On February 19th 2024, Howrah South Point was proud to open a new non-formal school in the Sultanpur shantytownin Howrah.
Non-formal schools have many purposes. Firstly, they provide a safe, stimulating and fun environment for children who often spend their days not doing anything, playing in the street or on their parents’ phones, or even looking after their younger brothers and sisters. Secondly, they provide basic knowledge and skills to children who have left or never been to school, a sort of catch-up to give them a chance of returning to a formal education one day. It’s quite common, for example, to come across ten-year-olds who have never been to school and who can’t read or write, so the stakes are high!
It was thanks to the SMCS (Save Motherhood and Child Survival) didis that we realised how important it was to open a school here. In fact, they make regular visits to accompany pregnant women and infants, and see many children every day in the streets of this slum, who obviously don’t go to school. Some of them are registered in a state school but never gothere for various reasons: lack of money to pay for the transport, too long a distance, lack of motivation and interest, need for help at home, and so on.
We have therefore established our school in the very heart of the shantytown to enable as many people as possible to attend. We are lucky enough to have a small room borrowed from a club that only uses it at the end of the day. This allows us to group the children together 3 mornings a week with 3 teachers.
Almost 2 months after opening, our little school is already full, with almost 50 children enrolled and coming through its doors every week! What a success! It’s a huge challenge for our teachers, because we’re short of equipment, there are lots of children and we have to deal with a wide range of ages and levels!
