Sadhguru relates his vision for Isha Vidhya, in the Isha Vidhya Chronicle, the organization’s annual newsletter.

Sadhguru : When I travel through our villages and see the kids, they are so bright-eyed at the age of four or five. But by the time they are fourteen or fifteen, the spark has gone; their eyes are lifeless.

Rural youth should not be stuck with situations where they cannot do anything more with their lives.

Tamil Nadu has 9.7 million students in government schools. But these are only numbers, because the quality of education is suffering.

Less than 20% of our graduates are employable. So these children neither have their parents’ skills nor can they read or do mathematics. This is one thing we have definitely changed through the Isha educational initiatives. Our teachers have strived hard to raise the quality of education and at the same time, keep it as a joyful experience for the children.

Still, whatever we and a handful of other organizations are doing is only a small drop in the ocean. So we are now adopting government schools and looking at how to improve their infrastructure and teaching methods, to upgrade the quality of education that is being delivered. We are adding four of our teachers per government school, and they will work to change the quality of the school from within.

We are also using our Isha Vidhya schools as a training ground for government school teachers. We have taken this up as a pilot project, and it is producing phenomenal results.

Isha Vidhya will be getting into this on a large scale in the coming years.

However, it is not in the hands of a single organization to do everything. We can inspire and facilitate, but we cannot take up everything because it is too large. The difference in human life cannot be measured only in numbers, but we do need to offer this possibility to as many children as possible. With the good will, respect and ability that Isha has earned, we need to open up channels with the government, corporate sector, and with organizations like UNICEF, etc.

I hope all of you will participate in whatever capacity you can, because this is something that can revolutionize rural India.