Face-to-Face: Satish Jha on Vidya Bharati Gala 2026, His New Book, and India’s Education Revolution

Welcome to Indian Union News. Our guest today is Satish Jha. He's a board member of Vidya Bharti USA Foundation which is going to host its second annual gala on July 12th at Burlington Marriott Hotel in Burlington, Massachusetts. Also recently he has written a book which is very relevant in general for the education in India as well as the topics which will be discussed at the second annual gala in Burlington. We are going to talk to him about the upcoming gala, his book and also the contributions made and relevance of Vidya Bharti USA. Satish, welcome to our studio. Great, thank you for inviting me. Sure, so are you excited about your second gala this year? I've been at it for 10 years so second year gala is wonderful to have. Okay, what are some of the interesting highlights are for the upcoming gala this year? I think we are going to have a larger gathering of people who have come to know about it, who believe in it. Deshpande has been, Desh Deshpande has been a great supporter. Everybody knows him. Everybody knows him. We went to Hubli and now his organization is supporting Vidya Bharti in India as well. So, those relationships are forming and this is one way of India-USA as well. It's going just beyond contributions from Jaisalmer is getting into engaging with the ideas which have germinated here, which take roots in India and they are finally kind of embellishing whatever has been going on at the Vidya Bharti as well. So, I think a dialogue has begun, the conversation between what we have achieved here and what's being made possible in India. That is what is going to be very interesting about this particular second gala. This year again we have Mr. Khetan who is a mentor to Vidya Bharti in India. He's also joining us along with him an operational team head as well. But more than that what's happening now is we are looking at the experiments of Vidya Bharti. It's growing all the time. Now, we have two universities in India which have raised the bar in terms of what university should be. As of now, when you look at the performance of students, we recently learned five DG of police various states, they come from Vidya Bharti. Our last defense chief was Vidya Bharti. So, the kind of inspiring stories they've created coming from nowhere in society at the time they were children to achieve the most apex positions and roles that society offered them. That is the kind of gap Vidya Bharti is bridging. So, we will bring those stories and share with all of us here in the Boston area and that is I think one of the reasons that how do you connect with the real stories so that we can begin to see what we can do to contribute to the future of the nation as such because without experiments like Vidya Bharti reaching out to 100 times more because it covers about a percent. I don't think we will be able to realize what we are, who we are, what we can be. So, that's the importance of Vidya Bharti to me. I've been part of it for a decade and I hope some of you will join, all of you join. That'd be great. So, now this is a good time to bring your new book which has just come out, The Full Plate. Oh sure, of course. Because that combines various other non-profit groups which are working for in the field of education in India. So, tell us how you're, what is the first, what is the main message of your book, The Full Plate? You see message is that in the past 78 or 79 years of freedom, we have not been able to educate even 20 percent of Indian population. We are running at about 78 percent yet. People who can stand up and live the life of the current century or the current decade that we are in. That's because the quality of education in India has been missing. Government schools used to be at one time desirable places to go to. Today, if you go there, the reports of the Government of India reports, they say, or rather their approved reports, they say, eighth grade students, half of them, they don't have the second grade skills. More than three-fourths of students, fifth grade students don't have second grade skills. Even the, just four days back, report came. The gap in quality of education, it has kind of become wider and larger and that is a challenge that India is facing. So, my question to you is someone who knows a lot about education system in India and especially also from the technology angle as well. We are the greatest beneficiary of India's school system. You know, we were born 10-15 years later after independence of India, you know, from primary school to high school to universities and IITs. You know, we went there, hardly we had to really pay, it didn't cost us anything. And so, what went wrong in the Indian education system and when and how it can be corrected? You see, in the beginning, there was a focus from the leadership of the country to try to, soon after the constitution made, to take the India to its possibilities. So, there's a lot of focus on education in the first 15-20 years. We somehow came into that phase and government schools were offering reasonable education and fee was only about say one dollar a month, two dollars a month, that was the fee. Even in JNU, I think we paid 20 rupees, which was about those two dollars. And most of us had a scholarship, I had a full scholarship. And I had a national scholarship as well, so that took care of everything. But not most of us, about 1% had a scholarship, but that's 1% is here now in the US, in that sense, yes. But what happened is, as the population now, Indian population has gone from 360 million to 1.5 billion and the system did not increase the capacity accordingly. Today, we have one and a half million schools, but about 250,000 have one teacher and five grades in school, what will you educate there? So, there was access became the reason, but the quality was forgotten. At one time, when we were there, access was limited, but whatever was there was reasonable. Second thing, if you see, mission schools contributed greatly to India. And third, Vidyabharati emerged from that same background. And fourth, there was an Uday Vidyalaya, Skendri Vidyalaya, they came out as about a million students go to Kendri Vidyalaya, 100,000 a year, they do fine, they get reasonable education. This education doesn't take you to the same frontier, so you can innovate, create, etc., but it makes you smart enough to live with the times that you're born in. So, now also in India, I think that the private sector is playing a very important role as well. Both private sector, also some non-profits are playing important role as well. Private sector has become important in education, but they're catering to only about one to two percent. Their numbers are about 40 percent, but the quality education is only about one or two percent. The Indian education became more focused on certification. It was not about learning, as you get a certificate, or you pass examination, you go through this. So, if you see this, there are, say, 5,000 seats, and there are five million children trying to get into those 5,000 seats. So, there is a whole business around that of coaching, but only 5,000 can get in. But Indian need is, you're looking at a country which talks about making so many engineers, it has to create, say, maybe a million engineers a year, maybe half a million doctors a year. That's not happening. Population of one-fifth of the world, you need a huge army of people with the skills. That's not happening. So, as of now, only seven to eight percent maximum are the people who get reasonable education. About one or two percent of them become good enough to be overseas. Look at this way. America has about close to four to five million people of Indian origin, including families. Professionally, say, about two million professionals are in America at this point in time, and they're doing fine. They've become the most earning community as such, but that's because they came from the top. They're the creme de la creme of India. But what we left behind, they got used to living in their own environment, but nobody cared for the people who lost out, people who were at the bottom. So, 90 percent of people don't get an equality education. Vidya Bharti, what it does is, it makes it possible to have a $10 per month fees, which gives people kind of education, which can make them or help them become anything the government offers. It doesn't help them go to the next stage, but prepares them to have something which is available today. We need education which will help you go to... So, how many students, like, at a given time, go through the Vidya Bharti program? Every year, 300,000 students join, three and a half million people at many, many point in time. So, that's about 1.3 percent of India's education system. But Vidya Bharti students, 50 percent of the top 10 positions in state boards, they are achieved by Vidya Bharti students. So, 1 percent attendance, 50 percent board positions. And Vidya Bharti is all across India, everywhere. It's in 684 districts, if you look at the informal part as well, of the 750 districts. So, almost 90 percent of India is covered by a Vidya Bharti school. So, the goal of your gala is to do some sort of also make an awareness about these schools as well as do some fundraising as well for the same cause? I think fundraising, my cause is this, that everyone who can contribute to it, they should dub their own village. That will be my dream and ideal. Because that way we can very quickly take the nation to the next stage. Second can be upgrading the Vidya Bharti. Vidya Bharti is very helping people achieve what is possible today. But we have to achieve something which is possible tomorrow. There's a sixth generation gap, I see. Others don't see it the same way as I see it. If you go back to 1947, Korea, China and India, they began at about same $50 per capita income. India was $52, China was $47, Korea was $55. And in 1993, China crosses India's per capita GDP at close to $390 as such. And now China is at $15,000, India still is $2,500, Korea is at $40,000. So, if I was looking at $100,000 as a reasonable good student will do, the US is $90,000, Korea at $40,000, China at $15,000, India is at $2,500. So, if you see from that point of view, how do you rate me as India, as a nation, in terms of my achievement? That's what the challenge is. Vidya Bharti is trying to somehow bridge that possibility. How do we get to be a 2.5% to 3% achiever to whatever we can be? We can be 100% achiever. That bridge, Vidya Bharti is one step in that. So, Satish, now let's come back to the book. The full play consists of four different sections in there. So, can you tell our audience about what those four sections are? And how it is really going to help uplift education in India? So, two things happening here. One was that when I came to Boston, I suddenly found that I used to go to four galas, which were Pratham, American India Foundation, Ekal, and Desai Foundation, and Akshapatra. So, when I looked at all of them, I got to know more about them. And I wondered what is happening here in terms of how are they different, but they're all contributing something which nation or government or others are not contributing. They're all contributing something interesting. And that was the beginning of the question. Then I said, in the Indian context, who all are contributing? And then I saw these four major players, which is Vidya Bharti, unknown, but the largest. Pratham, very well known, but they do something very interesting. Ekal, amazingly good brand, reached out to everyone because they do, they touch the heart. And American India Foundation, probably the biggest initiative from the diaspora in the US. And I looked at how they contribute. And then I said, well, if I had to feed you a meal, then in that meal, I need everything that you need. You need bread, you need rice, you need vegetables, you need some condiments, you need some spices, whatever, or pickles. So, that's your meal that becomes interesting meal. But somebody says, listen, but why do you eat with hand? Take a spoon. That's one part. Somebody says, look, I don't have so much. I can only give you a bread. That's fine, too. And somebody, so similarly, everybody is trying to do better than it was, but they are doing what they can. I looked at, what is a meal? The meal is a full plate. Full plate makes it possible. But more than that, my question was this, what makes the transformation happen? So, for instance, what makes the water boil? My point has been Indian education system has been boiling the water at 30 degrees for 80 years, and it will never boil. But there are people in India who still think probably it'll take longer, but it will boil even at 30 degrees. So, that's the kind of understanding you're trying to deal with. So, that's one part. Second is the critical mass. Unless everything is there, you don't feel fulfilled about it. Without that, innovation doesn't happen. How do you bring to the level of innovation? That's what I was trying to look at it. Now, if anybody reads this book, what are the two or three things they will walk away with? Well, I think what it does is it looks at four major institutions, how they have gone about looking at. The one you mentioned just now. Yes. Okay. So, Vidyabharati, Pratham, American India Foundation, AICOT, they all do something very interesting and positive and which nobody else is doing. In that sense, they contribute. But they do what they can do. Vidyabharati has real schools, 14,000. They're like, they're a couple of acres campus. They have all the buildings. They have 20,000, 25,000, 30,000, 40,000 square feet of space. They have all the basics. They don't have technology yet. They're trying to do technology. While Pratham did analysis of things better than anyone else because of them came to recognition, whatever. AICOT went to the areas where there was nothing, there was no hope, no possibilities. They reached out to the unreachable. And American India Foundation brought in what American understanding was, technologies, etc. They looked at some pieces of it and they brought that perspective. So, when I look at what contributes the need of the child today and who impacts lifetime of the child, then Vidyabharati seems like a very good proposition to start with. But all of them are required somewhere. So, they all have a great role to play. But we need Vidyabharati definitely for 100%. Right now, it's only 1.5%. But within Vidyabharati, we need upgrading education as well. For that, I'm trying to reach out to everyone. Let's help them upgrade the quality of delivery of education. How to create a cell phone of education. That's the basic idea. So, we have a few minutes left here. But one question I have before I let you go. Is there any support from the Indian government for Vidyabharati programs or other private educational or non-profit educational programs in India? Vidyabharati as a matter of principle doesn't accept anything from the government. The Prime Minister himself is very fond of it and he always talks about both Vidyabharati and Ekal. But as a matter of principle, Vidyabharati does not accept anything from the government. The reason is, if you accept from one government, the second government, next government may not like it. And we understand the political challenges that any messaging has. So, they decided not to accept anything from the government. Can you also tell us a little bit about the history of Vidyabharati in India, when it started, how old it is, etc? It was founded in 1952 at the first school somewhere near Gorakhpur. And the basic idea was, how do you integrate the Indian culture as well in education? At that time, India is just being free and they are trying to create something in response to the kind of education that is possible at that point in time. Because our best schools are visionary or convent school at that point in time or government schools, which were not as many. So, you had to create a whole new world. Just think of this way. In 70, 74 years, they've created 14,000 schools, almost 200 schools every year, almost four schools every week. That's what they've achieved. And they're catering to one and a half percent of it. So, I would say that Vidyabharati has done, began that journey. And what about the grades, from what grade to what grade? They go from K-12, K-12. Basically, they don't go to pre-K. They start with K, basically grade one or just about that point. And then they have primary, they have some, some schools are secondary, some go all the way to high school and some are to K-12. And what about the gender? They're all girls or all boys or mixed or all types? Some schools are only girls schools. Some schools are up to 8th. Many schools are basically co-eds. But 9th onwards, they become boys and girls schools. Excellent. Satish, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for having me here. And we'll see you on July 12th. Look forward to it. Thank you. I welcome you all. Please do join us. And you can, you can go on our website. You can look at vbne.org, VidyabharatiNewEngland.org. And, or, you know, you will have this India New England newspaper. They will be talking about it. You can find it from there as well.