:: Bharti Foundation ::

Why the focus on education and not any other domain to do corporate philanthropy?
- At Bharti there has always been a belief to undertake projects that would have a direct positive impact on
- society
- In the words of Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises- We believe in playing
- a leading role in “nation building through transformational projects and also look at nation building beyond the
- call of business.”
- There is also a belief in the inherent potential of human beings that can be realized through the two main triggers
- of education and technology
- So while Bharti Airtel has changed the face of the country through technology, it was time that the Bharti Group
- ventured into the field of education
- Also the Millennium Development Goals talk of achieving universal primary education by 2015
- So its time that Corporate India stepped in to jointly shoulder this responsibility with the government and
- undertake initiatives in the field of education
What do we want to achieve through this initiative?
- The Satya Bharti School Program is the flagship program of Bharti foundation and was launched in 2006
- The program focuses on the delivery of quality education
- We a realize that we cannot perhaps educate every single child in the country- so the Satya Bharti School
- Program is an initiative that aims to set up a replicable model of education that can be taken up by many
- other organizations and replicated in its process of delivery
- Because for us, while we hold the program very close to our hearts, we don’t want to stop with just our
- schools and end the movement there
- For us this project is about catalyzing a larger movement in the country and ensuring that one day all schools
- in the country will deliver quality education to every single child in India
How are teachers selected for Satya Bharti Schools?
- The teachers for our Satya Bharti Schools are recruited from the local community- from the village in which
- the school is located and from nearby villages
- They are then put through various training sessions after which they are deputed to the schools
Why are we focused on north India? What are the future plans of expansion?
- The focus of the Satya Bharti School Program has been North India state-centric so far and we are operating
- primarily in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan & Uttar Pradesh.
- However, since the last academic session ( 2009-10) we have started operations in 10 schools in Tamil Nadu
- in the Sivaganga district
- We have also recently launched the Satya Bharti School Program in West Bengal and 10 schools will soon be
- set up in the district of Murshidabad
How would a student from Satya Bharti Schools program be different than a student from a
private or government schools?
- At Satya Bharti Schools we look at holistic development of children
- While the quality of education is given prime importance, we also believe in the overall development of
- children
- The curriculum being followed at the Satya Bharti Schools has been designed thus keeping in mind the
- requirements for holistic development of children
- More than 50 % of the activities conducted at the school are based on outdoor projects and activities,
- helping the children learn by observation and enquiry rather than focus on rote learning
- We also lay stress on inculcating a deep sense of belonging in every child to their own community and culture
- Towards this, we incite community members to come to our schools and teach the children about local
- cultural practices, arts and craft
- So we hope that our students will grow up to be educated, well groomed citizens of the country with a
- sense of deep commitment to their own society and the country
Which other organizations are associated with the Bharti Foundation and Satya Bharti
Schools program?
- We are looking at building the Satya Bharti School Program on a national level
- We are also looking at making this program sustainable in perpetuity
- As a result of this we have tied up with a lot of corporates, academic institutions and other smaller
- organizations who support us through material and monetary donations and even technical expertise
- Companies like IBM have given all our schools Kid smart Computers while Microsoft has given us
- free software.
- Some companies have made donations towards our corpus or towards our school buildings
- Companies like Duraline, DLF, Deutsche Bank etc. have even adopted our schools- paying towards
- the operational expense of one entire school
Why did we choose to adopt government schools?
- We at the Foundation decided on adopting a two pronged strategy to impact the quality of education
- being delivered in the country
- So while we are building our own schools, we have also adopted 49 government primary schools in
- Neemrana and Amer in Rajasthan
- We also understand that our own schools can only educate only a fraction of the millions of children in
- the country
- So our schools are being set up as scalable and replicable units
- Adopting government schools and working in partnership with state governments is also an effort in the
- direction to impact the maximum number of lives with quality education
- So we are not duplicating existing systems of education but only enhancing them further so that children
- get quality education completely free of cost
How will the schools be made sustainable in future?
- The Satya Bharti School Program is sustained through interest earnings on its present corpus
- It also receives donations from Bharti Group Companies, its employees and external donors and
- corporate partners
- The program is also built on principles of community partnership and follows the PPP ( Public-Private
- Partnership) model in its implementation of programs
- The adopted government schools in Neemrana and Amer are our best examples of working in conjunction
- with the state governments
- Involving the community in various ways like recruitment of local teachers, setting up of schools on land
- pieces donated by community members, identifying vendors for the school from the local community etc.
- allows for community participation and instills a sense of ownership among community members