Private schools open doors to kids from low-income families

"Like many 6-year-olds, Pankaj Disht clams up when speaking to a stranger," Gayatri Rangachari Shah wrote in The International Herald Tribune. "But since switching to a private school, he has become more open and says he enjoys school and has many friends."

"Under normal circumstances," Ms. Shah wrote Pankaj's father, a household cook, "could have only afforded to send his son to a government-run school," most of these schools "suffer from teacher absences, poor infrastructure and a lack of facilities."

"But through a law upheld by the Indian Supreme Court this past spring, and the tenacity of Mr. Disht's employer," Seema Talreja, who organized the boy's application, Pankaj is attending a private academy, the Mother's International School in New Delhi, "where he receives individual attention from motivated teachers," she wrote.

Ms. Talreja, took advantage of the recent legislation, "which requires Indian private schools to admit 25 percent of their student body from ages 6 to 14 from families making less than 100,000 rupees, or $1,800, a year," Ms. Shah wrote.

(Published by NY Times - August 20, 2012)