Taru – Digantar

Since its inception, Digantar has worked to improve the quality of education through a strong knowledge base. To support this vision, the Academic Resource Unit (TARU) was established in 1995–96 to provide academic guidance for Digantar’s extension programmes and research.

TARU went on to establish around 200 Sahaj Shiksha Kendras under Lok Jumbish and about 500 alternative schools with support from the Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission, Bhopal. It also conducted capacity-building workshops for national and state-level DPEP functionaries in collaboration with Vidyabhavan Udaipur and Eklavya Bhopal.
Over the years, TARU has collaborated with multiple organizations and supported state governments across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Bihar. For the past eight years, it has conducted a Certificate Program in the Foundations of Education and played a key role in developing the MA in Elementary Education at TISS, Mumbai, the M.Ed. program at Azim Premji University, and the National Curriculum Framework 2005, with a TARU member chairing the curriculum committee.

Brief History

Current Status

Currently, TARU has a very small team of two people working full-time and a couple of consultants as and when more resources are needed. In addition, there is a galaxy of excellent external faculty sympathetic to TARU’s vision of education and help in designing and conducting courses. At present, TARU is funded by the WIPRO Foundation. TARU offers the ‘Bedrock Series’ and ‘Foundations of Education’ (FOE) programmes for WIPRO partners; these programmes are also open to others for a fee. The current programmes are as follows:

Bedrock Series

The courses in the series (Philosophy of Education, Sociology of Education and Perspectives on Learning) offer a comprehensive understanding foundations of education facilitated by experienced faculty members. Participants can choose courses based on their interests and work requirements, with each course operating independently and scheduled to prevent overlap. Each course lasts for 6 days, except Philosophy of Education, which is an online course spread over 13 weeks. The other two courses will be held at Digantar Campus.
Foundations of Education (Certificate) Program

Last year’s (2022) batch of FOE in Hindi started in November 2022 and completed its 7 core modules, divided into three workshops, by mid-March 2023. The modules were as follows: Introduction to Education, Philosophical Perspective on Education, Sociological Perspectives on Education, Perspectives on Learning, Human Understanding & Curriculum, Pedagogy & Assessment, and Teacher Education. The module “Human Understanding & Curriculum” spanned 4 days, while the other 6 modules were 3 days each. A total of 38 participants from 19 different organisations across India took part in it. The schedule for the current years (2023-24) will be announced soon.
Shiksha Darshan Samvad Shrinkhla

“Shiksha Darshan Samvad” is an ongoing online series of interactions in Hindi, started last year, providing discussions on essential topics related to the philosophy of education. Each 1.5-hour session on Saturdays sees an average of 20-25 participants, including educational practitioners, teachers, and students. Twenty-four sessions have been conducted to date, planned, and facilitated by Rohit Dhankar. Session recordings are uploaded to a dedicated YouTube channel. Participants can choose specific sessions without mandatory registration for all topics. Generous sponsorship offers scholarships for those in need.
Workshops on Early Language and Mathematics

In order to support the nationwide mission for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, leveraging its key strength in teaching Language and Mathematics, TARU plans two 6-day residential workshops on the nature and pedagogy of Language and Mathematics. Schedule for the current year workshops is yet to be announced.
Workshops on Demand: Addressing Organisations’ Needs on Approach

TARU supports organisations with both onsite and workshops on the TARU campus . These workshops are organised on specific issues/topics as requested by the organisation. Recently, TARU completed a 6-day workshop for the Centre for Microfinance, focusing on foundational principles of Education and incorporating them with Draft-NCFSE 2023. It also covered Foundational Language and Mathematics.

These workshops depend on requests from organisations, therefore, have no fixed numbers and calendared schedules.

Infrastructure

Campus

training rooms

dormitory

library

guest rooms

Playground

Green campus

Science Lab

TARU operates with a small core team supported by consultants and a strong network of external faculty. Funded by the WIPRO Foundation, TARU offers programmes focused on the foundations of education through courses, certificate programmes, dialogue series, and need-based workshops delivered in online and residential formats.

Small full-time team with consultant and faculty support

Funded by the WIPRO Foundation

Key offerings:

Bedrock Series (Education foundations courses)
Foundations of Education (Certificate Programme)
Shiksha Darshan Samvad (online Hindi dialogue series)
Workshops on Language, Mathematics, and organisational needs
Workshops on Language, Mathematics, and organisational needs

Programmes offered online, residentially, and on demand