Students walk into the brand new classrooms, the benches smell of varnish, a shiny water cooler stands in a corner, and to take in the sunshine, there are large windows. For the first time in 80 years, the students of the Seventh Day Adventist English High School in Agripada won’t have to crane their necks to see their teacher thanks to elevated-teaching platforms.

For the last two years, the children were studying in a makeshift school after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) declared their school building unsafe for use. Since November 2022, 700 students from nursery to Class X, would make their way to temporary classrooms set up in Mehfil Hall, a 10-minute-walk from the original site. The coming week will see them return to a brand new structure built by local developer Salim Kodia. “The only work remaining,” says vice principal Roosevelt Bulakhi, “is the fixing of grills.”