Founder's Note

When I was born in Karampudi ,our country was low in the literacy rankings of the world. Only 18.33 % of the population could read and write. Since then in spite of many challenges, we have taken giant strides in the field of education. Today India is a knowledge brand. The literacy rate today is 72.98 %. No mean feat by any standards. As an educationist with 40 fruitful years in the field, I am proud to have been a part of this great achievement. Through the years I have seen the changes in educational technology and methods and the tvalue they accrued to the quality of education. From rundown Government schools to air conditioned digital class rooms, our education ecosystem has moved up the value chain. So it appears.

The benefits of our progress in education however are limited largely to the urban and semi urban regions and communities. These methods and technological advances in delivering quality education is yet to reach the interiors and tribal areas of our country.

Consequently students from these sections have been deprived of a chance to compete with their peers from urban areas and realize their true potential. It is not their personal loss alone but a national loss in terms of wasted human potential.

India has a vast gene pool tucked away in remote tribal regions and hamlets. These communities have existed disconnected from the mainstream population for centuries. As a result their capabilities, skill-sets, and their intellectual development has been different. I’d like to point out that I do not mean their abilities and gene pool is any way inferior to the rest of the society. To the contrary I’d like emphasise that being taught by nature, which is the best teacher and through sheer necessity of negotiating difficult life situations, they have acquired superior techniques of problem managements.

We all know education is but a tool as good as the person who knows how to use it. Higher management and higher science is nothing but finding solutions to problems. Imagine students with these qualities of fearlessness and tenacity are brought into the workforce and leaders of future India. Imagine where we can be.

This idea drove me to initiate steps in the direction of making quality education accessible to students from rural and tribal communities, with the best methods that are used in urban India. In my educational Institutions special care was taken to draw as many students as possible from these areas. However many more could not make it due to the distances,lack of financial capability and plain lack of motivation. Recent development in educational technology and systems presented an opportunity to surmount this challenge. I thought, if students are unable to come to school, why not take the school to the doorstep of these communities. That is the core idea of project MEDENG. Through the medium of Tabs and other gadgets using cellular communication, Project Medeng intends to reach quality education to remote communities.

Some one famously quoted that you educate a man, you educate a person. But educate a woman and you have educated a family. So my effort is to start with the girls of these communities and progressively include boys.

Children of these communities typically are malnourished and are prone to diseases, which cause disturbance in their educational schedule. Providing adequate and fortified nutrition to the students is an imperative if the goals are to be realized. Project Medeng therefore has embedded a fortified nutrition program in their education plan.

Healthy mind in a healthy body, so goes the adage. Games and extra curricular activities, including self defence for the girls, is an integral part of the curriculum. The curriculum intends to make education a fun activity rather than a burden to these students and curtail drop out ratio which is high in these areas. We also endeavour to start preparing our students for competitive exams, beginning with pre degree level. The quality envisaged is of the highest quality using 3D and AR technology and the faculty will be drawn from the best available in the country.

Confident in our aim and success we also have ambitious Projects in our pipeline like door step delivery of Medical and Agriculture related services to these communities.

It is quite evident that a project this ambitious in vision and scale cannot be grounded without all the assistance that the Governments and Private individuals can extend by way of Finance and Policy exemptions. We are very hopeful that the Project receives such a support from every one to make our dream a reality.

Prof P Venkateswar Rao