Dehradun, Sept. 6 -- In an age when education systems around the world are searching for new answers, a remarkable educational movement in the Himalayan foothills has been quietly evolving since 1946. It is called Nanhi Dunya, "International (Intercultural) Movement for Children and Their Friends", running nine schools and welfare activities for children, youth and women. On Teachers' Day, let us celebrate this extraordinary and immensely challenging journey of human development of nearly eight decades, exploring the art of learning and living many of the principles that the future of education is only now beginning to rediscover.

Its founder, Prof Lekh Raj Ulfat, felt in 1952: "Nanhi Dunya should become a community of learners, where di...