Under the shade of a tall tree in a remote Rongmei village in Manipur, a group of children are busy measuring shadows. Some pace the ground, others argue over angles, a few scribble numbers into notebooks resting on their knees. There is no blackboard, no classroom walls — just the land, the light, and their curiosity guiding them.

Watching them from a distance are Ananya Mukherjee and Kabithui Rongmei, the two educators who imagined this moment long before it became real.

It might seem unusual, even unlikely. But here, this is what school looks like.

At Khaangchu Education Centre, the village itself becomes the classroom — where children do not have to leave behind their language, identity, or lived experiences to learn.

As Kabithui says, “When children cannot see their world in what they are learning, education slowly loses meaning for them.”

Khaangchu is an attempt to bring that meaning back.

A return with purpose

For Kabithui Rongmei, education was never a given. Born into a Rongmei tribal community, spread across Manipur, Assam, and Nagaland — he grew up in the very village where Khaangchu now stands. But his early years were marked by instability in schooling. Government teachers were often absent, classrooms barely functioned, and learning outcomes remained painfully low.

His parents made a difficult decision early on to send him away for his education.

At six, Kabithui moved out of his village. What followed was a childhood spent in constant transition — living with relatives, in hostels, across districts and states — chasing access to education that his own village could not provide.

Manipur’s political unrest only made things harder. Frequent strikes and shutdowns meant schools would remain closed for weeks at a stretch.

“I moved from place to place just to continue studying,” he recalls.

After completing his higher secondary education, financial constraints forced him to pause his academic journey. He took up work, searched for opportunities, and eventually found his way into higher education in Guwahati through a subsidised programme.

It was here, through exposure, conversations, and experience — that a question began to take shape: If change was possible, where should it begin?

For Kabithui, the answer was clear — education.

When two journeys met

Around the same time, Ananya Mukherjee was asking similar questions, from a very different starting point.

Raised in Jamshedpur and educated in Delhi, she had spent two years as a Teach For India fellow, working within urban classrooms. But even in cities, she had seen how deeply unequal education could be.

“If it’s this........

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