Shivangi's and Ishita's stories

• Shivangi

Six-year-old Shivangi from Delhi dropped out of school in 2010 when her parents could no longer afford the cost of her private schooling. Shivangi's father was barely earning enough to cover the daily living costs of the five members of the family. So they reluctantly had to withdraw Shivangi from the school.

In  2011 when the family was offered an ARK voucher, they were delighted to be able to enrol Shivangi for a free place at the local private AN Memorial Convent School - a low cost private school.

Shivangi loves her new school, and her teacher is thrilled with her performance. She is a well-behaved, hard-working child and has now come second highest in her class. 

• Ishita

Seven-year-old Ishita comes from a low-income family. At the beginning of the school year she was two years behind where she should have been in English. These days with the phonetics-based interactive teaching introduced by ARK, Ishita has made quick progress. After only five months her reading age and spelling age are fast catching up with her actual age, and she has scored full marks in her conversation test.

Unlike many children in India, Ishita is making rapid progress in English without her parents having to pay for extra tuition outside school - which they could never afford. As for Ishita, she now says she wants to be a teacher herself one day. 

Watch children like Ishita learning to read English: