Techies-led nonprofit OSAAT hits milestone with its 100th renovated rural school

One School At A Time (OSAAT), a Bengaluru-based non-profit led by the US-based technology professionals Vadiraja Bhatt and BV Jagadeesh, will dedicate its 100^th renovated rural government school at Masthi in Kolar district on July 26.

Masthi is also the hometown of well-known Kannada short story writer and the Jnanpith recipient Masthi Venkatesha Iyengar. The non-profit will formally hand back the school to the education department in the presence of donors Janardan Thakkar and Linda Thakkar, and Bhatt.

“Masthi’s Karnataka Public School would be a major milestone as we will be adding 20 classrooms (18 classrooms and 3 laboratories with toilets and kitchen) as we rebuild it as a new K to 8 block,” Bhatt said in a statement. It is also the OSAAT’s largest school which has about 800 students from kindergarten to eighth standard in both Kannada and English medium.


OSAAT has rebuilt around 80 schools in Karnataka, and 20 in other states. Another 25 are now in many stages of completion across India, the nonprofit said in a statement.

The US-based Thakkar Family Foundation has funded Rs 8 crore for the Masthi school project, OSAAT vice president (marketing & CSR) Vijay Srinivas Prativadi, said.

OSAAT, founded in the US in 2003 by Bhatt with its India arm later opened in 2011 re-builds rural government schools with a mission to provide children with a safe school with the best of facilities, OSAAT vice president (technical) Sudheer Hullemane said.

OSAAT's first project was a government school at Bajegoli in Karkala taluk of Udupi. "Many of us in the US had once studied in these government schools. Seeing their pitiable condition deeply pained us. Rebuilding the first school opened our eyes to the monumental problem of poor infrastructure at government schools. It was our way of giving back because these schools made us who we are. We believe education is the best gift for young minds, and that belief gave birth to OSAAT," Bhatt said.

Thakkar, who has funded the Masthi project through his foundation, did his BE at Mysore University before pursuing his master’s degree and an MBA in the US.

In the early 2000s, a group of Silicon Valley professionals spent their weekend leisure putting up music and theatre shows in the Bay Area, California, raising funds to give back to India. On an urgent request from a headmaster, Bhatt decided to look at the local government school in his village in coastal Karnataka. What he saw was a decrepit structure lacking in facilities with a broken roof.

“Before we choose a school, we consider the number of students and whether it has enough enthusiastic teachers to sustain it. It's not just a one-team job; various stakeholders and beneficiaries must collaborate to achieve the desired results. The village community must also support the school to ensure that our efforts are not in vain. If we see a matching energy, we proceed with the revamp and plan for the sustainability of the school’s infrastructure,” Bhatt said.

OSAAT has been supported by fundraisers in the US, corporate CSR grants as well as HNI support in India.