This is certainly not the best of times. A health crisis doubled up with one of the worst economic crises ever is making life difficult for people as they lose jobs, income and are forced to cut expenses as much as possible. At that time, what if we tell you that your child can get access to good Montessori education and you can pay the school any amount of money that you wish? This may sound quite utopic, but this is exactly what Bengaluru-based The Freethinking School is doing.

From August 1 , 2020 until March 2021, the parents of preschoolers who go to this school can pay any fee that they wish to, says the school's director Sandy Philip. "Since the beginning of the lockdown, we have been hearing a lot about how people are losing their jobs and have been in crisis. We did not want their children to miss out on good education," says Sandy, explaining why they started the 'Freedom from fees' offer. "Incidentally, August 31 is Maria Montessori's birth anniversary and our Independence Day falls on August 15. There was no better month to kickstart this," she says.

Sandy says that the response has been overwhelming from the parents. "We are really delighted by the response. There are quite a lot of takers too," she says. In fact, they are now planning to expand this to their school in Kochi too. "Since payment gateways accept a minimum of Rs 100, a parent can pay any amount from 100," Sandy adds.

Now the school doesn't really conduct online classes for tiny tots. Sandy, like most parents, agree that it is not a healthy tendency to expose little ones to the screen for a long time. "Instead, we have classes for parents. After attending these online classes, they can train their children," she says.