A Great School Doesn’t Need a Building

A great school doesn’t need a building.

It just needs students eager to learn, dedicated teachers, and a little help from the community.

I saw this on Tumblr and was completely blown away by what these teachers have created.

They built a school under a bridge in India.

Free School India

It is an unusual school in an unusual location and is run by an unusual teacher.

Free School India2

Rajesh Kumar is a shopkeeper by profession but spends hours every morning teaching around 80 children from the poorest of the poor in India’s capital.

The 43-year-old visited the construction of the Delhi transit station a few years ago and was disturbed by the sight of many children playing at the site instead of attending school.

Free School India3

When he questioned the parents working at the sites they all said there were no schools in the vicinity and no one cared.

Consequently, his open-air class room was born – between pillars and beneath the tracks of the Delhi transit system, known as the Metro.

Free School India4

Every few minutes a train passes above, the children unperturbed by its sounds.

There are no chairs or tables and the children sit on rolls of polystyrene foam placed on the rubble.

Three rectangular patches of wall are painted black and used as a blackboard.

Anonymous donors have contributed cardigans, books, shoes and stationery for the children, as their parents cannot afford them.

One unnamed individual sends a bag full of biscuits and fruit juice for the pupils every day – another incentive for the children to turn up for their studies.

I will be sharing this post with my class today. I think we need to realize how lucky we are to have great buildings, technology, and all of the resources we have at hand in our public schools here in Canada.

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