Our centres
Spaces of Nurturing Learning, Fostering Growth
& Opportunity and Building Communities
Kanhai, Gurugram
A desire to teach their help’s daughter, personally taking up her lessons, experiencing the thrill of her success and watching the silent yearning of her playmates ‘to be like their little friend’, lit the spark of the first Shiksha Prayas free tuition centre in Kanhai, Gurgaon.
As the idea took root, Pawan and Sangeeta Kamra lost no time in creating a well-structured template, renting a room, registering students, enrolling a teacher, defining the curriculum, developing a progress record, incorporating extra-curricular activities and finally, reaching out to corporate sponsors.
On 21st November, 2000, “Prayas – Free Tuition Centre” as it was then named, started its first formal class with the first 25 government school students from 6:30 to 8 am. In a week, another room was taken, a new teacher was appointed, and facility created for 40 students.
What set the Shiksha Prayas model apart from other free tuition centers was the personalised attention, and the safe space it gave to children from underprivileged communities to express their talents. Art to music to dance, to handwriting to sports…every skill was observed, encouraged, celebrated and rewarded. Parents were equally involved and updated through PTMs. In Pawan’s own words, “It all worked like magic and our students were top performers in their schools”.
The results of these efforts began to show as students graduated from Shiksha Prayas. First generation engineers, nurses, IT professionals and teachers stirred the Kanhai community, and the mere thought of enrolling for higher studies was now deeply seeded.
Madhu and Preeti over the last 24 years, and now Rajni have anchored the centre with the full-hearted support of teachers Megha, Ranjan and Shivani. Carrying forward the true spirit of the Shiksha Prayas banner, each of them is familiar with every student’s strengths and weaknesses, family background, special needs, and the need for further sponsorship.
Taraori, Karnal
In 2002, the success of Kanhai led Pawan and Sangeeta to their roots in Taraori, 16 kms from Karnal, Haryana. Kuldeep Rai and Ashok were running a coaching centre there at that time, and the proposal for an FTC for children who could ill afford after-school tuitions appealed to the duo. After a ground assessment exercise that evinced eagerness among government school students, and with support from another colleague Jagdev, the centre started classes 6, 7 and 8 from House No. 14, near Amirchand Mandir.
Kuldeep was soon joined by wife Geeta who gave it the discipline, warmth and feel of a serious place for study. Very clearly, this approach showed results, and Taraori today boasts of a series of achievers. Deepak Raheja has made a name for himself in event management, while his brother Mahesh is in a leadership role at Lava. Deepak Arora completed his B.Tech and now leads major road construction projects in Jammu and Kashmir. And as Vinay found his name in Haryana’s Super 100 coaching programme in 2023, Sanjana crossed all hurdles to pursue M.Pharmacy in 2024. (Link to respective audios).
Both Geeta and Kuldeep are almost foster parents to students, mentoring and guiding their career choices and monitoring their digi-age distractions and temptations. It is no wonder then that the centre enjoys a healthy respect for old-school values and a second generation of enrolments are quite the norm here. Besides their value-based teaching, Geeta and Kuldeep are completely hands-on at our various activities. You’ll often find Kuldeep pulling up his sleeves to mend a broken device or bind a torn book. Simply, SDG was deeply embedded here long before it became a lofty byword.
The Taraori faculty is ably supported by Science and Computer teacher Kartik, an ex-student who dedicates his evenings to the centre, and Jyoti, who has anchored Hindi and Social Studies since 2015.
Polar, Kaithal
From the lush green fields along the state highway, your app guides you into a narrow lane where you may have to give way to a tractor that’s pulling out of a field. The lane opens up soon enough to the gurgle of gently swirling waters of a canal flowing past a dozen-odd residences. Through some open gates, you will spot farming activity on in full swing, and as you begin to wonder what Shiksha Prayas could be doing here, a wide, white wall throws up the Shiksha Prayas banner right at you.
This is our youngest centre, born on August 15, 2023 out of a dire need to buttress the learning skills of Polar’s school going children. As you step in, the eagerness in every child’s eye is palpable. Introduce yourself, strike up a conversation with the kids, and there! Your heart just wells up as their thirst for learning and recognition runs through you.
Harpreet Singh and Lalit Raheja were ready with a bunch of 30 children much before the centre even began. They had sensed the need of local residents to prepare their children for a future which was way beyond their means. Having heard of Shiksha Prayas in neighbouring Siwan, the two approached the leadership, complete with students, space and teachers.
As with Taraori and Siwan, classes began for 6, 7 and 8 graders. And as the centre followed the established roster of activities from month to month, it gained in confidence and stepped up its standards over time. Today, we are proud to say that while Polar conducts its events in line with the rest, it never fails to impress with its creative flair.
The centre added Class 5 in April 2025, again in response to a long-standing request of parents who aspired to send their children to the local Navodaya School. Sheetal joined forces with Mamta, Harpreet and Lalit to create a firm foundation in all subjects.
Siwan, Kaithal
In 2008, as the wheels of Kanhai and Taraori drove the Shiksha Prayas wagon on two full-bodied wheels, the leadership felt the time was right to extend its model to another rur-urban location. Siwan, fifty odd kms from Kurukshetra, is where it found Sunisha and Virendra Raheja, a couple with a strong eager-to-serve-society mindset whole-heartedly welcoming the proposal. Ritu Srivastava, a volunteer with Shiksha Prayas, was hugely instrumental in setting up the centre with resources and goodwill.
In their first year, the team set about approaching government schools in the neighbourhood. And that’s all they ever needed. Enrolments zoomed in the following year, and a balance had to be maintained between reaching out to the most-needy and the size of the classrooms. Some good souls pooled in, including the owner of an ashram who offered his premises for free. Virendra, Sunisha and their associate Naresh shared Science, English and Maths between them for the first couple of years to classes 6, 7 and 8. As students moved up, 9 and 10 were added. Gratitude, and the ingrained feeling of giving back, stayed with that first batch. And so we have Amit, Subhash and Bunty turning in every evening till date, lending their precious time to newer students, year after year.
Like Kuldeep and Geeta, Sunisha and Virendra share a strong bond with their students. Empathetic of the constraints of space and facilities, Sunisha ensures that every festival is heartily celebrated. Every Diwali, the centre allows its students to stretch its creativity over a massive community hall, with displays of rangoli, handicrafts, music and dance.
Again, it is the success stories that speak volumes of the centre’s commitment to empowerment. Rahul from its first batch brought much joy when he went on to graduate and join Haryana Police. Gaurav Saini too, as one of the centre’s first, took up a supervisory role with HAFED. Jasbir Saini was selected as Primary School Teacher by the Department of School Education, Punjab. Varsha Malik started a Masters in Psychology in 2024 just as her brother Vansh started his graduate course. It is worth noting that all these students are first-generation achievers in their respective families.
A unique feature of Siwan is the ability of all teachers to teach all subjects. The practice of rotation ensures novelty and learning for teachers Simran, Subhash, Amit and Jyoti, as well as the students.
Every Life Touched Is a Step Forward. Join us in our Journey to Bring this Vision to Reality—Help Us Continue the Change!
Shiksha Prayas
Shiksha Prayas is a 24-year-old non-profit organization committed to empowering underprivileged children in Haryana through quality educational support. Operating from four learning centers located in Kanhai, Taraori, Siwan, and Polar, we offer free tuition—from Grades 4 to 10—tailored to help government school students bridge learning gaps and stay on track with mainstream education. Over the years, our initiatives & endeavours have positively impacted the lives of more than 3,500 students.
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