For two hours every day, Rajesh Kumar Sharma, 40, leaves his job at a general store and meets under a metro bridge with dozens of children from New Delhi’s worst slums. There, the father of three teaches the kids math, science and social studies, using black boards that are painted on a building wall. He teaches them the basics in the hopes that they will be admitted to government-run schools in the near future.

“Whenever I passed by this area, I would notice that children were spending all their time in the fields or playing around,” Sharma told the Indian Express.

He was able to convince many of the children’s parents to get them out of the fields for a few hours to help them learn.

When he started the school in 2011, he had 140 students. The next year, 70 of them were admitted into government schools, Yahoo News reported.

“Our teacher has told us that when poverty strikes, you should open your mind, and that can be done only through education,” a student of Sharma’s named Abishek told the Indian Express.

Source: Indian Express.