The Right to ‘right’ education

In 1982, Gloria de Souza founded Parisar Asha to change the education system from rote learning to joyful learning; and to enable holistic development of children. More than four decades later, long after her passing, the organisation still stands strong, bringing change in the lives of lakhs of parents, students and teachers.    

“The government says that each child has the right to education, but we at Parisar Asha believe in the right to right education. This is our mission as it's not just about literacy and numeracy anymore, it has expanded into training the children to face the challenges of the future,” explains Aarati Savur, CEO, Parisar Asha. 

The NGO has an Eco Tech World School Programme, where Eco is not just the environment, but also economy, and tech is the technique to live life. It is a year-long programme with schools, for students right from nursery to grade eight. 

“Children are supported by creative worksheets and teachers are supported by teacher training programmes. We go to the schools to provide teachers with learning lesson plans,” explains Savur. 

So these lesson plans help teachers design their lesson plans as per the National Education Policy 2020, and this is also helping them to create a joyful environment and activity-based experiential learning in the classroom, so that these children will not just remember what they learn for the purposes of an examination, but they will always remember for life. 

“We help teachers to enjoy their jobs, where they also start feeling excited to go to the school and teach children, so that the kids too get excited. So that's where the entire system of curriculum designed by Parisar Asha, which is based on Maharashtra board textbooks, but the way it is implemented is different,” she elaborates.  

Taking note of the changing times and the new challenges that the students face, the NGO also provides mental health counselling, free of cost. “If anybody needs help in mental health counselling, for any issues related to anxiety, depression, anger management, behavioural problems, screen addiction, other addictions, they can contact our helpline number (1800-5322-244 and 9594466461) that is operational all seven days,” she explains, adding that the people’s emotional well-being is extremely important.    

They also conduct workshops on anger management, depression etc at the schools. In the past 42 years, the NGO's work has reached more than 4,000 schools across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi and Shillong.  

Dr Anuradha Paudwal, singer and musician shares, “I have worked with Aarati Savur for a long time and her work at Parisar Asha is bringing great impact in people's lives. The NGO's work has deeply changed and positively affected the students who may not have the access to the best resources. Savur and her staff have been working really hard and doing a commendable job.”