In Ghatotand, West Bokaro, Jharkhand, former Bengaluru IT professional Nitesh Kumar returned home during the COVID-19 pandemic and saw how mining-led relocation had pushed schools nearly 20 kilometres away, making education difficult for many children in nearby villages. In response, he invested ₹1.25 crore, including borrowed money and savings, to build Nav Gurukul World School on ancestral land. The school opened in February 2025 with an aim to provide affordable, activity-based and child-friendly education close to home. It now has more than 200 students from four villages and has expanded up to Class 5.
For children such as nine-year-old Yuvraj, who had never attended school and could not read or write, the school has provided a second chance. Nitesh now hopes to expand the institution into a full secondary school so children can continue their education locally. His larger aim, he says, is not to stop young people from leaving Jharkhand, but to ensure that leaving becomes a choice rather than their only option.
A School Built Around a Child’s Second Chance
For Yuvraj, school was once an unfamiliar concept. At nine, he had never sat inside a classroom, did not know the alphabet and could not write his own name. His family lived in Ghatotand, where the distance to schools had become a major barrier for children from working families.
When Nav Gurukul World School opened its gates in 2025, Yuvraj enrolled and began receiving patient, individual attention from teachers. Rather than treating his age or learning gap as a reason to exclude him, teachers worked with him after classes, using games and storytelling to help him learn.
Within a year, he was finishing first and second in his class, learning grammar and tables and speaking about his ambitions. His father, Rajeev Mukherjee, described the transformation with emotion, recalling that his son did not know “A, B, C, D” when he first joined. He also said Yuvraj now wants to attend school even when he is unwell, reflecting the trust and affection he has developed for his teachers.
The school’s approach is deliberately different from rote learning. Its curriculum uses stories, activities and play to introduce concepts, while Fridays give children space for open-ended creative work. English communication is practised as a daily habit, and cultural celebrations bring children together across communities and faiths.
Principal B V Priyamvada, popularly known as ‘Rosie Ma’am’, brings three decades of experience in education to the institution. She said the objective is for children to come to school willingly and happily while also developing critical thinking skills. In its first year, nearly 100 children enrolled. Today, more than 200 students from four villages attend the school, with some travelling over 10 kilometres each way.
The Education Landscape
West Bokaro, around 60 kilometres from Ranchi, developed around the region’s coal-mining economy. For decades, the area had schools, a hospital, market, residential quarters and other facilities that supported a large township. Ghatotand was part of this ecosystem, with missionary and company-run schools serving local children. Over time, however, mining operations expanded, buildings were demolished and families were relocated. Schools that had once served the community were shifted nearly 20 kilometres away.
While employees could rely on buses, other families were left to manage the distance and associated costs themselves. For daily-wage workers and low-income households, regular transport expenses added to school fees became difficult to sustain. Some children consequently stopped attending school, while families who could afford it looked towards other parts of Jharkhand and other states for better educational opportunities.
Nitesh knew this journey personally. He had moved out of Jharkhand to study engineering in Shimoga, Karnataka, before joining the IT sector in Bengaluru, where he spent around 15 years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a work-from-home arrangement brought him back to Ghatotand and gave him an opportunity to see the situation at close quarters. He noticed demolished buildings, shuttered schools and children in his own neighbourhood without easy access to education.
His wife, legal advisor Nutan Sahu, eventually asked him a simple question: “Why can’t we start a preschool?” That question prompted him to research existing schools in the area. After visiting preschools with his young son and observing their teaching methods and infrastructure, Nitesh decided to build an institution that would offer a different learning environment.
Construction began in May 2024 on ancestral land in Ghatotand. Nitesh personally oversaw the project, which was completed in nine months. The two-storey building included classrooms, a play area, projectors and other facilities designed around children’s learning needs. The total investment reached ₹1.25 crore, with Nitesh borrowing money, taking loans and using funds from the sale of a previous business. He continued working remotely in the IT sector while running the school. When Nav Gurukul opened in February 2025, its monthly fee was set at ₹800, considerably lower than the approximately ₹2,400 charged by other schools mentioned in the source. Nitesh also promised that financial hardship would not become a reason for turning a child away.
The school’s impact has extended beyond its enrolment figures. Teachers say children who were initially hesitant have developed confidence through interactive learning, while parents describe their children returning home excited about what they learnt. Dhananjay Vishwakarma, whose three-year-old son attends nursery, said his child comes home talking about new poems and activities and has never cried about going to school. Nitesh also pays part of the teachers’ salaries from his own IT income. The school has 15 staff members, with teachers earning ₹8,000-₹10,000 a month, according to the source.
The need for such an institution could become even greater in the coming years. The source notes that the last remaining major school in the area is expected to relocate by 2030. Nitesh is therefore planning to expand Nav Gurukul into a full secondary school, allowing children who begin their education there to continue through higher grades without having to leave the area.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Education should not become a privilege determined by where a child happens to live or whether their family can afford the cost of travelling long distances every day. The story of Nav Gurukul World School also reminds us that meaningful change does not always begin with large institutions or government announcements.
Sometimes, it begins when an individual recognises a problem in their own community and decides to take responsibility for addressing it. Nitesh Kumar’s decision to return to Ghatotand, invest his own resources and build a school is significant not simply because of the building he created, but because of the possibilities it has opened for children who might otherwise have been left behind. His vision of making education accessible closer to home is ultimately about giving young people greater choice over their futures.
As Nitesh puts it, he does not want to stop people from leaving Jharkhand; he wants leaving to be a choice, rather than the only option. In a region rich in natural resources but facing persistent educational challenges, could initiatives like Nav Gurukul help ensure that Jharkhand’s greatest investment is not only in what lies beneath its soil, but in the potential of the children who grow up on it?
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