The premise has worked well, and the extension schools literally cast the education net wider to catch kids who have dropped out of formal schools to work. Children have designed the model and its workings from the beginning. At the workshop, the children were able to offer their ideas about what sort of education they would find relevant. There are many factors. The evening sessions do not interfere with the children's work responsibilities.
Students share management duties and help chose their teachers.
The pedagogy is more appropriate, based as it is on Montessori methods. But mainly children learn how to take charge of their own lives. It is this empowerment that gives the extension schools an edge over government schools. As the extension schools batter education stereotypes, they have also inspired 45 government schools in Karnataka to adopt their Montessori pedagogy and materials, in large part to try to end the high drop-out rates. National statistics are even more dismal.