The Akanksha Foundation

The Akanksha Foundation is a non-profit that has worked for more than 30 years to give children from underserved communities a high-quality education. It runs English-medium schools in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur through public-private partnerships with municipal corporations. Its stated mission is to maximise the potential of children and young adults through holistic education. Akanksha describes a 20-year commitment to each child, enrolling students in kindergarten and supporting them until they enter the workforce. Its model combines academics with socio-emotional learning, 21st-century skills, values, parent engagement and community involvement.

Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Major Areas of Work

• School education: Running English-medium schools with municipal corporations under a public-private partnership model.

• Educator and school leader development: Hiring, training and mentoring teachers, and growing experienced teachers into school leaders.

• Public school reform: Bringing practices from Akanksha schools into municipal school systems through partnerships with city governments.

• Alumni careers and higher education: Supporting students from Grade 8 onwards with college, vocational and career pathways.

• Arts education: Teaching visual art as a core subject, both in Akanksha schools and in outside schools.

Major Initiatives and Programmes

• The School Project: Akanksha's network of English-medium public-private partnership schools, built on four pillars of excellent educators, innovative pedagogy, parent partnership and holistic learning.

• Alumni Support and Engagement (ASE): Support for students from Grade 8 through their careers, covering career counselling and psychometric testing, university application help, internships, vocational training, leadership camps, 1-to-1 mentorship and the Step Up volunteer programme.

• Project Setu: A 5-year partnership with the Nagpur and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporations to transform municipal schools across leadership, educator development, infrastructure, community engagement and student well-being, backed by a data dashboard for city leaders.

• Art for Akanksha: An art curriculum of 800+ lessons from kindergarten to Grade 10, taught in Akanksha schools, municipal schools and partner organisations, with an art products line that funds the work.

• Project RISE: An enrichment programme giving high-performing students 5-8 extra hours of rigorous instruction and mentorship.

The School Project is Akanksha's flagship. About a quarter of learning time goes to areas beyond academics, including daily socio-emotional learning practices developed by Emory University with the Dalai Lama Trust. New and returning teachers start each year with four weeks of intensive training, followed by weekly workshops, peer observation and one-on-one mentoring through the year.

Impact

Akanksha's figures vary by source. Its recruitment material cites 27 schools, 14,600+ students and 5,800+ alumni, while its School Project page cites 28 schools, 15,490 students and 760+ educators. Its site states that 88% of alumni are employed and that 95% secured college or vocational admissions in 2023-24. It reports that Project Setu works with 222 municipal schools and reaches more than 70,000 students. Akanksha maintains partnerships with the Brihanmumbai, Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Nagpur municipal corporations, and with funders including Thermax Foundation, Bajaj Finserv and UBS.

Leadership

• Saurabh Taneja, Chief Executive Officer

• Venil Ali, Chief of Schools and Alumni

• Jayshree Oberoi, Chief of Government Partnership and Scale Initiatives

• Anjali Suresh, Chief Financial Officer

Akanksha suits educators who want to work inside schools and see the results with children and families. Staff work on the ground in schools across three cities, often alongside government officials and municipal authorities. Teachers can grow into school leadership through a clear pathway. There are also central roles in teacher training, alumni careers, government partnerships, arts education and research. The work suits people committed to educational equity who want hands-on experience of running schools and improving public education at scale.