December 2009

Sustainable changes in societies have occurred not through politics and economics alone, but through visionary leaders who received the right education. In the Knowledge Age we live in, competition between nations will not be between competing economic systems, but competing educational systems. At Indus, we are committed to the idea that schools must create leaders of tomorrow - leaders who are entrepreneurs, and who possess a social conscience that will make tomorrow's world sustainable. Towards this vision, we have focused on alleviating poverty and combating climate change. We have launched four key positive initiatives to make this vision come true.

First, we are setting up an exclusive Leadership School for students and teachers. All teachers and students will spend time here to reconnect with themselves and with nature. The two are indivisible.

Second, we have set up a Teaching and Research Institute for pre-service training, capacity-building of existing teachers, quality evaluation, teaching the New Literacy of the 21st century - higher purpose, critical thinking and meta-cognition, the ability to learn, and the ability to live together. The Institute is now in the process of becoming the world's first collaborative centre in human learning in neuroscience, genetics, evolutionary biology, psychology, artificial intelligence and spiritualism. We will access research findings in these areas and convert them into good classroom learning practices. San Francisco is reputed for its research institutes; and this is one area of collaboration we seek earnestly.

Third, at Indus we believe that schools must have a social objective to make the world sustainable. Schools should be given the pedigree of an institution because schools are agents of change. We believe that schools must enable students to succeed in life rather than examinations. We believe that schools must role-model this new purpose.Towards this objective, we are setting up next year the first International Baccalaureate school for children who live below the poverty line. This is being made possible by endowments from our trustees, and philanthropy of parents and corporations. 50 percent children will be girls and those challenged. Teachers will come from the same social and economic background as the students. Presently they are undergoing nine months training in international education. The school will be supported by remote Internet Centres in each village, to provide after-school e-support and conduct adult literacy programmes for the parents. We firmly believe that the true test of any curriculum or technology is to be able to make it affordable to the poorest in society. Every prosperous city has its share of ghettos and slums where people lead disempowered lives. We offer this as a model for implementation in cities that have large sections of disadvantaged population.

Fourth, the fight to save the planet from climate collapse has been put on our agenda. We want students to be at the vanguard of this change. With the help of Valence Energy Systems, a Silicon Valley energy technology company, we will launch today a web-based energy management solution with student participation. This initiative will:

• Position the school as leaders in our community.
• Motivate students to be leaders and agents of change.
• Introduce smart energy management to conserve energy and reduce carbon footprint with full participation of students.