However, rural education need not depend on modern technology. A school founded by philosopher J. Krishnamurti in 1926 in India’s Rishi Valley has become the hub of an expanding network of innovative “satellite schools” for surrounding villages.
Contoured and planted with fruit trees, each school is a green public space, a village commons with facilities to serve the whole community – a place for village entertainment, adult education classes and a centre for preserving local biodiversity. The school developed a set of 500 story cards that promote ethnic harmony, sexual equality and love of the environment. Over 200,000 government and non-government schools throughout India have adopted this “school in a box” concept. It is also burgeoning across Africa, and is applicable to rural communities throughout the world.
