The Story of a School

A school with a vision was our destination as we left office in our rusty old office pulsar, even though the engine is battered and the rear brakes don’t work she won’t hesitate in battling the massive potholes and slippery slopes often a challenge for our airjaldi team..she might huff and puff but she will get you there

But this isn’t about our old office pulsar or the challenges that our team faces but about a small school situated in the upper part of mcleodganj called “dharamkot govt school”. What sets them apart is the vision of going beyond being just another school in rural India, a vision brought to life with AirJaldi providing them affordable and sustainable internet.

It’s a small school with about 45 students aged 5-13 being funded by the government. We met Ravi, the present headmaster of the school, who went all starry eyed when, asked about his plans to use internet for his school with a hope to bridge a gap between the school and the outside world.

Dharamkot School

With plans to start with just one computer in the beginning he hopes to pave the path to transform his school from a Hindi medium to an English medium school and to give this a boost he’s proud to say they already have a page on facebook.

The school mainly depends on foreign volunteers to help in whichever way that they can, from teaching to extra-curricular activities to anything big or small He plans to attract more and more foreign volunteers to come and teach in his school and also provide the students with access to various resources online.

While talking about his plans he very enthusiastically took us to show his “computer lab” , a small room capable of fitting only 5 people .Equipped with drawings of a computer, keyboard, mouse and various internet explorers, it looked ready to take on the big dreams of a small school. He hopes to have a much bigger room than this but happily admits that this is enough for now.

Volunteers are plenty in number but are helpless due to the language barrier in many of these schools in rural India. Airjaldi hopes to break this barrier by empowering them with internet and helping them achieve dreams which till a few years back were deemed impossible