Making Learning Meaning Ful

Disillusioned by an education system that seemed not to care for the children that went through it, Kiran Sethi set up what has been lauded as one of the world’s most transformational schools. She tells POOL how the Riverside School in Ahmedabad has designed an alternative model that focuses on student well being as much as learning.

Driving change

I am a designer, but when I became a mother, my interest in education was sparked. It was really the bleak experience my son was going through that prompted me to take him out of school. When he was five years old, he came home one day, upset because the teacher had put a big red line across his homework and he did not know why. I decided I could do a better job. The mindset of a designer allows you to be optimistic about life and one of the key constructs of this is that we are not helpless and we can drive change. So I took him out of school and my journey to setting up The Riverside School began.

When I started the school 16 years ago, I didn’t have a three- or five-year goal. I just lived for today. When I started, I had no ambitions to be the best school in the city or the world - all I wanted was to get a better education for my son. Over the years Riverside has designed, implemented and shared a unique user-centered curriculum that is providing schools with an alternative model that focuses on quality of learning and student well being. The practices have been recognized worldwide and the school has regularly been honored for its academic achievement as well as its unique philosophy of ‘Doing Good AND Doing Well’. We have a true 21st century model, with our students consistently outperforming the top 10 schools in India.

The right approach