Overview:
Children that are not enrolled in school require us to come up with the most flexible and innovative programs. Here is where our years of experience in the field comes to the fore. We identify communities, like migrant worker's children, street children, fishermen's children etc, and try to establish classes as quickly as possible for them. The aim is to get them to the level where they can enrol in regular school. For certain groups such as adolescent girls we try and impart basic literacy and learning. For children left to fend for themselves on the streets and denied opportunities by their parents, these classes help to raise their self-esteem and demonstrate the practical difference that literacy can make on their lives.

Facilities:
The majority of classes for out-of-school children are held in temporary spaces, close to the group's location. Classes for adolescent girls, whose parents are reluctant to send them out, are conducted in the immediate neighborhood, in the house of a teacher, a local woman or even one of the girl's house.
In the interest of time we will sometimes employ the use of the School-on-Wheels bus as a temporary solution before a better location is found.

Activities:
We design and carry out the activities based on the group's requirement by:

• Using the school curriculum as a guideline, focussing on language, math and general science to get children upto school level
• Conducting various formal and informal tests (often in a fun environment) to gauge the progress of each child .
• Showing how children can use counting/literacy skills to help in their daily activities (the children often work to supplement their family income) .
• Organizing educational trips (for instance to the zoo, local hospital or police station) and community events.
• Interacting with parents and helping raise awareness about the importance of their chidren's education.

Collaboration with the Government
The government has introduced schemes like the Mahatma Phule Shikshan Hami Yojana [.pdf] which provides aid to NGOs like Door Step School to expand primary education to out of school children. We have been working with government officials to identify and plan classes and receive funding for such activities.

Support:
With over 50 classes running at any given time with over 1200 children, we are looking for ways to better the existing classes and expanding into new areas. Financial support as well as volunteers to help with finding appropriate facilities will help us achieve these goals.