“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Across rural tribal belts and formal government systems, two educators walk different paths, guided by a shared belief: no child should be left behind.
Satish Kumar works in regions where schools are sometimes a distant dream, in the literal sense. His work with Aspire supports over 2000 public schools and community-led learning spaces across Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan.
Vinay R Sanjivi, through his role at ShikshaLokam, partners with state education departments and institutions to build leadership within the formal system, designing programs that reach thousands of schools through department heads, principals, and clusters.
This blog captures their dialogue, grounded, personal, and purpose-driven. It isn’t a polished essay. It’s a patchwork of real stories, invisible labour, community wisdom, and systemic potential that are stitched together by a shared intent
I. The Puzzle Pieces
Satish Kumar:
In many tribal regions, schools either don’t exist or are so far away that they might as well not. In parts of the Korba district, Chhattisgarh, children’s first exposure to learning often happens in community centres, not schools. These emerged because there was no other alternative; the nearest government school might be 8–10 km away, across rivers and forest trails.
So communities stepped in. We helped build over 200 such centres, not fancy buildings, but spaces rooted in local trust. A room, a teacher from the community, and learning materials made with what’s available. What mattered was that learning began. That belief was seeded.
Vinay R Sanjivi:
What you describe, Satish, resonates, though I’ve encountered it from the other side. My work focuses on enabling leadership inside the education system. We work with states to design large-scale programs for head teachers, Cluster Resource Persons, and department officials. These programs can impact tens of thousands of schools. But within that scale lies complexity: shifting political priorities, slow-moving bureaucracy, and the challenge of ensuring the program doesn’t just stay on paper but lands meaningfully in classrooms.
The questions I often sit with are: How do we align different stakeholders around a shared vision for student learning? And how do we sustain that alignment?
II. The Invisible Labour of Change
Satish Kumar:
Building a community centre is not just physical labour. It’s emotional. It’s lonely work. I remember visiting Kumardungi in West Singhbhum, Jharkhand, in 2023. The community teacher there walked 8 km every day, through rivers and hills, only to find no children at the centre. But she didn’t give up. She went door to door, speaking with parents to make them understand.
She once told me, crying, “I’m trying so hard, but it feels like I’m alone.” Today, that same centre has thriving attendance. But what people don’t see is the persistence of the community teacher who brought it to life.
Vinay R Sanjivi:
I know that feeling too, though it wears a different face in the system. Most people see the launch glitz of a new government initiative and think, “That’s success.” But what they don’t see are the months of effort behind it: building trust with department officials, getting time with senior officers, trying to hold space for design conversations amidst tight timelines.
A colleague of mine once waited five hours outside a government office for a 10-minute meeting. That invisible effort doesn’t make it to the reports, but without it, nothing moves. Real reform often begins in such moments, with someone choosing not to give up.
III. Measuring Success
Satish Kumar:
People ask us, “What’s the end goal of your centres?” For us, success is when we are no longer needed. When every child from that village is enrolled in a formal school. When the community feels empowered to demand its rights and acts on that empowerment.
We’ve seen this in places like Keonjhar district, Odisha. Where there were no schools for over 10 km, communities have written directly to the Chief Minister asking for schools. That’s when we know we’ve done our part, not by replacing the system, but by enabling people to claim it.
Vinay R Sanjivi:
That’s so powerful. In my work, success looks like a shift in how leaders lead. When a Cluster Resource Person stops acting like a school inspector and becomes a coach. When a head teacher redesigns the morning assembly to begin with songs or reflections, not just announcements. When a state officer says, “Let’s co-create this [program or solution] with teachers, not just roll it out for them.”
This shift from compliance to ownership is my resonance with success.
IV. A Shared Responsibility
Satish Kumar:
I’ve come to believe that no one, no government, no NGO, no community, can transform education alone. It takes all of us. Teachers, communities, and government departments, thinking, acting, and learning together.
Vinay R Sanjivi:
We believe real education reform comes not from top-down blueprints, but from trust in local leadership. From spaces where grassroots wisdom meets systemic architecture.
We need fewer “best practices” and more “what makes sense here.” What works in Bengaluru might fail in Kumardungi. Context isn’t a constraint. It’s the compass.
‘Community innovation and Institutional will’ together doesn’t just get us programs, it pushes for paradigm shifts. And most importantly, we get closer to a future where every child learns with dignity.
V. Final Reflections: Different Paths, Shared Purpose
The work we both do looks very different. One walks through forests and rivers, the other through policy corridors. But both are rooted in a common conviction that every child matters
It’s easy to talk about scale. But as we’ve both learnt, scale without soil is fragile. And soil without systems can wither. It’s only when both come together, when lived realities are not dismissed, and systemic levers are not ignored, that transformation takes root.
The journey is long. The work is hard. But when we listen to each other, honour each other’s truths, and walk together, we go far.
This is our responsibility together.
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