Dismantled daily, ‘tent’ school builds future of hundreds

Every morning just before 7.30am, several tents are erected in Sector 52 of Gurgaon, which are then taken down in the afternoon, until the next day. The tents host as many as 400 enthusiastic students, who seem to be indifferent to the lack of facilities that are generally available in ‘ideal’ schools. Braving the adverse weather, the smartly clad, eager students learn their alphabet and numbers with their bags in tow.  

JD Khurana, 70, a retired engineer, devoted almost half of his life to the cause of education, and founded the Nai Kiran Universal School along with his wife Kamlesh. It pained the couple to see young kids, who should ideally have been in schools, working as rag-pickers or domestic servants.

Starting with baby steps three decades ago, including facilitating the education of their domestic help’s son and a blind girl in the college where Kamlesh was the principal, the couple has since managed to reach out to thousands of underprivileged children.

“We were anguished because we could see the children frittering away a bright future. So, we started saving from our salaries to help the needy,” Khurana says.

The school that started with just four students now boasts of a strength of over 400 students in pre-nursery to Class IX. The English-medium school follows the curriculum of the Delhi Public School (DPS). Along with education, the school provides facilities such as mid-day meals, text books, and uniform to the students. It has 14 full-time teachers, and also attracts a horde of volunteers from all walks of life.

Even though now the couple is being hailed for their selfless service to society, they confess that the journey was fraught with hardships and administrative callousness. The district administration razed the school twice — once when the land was sold and then when the new Commissioner took charge. 

“First time, the school was demolished without notifying us. The then Commissioner told us that the demolition was done ‘by mistake’, so we built the school again. Once his term ended, we faced the same fate again,” says the septuagenarian, adding that now to prevent any more conflicts, they make use of tents and dismantle them daily.

But their good work has not been in vain as a number of meritorious former Nai Kiran students are now studying in famous public schools, including Shalom Hills International School, DPS-run Shiksha Kendra, and Atul Memorial School. Khurana hails this as the real reward of their efforts.