Meher is Director of Social Audit, Govt of Chhatisgarh. He is based out of Raipur. He has a deep interest  in education. Here are people that he recommends we find out more about:

·       Deepalaya is a slum school in Delhi. Meher has been involved with Ajax, an NGO which funds in the education sector. Deepalaya is one of their fundees. They have schools that run to 12^th grade.

·       Vidya Patwardhan at Aksharnandan

·       Pankaj Jain who runs Gyanshalas: slum located primary schools in Ahmedabad. One interesting thing about his schools are the intensive teacher training programs for new teachers – most of whom are from the local slum itself. One kaizen is getting kids to school. Teachers literally hand hold kids who live across the road – to help them cross the road from illiteracy to literacy. The idea I get is to arrange for human transport – by mapping students and asking them to walk together to school. A sort of human school bus. Worth trying out.

·       Ramesh Panse. He used to be with BJS – and is now associated with Shantilal Mutha foundation. He has been the brains behind Mulya wardhan – BJS’ initiative on value education. The Wagholi Education Research center is now under the aegis of Shantilal Mutha foundation.

·       Payam Shoghi. Is Principal at Riverdale School, Mulshi. He used to be Meher’s colleague at BJS.

·       Saurabh Phadke is a maverick architect – who works with all materials, except concrete. He has a website: soar.in

Meher talked of an interesting teaching philosophy: REFLECT. Some R and D required on that. Basically influenced by Paul Frere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Instead of teaching alphabets, the class discusses objects – and the sounds that make up the name of the object.