It has been six months since ISF took the first steps of its ambitious expansion journey: starting from one school in Rajugela at the heart of its satellite school system two years ago to the opening of its first satellite, the Linklaters school, located a dozen miles away in the village of Samarua. Such hub and spoke model allows investments in educational content, technologies and managerial resources, to be shared across a larger number of students scattered across large geographic areas. However, resources and strategies are not sufficient. Getting the buy-in of the local community, including its community leader is essential.  Thanks to ISF’s reputation, the community leader in Samarua demonstrated his commitment by giving ISF access to a building that he renovated. A meeting with community members and prospective parents was also organized to present the multigrade methodology. (Continue reading…)

By Linklaters India Community Investment Team communityinvestment_india@linklaters.com

When our team at Linklaters, the international law firm, was first looking to make a donation from our community investment budget, there was no shortage of deserving projects to choose from.  We were looking to partner with an organization focused on primary education, and while we shortlisted several potential projects, the decision to partner with ISF was a unanimous one. (Continue reading…)

The ISF team is extremely happy to introduce the new ISF Principal Amit Singh.  Amit will replace Eswarji who joined ISF in 2007 and successfully launched and ran our operations in both schools for two years.  During a 3-day visit to Rajugela a few months ago, Amit said: “I found the methodology very compelling especially given the challenges in rural areas. I come from the same state, in a village not too far from Rajugela and always wanted to give back, which is why I wanted to join ISF as the Principal.” Everyone at ISF is convinced that Amit’s passion, hard work and experience in education will be instrumental going forward.  He has taught commerce in 3 schools (the Jain International School, the Virendra Swaroop Education Centre, and the Avadhpuri Branch in Kanpur). Given his bachelor degree in Law and Commerce, Amit will help ISF manage its operations and external relationships as the organization grow.   (Continue reading…)

Hello Nishith, you are the head of the ISF Chapter at IBM. Tell us something about yourself

I was born in Rajasthan, a state known for forts and king dynasties.  I come from a conservative family in India, and my childhood, although not perfect, was better than most of the other children there. My family valued education and providing a good education to their kids was the number one priority. (Continue reading…)