After fifteen years of intense work, we have developed a unique structure for village education that consists of a network of Satellite Schools where a community-based curriculum is taught by village youth trained in especially designed multi-grade methodologies, where the academic curriculum is graded for individual levels of learning, grounded in up-to-date information, and framed in the local idiom and, finally, where the curriculum is integrated with activities aimed to promote conservation, and sustain local culture.

The education kit called 'School in a Box' consists of graded cards. These cards represented a breaking down of the learning process into smaller units. Groups of cards are then assembled into a set of 'milestones', which lead students from level I to level V in the areas of language, mathematics and environmental science.

These carefully designed 'study cards' and 'work cards' are supported by a pictorial 'achievement ladder' that gives a clear sequential organization to what are essentially self-learning materials.

Children at different levels within a single classroom share the same kit. A textbook in each subject for each child can be dispensed with or used as enrichment material.

The cards allow children to learn at their own pace by selecting, with the help of the 'achievement ladder', the appropriate 'study card' for their level and performing the necessary follow-up activities or exercises contained in the 'work cards'. This method encourages silent self-study and individualized learning, though teacher instruction and group work are also a necessary part of the learning process. It gave ample room to the fast-learner as well as the slow-learner to progress at their own pace. Student absenteeism is not a problem in our schools because a student is able to simply take up where he or she had left off on returning to school after a period of absence.

Learning by rote and dry comprehension exercises are abandoned in favour of activity-based learning. Work cards supported by teaching aids are prepared in such a way that children are actively involved in what she is doing and the possibility of her sitting "dreaming" in front of an open book is reduced to the minimum.

Given the rich folk tradition in which our villages are steeped, folk art, folk songs and local stories and legends are also incorporated into the curriculum. Education is seen not as a process of trying to bring every educated person's competencies to one homogenized level, thereby alienating the child from his own roots and ironing out cultural differences, but as a tool for deepening an understanding of herself, of her traditions and roots, while also exposing her to a wider cultural and knowledge base. This value-based model of education communicates ideals such as tolerance for other cultures, protection of the environment, preservation of folklore and local medicinal traditions.

The model of rural education provides a viable and attractive alternative to traditional education in villages, based on the one teacher per class, mono-grade, mono-level model.