Akshara Foundation of Arts and Learning

Kunal Chakravarty Director - Communications & Fundraising AFAL At Akshara, we strongly believe that the Arts are an integral part of an individual’s well-being as they foster the young to become sensitive and compassionate adults . Artistic interventions and experiences help children engage more intimately with themselves, their surroundings and the world at large. The Arts create an environment of equality where children absorb knowledge, develop skills and express themselves freely without fear or prejudice, thus empowering them. Another driving force that makes us lean heavily on the Arts is the fact that a majority of our students are either first-generation school-goers or first-generation English learners. We are also an inclusive school, which means that every class has a mix of students with varied intellectual and physical abilities.  Thus, text-based education and cookie-cutter lesson plans are not something we can rely on and we have to find artistic ways to ensure ...

Priya’s mother worked as a domestic help in the house of a family who had two children, both students of Akshara High School. As a little four-year-old, Priya often tagged along with her mother when she was at work and played with the younger of the two children who was as old as her. The parents of the two children approached us enquiring if we could perhaps admit Priya to our school as they were aware that we support the education of girl children, offer subsidies and also full scholarships.  The thought that two children who played together would now come to school together as well, was absolutely joyous and we immediately took her under our wing. Both her parents had never been to school and for their child to jump straight into an English-medium ICSE school was going to be a challenge.  However, Priya was not the first child at Akshara to come from a background like this. We had an existing system which ensured the child becomes an independent learner from a young age and...