Haji Public School

About Institution

Haji Public School began operations on May 4th, 2009 from Village Breswana, the ancestral home of its founding members, the Haji family. The school started with two classes, lower and upper kindergarten, two teachers and 35 students studying in rooms of the Haji Cottage. Today those same students have reached Grade 6, and the school grows with them each year. Haji Public School now has over 250 students on its rolls, a permanent local staff of more than 15 teachers, and a running roster of dozens of Indian and international teaching volunteers. The long-term plan for the Haji Public School is to grow up to a high school level within the village, by which time the Haji family intends to set up a college in the vicinity for these students and others in the region to pursue higher education.

Breswana is a typical Himalayan village in Doda District in Jammu and Kashmir – remote and cut off from the world below. At over 7000 feet, this is just one of many hundreds of villages with no motorable access to the rest of the state. Education in this pahari [mountain] region has languished in the past few decades. By setting up good schools in the region, the Haji family intends simply to make education accessible to the inaccessible. The idea is that good schooling will open up a new world to the students, will give them a foot in the door, provide them with opportunities previously denied to them, and we hope, help them in achieving whatever desires and goals they may have for the future.