In 2007 People's Rural Education Movement (PREM) in partnership with the Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF) initiated a preschool development project in 350 remote tribal communities in the southeastern Indian state of Orissa.

The impetus for the project was the high dropout rate among tribal children in primary schools. Existing government-run preschool anganwadi centres (set up under India's Integrated Child Development Scheme) are poorly run or non-functioning in Orissa's tribal areas; where they do exist is often 5-10 kilometres from the nearest tribal village.

Furthermore, the language of instruction in government preschools and primary schools in Orissa is Oriya; few tribal children will encounter this language before they set foot in school. Hence the absurdly high dropout rate among tribal children is attributed to their lack of access to quality early-childhood education in a supportive and mother-tongue-based environment.

PREM and BvLF have worked with communities to build preschool facilities, while also developing multi-lingual curricula and training local teachers to manage the schools in their villages.

These photographs I took for PREM at 4 different preschool centres in Kandhamal district, where the children are from the Kondh tribe.

To read more about these preschool centres, visit The Tuque Souq