A Class 12 student in Bengaluru has designed a portable classroom inside a shipping container for children who live on construction sites and move often with their parents’ work. The first unit is nearing completion.

Divit Garg, a student at Inventure Academy, calls the project The Unboxed School. It is a portable classroom and playscape meant to give children of migrant construction workers a dedicated place to learn.

The problem it targets is broken schooling. Families who relocate for work face changes of residence, difficulty getting admission midway through the academic year and language barriers, all of which can interrupt a child’s education, according to the release.

The first unit is going up inside a residential development on Sarjapur–Attibele Road. It uses a standard 40-by-8-foot shipping container and can hold 20 to 25 children. It has a small washroom and a storage area that can double as another classroom. Because the structure is portable, it can be trucked to another site if the families move. The release estimates transport at ₹30,000. The container will sit on a 420-square-foot concrete platform.

The estimated cost is under ₹10 lakh. To cope with Bengaluru’s heat, the design uses heat-reflective paint and passive turbine vents that need no electricity, which the release says reduces reliance on costly insulation. The structure will need regular checks for leaks, rot and rust.

Divit came up with the idea after teaching Economics in government schools and visiting construction worker settlements. “The colonies are incredibly dusty, noisy and cramped,” he said. Children there often lack safe places to learn and play, he observed.

On staffing, the release says teaching support “could be” provided by educators from nearby government schools after hours or by volunteer organisations. That arrangement is not confirmed, and the release does not name the developer hosting the unit, who is paying for it, when it will open or how many children it will serve.

Divit’s interest began in Class 9, when he won an Honorable Mention at a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign playscape competition for a design for a government school. He has since given a TEDx talk on sustainable public spaces for young people and interned at Anthill Creations, which makes low-cost playgrounds from recycled materials. He plans to study Economics and Urban Planning in the United States.