Educational Devotion

Education for the Deprived
Boarding Houses
Voluntary Schools
Teachers' Training Schools
Secondary Schools
Higher Education

Education for the Deprived 
        The Rayat Shikshan Sanstha made an astounding progress in the field of education, reflecting fully the ideals cherished by the founder. The word 'Rayat' chosen by the Karmaveer to name his Sanstha was significant indeed. The 'Rayat' means masses and the educational institution named after it was to focus its attention on the welfare and happiness of the masses. Education then, was but a privilege of the select few. The betterment of the under-privileged achieved through the Sanstha is outcome of Bhaurao’s perfect vision and foresight !

Boarding Houses 
Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil started his work by opening the boarding houses for the boys from the mofussil areas. His Guru Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj, being aware of the monopoly of the privileged classes, had started separate boarding houses at
 

Kolhapur for students of the neglected castes and religions. But Bhaurao was a step ahead of his Guru in bringing all the castes and communities under a single roof of his epoch-making Chhatrapati Shahu Boarding House. This Boarding House served as a medium for the social transformation as a novel kind of educational discipline was insisted on its inmates to live a family life, irrespective of social, caste and creed distincitions and to do manual work that might inculcate in them a noble value like 'Dignity of Labour'. The inmates lived , dined, and studied together. Karmaveer Bhaurao wanted to create 'a new man' who would be an ideal citizen in the country like India with it’s castes countless and communities innumerable, often staking her peace and progress.

       Chh Shahu Boarding house was in fact the first-ever such a bold and conscious experiment in national integration It was christened at the auspicious hands of the Father of Nation in 1927.
 

Mahatma Gandhi, impressed by Bhaurao’s work, had paid a glowing tribute to him: "Bhaurao, you are doing here what I have not been able to do at Sabarmati," and blessed his work by garlanding his Harijan student Laxman Bhingardeve who had stood first in Sanskrit. The boarding houses of the Sanstha have proved helpful in inculcating values like social equality, love for freedom , feeling of brotherhood and self reliance in their inmates.The fact that the communal riots in Western Maharashtra never reach their disastrous apex is a happy outcome of Bhaurao's’ cosmopolitan hostels.The Rayat Shikshan Sanstha gives more importance to the hostels since they not only provide the  boarding and educational facilities but also promote social harmony . Today , the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha runs 74 such hostels with inmates strength of 3823 , including the hostels for the court-committed boys with a strength of over 543. Out of 74 hostels, 15 are for girls.

Voluntary Schools 
            After founding the Chhatrapati Shahu Boarding House in 1924, Bhaurao took upon himself the task of starting voluntary schools in the remote hamlets of Maharashtra. The children of the masses, deprived of their right to education, were blessed with it for the first time in the social history of Maharashtra through this unique movement . Every small village had its own school now. The Sanstha had conducted a school at Dhondewadi in 1919. Three more schools had sprung up in 1936. 'The Rao Bahaddur Kale Practising School' Satara is one of them. Bhaurao opened schools, one after the other. By 1948, the Sanstha was running 578 voluntary Primary Schools in all to meet the needs of the educationally deprived. The teacher of the voluntary school was the guide, friend and philosopher of the villagers. He would convince them to send their children to school. He taught the children by day and guided their parents after school-hours. Bhaurao, thus , created an efficient, ideal team of teacher -workers ,devoted to the cause of education and reached those areas where the government could not. The government was impressed by this extraordinary feat and was not only moved to take over all those voluntary schools in order to make them aided schools but also to change the very educational policy for the better. At present. the Sanstha conducts 26 primary schools, 5 out of them being English Medium schools.

Teachers' Training Schools  

It was the avowed policy of the Karmaveer that "there should be no village without a school and no school without a trained. teacher." The mass education at primary level was the need of the hour and the opening of primary schools on a large scale was the only remedy to meet this need. But the difficulty was the paucity of adequate number of trained primary teachers to work in such schools. Bhaurao, therefore, started a Training College,The Silver Jubilee Rural Training College ( Mahatma Phule Adhyapak Vidyalaya, at present )  for the maleteachers and the Jijamata Training College for the female teachers, in 1935 and 1942 respectively. Today, the Sanstha conducts 8 Training Colleges.

Secondary Schools 
            Bhaurao turned to secondary education by establishing the Maharaja Sayajirao High-School in 1940. It was free and residential. The students had to stay in the boarding-houses and meet the expenditure incurred on their education by working in "Earn and Learn" scheme of the Sanstha. Bhaurao associated education with manual work and gave new meaning to it. The poor and needy students could keep their feeling of self-respect intact through such a novel scheme of self _ reliant education. While paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi after his tragic assassination , Bhaurao expressed his resolve to open 101 schools in the name of the Father of Nation and fulfilled it. At present, the Sanstha runs as many as 439 Secondary Schools including 160 Higher Secondary Schools, 21 Technical Schools, and 27 Girls’ Schools. The people donate their land, labour and money to help construct the buildings of the schools. Their co-operation is of unique value in this respect.      

"Eduction Through Self Help".

Higher Education 
  Karmaveer Bhaurao’s next step was to bring the portals of higher education within the reach of the poor masses. He, therefore, started a free and residential college at Satara in 1947. This was Chhatrapati Shivaji College.
 

	The opening of this college was a great social event as it was going to provide stimulus to the poor and needy students to help them acquire higher education by the sweat of their brow and make them self-supporting , able-bodied and able-minded youths to launch the campaign of social transformation,  he had foreseen. Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil’s Manual Labour Scheme gave the college a stamp, which neither time nor age could wipe out. It is the heart of his educational philosophy at large. It was through this scheme that his motto "Education Through Self-help" attained its real meaning and glory. The scheme provides manual labour in farming dairying, gardening, building and construction , road-repairs, sweeping, cleaning, cooking, management of canteens and flourmills etc.
At present, many branches of the Sanstha possess  cultivable lands which have become the centres of the experiment of "Earn while you Learn" Scheme.        Today, the Sanstha runs 40 colleges imparting instructions in the faculties of Arts. Science, Commerce and also professional faculties of Education, Law and Engineering . The post-graduate courses are offered in 17 colleges of the Sanstha.