This week’s good news comes with mud on its hands and sun in its eyes. There is a school in Sikkim that takes three hours of off-road travel and 100 steps to reach, with 18 students and a teacher who goes door to door so none of them miss out. There is one in Manipur where children measure shadows under trees, learn in Rongmei, and arrive an hour before class just to be there.
In Bengaluru, a man who left Germany came back to build a free school where kids weave, farm, and score 90 per cent on board exams. And in Maharashtra, there is a school designed to look and feel exactly like a village. Four schools. Four very different ideas of what a classroom can be.
In a Tribal Village in Manipur, Children Learn in Their Own Language Under Trees Instead of Classrooms
Kabithui Rongmei grew up in a Rongmei village in Manipur where teachers were often absent and children were expected to memorise lessons in a language they barely spoke at home. At six, he was sent away to study. Years later, he came back — and with educator Ananya Mukherjee, built Khaangchu, a learning space where the village itself is the classroom. Children study under trees, measure shadows to learn maths, and hear their elders as teachers.
“When children cannot see their world in what they are learning, education slowly loses meaning for them,” says Kabithui. Attendance is now above 95 per cent. Children who once wouldn’t speak now stand up and do.
Read how Khaangchu is giving Rongmei children a school that feels like home.
Meet the Ex-Techie Who Left Germany To Build a Free School Where Kids Weave, Sing & Grow Food
In 2006, Muneet Dhiman was working in IT in Germany when something made him stop and ask what he actually wanted to do with his life. The answer was education. He and his wife returned to India, spent six years visiting 26 different kinds of schools, and in 2016 opened Vidyakshetra on the outskirts of Bengaluru. There are no fees, no exams within the school, and no uniforms — just 157 children who farm, weave on handlooms, perform Bharatanatyam, study Sanskrit, and run 300 science experiments a year.
Board exam results sit between 90 and 96 per cent. One student, Srinidhi, just got into product design at MIT Pune. “If I get some holidays in between, I will go back to school. That’s how much I love the place!” she says.
Read how Muneet built a school where children come back even after they leave.
Inside One of India’s Most Remote Schools in Sikkim With Just 18 Students
Pentong village in Sikkim’s Dzongu region takes nearly three hours of off-road travel to reach, followed by a river crossing and 100 steps on foot. There is no mobile network. Getting food and supplies in is a challenge in itself. And yet, there is a school here — with proper classrooms, a playground, and a government-funded hostel where 17 of the 18 students live during term time, because they come from villages even more remote than this one.
Teacher and in-charge Clock Lepcha visits families door to door to make sure children actually enrol. For the children in Pentong, those 18 seats are everything.
Read the story of India’s most remote school — and the community keeping it going.
Inside the Maharashtra School That Was Designed To Look & Feel Like a Village
At Belgaon Dhaga School in Maharashtra, the architects started with a simple question: what if school felt like a village? The campus takes its cues from traditional Indian village design — open courtyards where children gather, shared pathways between classes, large windows that let in natural light and cool breezes, and trees as a constant presence throughout the day.
The walk from one room to another is part of the experience. Learning here is not contained to a desk; it spills into every corner of a campus that was designed, from the start, to make children feel at home.
Take a look inside the school that was built to feel like somewhere children already belong.
