ABSTRACT
This chapter is an attempt to elaborate on the less researched area of alternative schooling in India. In this chapter, first I try to look at the overall education system which is differentiated in its nature and the implications of this differentiation in the form of inequity and inequality. Alternative schools are part of this system and also perform dual functions by challenging this inequity by educating the out-of-school children or marginalised and oppressed children and by maintaining exclusivity. These functions are performed by the existence of varying kinds of alternative schools in India. Using secondary literature, I briefly discuss four of these schools before moving to the fieldwork that I conducted in an alternative school: Rishi Valley School. I contend that the assumed binary of ‘alternative’ and ‘mainstream’, often employed in the literature on alternative schooling, is not as sharp as is claimed. I also present two examples from mainstream schools to highlight their innovative methods and practices.
