I want to be Ayushi!!

Blogging has been a harder task than expected and my excuses are endless but now that we have started our “Rajasthan Roadshow” – a two week trip in an attempt to understand the challenges facing schools in small towns (population 250K – 500K) and define the market for e-Tutor -- it feels as though we must share what we are understanding and experiencing across schools in Rajasthan.

“I don’t care about becoming Mukesh Ambani, I want to be Ayusha”, clamored a young ten year girl, named Ayushi at Bhartiya Public School. She had a determination in her pose and in her eyes as she addressed our team and her own principal and director. She explained her frustration: “I don’t have the freedom to create my own path” and advised us that in addition to working with schools, we should be focused on parents.

Another student, Puja, in the 12^th standard, wanted to become a dancer but only after receiving her IIT degree and recommended that the school create a career counseling program. She explained, “In Delhi, my cousins know what options are available - they know they can be journalists, artists, or DJs but in Sikar we don’t know whats out there…we just keep hearing about being doctors or engineers…”

Our team was impressed to see such fearlessness in the students at Bhartiya Public School in Sikar, a small town on the eastern edge of Rajasthan with a population of about 200,000. Education Access of All’s goal is to work with such schools and communities to bring the innovation in education that exists in urban areas across India and globally to support their students. As some of you already know, currently we have two initiatives: Newton Management Company, which works with local schools to bring best practices such as career counseling to their schools and e-Tutor, an interactive software based on CBSE curriculum that bring individualized and interactive learning to students. We are continuing to refine our strategy as we meet with schools as well as leaders in the education space. We are early in our growth and look forward to developing the best options to help fulfill the aspiration and the schools in towns like Sikar.