The Akanksha Foundation’s PCMC English Medium School, Bopkhel, is among the five inspirational Indian schools that have been named in the Top 10 shortlists for the new $250,000 World’s Best School Prizes, launched this year by T4 Education in partnership with Templeton
World Charity Foundation, Accenture and American Express. The school has been shortlisted for its impact in community collaboration, and for seeing parents as partners in children’s holistic development.

T4, an organization based out of the UK, initiated a World’s Best School Prize to celebrate schools across the world, with an opportunity to recognize and share their best practices around the world. The World’s Best School Prizes shine a spotlight on schools whose principals, teachers, and communities have demonstrated exemplary leadership and innovation to improve the education of their students in the shadow of a global pandemic.

Akanksha’s PCMC English Medium School, Bopkhel was selected after reviewing thousands of applications from schools across the world by a review panel consisting of experts in the education sector. 

Commenting on this occasion, Saurabh Taneja, the CEO of the Akanksha Foundation said, “Parents and our communities have been our partners for as long as Akanksha has existed. For the purpose of this partnership to be crystallized and presented through one school
is a moment of pride and a milestone for every Akanksha school. This is a victory not just for one school but for our entire network that deeply believes in the ideology of partnering with the community.”

“I want to recognize Sushma Pathare’s leadership in instilling and showcasing the purpose and power of our community and leveraging it by bringing together teachers, social workers, and every stakeholder with our parents. The pandemic has shown us the difference an invested family can make in a child’s development. We’ve seen our parents learn so children could learn, sing so children could sing, and share who they are so their children understood them and dared to share too.” He added.

Sushma Pathare, School Leader (Principal) of PCMC English Medium School, Bopkhel said, “We enabled parent voice to design and modify policies, structures, systems at a school level so that there is more ownership that parents feel towards their school.”

The five World’s Best School Prizes, founded by T4 Education in partnership with Accenture, American Express, Yayasan Hasanah, Templeton World Charity Foundation, and the Lemann Foundation, celebrate schools everywhere for the pivotal role they play in developing the next generation of learners and for their enormous contribution to society’s progress especially in the wake of COVID.

Congratulating the shortlisted ones, Vikas Pota, Founder of T4 Education and the World’s Best School Prizes, said, “With over 1.5 billion learners impacted by school and university closures, COVID has greatly exacerbated a global education crisis in which, even before the pandemic, the UN warned progress was already too slow to achieve universal quality education by 2030.”

Also read: Five Indian schools shortlisted for first-ever world’s best school prizes