Students take a class at Kerala Samajam Hindi School earlier this month. (Bhola Prasad)

Jitendra Kumar is a proud owner of a jewellery shop in Mango. And the 25-year-old has only his alma mater, Kerala Samajam Hindi School, to thank for his successful career

Zameeruddin Ansari, who passed Class XII from Loyola Hindi School in 2010, is settled as a manager in a Qatar-based steel company

Kavita Sharma, another former student of Loyola Hindi School who cleared Class X in 2004, is working as a manager with a national telecom company in the city

Jitendra, Zameeruddin and Kavita are not alone.

Project schools, which teach children from the disadvantaged sections of the society, have shaped the careers of many in Jamshedpur, who had to work in childhood to support their families.

Offering flexible study hours, these alternative centres of learning enable a child to pursue education while still working. A number of students from these schools, who appeared for their boards through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), have bagged jobs and are thriving well today. So what if the state government no longer recognises them as a part of the mainstream learning model because of various factors like shorter duration of classes, lack of proper infrastructure and untrained teachers?

“Loyola Hindi School opened its doors 22 years ago. At that time, there were around 40 students from slum areas. That too, the parents agreed to send their wards to school after much persuasion. At present, we have 1,200 students. We mostly cater to child labourers, who cannot leave their work but want to study,” said K. Eashwar, deputy centre superintendent at Loyola Hindi School.

The concept of project schools came into existence in the 1990s.

The name project school was given as these cradles were started as a project to empower underprivileged children, particularly those from slums, with literacy. In 2002, the government started aiding the schools on the condition that once their foundation was built, the children would be sent to state-run schools.

But very few students eventually went to government cradles, prompting the administration to withdraw support.

“The programme could not yield much result as far as mainstreaming is concerned, so the government withdrew the support. Today, we do not charge any fees and children are happy here,” said Anuranjan, principal of Kerala Samajam Hindi School that has 1,533 students on rolls.

Jamshedpur, at present, has seven project schools.

While some provide education for free, Loyola Hindi School charges Rs 10 to Rs 80 a month depending on classes.

Students also take part in co-curricular activities besides being trained on personality development, self-respect and confidence building.

“I come here because I can go for work in the morning. I work in three houses and earn Rs 1,500 a month. I went to a government school five years ago, but there were no teachers. So I came back here,” said Sunita Kumari (14), a Class VII student of Kerala Samajam Hindi School.