurukula by opening a new door of opportunities where children can develop their full potential in all dimensions of life.
It is our fortune that we pioneered this concept and implemented it successfully so far. The gurukul family and administration praised our work saying that the computer education at gurukula is a visionary initiative that will help to raise the standard and impact of gurukula education. Ultimately, the welfare of the nation and the world lies in how we treat education. As Yogi Naraharinath said “शिक्षा सुधारो सकलो सुधार, शिक्षा विकारो सकलो विकार” If education is reformed, everything else will be reformed ultimately and if education is deformed, everything else will be deformed. Therefore, we hope people understand our vision and support it in whatever way they can. It’s now or never.
