A year after receiving funding from the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), Maitreya Universal Education School in Bodh Gaya, in India’s Bihar State, is reporting improvements in enrollment, student support services, and classroom infrastructure as it seeks to serve children from disadvantaged communities.
The developments follow a 2024 grant from the FPMT’s Social Services Fund, which allocated more than US$213,000 across seven schools in India and Nepal. At Maitreya School, the support has contributed to expanded enrollment, the restoration of a student nutrition program, and the introduction of trauma-informed teaching practices—part of a broader effort to provide stable, value-based education in one of India’s most economically challenged regions.
Maitreya Universal Education School, a project of Root Institute for Wisdom Culture in Bodh Gaya, has seen measurable progress across almost every dimension of school life since that grant. Student numbers have grown from 263 to 285, the majority from severely disadvantaged families in one of India’s most economically challenged states.
Other improvements include a revitalised library, a restored nutrition program, new classroom infrastructure, and a deepening commitment to trauma-informed teaching methods.
The school’s mission, rooted in the vision of the late Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who co-founded the FPMT in Nepal in 1975 and served as its spiritual director until his death in 2023,* reaches beyond conventional academics. As Rinpoche expressed it, the goal was to nurture children who would act as warriors who bring peace and happiness into the world. This aspiration is now taking shape.
“The school is in a beautiful place—Bodh Gaya—but at the same time, in the most difficult place, one of the poorest states in India,” said staff member Neelashi, who holds master’s degrees in education and Buddhist studies and joined the school in August 2024. “Education cannot just be English, Hindi, science, math. The regular teachers will do that. But education has to mean other things too. That’s my work. Paying attention to how we are as human beings.” (FPMT)
Those other things include meditation classes, art therapy, and project-based learning designed to replace rote, blackboard-led instruction, which research shows is least effective for children who have experienced trauma.
Many of Maitreya School’s students come from households affected by poverty, alcoholism, or abuse, and the school has responded by introducing trauma-informed approaches to teaching. A concrete expression of this is the introduction of single-teacher classrooms in primary grades, instead of teachers rotating between classes. The change gives younger children, many of whom have experienced instability at home, a consistent adult presence, helping to build trust and for them to feel safe enough to learn.
Another innovation is “circle time.” Small group discussions in which students explore the school’s 16 Guidelines for Life: a practical framework for introducing wisdom and compassion. Replacing large assemblies with smaller, more intimate conversations has proven helpful to children affected by trauma, supporting emotional development and engagement with Buddhist values.
Improvements to the physical environment are also evident. Six rooms are being renovated to accomodate music, dance, drama, yoga, and arts programs. There is also an intitiave to transform the school’s rooftop and garden into permaculture-based learning spaces.
Meanwhile, the library, rebuilt by a volunteer known at the school as Duffer, a retired teacher and librarian from the United States, and a small team in 2023-24, and now stocked with several hundred new Hindi-language books, has become a hub of literacy and imagination.
“Some days more [kids] want to be there than we can even fit in,” Duffer observed. (FPMT)
Perhaps the most immediately impactful development has been the restoration of the school’s morning nutrition program. Many students were arriving hungry, which had a direct effect on their ability to learn. The reinstatement of daily snacks of peanuts, bananas, and hard-boiled eggs, funded through donor support, has made a measurable difference.
“When the kids are hungry, we notice: they get restless or unresponsive,” said Duffer. “The food makes a difference to their learning. We are so grateful to the donors.”
The students are also engaging with the Buddhist heritage on their doorstep. In addition to visiting the Mahabodhi stupa, the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment in their own city, students undertook a pilgrimage to Rajgir, Nalanda, and Pawapuri, where they recited the Heart Sutra alongside international pilgrims. For children growing up in contact with some of Buddhism’s most sacred sites, these encounters are a meaningful part of their education.
The school’s progress has drawn attention. In early 2025, Geshe Lhakdor, formerly His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s translator and now director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, visited the school before addressing the wider issue in a public Dharma teaching.
“Root Institute has opened this school, that’s the right thing,” Geshe Lhakdor remarked. “There is so much poverty in Bodh Gaya. You can walk around the stupa but it is more important to change this place. . . . Walking around the stupa is still important but we have to help sentient beings. That’s what pleases the Buddha most.” (FPMT)
Progress, however, comes with challenges. Duffer noted that retaining teachers remained a difficulty, as government schools in the region offered higher salaries
“[We need] better salaries for teachers so, when we train them in new methods, they don’t leave for government schools that pay more,” she said. “We have great volunteers, but some improvements take money too.” (FPMT)
A trustee of Root Institute, Kabir Saxena, who oversees the school’s spiritual development, acknowledged that the work ahead remained substantial but the direction was clear.
“We haven’t fully mastered best practices in teaching, for one. That’s a work in progress,” Kabir acknowledged. “We’d like to teach yoga. Also help the children to better integrate the 16 Guidelines. Rinpoche wanted us to incorporate drama as one way to do that. And we’d like to add some kinds of Buddhist teachings. We are trying as well to learn from other Buddhist-run schools that are improving curricula and methods. We can also better encourage the kids’ creativity to help them contribute to society. There’s plenty to do and I hope to spend the coming decade making it happen.” (FPMT)
In 2025, the FPMT’s Social Services Fund increased its total allocation to US$226,563, now supporting eight schools and more than 1,400 students across India and Nepal. Maitreya School’s share of that support is helping to sustain free, value-based education for 277 children from lower kindergarten through Class 8.
As Lama Zopa Rinpoche once expressed, this is the kind of work that brings loving-kindness and peace to young people:
It is good for FPMT to benefit extensively sentient beings by offering various social services, such as those that bring loving-kindness and peace to youth using Universal Education methods, religious interfaith activities, which bring peace and happiness, and extensively benefit others by spreading Dharma. — Lama Zopa Rinpoche
* Revered Buddhist Scholar and FPMT Founder Lama Zopa Rinpoche Has Died (BDG) and UPDATE: FPMT Shares News on Lama Zopa Rinpoche (BDG)
See more
FPMT
FPMT (Facebook)
Littlest Scholars Thriving at Maitreya Universal Education School, Bodhgaya (FPMT)
Rejoicing in Grants Offered to Schools in India and Nepal in 2025 (FPMT)
Auspiciousness, Change, and Merit-Making at Root Institute’s Maitreya School in Bodhgaya (FPMT)
Related news reports from BDG
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Engaged Buddhism: FPMT Celebrates Supporting More Than 1,500 Young Students in 2024
UPDATE: FPMT Shares News on Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Revered Buddhist Scholar and FPMT Founder Lama Zopa Rinpoche Has Died
