ABSTRACT
Ariyaratne is one of the world's great contemporary charismatic leaders, and one of the few to make education and human development his life work. Sarvodaya Shramadana is committed to education for development in all aspects of living and being: a rare example both of a 'learning organisation' and of a very large-scale bottom-up and non-governmental adult education programme. One source of strength is the congruence between the philosophy and the lifestyle and practices of the army of volunteers who are the backbond of Sarvodaya. The scale of voluntary effort makes accurate calculation of costs impossible, although the amount of direct support, most of it from sources external to Sri Lanka, can be identified. This raises two more general matters about studies such as this. The first is the evident futility of trying to calculate accurately and completely the cost of such adult nonformal education programmes. The second concerns comparability between government and non-government programmes, and replicability from country to country.
