THE CHALLENGES   There are many lacunae that have long bothered India when it comes to education, teacher training and classroom materials or good books - fiction and poetry and good old tales of fantasy and imagination. We all know that quality reading materials are as important - if not more so - for children who have had no access to books and hence find reading laborious and difficult; as important as quality education. And it is these very children to whom, India has not been able to provide quality.

India is lucky to still have a thriving tribal culture. Their worldviews on nature and nurture, the sustainable lifestyles they follow can be pointers for a world in deep trouble ecologically. Tribal people sending their children into schools that have a uniform syllabus and teaching/learning materials, it is imperative that their own sustainable ideas come back to the classrooms of their children. Giving back to tribal communities what we take from them is a good practices for Katha. Our books for children hope to bring the larger sustainable ideas of tribal people into well illustrated books that can then go back into their schools and to their children - thus expanding on their ideas and making ecology and sustainable lifestyles possible and fashionable amongst all children.

Katha believes in a philosophy of sustainable education that is:

• A relevant education curriculum that gives the child a liberal, well-rounded education bringing together scholastic, entrepreneurial and spiritual learning.
  Teaching/learning materials that make learning joyful, relevant and creative, increasing lifelong learning skills/habits in children.
• Empowered students and teachers who know their rights and responsibilities and who join hands to make the system work for the good of all.
• Education that combines traditional Indian practices with new knowledge on all life-related topics, which makes the child a responsive, responsible and happy member of her society.
• Teacher training that supports sound and creative classroom ideas on gender and other issues, worked sensitively into and in relation to formal, curricular teaching.
  Community and parent participation, and informed investment in their own and their children's future.
• Purna Siksha or Holistic Education - Today's education turns out the quality-conscious technocrat/ business manager/ doctor, but often does not develop the person as a responsive and responsible citizen, not just of India but of the world. Social change requires that people believe they can help build a better and more humane world. The Katha Initiatives support the growth and maturing of people as individuals and as members of not just a multicultural country like ours, but also as confident world citizens.
  

Katha KHAZANA . A learning centre that works with and in a large slum cluster in Delhi . Starting in 1990 with 5 children, we today have 1200 children. Many of the children, working to support a family in many case, have stayed with us and now are in colleges and in gainful employment. With a special curriculum and syllabi that is innovative and relevant with a pedagogy to match. Straddling the democratic education and education for democracy spaces, the shifting of emphasis from the Me to the We, from mass cultures to critical thinking cultures, from passive tolerance to active tolerance, and which shapes and is shaped by the power of story, storytelling and individual dynamism for the larger good. Katha Khazana has three main components - the children's initiatives, those for women and the community programmes.

KATHASHALA . The Katha Public School . Creche, preschool, junior and high school. With --

Katha Student Support Centre . For the nearly 6,000 children who have moved from our centre to formal schools and other students in the community. Remedials and tutorials mainly.

Katha School of Entrepreneurship . Entrepreneurship, leadership. Job shadowing, placement, intensive and professional learning spaces. Started in 1995.

KITES . Katha Information Technology and eCommerce School . Started in 2000, it hones Katha's work in the community, and strengthens this further through IT tools.