From the eighth grade classroom of the upper primary school in Gotha, the building of RD Model Public School is still visible. Until about three years ago, it was a thriving private school with Classes 1 through 8. It drew many students from Gotha and neighbouring villages in Budaun district of Uttar Pradesh, who associated, as many Indians do, a private education with quality. But in 2016, it shut down.
Over three years, RD Model Public School lost so many of its upper primary students, Classes 6 to 8, to the government-run upper primary school in the village, it went out of business. Student rolls have similarly depleted at the Ramdevi Saraswati Shishu Mandir, which is run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. At least 17 of the state-run schoolโs 39 eighth graders and 19 of its 41 seventh graders have moved from private schools.
โRD Model did not have anything โ no computers, no science laboratory,โ said Anshi Sankhdar, in Class 8. Until she moved last year, she was entirely privately educated.
Just a few years ago, it was the government school that was buckling under competition from private schools in this relatively-prosperous village. Then, in 2013, science teacher Manoj Kumar Varshney joined, rallied the…
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