Ms. Mallika Ganapathy
Ms Mallika believes that the depth of change, growth and fulfillment we bring in the lives of people around us is how deep these very things penetrate and happen within us. She considers it an honour that life has bestowed on her an opportunity to experience this around children. Her journey as an educator started 32 years ago, working with differently-abled children and their families. Working closely with them, she realized that all children have an innate potential and inherent motivation to learn, and have a right to an optimal learning space. This belief led her to work with administrators and teachers in rural, special, CBSE, ICSE and Cambridge Schools in the southern states of India, on policies and pedagogic practices. The objective was to ensure a secure, organic and material rich learning space for children. Realizing the importance of capacity building in teachers led her to focus on teacher-training and authoring chapters in a book published by Sage Publishers-“Within Walls Without Boundaries” and a book on “Understanding Best Inclusive Practices in Schools” by Seva-in-Action, and a Master Trainer Manual on “Promoting Reading” by IBM and The Promise Foundation.
As Trustee and Director of MIRRA Charitable Trust, an initiative “ABIVIDHI”, a collaborative eco-system of schools, NGOs, parents and professionals to make inclusion a reality was launched in Chennai. She worked with KFI and Chennai Corporation, and developed a Universal Curriculum for Primary, to meet the needs of every child in the class, irrespective of differences. She believes that when children are self-directed and learn through exploration and curiosity, they live what they have learnt and offer it freely with sensitivity and compassion to others.