Affiliated with the UK-based Cambridge International, Avasara is a need-blind class VI-XII day-cum-boarding school for meritorious girl children from socio-economically disadvantaged communities – Dipta Joshi

Nestled in the azure green Lavale valley, 10 km from Pune (pop.7 million), Maharashtra’s second-largest city, is Avasara Academy (estb.2015), a unique class VI-XII day-cum-boarding school for meritorious girl children from socio-economically disadvantaged communities. Affiliated with the UK-based Cambridge Assessment International Education, Avasara Academy, Pune is a need-blind admissions school, i.e, it admits students on merit and provides means-tested scholarships to girls who need them. Students are selected through a rigorous entrance process and taught a unique leadership, entrepreneurship and Indian studies (LEI) curriculum.

Founded by Roopa Purushothaman, chief economist and head of policy advocacy at Tata Sons Ltd, the Mumbai-based holding company of the transnational Tata Group (annual revenue: Rs.792,710 crore (2018-19)) and her US-born educationist husband Joseph Cubas, Avasara Academy’s mission statement is “to empower girls of promise to lead lives of distinction and impact”. Currently the school has an enrolment of 393 girl children mentored by 31 teachers.

“We have designed a well-rounded curriculum with special emphasis on stimulating intellectual curiosity and developing academic skills required to succeed in world-class universities. Our goal is for Avasara girls to develop the vision and skills required to become entrepreneurs, public change-makers and corporate leaders. The school’s unique LEI curriculum prepares every Avasara student to confront the most pressing challenges in their own lives, their country, and around the world,” says Purushothaman.

An alumna of the globally high-ranked Yale University, USA and London School of Economics, Purushothaman began her career with Goldman Sachs, London and achieved international fame for co-authoring a 2003 investment research report predicting growing global power for BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations by 2050. In 2006, she moved to India to work with Everstone Capital, a well-reputed private equity and real estate investment firm. Simultaneously, alarmed by research data highlighting poor learning outcomes and low societal status of adolescent girl children and women in India, she became deeply interested in women’s education and began collaborating with NGOs such as Akanksha and Teach for India (TFI), and conducting after-school classes and science camps for socio-economically disadvantaged girl children.

In 2015, she teamed up with husband Joseph Cubas, a fellow Yale alum and director of institutional advancement at the American School of Bombay (ASB), to promote a “leadership and educational academy to educate girls of exceptional promise for a lifetime of leadership and contribution to society”. IT major TCS was the first institutional donor which funded the school’s three-storey building in suburban Pune that now also hosts the TCS Centre for Entrepreneurship. This was quickly followed by generous grants from other corporates that have funded the academy’s Nishar Centre for Leadership, Godrej Library, Oberoi Hall, Honeywell Center for Advancing Girls in Science, and the Mittal Centre for India Studies.

The school’s Founders Circle comprises highly respected leaders of India Inc including N. Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Sons; Nisaba Godrej, executive chairperson, Godrej Consumer Products; Saurabh Mittal, founder, Mission Holdings; Atul Nishar, chairman, Hexaware Technologies Ltd; Sameer Sain, CEO, Everstone Group and Vikas Oberoi, chairman, Oberoi Realty Ltd.

“Avasara Academy’s unique model of providing transformative STEM education and leadership training to girl children aligns perfectly with our own sensibilities,” says Ashish Gaikwad, managing director of Honeywell Automation India Ltd, which has been partnering with Avasara since 2017.

Moreover in a departure from the norm of separate hostels, five of Avasara’s buildings have 27 classrooms on the first two floors while 100 boarders reside on the two upper floors. Construction of an amphitheatre and sports facilities is in progress. Currently, the school’s sporting activities — chess; football, badminton — are conducted in large open grounds and indoor rooms while the school’s art and theatre productions are held in open spaces on campus.

In the wake of the current pandemic, the school has temporarily switched to online teaching-learning with the management providing digital devices to students who otherwise wouldn’t have access. Online education is delivered through prerecorded video lessons, with teachers interacting with children and parents through a mobiles-friendly learning management system. In addition to academics, online counseling is also provided to ensure students’ socioemotional well-being.

Yet the distinguishing features of Avasara Academy are its focus on leadership training and interactive teaching-learning systems. “We have devised an interactive pedagogy that stimulates thinking, writing, discussion and problem-solving. Moreover under our leadership curriculum, all students are expected to start microenterprises and assume advocacy and leadership roles at home, on campus and in community-based projects,” says Joseph Cubas, head of school, Avasara Academy, who adds that the school’s network of collaborations with educators, professionals and institutions such as Yale University provide students international exposure and opportunities.

Avasara Academy’s school-leavers this past year have been awarded scholarships to enrol in degree programmes of Ashoka University, Sonipat and Krea University, Sri City (AP) in India, and Huron University, Mt Holyoke, Ithaca, and Juniata colleges in North America.

According to Cubas, currently over 95 percent of students are on scholarships. “However, while we are charitable and subsidise fees to the extent possible, we expect every family to contribute to their daughters’ education — it could be 1-100 percent of the total fee. In the future, we hope to have 70 percent students on scholarships and 30 percent paying full fees. We are also working on building our endowment corpus,” says Cubas.

Admission & fees

Avasara Academy is a class VI-XII all-girls day-cum-boarding school affiliated with the Cambridge Assessment International Education, UK. Admission is based on a series of aptitude tasks and interviews.

Tuition fees are means tested.

For admission inquiries and further

information e-mail admissions@avasara.in