Adivasi Pedagogy at Vasantshala
About Vasant Rathava
Principal Coordinator
Vasantshala School
Adivasi Academy
Tejgadh, Gujarat
Vasant Rathava, from the Rathava community of Gujarat, is the Principal Coordinator of Vasantshala School at the Adivasi Academy, Tejgadh. For over two decades, he has been at the forefront of innovating Adivasi pedagogy and multilingual education, creating learning environments that honour tribal languages, culture, and knowledge systems.
Since 2005, Vasant has served as Project Coordinator at Adivasi Academy, leading initiatives such as the multilingual Vasant School, school libraries, and curriculum design in Rathwi tribal language and mathematics. He has also designed postgraduate-level courses in tribal studies and facilitated Self-Help Group training, strengthening both education and community empowerment.
His dedication has been recognised nationally with the Pearson Teaching Award (2013), and he continues to contribute as a faculty member of the Adivasi Academy. Fluent in Gujarati, Rathavi, Bhili, and Hindi, he champions mother-language-based education as a way to transform learning for tribal children and nurture cultural resilience.