India School Gets $21K Upgrade After Cattle Classroom Exposed

For a year, 18 elementary students in Rampura-Kanwarpura, India, studied in a borrowed room they shared with four cattle because their original school building was deemed too dangerous to enter.

Their makeshift classroom sits just outside Jaipur, the state capital of Rajasthan. When the 30-year-old Government Primary School building started leaking four years ago and was finally locked down after a 2025 school collapse killed seven children elsewhere in the state, these kids had nowhere to go.

Parent Dhori Bairwa, a daily wage worker, still sent her two sons to school despite the conditions. "We are sending our children here because we have no other option," she says, noting private schools cost at least 1,000 rupees monthly, far beyond what most families in the village can afford.

The school sits in a room loaned by villager Chota Devi, whose own three children attended the same crumbling school decades ago. One daughter is now studying for government recruitment exams, proof that education still offers a pathway forward.

When the Cockroach Janta Party visited on August 21 and cameras captured students learning alongside livestock, everything changed. Within days, the state government approved 1.2 million rupees (about $14,000) for a new building, with local legislator Kailash Verma adding another 600,000 rupees ($7,000) from discretionary funds.

The Ripple Effect

The attention on this tiny 18-student school sparked something bigger. The Rajasthan government announced a three-year, 1.25 trillion rupee ($15 billion) roadmap to upgrade school buildings statewide, including funds for new buildings, classrooms, repairs, and toilet facilities across the state.

Parents like Vijay Singh, whose daughter is in fifth grade, now hope the momentum continues. "Given the spotlight, more changes in infrastructure will follow," he says.

The village originally built the first school themselves 30 years ago, pooling resources and donating land so their children wouldn't have to travel far. Parent Leela Kumari remembers the hope they felt when it first opened, and the disappointment as it deteriorated year after year without government support.

District Education Officer Giriraj Pareek confirms the new building will be constructed soon. The teachers, one of whom has worked at the school for 10 years, continue providing daily Akshay Patra meals, often the main draw keeping students enrolled in government schools.

The old building now sits abandoned, its cheerful murals fading and scaffolding propped against walls to prevent roof collapse. But the 18 students and their families are looking forward, not back, to classrooms where the only learning companions will be their fellow students.