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Underprivileged children coming from extreme poverty are given free classes in a makeshift school set up by a shopkeeper under a metro bridge flyover in New Delhi.
India's Poor Go to School Under a Bridge - YouTube
Full Story:
Three years ago, Rajesh Kumar Singh set up a makeshift classroom under a metro bridge in New Delhi.
He had only 2 students then, but now his two-hour morning classes have over 60 pupils, six days a week.
Singh has a day job as a shopkeeper in the Indian capital.
He pulled out of college in his third year due to financial difficulties and says he started his school because he didn't want other children to face a similar fate.
His students come from nearby slums - their families too poor to send them to school.
Students from ages 3 to 16 sit in his open-air classes.
Singh and Laxmi Chandra, who also helps at the school, decided to hold classes under the bridge because they could still be held during the monsoons and on hot summer days.
[Rajesh Kumar Singh, Teacher]:
"We took this place under the bridge so that when it rains, the kids have space to sit. And when it is hot, children have the shade to sit comfortably."
At the school, a quarter of the students are girls, and although there is a lack of facilities, many walk long distances barefoot to attend Singh's classes.
Primary school enrolment in India today stands at 95 percent, a level unthinkable a decade ago, but only two in three children of primary school age attend regularly, and one in five drops out.
Although there have been improvements in recent years, millions of girls stop going to school for a host of reasons including early marriage, lack of separate toilets and lack of safety.
A report published earlier this month described teaching standards in Indian government schools as "abysmally poor."
The report by IDFC - an infrastructure finance firm which every year presents recommendations on different themes to the Indian prime minister - said India's primary schools are short of more than a million teachers.
Many parents of the students at the school under the bridge are now also sending their children to government schools, realizing the more education they receive, the better.
But many students say they learn far more in the makeshift classroom than at government schools, where each class could pack more than 80 students and teachers often don't show up.
Abhishek Kumar, age 11, walks two kilometers every day to reach the bridge school before going to his government school.
[Abhishek Kumar, Student]:
"They teach all subjects here. What you don't know they explain that properly here. I used to get 40 percent earlier in school, now I score 90, 91, 92 percent. Sir teaches us well here."
The student-teacher ratio in the makeshift classroom is similar to that of private schools in India.
[Rajesh Kumar Singh, Teacher]:
"When I give two hours of my time to these children, I feel very good, my soul feels at peace. People give money and other things, I donate education. My parents educated me and I'm giving a part of that to these children."
India's Poor Go to School Under a Bridge - YouTube
Full Story:
Three years ago, Rajesh Kumar Singh set up a makeshift classroom under a metro bridge in New Delhi.
He had only 2 students then, but now his two-hour morning classes have over 60 pupils, six days a week.
Singh has a day job as a shopkeeper in the Indian capital.
He pulled out of college in his third year due to financial difficulties and says he started his school because he didn't want other children to face a similar fate.
His students come from nearby slums - their families too poor to send them to school.
Students from ages 3 to 16 sit in his open-air classes.
Singh and Laxmi Chandra, who also helps at the school, decided to hold classes under the bridge because they could still be held during the monsoons and on hot summer days.
[Rajesh Kumar Singh, Teacher]:
"We took this place under the bridge so that when it rains, the kids have space to sit. And when it is hot, children have the shade to sit comfortably."
At the school, a quarter of the students are girls, and although there is a lack of facilities, many walk long distances barefoot to attend Singh's classes.
Primary school enrolment in India today stands at 95 percent, a level unthinkable a decade ago, but only two in three children of primary school age attend regularly, and one in five drops out.
Although there have been improvements in recent years, millions of girls stop going to school for a host of reasons including early marriage, lack of separate toilets and lack of safety.
A report published earlier this month described teaching standards in Indian government schools as "abysmally poor."
The report by IDFC - an infrastructure finance firm which every year presents recommendations on different themes to the Indian prime minister - said India's primary schools are short of more than a million teachers.
Many parents of the students at the school under the bridge are now also sending their children to government schools, realizing the more education they receive, the better.
But many students say they learn far more in the makeshift classroom than at government schools, where each class could pack more than 80 students and teachers often don't show up.
Abhishek Kumar, age 11, walks two kilometers every day to reach the bridge school before going to his government school.
[Abhishek Kumar, Student]:
"They teach all subjects here. What you don't know they explain that properly here. I used to get 40 percent earlier in school, now I score 90, 91, 92 percent. Sir teaches us well here."
The student-teacher ratio in the makeshift classroom is similar to that of private schools in India.
[Rajesh Kumar Singh, Teacher]:
"When I give two hours of my time to these children, I feel very good, my soul feels at peace. People give money and other things, I donate education. My parents educated me and I'm giving a part of that to these children."
