Pratham Academy

Pratham Academy is situated in Vinod Nagar, right near the Mill Gate area in Hissar. It’s a working-class neighborhood, and we like being here. The academy is a modest setup. We don't have air conditioning in every room, but we have enough fans to keep it moving. We mostly help the local kids with their schoolwork and preparing for their boards. It’s not a high-end institute with glass walls. It’s just a building where we’ve put in some benches and boards. The noise from the street sometimes drifts in, but the students are used to it. We don't have a website with a lot of photos or anything like that. People just know our name from the sign outside or from word of mouth. We started this because we wanted to give the kids around Mill Gate a place to go after school. Sometimes we share our snacks with the students if the class runs long. It’s a very friendly atmosphere. We don't act like bosses; we just act like teachers who want them to do better. If someone can't pay the full fee at once, we usually work something out. It’s a local business run by local people. We are here every day from four in the afternoon. It’s a lot of hard work, but seeing the kids pass their tests makes it worth it.