There is a proverb in Gujarati – “Bhanyo Pan Ganyo Nahi” – i.e. Literate but not educated. Two abstract nouns are derived from this saying:

Bhanatar from Bhanyo
Ganatar from Ganyo

Those who are familiar with Gujarati language easily understand the broad and deep meaning of the word Ganatar. Bhanatar is synonymous with formal education. Ganatar is a process of learning from experiences through life. The depth of the word Ganatar is derived from the four English words as mentioned at the heading of this page.

Bhanatar – i.e. the bookish education is a result of contemporary school education. “Ganatar” is derived through the process of development of one’s personality while undergoing real life experiences along with innovative formal education. Ganatar is a concept that calls for total change in conventional education, but at present we focus on elementary education – an important component of a child’s right to development. Further it is now recognized as a fundamental right granted under the Article 21A of the Constitution of India.

Those who found their school too small and who never enjoyed it as much as one should have, were sceptic about the relevance of contemporary education. After schooling, in their youth, they continued to debate on the subject. In order to take the debate to a structured and interactive mode while evolving a concrete response to the real ground situation, GANATAR took shape. It is easy to burst out against uninteresting, useless and irrelevant education system, but that alone does not bring about any change. New, healthy society is possible only with creative attitude, farsightedness and constructive engagement with various aspects of the issue through experiments that may evolve into viable and replicable alternatives. With this perception GANATAR set out to launch understanding and thought on what will be tomorrow’s education (ganatar) instead of existing conventional education (Bhanatar), GANATAR is a collective effort to concretize new scenario of alternative education syster. GANATAR was registered as Trust as well as Society under respective legislations in 1992.