School and community outreach: SDG 4 Quality Education

5Education outreach in schools and communities

The UPES Department of Social Outreach takes learning into local schools and villages through regular, faculty-mentored programmes run with student volunteers.

These programmes run regularly, on a planned schedule through the academic year.

Impact

Faculty-mentored student volunteers take learning into government schools and villages week after week.

14local schools supported under the EDUDHURMA CSR policy

700+pupils in Samagra Shiksha partner schools

30+government school teachers trained to teach digitally

450+NSS student volunteers

A technology-enabled English literacy programme has run at Government High School, Upper Kandoli, since 2022.
Project Abhilasha coaches meritorious students from marginalised parts of Uttarakhand for engineering entrance exams.
Students of a school for the blind learned the solar system through touchable planet models and audio descriptions.

Smart Class. Since 2022, with the Lotus Petal Foundation, UPES has run a technology-enabled English literacy programme for Grade 9 students at Government High School, Upper Kandoli, and maintains its smart classroom.
National Science Day. Live experiments on the reflection of light, and the story of Dr C. V. Raman, for students at Government High School, Doonga.
Infinite Skies. With the Infinity Space Club, UPES taught the solar system to students of Sharp Memorial School for the Blind through touchable planet models and audio descriptions.
Teachers. Project Dronasthali trained more than 30 teachers from 15 government primary schools in Dehradun to teach through WhatsApp, and participants reported more confidence in using digital tools.
Schools and scholarships. Under the EDUDHURMA CSR policy, UPES supports the development of 14 local schools, and its Learnshala learning centres and smart classes make lessons more engaging. In February 2024 it opened a renovated multi-utility hall at Government Primary School, Hariyawala.
Emerging technologies. UPES faculty evaluated student projects in AI, machine learning and app development at the AI VidyaSetu zonal round for Kendriya Vidyalaya students in Grades 8 to 12.
Young problem solvers. On 11 August 2026, UPES's Runway Incubator and Department of Social Outreach ran a "Become a Community Problem Solver" programme for 155 students of Classes 9 to 12 at Government Inter College, Paundha. Teams tackled five local challenges, from waste management and road safety to water conservation, market access for farmers and learning beyond the classroom, and presented their solutions.
Student volunteers. NSS UPES, with more than 450 volunteers, teaches young learners, runs awareness drives and holds a 7-day community camp each year, most recently from 16 February 2026. Students of the GreenUp Club visited an orphanage during Atmosphere 2024 to teach children about the environment, clean energy and saving water through interactive activities.
Samagra Shiksha partnership. With Samagra Shiksha Uttarakhand, the state school-education programme, UPES gives teaching and infrastructure support to about 12 government schools and more than 700 pupils, and ran a Maths and Science Fair where Class 6–8 students explained 14 concepts to teachers and families.
Personal safety for children. Under the Srijan programme, the School of Law's Legal Aid Clinic and the UPES CSR team ran "Good Touch and Bad Touch" awareness sessions for students of government schools in Kharakhet, Misrapatti, Kandoli and Harriawala villages.
Legal awareness in schools. The School of Law's Legal Aid Clinic ran sessions on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in nearby schools (5–9 August 2024) and an awareness camp engaging adolescents in schools (5–11 November 2024) (UPES Annual Report 2024–25^[15]).
Equality in the classroom. An awareness drive in 16 government schools in Dehradun introduced students to equal rights and opportunities.
Digital skills for villages. DigitalDhaam gives teachers, middle-school students, homemakers and other villagers near campus free, hands-on training in using computers and the internet.
Young scientists. More than 100 school students presented models and posters at Energy Summit 2025.
Learning by doing. NSS volunteers ran a hands-on Health Day camp for about 100 children at a government school in Pondha.

Flagship education projects

Project Abhilasha

Meritorious students from marginalised parts of Uttarakhand come to campus for a month-long residential coaching camp in Physics, Chemistry and Maths to prepare for engineering entrance exams.

Project Vriddhi

Faculty mentors and student volunteers teach English and Maths to primary school children, to help break cycles of poverty through education.

Projects Raftaar and Bodh

At eight adopted government primary schools, Raftaar supports children's all-round development and Bodh builds reading comprehension.

Project Samvedna

Day care and education for the children of migrant construction workers, most of them women, working on UPES campuses.

Project Payal

Promotes the education of girls in the local community.

Project Protsaahan

Since 2018, UPES has paid tuition, hostel, uniform and laptop costs for meritorious students from the Purkal Youth Development Society to study at UPES.

Project Naman

For the families of fallen soldiers, UPES fully funds the school education of one martyr's child every year and gives education scholarships to the children of five martyrs from Uttarakhand each year.