Parisar Asha: Revolutionising Education with ESAL
‘Education must present our children with a gift that offers the wonders of exploratory learning, the confidence that comes from building one’s discovered strengths and the hope that comes from seeing the problems when faced rather than feared. It must provide challenges for creative solutions and most of all, a way of life.’ – Late Gloria De’ Souza, Founder, Parisar Asha
This belief led to the birth of Parisar Asha in 1982, a non-profit, registered Public Trust (Reg. No. F 14364, B.P. Trust Act). The organisation is committed to serve society through a unique learning approach ‘ESAL’ – ‘The Environmental Studies Approach to Learning’ to replace the age-old system of rote-learning.
The education process using the ESAL pedagogy focuses on enabling teaching and learning through the environment which not only includes the natural environment but also encompasses social and spiritual environments. The model works towards empowering children to be positive, creative, sensitive and successful global citizens along with developing their literacy, numeracy and 21st century life skills. The process of transformation starts by implementing the unique curriculum based on ESAL infused in the State Board Curriculum. This curriculum is rolled out from Pre-primary to Std VII.
Parisar Asha triggers an evolution in the education system through its internationally acclaimed School Transformation Programme – Eco-tech World School Programme which is based on the ESAL pedagogy which addresses the needs of students, teachers and parents through customised projects.
Over a period of 36 years, Parisar Asha has catered to more than 2500 schools. In the academic year 2017-18, they are catering to 71 private schools and 3 BMC and 8 TMC schools. These projects are being supported by organisations like D-Mart, Voltas, Rotostat Services Private Limited, National Oilwell Varco and Larsen & Toubro as part of their CSR initiatives. They have reached out to more than 2,75,000 students and 1,02,500 teachers in the past five years.
They have launched Positive Parenting and Child Helpline with the support of Capgemini in 2017. This helpline is a toll-free number which aims at addressing mental health related problems by a team of expert counsellors and psychiatrists. They conduct parenting workshops in different schools and also encourage individuals to walk in to our centre if they need such assistance. Over a period of one year, they have been able to successfully resolve more than 500 cases and reach out to more than 10,000 beneficiaries.
Parisar Asha conducts a lot of eco-sensitive workshops which promote environmental conservation and sustainability like Eco-Ganpati making workshops supported by United Phosphorous Limited and Million Caring Citizens Programme initiated by Mahindra Lifespaces.
Parisar Asha has won honours such as The Global Giving Award’-Dubai 2017, GLOBAL NGO CSR Award for 2016 for Outstanding Contribution in Education for Sustainability, ‘Reimagine Learning Challenge Pacesetter’ title by Lego Foundation. Aarati Savur, CEO of Parisar Asha has been honoured with ‘The Women’s Achiever Award, 2016′, 4th World Women Super Achiever award presented by Femina, Indian Women Achievers Award (IWAA), and others.
