The goal
Vidyavan creates community learning centres for primary-grade students, empowering the tribal community, mainly women, with the resources and skills to help children from their own village to:
- Achieve minimum learning levels in language, maths and general knowledge.
- Leverage government education schemes, scholarships into elite Eklavya Model Schools and Gyan Shakti Schools of Excellence are awarded on a Common Entrance Test (CET) merit score.
Children who clear the CET can also win scholarships into high-performing private and NGO schools.
Where we work
- Border villages of Vansda and Dharampur taluka.
- Started with 5 centres in 2022, now 50+ active centres serving 1,340 children in Grades 2–5.
- 95%+ of parents are landless or own small tracts of land; 100% of students are from the tribal (ST) community.
- All attend local government schools that face multigrade classrooms and teacher shortages.
The Vidyavan model
The community provides the centre space voluntarily at zero cost, a vacant home, an open verandah or a panchayat hall, always within 1 km of children's homes and the local school. 90% of Gurus are HSC-pass married women from the local community.
- Learning-level based curriculum (language, maths, GK).
- Specially designed indoor & outdoor games and self/pair learning cards.
- Print-rich environment and Guru–Shishya peer learning.
- Digital modules delivered on LED TV.
- Dedicated CET coaching, exposure visits and learning camps.
- 2.5 hours a day of high-engagement learning routines led by a Community Guru.
Learning outcomes (endline)
Gujarati
70% of Vidyavan students read at paragraph level, far above the 44% rural-Gujarat average (ASER 2024). One in three read at story/passage level.
English
Vocabulary competency reached 65% (up 8% vs 2025); 52% can read, comprehend and sequence simple sentences.
Mathematics
Division competency rose to 56% (up 12% vs 2025); 47% can subtract a 3-digit number from a 4-digit number. Against the state, just 11% of rural Gujarat students can solve a division problem (ASER 2024).
CET breakthrough
Vidyavan students achieved a 40% pass rate in the 2025-26 Common Entrance Test, against a 17% state average across 5,08,038 candidates. An estimated 136 Vidyavan students are eligible for scholarships this year. Ms. Aarushi topped the Vidyavan centres with 92 marks, among the top 10 in her district.
What it costs
| Budget item (1 centre, 2026-27) | Annual cost |
|---|---|
| Vidyavan Guru honorarium (₹4,100/mo) | ₹49,200 |
| Coordinators & rural facilitators | ₹21,500 |
| Nutrition (morning & evening snack) | ₹90,000 |
| Stationery & learning materials | ₹24,000 |
| Exposure visits, camps & training | ₹15,300 |
| Total, serves ~25 tribal students | ₹2,00,000 |
Funding is committed for 34 centres, 16 Vidyavans remain unfunded, and 10 new centres are planned.