"Right to Education?" Harpreet Singh Virk

Stuffy rooms, stinking washrooms, cracked desks and torn books. There was a strange feeling, walking down the corridor as I entered the premises. It was totally unexpected, especially from a place like this - right after a long break for summer.

It was the summer after my tenth grade. I had decided to spend a month teaching the underprivileged kids in the local municipality elementary school. It was an independently run government school, unlinked with any existing Non Government Organisation. I was appointed as a teacher for fifth and sixth grades, teaching them elementary Mathematics and foundations of English.

I had some past experience teaching mathematics to underprivileged kids for an NGO as an assistant teacher. Indeed, it was fairly easy for me to take up that class, given my love for the subject of mathematics and the properly structured course materials that were provided by the NGO itself. However, I wanted to get a real experience of how the local government schools actually functioned - something I felt that the NGO classes were lacking - which is why I volunteered here.

I was prepared; having spent the past three days studying the class materials and organising. I was confident; having assumed that it would be an...