LeapForWord was started in 2006 by a group of management graduates who had entered the corporate world to fulfill their dreams,
only to realize there is a larger world out there that probably doesn’t even know how to spell “DREAM”.
Knowing that an immediate positive change could happen only through the maximum leverage of our limited resources, we decided to concentrate on a
single area that would yield optimum results with minimum effort. In today’s economy,
English proficiency has become the biggest differentiator between the educated haves & have-nots.
Thus, a Mumbai-based registered non-profit organization dedicated to the sole purpose of enhancing
the English language skills of children in under-served communities in India was born.
The genesis of our name ‘LeapForWord’ can be traced to this single-minded resolve.
Our journey began in the small village of Shirpur in Maharashtra, in the year 2009, and over the past 15 years,
we have replicated our model of the English Literacy Program across 12 states of India.
While the adoption of the ELP model at scale has been a deliberate step to ensure replicability of the program,
we have adopted innovative strategies to strengthen our reach in different geographies based on the regional context, and requirements.
In Maharashtra, we have adopted a bottom-up approach, working independent of the State support.
Being one of the oldest states with our presence, teachers have adopted the ELP without state intervention.
While in Alwar Rajasthan, the ELP has been adopted into a community-centric initiative through the Teacher Entrepreneur project.
We have full state operations in collaboration with the Rajya Sikha Kendra (RSK) in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC) in Jharkhand,
and the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) in Chhattisgarh.
We have collaborated with the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT), Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh Samgra Shiksha,
ITDA-Utnoor (Integrated Tribal Development Association) Telangana, Vidhya Vidai, Nagapattinam & Tiruvallur, in Tamil Nadu,
and the Jay Prakash Narayan Sarvodaya Vidyalas, Department of Social Welfare, Uttar Pradesh.
Our most recent collaboration with Trent Limited and the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti has been initiated as a pilot project across
10 JNVs in Maharashtra, aimed at providing additional support for future readiness to students transitioning from regional-language schools to JNVs.
It’s the possibility of completely solving the English learning problem that limits access to professional education for millions of students studying in regional language schools.
We believe that government-run, free regional language schools are critical to achieving effective universal education.
However, most government schools are unable to deliver English learning as effectively as private schools due to limitation
of resources and an effective English teaching methodology. Hence, we have developed tools to enable these regional schools
to deliver English learning effectively using one's own mother tongue.
Our primary motivation is “Equal Access to English Learning Opportunities for All.”
LeapForWord is based in Mumbai, with a reach across 12 states of India. We have full state operation in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh, partial operation in the states Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Delhi.
Enable rural children from regional language government schools to overcome the barrier to English learning so that they can access increased opportunities, higher education and professional courses for their overall development.
Our goal of making India English literate aligns with National Education Policy 2020 which envisions integrating regional language learning and foundational literacy.