This Bihar government school has only one student and it is proud of her: The Story of Janhavi Kumari

A tiny rural school situated in the village of Mansa Bigha in Bihar's Gaya district sets a new standard for education and access to this right. For the past year, this particular school has remained open solely to provide education to one Janhavi Kumari. Two teachers and a cook give this shy Dalit girl a warm welcome every morning for she is the only pupil in the entire school.

Janhavi has learned how to write her name in English and can identify different fruits and colours in the language, but the lack of friends to study, play and talk with is something she is struggling with at times. The commitment of her sole pupil was astounding for school teacher Priyanka Kumari, who comes from a long background of discrimination and poor access to education.

“Little Janhavi is very prompt,” she said. “She has never missed her class right since she got admission in our school in the last session. We also eagerly wait for her every day as her absence means no work for us to do all day.”

The primary school has been operational since 1972 and once saw a routine rush of students, but a growing mistrust regarding the standard of government schools resulted in an exodus of pupils to nearby private institutions. Government classrooms have continued to empty despite the best efforts of local administration to convince parents to keep their children in State Schools.

Promises of initiatives offering bicycles, uniforms, shoes, schoolbags and free lunches were made to achieve this goal, but it was not enough. Today, the school's only student comes from a poverty-stricken family from the lower Paswan caste, whose mother is a housewife and her father works at a petrol pump.

This small local school is her only avenue for education, and when the community came to know that she enrolled at the start of this year, support to keep the school open for one child alone grew and efforts were made to make sure that her education is completed.