A warm welcome with a crisp 'good morning sir', is not something you expect from students of class IV in rural India but if students greet you that way in a zilla parishad school in Padval Pada village, a backward tribal hamlet in Vasai taluka near Mumbai, it is thanks to two things.
One, the state government has decided to teach English as a subject from Class I and two, the school has the Rs 2,000-crore Astarc group supporting it. The group, incidentally, supports 349 other schools across rural Maharashtra.
The support by the group, which is the largest manufacturer of automobile graphics in the world, has meant a fall in drop-out rates in schools.
Vasai may be a village fast transforming itself into a modern suburb of Mumbai in Thane district. But one only has to travel 15-20 km from Vasai, into the interiors, and find that education is the last priority for people there.
In the rural areas of Vasai taluka dominated by tribal communities like Mallhar-Kolis and Katkaris, tribal children are forced to drop out of school for a number of reasons: right from the need to add to the family income to the lack of basic facilities like books, desks and leaking roofs.
Astarc group, which has a Classic Stripes factory in Vasai, began to look at the possibility of improving the schools in the area. It tied up with the panchayats and the school authorities to provide need-based support besides constant monitoring to maintain standards.
