Navjyoti India Foundation’s experience of working in the area of education is about 20 years old when the organisation ventured into community development initiatives by opening a school to rehabilitate about 100 children in the slums of Yamuna Pushta Navjyoti Pathshala. The school ran for almost five years in two rooms educating 100 children with the help of volunteers. However, the need was much more as there was not a single school in the entire area which was spread over 3 kms and a population which touched almost a lac. Opening school to cover all the cost model of education was developed, which was called “Gali School”. It was an endeavor to bring education to the doorstep of children rather than taking children to school. The number of schools at one point of time reached to about 200 covering more than 6000 children. Then experiences in implementing the model showed us that different categories of children need different forms of education. Thus, the education model was strengthened further by making it more comprehensive and holistic and initiating different educational programmes for different categories of children and different age groups. Balwaris were opened to provide early childhood care and education to children in the age group of 2 to 4 years, Gali schools provided preparatory education and acted as bridge schools to prepare children for mainstream, learning centres provided education to out of school children in the age group of 6 to 14 years while remedial education programme provided tutorial assistance to children studying in schools in order to influence school retention.

Besides, the model was further strengthened by adding a whole range of extra curricular activities such as sports, yoga, music, exposure visits, nutrition, health check up, library etc. Community mobilization and parents’ sensitization remained an integral aspect of the model too in order to create a favorable environment for children’s education in the community. After the slums of Yamuna Pushta were demolished, the same model was replicated in Bawana Resettlement Colony where these slums dwellers were relocated.

It has been more than five years that the model has been running in Bawana and Holambikalan resettlement colonies and the organisation now wishes to consolidate the model by having its own school, which would have all the facilities provided under one roof. The school would not only enable the organisation to consolidate its activities but also provide quality education to children in terms of proper infrastructure and improved teaching learning pedagogies.