How an IIM-A alumnus is taking education to the slums at Rs 5,000 a year

The model is cost-effective, with the cost of educating a child varying from Rs 3,000-5,000 per year per child

Pankaj Jain, an engineer from IIT-Rourkee and a doctorate from IIM-Ahmedabad, had a dream: he wanted to provide quality education to out-of-school slum children even in the absence of quality teachers. Gyan Shala, the organisation he set up in Ahmedabad in 2000, aimed to do just that. Today, from just a few centres in Ahmedabad, Gyan Shala has spread to nine cities, including Surat, Kolkata, Patna, Lucknow, Kanpur and Muzaffarpur. Since its inception, it has touched the lives of as many as 250,000 children.

Gyan Shala teaches children through a well designed curriculum and material that compensates for the quality