A helping hand…
The information below on the State education system in India is only a brief outline to help you understand how it works. As you can see there is no Free State education in India as we have here, so basically the children with poorer parents will never be able to go to a State school.

The Bethel Full Gospel Church in Varanasi is setting up schools in the villages to educate the children and the growth of these schools has been amazing. They started in 2003 with just 2 schools, but now in 2009 there are 15 schools catering for 1200 children. These children are taught basic knowledge of both the Hindi and English language and they also learn elementary Maths. But there are still hundreds of villages where evangelism is taking place, but there is still no school at all.

You can also help children from the villages attend State schools by sponsoring them through the Sunbeam project (see the Sunbeam page). The hope is that these children will be able to go to a state school where they will be trained, and hopefully return to the villages to teach or use that knowledge, and any other trade that they have learnt.

The education system in India:

• A child from 2½ to 5 years completes Nursery to upper K.G. (Primary Education)
• From age 6 to 15 years children complete 10 classes (High School Education)
• From age 16 to 18 years children complete 2 classes (Intermediate Education)
• After age 16 children can go to college (Graduate and Post Graduate Education)
• After age 16 children can also specialize in learning various skill and trades

Finance for Education:
Below are the fees which include tuition, books and stationary and school uniform per year:

• Primary Section - Rs.20,000/= £250 approx
• High School - Rs.25,000/= £315 approx
• Intermediate - Rs.30,000/= £375 approx
• Graduation - Rs.40,000/= £500 approx

If they are very able they can go for medical, engineering or other kinds of specialist training. Basically, after completing 12 years of schooling they become eligible for training in order to get a job, but to get admission into the training institute is very difficult. The reasons being:

• They don’t have sufficient money for the training programme
• There is tough competition and they need to pass admission exams to get on the courses

Conclusion:
One of the reasons that people under the poverty line cannot afford to send their children for higher studies is the cost involved. The normal small income family would earn £300 to £400 a year, and if they have three children it would be impossible for them to educate their children. The government of India has some schemes for education but it is regrettable that nothing is practically implemented.