Bus schools take education to Delhi’s poorest children

School buses have been converted into mobile classrooms to teach children living in Delhi’s shanty towns, as a landmark education bill for children aged six to 14 goes through India’s parliament.

School buses transformed into mini classrooms are giving Delhi’s poorest children the chance to attend lessons, many for the first time. And funding from the UK’s Department for International Development (DfiD) will pay for a fleet of 25 buses in the capital city.

It is estimated the bus schools fully equipped with a variety of teaching and learning material, including computers, TV, books, DVDs and soft toys, will give 5,000 more children access to education.

As well as having lessons, the pupils are also given a snack, such as a piece of fruit - which for many living in poor households is a powerful incentive to turn up.

The scheme is part of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA), the Indian government’s new education programme, which, according to figures in today’s the Guardian newspaper, has slashed the number of children out of school from 25 million to five million.

Teaching Delhi's very poorest children is no mean feat. Many children work to support their families and some parents struggle to enrol them at school because they themselves cannot read or write.

Before she started going to the bus school, 10-year-old Shaheen helped her mother, a street seller, fetch sacks of coal to roast corn with, and made cones from old newspapers to wrap them in. “I used to stand outside my house watching other children go to school,” Shaheen said. “I couldn’t count and I could write only a few words of Hindi. Now I do multiplication and division and know some English too.” And since she started at the bus school Shaheen moved to regular school a few weeks ago and says she wants to be a doctor.

Pramod, aged eight, said he used to feel embarrassed when he would cross paths with children in uniforms on their way to school as he carried plastic bags of chopped green chillies and onions to his father’s tea stall. “I felt ashamed at not being in a uniform, carrying vegetables instead of books,” Pramod told the BBC. Now he is one of the 400 students the bus schools have helped educate.

Altogether half of the bus schools' pupils have moved on to mainstream education, and another 25 buses are planned. “They feel a great pride in the bus because it comes especially for them. Without the bus, they stand no chance of getting back to school,” says community mobiliser Durgesh Gupta. “It transforms their lives and gives them hope.”