Right to Education is a fundamental right of every child. Despite policy and targets, the government’s track record in setting up schools is lacklustre. The number of government schools is inadequate to meet the needs of the large number of people in slums in Hyderabad. In the Film Nagar slums alone, for a population of 8000-9000 families, the existing government schools only have a capacity for 2000 children at primary level and 1500 children at high school level. The paucity of government schools, teacher and infrastructure deficits in government schools and the desire for English Medium education motivates 80% of families to enroll their children in private schools.

School enrollment is currently high - in our surveys in these slums we find that almost 100% of children are enrolled in primary school. However, government data shows that across the country only around 40% of children are completing 10 th standard. Most of Kriti’s efforts in education are to address this gap and help children at least complete schooling till class X.

Given the education landscape for the poor, we find ourselves working with both the government schools and the private schools in quite different programs.