Sitting in a packed “classroom” operating out of a shack, 50-year-old Pankaj Kandpal walks amid two dozen students, teaching them the basics of Hindi sentence construction. As he reads out a word, the students repeat in unison. Some, however, appear disinterested. But Kandpal says he has high hopes.
“I want these children to get a better chance at life than I ever had,” he says.
Kandpal is among dozens of volunteers across Delhi running informal classrooms to help under-privileged students with basic education to enable them to get into formal schools. Many of these “schools” function underneath flyovers, inside shanties, in the shade of trees and, at times, even on the roadside.
In east Delhi’s Yamuna Khadar, Kandpal’s classroom operates from under a tree. He says he knows what the children are going through because he had to give up his studies due to monetary issues.
In the last two years, around 100 students from his school have secured admission in a government school in Mayur Vihar Pocket 4. “I maintain a register of students who have been taught here and later got admission,” said Chotte Lal, 46, another “teacher” at the school.
Read more of this in a report by Fareeha Iftikhar published in the Hindustan Times...
(This story was published on the Teachers Day. Must compliment the news paper for bringing this compilation for its readers. This may motivate others to follow. This can be replicated elsewhere too. May be such schools are running in other cities too. The media must bring such efforts in front of the people, to appreciate the efforts and to motivate others. - Editor)
