From an Idea to an Entity,
From a Dream to a Promise,
From a Feeble Spark to a Force of Fire,
From a March to a Movement.
Five years hence, we now stand 13 schools in 10 states across the length and breadth of the country, pacing faster than ever before. Our mission promises education that is based on ‘Discovery’ of the world, encouraging creative and divergent thinking patterns. Our goal is to craft confident, competitive, and socially responsible students, who are ready to seize the future.
Global Discovery Academy’s Founder, Mr. Pankaj Bindra, has been known for his edge in concept development and systematically evolving the system progressively around him. He hails from a normal middle-class family, having spent years amidst dining table discussions centered around nuances of the Indian education system. These thought-provoking discussions and debates guided him on a quest to find the answers to the questions. His skills were evident right from the start and continued throughout his engineering at MSU Baroda, complemented his pioneering work at L&T, and later led to his innovation at Oracle, ABN AMRO, HP in USA. As an innovator and strategist, he believed in the power of revolutionary ideas and set the sails to create a national movement to change the way education was taught in India.
It was in that moment - during the ‘New Ventures’ class in his MBA at Kellogg School of Management, which yielded the answers; connecting the thought to a cognitive map of a model that would redefine education . Having decided, he energized his classmates to build a model that would ensure a revolutionary impact, a resonance of a field of opportunities for the young generation, an actualization of the difference they could make by replacing the existing rote learning practices.
The word ‘impact’ became the genesis of Global Discovery Academy.
Market research revealed that pedagogy delivery in India lacked luster with immense scope of improvement. It needed a comprehensive re-write following an approach that was scientifically sourced from breakthrough researches of acclaimed scholars like Sir Ken Robinson, Malcolm Gladwell, Howard Gardner, and Reggio Emilia. The approach would ensure child centricity, stimulate the daily classroom delivery, standardize quality and make a core promise that personified into an easily understood brand.
Pankaj’s determination and energy exuded a progression with thought leaders who believed in the impact that this venture would actualize in the current education sector. GDA’s India Centric Model was created by its founding team in USA (Silicon Valley & Chicago belt) and then spread to highly respected investors in Hong Kong, Singapore, UK, and India. The intellectual capital portfolio constituted of leaders who stood beyond decades of experience, driving top leadership or senior management positions in Fortune 500 companies including Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, Motorola, AT&T, HP, Cisco, Fidelity, eBay, and consulting firms like BCG, Bain, McKinsey etc.
Relentless to establish a venture for a much required shift in education, Pankaj founded Global Discovery Academy. This was backed by the expertise of industry leaders like Mr. Rajeev Minocha, Chairman GDA (IIM A, Stanford, ex Hindustan Levers), Mr. Kapil Kapoor, Director GDA (IIM A, ex CEO, Timex), Mr. Arjun Malhotra (co-Founder HCL), Mr. Sanjiv Bikchandani (Founder Naukri.com), and many others.
Pankaj had the ability to understand parent expectations, perform an in-depth gap analysis, zoom into deep trenches with the team and zoom out to the big picture by defining scalable processes and metrics. This brought about the GDA Model that was largely differentiated from its other contemporaries. GDA’s growing mass popularity came from an advanced integrated technology in the curriculum and unique learning space designs, which firmed the ground in the K-12 education band. Rather than polarising the never ending debate of nature versus nurture, Global Discovery Academy aims to derive intelligence from the elements of both, backed by scientific study of a child’s dominant strengths as well as behavioural and response patterns. The unique Roadmap To My Dreams approach helps the child realize a personalised career trajectory that leads to self-discovery of inherent talents and skills, paving the path to what they want to become in the future.
The organization is committed to replace stringent education delivery practices with innovative, neo-tech virtues of experiential and applied formats of learning.
Pankaj’s idea manifested from the burning desire to bring a progressive change in the way education was perceived and delivered, began in the closed walls of Kellogg School of Management. It was appreciated when he volunteered assistance to Bachpan School in Gujarat, which was awarded the Most Progressive School in tier-3 towns of western India by the British Council. The idea propelled into a nationwide chain of schools whose blueprint ranged from architectural excellence, financial viability, to a blend of effective experiential learning Philosophies. These designs also included innovation through technology to a differentiated approach in talent management. The results of the pilot brought together many individual investors who funded to create the first ever Global Discovery School in Sevasi, Gujarat in Year 2012 . The school unanimously won the vote of confidence from the parents, educators, children and investors; inspiring success, further on.
Today, Global Discovery Academy facilitates and supports an end-to-end operations delivery at each of the Global Discovery Schools. Set in stone are organizational ethos and values that each GDAite lives by. GDA continues to march forward as a mature organization under Pankaj’s leadership (serving as Executive Vice Chairman), spearheaded by industry veterans like Mr. Vinesh Menon, Chief Executive Officer and G Vanna Vadivan, Head – Academics and Chief Product Officer, who are dedicated to converge team efforts as we embark up on the next phase of the journey. GDA’s goal is to replicate similar schools across the length and breadth of this country with a single objective: bringing creative differentiation for the delivery of education to the young children of India.
Today GDA is co-owned by 110+ respected thought leaders making GDA a one-of-a-kind in the education sector. It is a product of collective intellect from a rich and diverse community of experts, thriving upon their relentless support, belief, and contribution towards the GDA eco-system. Moving up the learning curve, while evolving GDA into a great value proposition in the education sector, is a journey GDA foresees propelled by its in house and extended intellectual capital.