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New beginning
Have you ever thought about children living in slums? Have you ever thought about those who never go to school because they are poor and have no opportunity? With a large poor population in the country and many of those disadvantaged lot living in urban slums, a large number of children grow up without attending school. But thanks to schools like The Oxford Square in New Delhi, many disadvantaged children
get a chance to experience school education. Started on March 25, 2007, The Oxford Square School, situated in the Beesfuta slum in Jamia Nagar area, has as many as 180 children, out of which 62 are orphans.
Divided into five rooms, the school, overlooking river Yamuna, has three-months-long sessions. The school chairman Syed Qaisar Mahmood says, “If a student fails to score 85 per cent he is not promoted to the next class.” Mahmood recalls how he first saw children in the slum carrying pails of water on their head. “It was a sad sight,” he adds. The school started with just six students. “And today, we are taking no more children as all our rooms are full.” “Interestingly,” he adds, “When I first approached the parents of girl children, I expected them not to respond favourably but they readily agreed to send them to the school. Today, the girls outnumber boys in the school.” He says, “The school has no Government funding and yet we try to provide uniforms and books besides lunch and games kits to the students.” Mahmood runs the school entirely on his own resources and children are chosen from across the divide of religion or caste. The emphasis is to take the children from the street to school. The subjects taught in the classes include mainly English conversation, information technology, environmental studies and general knowledge. The school’s impact in the area is so much that the slum is today called Oxford Square Colony.
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The children of this slum now have a chance of being educated.
From the streets to school: Kids from the slums.