Asha Panickar

Founder - Director The Gurukul School

After experiencing many schools in India, both as a student and as a parent, and wondering why school administrators and faculty insisted on making both parents and students feel inferior and stressed and where corporal punishment was still the norm in 2002, Asha's main intention was to set up a school where children would be happy to attend.

The original inspiration for The Gurukul was the British school in Dhaka, which her son attended without missing a day of class, regardless of any sudden health issues because, for once, he was happy going to school.

The first time Asha went to the school, she was pleasantly surprised to see the excellent rapport that the students shared with the teachers and the Principal and the fact that none of them seemed to fear the staff! This is what she wanted to replicate in India and she managed to do it in a short span of 2 years.