The problem of primary education in India is compounded by lack of teachers to teach the underprivileged children.

Akanksha, an NGO, provides free education to over 4000 such children. They do not get enough volunteers to teach, as people feel they need to be “qualified” to teach these kids.

The Insight: There is a teacher in everyone.

Akanksha took their classroom to the people to give them a first-hand experience of the simple joy of teaching.

On 5th September, when children across India were celebrating Teacher’s Day, hundreds of kids from Akanksha went out looking for their teachers. Armed with blackboards and benches, they set up classrooms across Mumbai and Pune - at the airport, shopping malls, promenades etc. A simple message on the blackboard, "Will you be our teacher?", invited people to come forward and teach.

Across locations, people stepped forward. Over 600 applications were received.

As people shared their experience on social media, prominent personalities came to teach and tweeted about the activity. Ex-UN Under Sec. General and Minister of State for HR, Shashi Tharoor, tweeted too. MTV joined in, and BIG FM, a popular radio channel invited the kids to hold a live classroom on air. Media coverage worth over 800,000 USD was received at zero cost. We also engaged with press/media to reach out to a larger community. 3.5 million impressions were generated.

NGOs in Pakistan (Citizens Charter of Pakistan), and Taiwan are in touch with us to replicate the activity in their country.

For an NGO like Akanksha, spending on mass media wasn't an option. The idea therefore had to be low cost.

The surprise of seeing classrooms at public places, especially on Teacher's Day, made the message relevant, and as the results showed, impactful.

People came forward to teach. As they shared their experience online, MTV and Big FM joined in too. Prominent personalities, like India's Human Resource Minister, Shashi Tharoor also tweeted about the activity to millions of their followers. All the major newspapers also covered the activity.

Media coverage worth over US$800,000 was received at zero cost, as the benches and blackboards belonged to Akanksha.

Over 600 applications - 4 times the target - were received.

NGOs in other countries like Pakistan (Citizens Charter of Pakistan), and Taiwan are in touch with us to replicate the activity.