Reach high and touch the stars

Be a river to reach your end.

Always moving over rock or bend.

To move forward while welcoming new changes isn’t comfortable. In fact, it is the contrary. But, what is life without confronting challenges head-on? We understand how you have been feeling since last year after collectively undergoing major modifications. In 2020, surfing through news channels, social platforms and WhatsApp groups took a whole new meaning. Our favourite pastime, overnight, became the bearer of bad news. The pandemic stole not only our freedom to venture outside but also cut down our cellphone interactions. The intense ambiguity which entered the lives of 7.9 billion people world-over was unjustifiable.

With an overwhelmed healthcare system, exhausted Government efforts and a short supply of medicines, our reality became an actual representation of ‘sink or swim’. But, even as the turbulent waves rocked our ship and threatened to drown us, we chose to go on. Giving up wasn’t an option, it never was. The resilience shown by every cell in our bodies was, indeed, stupefying.

If a rock comes your way, skirt around.

If it’s too wide, go from under the ground.

If you can’t go under, climb over it.

If you can’t climb, break it down.

We evolved and acclimated ourselves to the situation around us. Times when paving a way became exhausting, we broke down, but our spirit remained undeterred. Like a band of synchronised musicians, we started working together to rebuild from the ashes. The melody created from these unified efforts was one to witness. Our education system, impaired at the start of the pandemic, began running.

Be rapid, cascade, be a waterfall.

Squeeze through gaps, climb through walls.

Gallop through mountains, pass through vales.

At LEAD, too, each stakeholder from partner schools focussed on their goals. They unflinchingly met complications with bravery and optimism. What was impossible the night before, seemed accomplishable with the rise of a new dawn. Online schooling became procurable. Students and teachers bonded on the virtual medium as they drove towards closing the learning gap. From school owners to parents, they invested their energy in adapting to this new medium. Even though the uncertainty lingered, their hard work created magic.

We, too, aimed at customising our integrated learning system. Endowing each child with personalised learning and empowering every educator was at the heart of it. Parallelly, we were adding supplementary features in individual apps for stakeholders. The school owners no longer had to be surrounded by paperwork to progress their school; machines took care of it.

Run past foothills, flow through plains.

For life is about moving and growing.

Not about staying and holding. 

Whatever comes your way – a mountain or muck.

Be Unstoppable, and never be stuck.

Building the finest centres of learning has always been our core mission. In this difficult time, providing 100% complete schooling without compromise on quality education remained paramount. We enabled excellent learning combined with a remarkable technology that reached lakhs of remote households via our partner schools. The children in rural India too deserved an opportunity to grow. The lockdowns imposed during the pandemic weren’t a reason to halt their education. We wanted them to grow, to falter and, still, advance their unstoppable journey.

The response we procured from these children and educators alike was phenomenal. The programs like masterclass, Summer Camp, and LEAD Premier League saw extensive participation. It reinstated that we were on the right track.

We had envisioned and prayed that 2021 would be different from last year. We hoped to hug our loved ones more often, travel alongside them and promise to not take even a moment for granted. However, the experience has made each human more resilient and empathetic towards one another. With a world that is transforming at the speed of light, we have become ready to lead the change and leave a mark in our wake.