Mandira Purohit is the school leader and has been with The Akanksha Foundation for 17 years. According to her, iPads are helping kids develop creative and reading skills in a natural way and Cook’s first-ever visit to the school instilled a lot of confidence in not only kids but the entire teaching staff.

“iPads have changed the way teaching and learning is imparted here. We are sharing a lot of software skills when kids are working in groups or collaborating on various subjects. Moreover, Cook’s reactions to the kids as he visited their classrooms were very inspiring for all of us,” she told IANS.

Cook also met Nirjala, an alumnus of the school who comes from a large family with six children that was heavily impacted financially by the pandemic. Nirjala surprised her teachers by reaching the top 10 percent of her class within two years. When she graduated two years ago, she was selected to be an alumni ambassador for her class, wherein she connects and coordinates engagement events for her classmates. She represented Akanksha at a New York fundraiser hosted by Bollywood actor Boman Irani.

“It became so easy for us to learn with iPad and Apple TV in the classroom apart from books. Apps like Book Creator and iMovie and a host of other animation apps on iPad opened a new world for us,” Nirjala told Cook. According to Chitra Pandit, Head of Communications and Development, they have been fortunate to have this Apple partnership going on since 2015.

“It has just grown from strength to strength. Next year. We’re going to have all our 26 schools with iPads and we can’t wait to see all our children learn in a better and effective way so that they can perform at higher levels like children from anywhere,” Pandit told IANS.

For Cook, visiting the Sitaram Mill Compound municipal school was a heartening experience and the company will expand such initiatives to more schools and children in the country.