DKZP (Dakshin Kannada Zilla Parishad) Higher Primary School, Bokkapatna-3, Mangalore (Grades 1–7)
St. Agnes High School (English Medium), Mangalore (Grades 8–10)
My name is Inchara. I studied in a Kannada medium government school in Bokkapatna, Mangalore. I could understand a few English words, but speaking felt impossible — like the language belonged to someone else.
When ED360’s online English classes started in my school in Grade 6, I didn’t know then that something inside me was about to change.
The teachers kept encouraging me to try. Even when I answered in Kannada, they smiled and gently pushed me to speak in English. Slowly, word by word, I found my voice.
Day by day, my fear became a little less. My voice became a little stronger.
And then one day, I stood on stage and hosted my school’s annual function in English. I still remember that moment. I was not afraid anymore.
After Grade 7, I moved to an English medium school. It was not easy, but I was not the same girl anymore.
Today, I have scored 89.6% in my Class 10 exams. I dream of becoming a doctor.
ED360 did not just teach me English.
“It helped me find my voice… and believe that my dreams are possible.”
Inchara is why ED360 exists. And she is why we will not stop.
Inchara in her government school classroom in Bokkapatna. Grade 6. She understands — but answers in Kannada. She doesn't yet believe English is for her.
Inchara at St. Agnes High School, Mangalore. The same girl — two years on. Speaking confidently in English. 89.6% in Class 10 boards. Wants to be a doctor.
ED360 Learning Foundation delivers free, structured English education to children in government schools across India through trained tutors, measurable assessments, and a system designed to last.
A world where every child — regardless of the school they attend or the family they were born into — has the English language skills to choose their own future.
To deliver free, structured, and measurable English language education to children in government schools — through trained tutors, rigorous assessments, and a programme built to last — so that no child is left behind simply because of where they study.
English is not just a language in India. It is a gatekeeper. A child who cannot speak English is locked out of better colleges, better jobs, and better opportunities — before they have even had a fair chance to compete.
This is not a rural problem. This is not a distant problem. This is happening in government schools across India right now. Children who attend school every day, who have teachers who care, who have parents with ambitions for them — but who graduate without the one skill that the working world demands.
Most interventions treat this as a resource problem. We know it is a systems problem. What is missing is not goodwill — it is a structured, consistent, accountable programme that shows up every week, tracks every child, and measures real progress. That is what ED360 does.
ED360 Learning Foundation started with a simple, uncomfortable truth: children in government schools across India were completing their schooling without being able to hold a basic conversation in English — a skill that would follow them, or fail them, for the rest of their lives.
In 2022, Rajani Adkar and Shobha Pai — both with over 15 years in education, teacher training, and coaching — decided to do something about it. They started with one school in Mangalore, one batch of children, and a curriculum they had spent years developing. They started in Bokkapatna, Mangalore, with early support from friends who believed in what they were building.
When resources were stretched in those early years, they did not stop. They stayed committed — because the children waiting in that classroom deserved consistency, not promises.
Three years later, ED360 is present in 25+ government schools across four cities, reaching 2,000+ children with free, structured, online English classes every week. We are not a tutoring centre. We are not a weekend project. We are a full-year, structured, accountable programme — built to scale.
More than founders, they are educators at heart-still on the ground, training tutors, reviewing assignments, observing classes, and shaping every aspect of the learning experience.
15 years building communication skills in people. Then she asked: why not start with the children who need it most?
Rajani Adkar has 15+ years of experience in education and soft skills training — working with individuals and organizations on communication, English proficiency, and structured learning design. Over that career she developed a deep understanding of how people learn to communicate, what blocks them, and what it actually takes to build confidence in a language that isn’t your own.
That understanding is exactly what she brought to ED360. In 2023, she along with Shobha Pai, founded ED360 Learning Foundation with a conviction that the English language gap in India’s government schools is solvable — not with good intentions, but with structure, consistency, and trained people who show up every week.
She knows how young children acquire language — and built ED360’s programme around that knowledge.
Shobha Pai’s expertise is early childhood and primary education — the years that determine how a child relates to learning for the rest of their life. With over two decades working with young children and the teachers who teach them, she understands something most people miss: children don’t fail to learn English because they can’t — they fail because they’re taught it the wrong way, at the wrong age, without consistent exposure.
Shobha is the program’s pedagogical anchor. She oversees how the curriculum is structured, how tutors are trained, and how every session is designed to be age-appropriate, confidence-building, and rooted in the way children actually acquire language — not the way textbooks assume they do.
ED360’s advisory board brings expertise from education, corporate leadership, and the social sector — helping us grow with rigour and intention.
Ms. Aparna Bhat is a seasoned Corporate Governance, Legal and Compliance professional with over two decades of experience across listed companies, multinational organizations, and advisory practice. She is a CS–LLB with a Post Graduate Diploma in Securities Law, has cleared the IBBI Limited Insolvency Examination, and is a Certified CSR & ESG professional empaneled with the IICA Independent Director Databank.
She currently heads the Legal & Compliance function at a leading integrated marketing services group, and has been actively volunteering and working closely with NGOs, supporting them in strengthening their corporate governance, compliance, and reporting frameworks.
Advises ED360 Learning Foundation on corporate governance, CSR compliance, and legal frameworks — pro bono.
With over 30 years of entrepreneurial leadership, Girish Baliga has built and scaled ventures across technology, data storage, edtech, and HR tech. Recognized among India’s fastest-growing CEOs, he has successfully launched multiple businesses, including a premium data storage consulting firm, an edtech platform impacting 50,000+ students across 75+ universities, and an innovative video-led hiring platform that reduced recruitment lead times by 50%. He brings deep expertise in venture building, product strategy, enterprise sales, team incubation, and technology commercialization, while also serving as an industry consultant in Skill Development, Higher Education, Energy, and Water Resources. Beyond business, Girish is a passionate horse racing enthusiast and owner with over 50 race wins, including the prestigious Chief Minister’s Cup. He currently serves as the Interim President of the Karnataka Race Horse Owners Association. Based in Bengaluru.
Advises ED360 Learning Foundation on organizational strategy, technology, and scale — pro bono.
Naren Baliga is a global technology leader with 20+ years of experience at the intersection of enterprise software, cloud platforms, and emerging technologies. At SAP, he has directed the adoption of enterprise-grade platforms for organizations like Microsoft, Intel, PayPal, and Adobe — leveraging Cloud, Generative AI, IoT, and Blockchain at scale. Earlier, he was part of Microsoft Cloud (now M365) during its growth to its first million users, and has held leadership roles in supply chain, product management, and consulting across India, Japan, Australia, and North America.
He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson / HEC Paris, an MS in Engineering Technology, and a degree in Industrial Engineering — and is based in Seattle.
For ED360, Naren’s value is clear: a programme that runs on Zoom, tracks 2,000+ students, and is building towards an app need someone who understands enterprise-scale technology and how to build digital infrastructure that works. He advises ED360 on its technology roadmap, app development strategy, and how to leverage modern tools — including AI — to improve programme reach and reporting.
Advises ED360 Learning Foundation on technology strategy and digital infrastructure — pro bono.
Rahul R is a senior media leader with deep expertise in content strategy, brand storytelling, and audience development. As Vice President heading Content Strategy at Network Zee5 and Zee TV — two of India’s largest digital and broadcast media platforms — he understands what makes a story land, what gets shared, and how to build a narrative that moves people to act.
For a growing NGO like ED360, that expertise is rare and invaluable. Rahul advises ED360 on how to tell its story effectively — to funders, to corporate CSR teams, and to the public. He brings a practitioner’s understanding of what media attention looks like, how content should be structured for different audiences, and what it takes for an organization’s mission to break through in a crowded space.
His guidance shapes how ED360 presents Inchara’s story, how its impact is documented on video, and how its communications are built to resonate with the people who have the power to scale its reach.
Advises ED360 Learning Foundation on media strategy, content, and storytelling — pro bono.
With over 30 years of entrepreneurial leadership, Girish Baliga has built and scaled ventures across technology, data storage, edtech, and HR tech. Recognized among India’s fastest-growing CEOs, he has successfully launched multiple businesses, including a premium data storage consulting firm, an edtech platform impacting 50,000+ students across 75+ universities, and an innovative video-led hiring platform that reduced recruitment lead times by 50%. He brings deep expertise in venture building, product strategy, enterprise sales, team incubation, and technology commercialization, while also serving as an industry consultant in Skill Development, Higher Education, Energy, and Water Resources. Beyond business, Girish is a passionate horse racing enthusiast and owner with over 50 race wins, including the prestigious Chief Minister’s Cup. He currently serves as the Interim President of the Karnataka Race Horse Owners Association. Based in Bengaluru.
Advises ED360 Learning Foundation on organizational strategy, technology, and scale — pro bono.
Rishab brings 6+ years of experience in taxation and financial advisory, with deep expertise in regulatory compliance and structured financial documentation. As a volunteer adviser to ED360 Learning Foundation, he provides guidance on financial governance, compliance frameworks, and funder reporting — ensuring that ED360 operates with the transparency and rigour that CSR partners, institutional donors, and regulatory bodies expect.
His background in working with multinational organizations on complex tax and compliance matters brings an important layer of credibility to ED360’s financial reporting — helping the organization build the institutional trust that sustains and scales its impact.
Advises ED360 Learning Foundation on financial governance and regulatory compliance — pro bono.
There are many organisations working in education. Here is why ED360 is not like the rest.
Rajani and Shobha bring over 30 combined years of direct experience in education. They have designed curricula, trained teachers, coached students, and worked inside real government and private school classrooms. This is not borrowed insight. It is lived experience — and it shapes every decision ED360 makes.
At ED360, the founders are not figureheads. Rajani and Shobha train the tutors, review the assessments, stay connected with school heads, and sit in on classes. Every decision comes from people who are close enough to the programme to know what is actually working and what needs to change.
Rajani and Shobha gave up established corporate careers to build ED360. When resources were stretched in the early years, they stayed. They were supported by friends who believed in what they were building — and they kept the programme running. Schools never received an apologetic notice saying "we are on hold." They showed up. Every week. Because the children deserved consistency — not promises.
Every ED360 tutor is selected, trained, assessed, and monitored. Every school has a WhatsApp group with the head teacher. Every child is assessed at three points in the year. Every quarter, data is compiled and shared. Funders get reports. Schools get accountability. Children get results.
ED360 has a paid services vertical — Teacher Enrichment, Soft Skills Training, and Content Writing — that generates income to fund the free programme. We are building an organisation that can survive and grow, not one that disappears when a funding cycle ends.
Launched from a single government school in Mangalore with 40 children. Rajani and Shobha funded the programme entirely themselves. Tested and refined the LSRW curriculum. Proved the model worked.
Expanded to Bangalore. Partnered with GoodEra and ConnectFor for volunteer tutor mobilisation — scaling reach without scaling cost. Demonstrated the ability to operate across multiple cities simultaneously, still with no external funding.
Scaled to 15+ schools. Introduced structured tutor training and monitoring. Selected for UnLtd India mentorship and capacity-building programme 2024–25. Built the ASER-aligned assessment framework.
Expanded to Udupi and Tumkuru. Launched the formal 3-stage assessment cycle. Teacher Enrichment Programme formalised as a paid service. CSR partnership programme launched. Targeting 10,000 children by 2027–28, 15,000 by 2028–29, and 20,000 by 2029–30.
Every class tracked. Every child assessed. Every school reported to. Evidence, not assertions.
Free for the child. Always. No hidden fees, no paid tiers, no exceptions — ever.
Structured curriculum. Trained tutors. Three-stage assessments. This is not goodwill — it is a system.
A model built to be lean, replicable, and fundable. Our paid services fund our free programme — by design.
Women-led. Educator-founders. We have been in classrooms. We know what teaching actually looks like.
From school heads who see the change every week, to CSR partners who wanted accountability and got it, to tutors who show up because they mean it.
Registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Your CSR spend with ED360 is fully compliant.
NGO Darpan portal registration — the Government of India's transparency and credibility platform for NGOs.
Donations are tax-exempt under 80G. 12A registration gives income tax exemption to the organisation.
That is what it took to change Inchara's life. Your contribution funds the next one.
Rajani leads ED360’s vision, partnerships, and strategy — and stays closely connected to what happens in every class every week. The programme she has built reflects everything she has learned about how communication skills are actually developed: not through textbooks, but through practice, patience, and showing up.
“Language is not a privilege. It is a right. ED360 exists to make sure every child gets it.”
Her approach is patient, observant, and deeply practical. At ED360, every curriculum decision, every assessment design, and every tutor guideline carry her fingerprint.
