KIRAN BIR SETHI established The Riverside School in 2001, in Ahmedabad.
A Graphic Designer by profession, Ms Sethi’s independent thinking had led her to conclude that modern education places insufficient emphasis upon imagination, emotional well-being, and choice. She believed that a new paradigm was needed in which pupils creatively explore the world, develop themselves and care for others. maverick.
As a result, Ms Sethi re-imagined and re-engineered teaching and learning through a simplified Design Thinking approach, into the education system of her creation, The Riverside School. Stepping away from text-books driven curriculum, to one that nurtures collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication, she coined the ‘Common Sense to Common Practice’ education model. Today, The School is a fertile ground for research and sustained development, innovation and transformation infusing an ‘I CAN’ mindset in all its stakeholders.
The success of this teaching approach is born out in the ASSET Results, a national assessment for schools in India, where Riverside students have consistently outperformed the top ten schools in Math, Science, and English.
Ms Sethi’s belief and practice is to make The School not the ‘Best School in the World’, but the ‘Best School for the World’. disruptive thinker.
In 2007, Ms Sethi set out to take the ‘I CAN’ spirit of The Riverside School to the city of Ahmedabad. She created a new platform, aProCh (a Protagonist in every Child), to make Ahmedabad child friendly. aProCh offered an unique opportunity for children to become active citizens of the city. With success. As a result, several schools were inspired by this initiative. Owing to Ms Sethi’s abundance mentality, aProCh has supported the implementation of these programs in five cities across the country, impacting over 50,000 children, since 2007.
In 2009, Ms Sethi created a simple design thinking framework, FIDS (Feel, Imagine, Do, Share) that empowered children to become change agents. Children were encouraged to participate in the Design for Change - School Contest, using the FIDS framework. Today, these children have an ‘I CAN’ confidence to solve socio-economic problems, in their immediate environment. Design for Change has spread to 45 countries and impacted 2.2 million children, across the world.
Ms Kiran Bir Sethi. Reaching the hearts and minds of people. Inspiring. Motivating. A rebel.
We congratulate Ms Kiran Bir Sethi. Our Qimpro Gold Standard 2017 for education.