Sri Sathya Sai Education
The end of education is character. Education without character is useless.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Prasanthi Nilayam, November 20, 2001
Educare
Sri Sathya Sai Baba has fostered a unique approach to education called educare, drawing out divine qualities of truth, right-conduct, peace, love and non-violence which are latent within the individual. Educare aligns the heart, head, and hands. True education must in Sai Baba’s words, “broaden the heart and expand one’s love.” True education is “that which fosters the sense of oneness, draws out one’s divine qualities and promotes the blossoming of human personality.”
Related: Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s discourses on Educare
Sri Sathya Sai Schools and Institutes
Sri Sathya Sai Schools integrate educare with traditional curriculum promoting students with good character skilled in academic areas. Sai Baba established the first Sri Sathya Sai School in India in 1968. By the early 1990s Sri Sathya Sai Schools began to be established outside India, and Institutes of Sri Sathya Sai Education (ISSSE) were soon established to train teachers and assure quality. There are now 31 Institutes of Sri Sathya Sai Education (ISSSEs) in 31 countries, and 37 Sri Sathya Sai Schools around the world.
Related: Sri Sathya Sai Schools and Institutes
SSE and SSSEHV
Inspired by the teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba the Bal Vikas programme was established in India in 1969 to teach the country’s spiritual heritage to children of devotees. Later to be known as Sai Spiritual Education (SSE) outside India, the programmes promoted Unity of Religions, the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, and stories about the life of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. By the 1980s the SSE programme was also adapted to foster human and spiritual values in children of parents who were not devotees without the focus on a specific spiritual leader. This new programme called Sri Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSSEHV) is taught in community and after-school settings.