Have you heard of Sonam Wanghcuk??  If not then let me remind you of the movie “3 IDIOTS” ,the character played by  Aamir Khan was  closely inspired by the life of Sonam Wanghcuk. 

 Besides being an engineer, he is also an innovator and education reformist and founding director of the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh. So youmight be wondering what is so special in this school. This school is very different from any other institutions of India. This school relies  completely on solar energy for electricity,heat and all its other power and energy needs. Its uniqueness also lies in the fact that where the other schools in the country, and the world admit the students on the basis of exam performances ,here the criteria of admission is failing in exams.  

So What led to  creation of this kind of criteria ??It all started when Sonam Wanghcuk, due to differences with his father over the choice of engineering stream, had to finance his own education. He started teaching students to finance his needs. The English medium teaching felt like alien to the  students of ladakh ,and as a result 95% student failed that year in their 10th examination. Sonam Wanghcuk realised it was not the children who were failing but our own education system. So he started a new initiative in partnership with government. The joined effort involved his team, local government and the People of the region which they called the “operation new hope”.

After consistent efforts for years the pass percentage which was stuck at a dismal of 5% improved steadily to 55% in 7 years and in consecutive years pass percentage increased to 75%..But for the remaining 25% who were still being labelled as failures, a different school was started by them, which is situated in the ladakh desert on the bank of river Indus. 

This different school functions in its own unique way. They elect their own mini government for a 2 month term. A Leader is chosen, departments which includes food and nutrition, electricity and energy are assigned to them. They set their own 2 month targets and report on the progress. They deal practically, for example when they are taught about germ theory  like preservation ,they make  their own  jam to figure out different ways to preserve it over a long period of time. They learn lessons of economics when they take the apricot jam to the market to sell. From the profit they earn they travel to new regions of India and learn geography that way. Much like a country the school has its own newspaper, “Campus Time”,campus radio and even its own time zone. 

Basically students get an early experience of what life has in store. Innovation and invention of a part of life there. Don't u think India requires more school of this kind in order to impart real knowledge and experience. 

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