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Sunil Mittal building 550 schools to educate 1 lakh children

Thursday, June 24, 2010 , Posted by Unknown at 4:10 AM

Gurbheg Singh, a teacher at the Sathya Bharti School in Khanpur village in Punjab, remembers Harpreet Kaur as a shy little girl. She spent the early minutes of her first day at school in 2007, fiercely determined not to come out of hiding from behind her father’s legs. Singh had to pry her away from the father and into the classroom. But now, Harpreet is a transformed child. This April, at the end of her third year at school, she brought her mother Jaspal Kaur to the parent-teacher’s meet. 

The mother was asked for her thumb impression. That was the normal practice. Most parents of the children studying in the school are illiterate. But then, recalls Singh, this mother did something unexpected. She asked for a pen, and hesitantly wrote out her name in English. Eight-year-old Harpreet had been teaching her mother. 

Sunil Mittal, the chief dreamer, architect and financier of this school, and also 236 similar schools across five states, hasn’t heard Harpreet’s story yet. When he reads this, he will be happy to know that his thesis that education can be a multiplier is being proven true. “If you can teach a child, then her family and her future is taken care off,” says Mr Mittal as he warms up to an hour long interview on this project, which is now underway at the Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Bharti group. These schools are being run at an annual cost of Rs 28 crore. 

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