India’s The Riverside School wins World’s Best School Prize for Innovation 2023
The Riverside School, an independent international school in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, which has gained worldwide recognition for its groundbreaking, student-centric approach to education with its I CAN pedagogical model, was today named winner of the World’s Best School Prize for Innovation 2023. The five World’s Best School Prizes, founded last year by T4 Education in collaboration with Accenture, American Express and the Lemann Foundation, are the world’s most prestigious education prizes and this year’s winners share an award of $250,000.
At the same time, Institución Educativa Municipal Montessori sede San Francisco in Colombia won the World’s Best School Prize for Environmental Action. SPARK Soweto in South Africa won the World’s Best School Prize for Community Collaboration. The Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School won the World’s Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity. And EEMTI Joaquim Bastos Gonçalves in Brazil won the World’s Best School Prize for Supporting Healthy Lives. The winners were chosen by an expert Judging Academy.
In addition, a new Community Choice Award was presented this year to Escola Municipal Professor Edson Pisani in Brazil after it won the most votes of all the World’s Best School Prizes finalists in a Public Vote. It will now receive membership to T4 Education’s new Best School to Work programme, an independent, evidence-based mechanism to certify schools for their culture and help them transform their working environment to attract and retain the best teachers.
Vikas Pota, Founder of T4 Education and the World’s Best School Prizes said, “My deepest congratulations to The Riverside School in India. Educators across the world should look to the shining example of your school in the difference you have made to so many lives. And governments must look to the trailblazing work you have done as they seek answers to the great challenges we face today. Where you lead, they must follow. This tremendous moment has been made possible by the leadership, vision and culture your school has fostered and it brings me great pride to bestow upon you the World’s Best School Prize for Innovation 2023.”
The five World’s Best School Prizes – for Community Collaboration, Environmental Action, Innovation, Overcoming Adversity, and Supporting Healthy Lives – celebrate schools everywhere for the pivotal role they play in developing the next generation of learners and for their enormous contribution to society’s progress, especially in the wake of COVID. The Prizes were established to share the best practices of schools that are transforming the lives of their students and making a real difference to their communities.
About the school:
The Riverside School, an independent international school in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, has gained worldwide recognition for its groundbreaking, student-centric approach to education, particularly through its I CAN pedagogical model and the introduction of the FEEL, IMAGINE, DO, and SHARE (FIDS) programme. By integrating an intentional value system of empathy, ethics, excellence, elevation, and evolution with the academic curriculum, the school has consistently ranked amongst the top 10 schools in India since 2004.
Inspired by the founder’s own son’s academic struggles, Riverside used Design Thinking to develop a school-wide teaching and learning culture of agency, engagement, and creativity. Today, FIDS is also an online training platform used by many schools worldwide and has inspired children worldwide to become changemakers. The platform has reached 2 million children through the Design for Change School, and Riverside has conducted state-wide, remote and in-person workshops to train over 1,000 government school teachers in the FIDS framework and its application in their contexts.