There was a time, when Punjab was known as the land of abundance and prosperity in not only material wealth but also spiritual wealth. Over the past few decades, the ‘land of the Holy Gurus’ is witnessing a drastic downturn in all round growth of its Human Capital. The sixth river of alcohol & drugs has become a curse amongst the five rivers of this once progressive state. The rural youth of Punjab has slowly alienated from the mainstream of the society.

In the midst of this turmoil, The Kalgidhar Trust, a multifaceted not-for-profit charitable organization took up the responsibility of silently creating a ‘Rural education Revolution’ of sorts and in the span of two decades boasts of a vast resource of 32,000 students spread in 41 CBSE affiliated English Medium Schools in Rural North India. Tucked away in the remote corner of a far-flung region of Himachal Pradesh, nestled in the lap of the mighty Himalayas, stands this unique institution that is toiling un-noticed and coming closer to its dream of showing the world ‘The way to permanent peace’.

The Trust led by its President, Baba Iqbal Singh, Director Agriculture (Retd.) – HP, Padma Bhushan Dr. Khem Singh, Vice-Chancellor (Retd.) – PAU and a team of dedicated educationists have identified the growing disparity in education levels amongst urban & rural masses and also the need to impart ‘Value-based Education’ instead of mere ‘Literacy’. The Trust believes that value-based education is the only answer to the chaotic, charged and helpless situation that the world finds itself into presently. Building of moral characters and values along with the best of Scientific Education can lead to the alleviation of Hunger & Poverty in India and result in Peace and Universal Brotherhood around us. The mission is to create ‘good global citizens’ and not just professionals.

The strategy is simple yet effective –‘Move away from urbanization’, ‘Provide value-based scientific education and spiritual upliftment’ - Reach out to the unreached with healthcare’.

As part of is recent endeavor of opening up more rural schools, The Kalgidhar Trust was offered 8 acres of land by Gurdwara Gurdarshan Parkash Management Committee to open up another centre of excellence at village Jagah Ram Tirath, which has around 1100 houses, most of which are Kutcha and a population consisting of mostly uneducated rural folk.

After the foundation stone of this school was laid by the five beloved ones on 14th March 08, a small office consisting of a borrowed wooden cot was set up. It really required persistent motivation and persuasion for the locals to make them realize the need to send their kids to school.

The modest exercise resulted in the admission of 124 first-generation students and that too from the precincts of a small rickety school office. Hence, the urgent need for a school building resulted in benevolent blessed souls like S. Harnek Singh, former sarpanch of the village and many others who came forward to undertake the noble task. They pitched in with the idea that the under construction Darbar of the Gurdwara be given as a temporary school till the completion of the school building. The whole village supported this idea that it was more important to create Guru Nanak's messengers or mobile Gurdwaras instead of just creating a place of worship.

An enthusiastic team led by the village elders worked on a plan to create six classrooms out of the large Darbar hall. The lack of resources was taken up as a challenge and creativity was the outcome of this. Unused bricks lying allover the place, were used to create partitions and instead of cement mortar, mud was used as brick binder. The ladies pitched in and created a neat and wonderful floor made up of a mixture of mud with chaff and cow dung. Around 25 parents took active part in a unique community exercise of creating resources almost out of nowhere. Such was the enthusiasm and zeal of these blessed ones, which the rooms were, completed within a few days itself. The gigantic task of creating a school within no time looked so much easier with all hands working on it selflessly.

The staff members of this Akal Academy were moved to tears seeing the burning desire of these parents to impart value-based education to their wards. Moved by this sight, they are working with a mission to create good global citizens out of these rural kids who commute from distant villages. The students start their day with prayers and Ardaas and look forward to a promising academic and spiritual future.

Who can forget the famous line: “Many drops an ocean make, and many hands will lighten the load.”