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Educating the underprivileged of Uttarakhand

Children with potential

Our Beneficiaries

Enroll children with potential (predominantly girls) from needy and underprivileged families, preferably from the remoter reaches of Uttarakhand.

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Our Methodology

Provide children with holistic care and education, by providing nutrition, healthcare, high quality academics, and full exposure to the co-curricular. Enroll children with potential (predominantly girls) from needy and underprivileged families, preferably from the remoter reaches of Uttarakhand.

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Holistic care

Children with potential

Our Motivation

A centre of excellence that provides guidance and support throughout their career and beyond.

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These change-agents transform the socioeconomics of the state of Uttarakhand.


Institutional Donors

ASED Dixon DSV ESRI Feeding India Gallagher RE

Institutional Donors

Give India HDFC Life HSBC HT Parekh Lal Family Foundation LIC HFL Narmada

Institutional Donors

NTT Data Orbis Quasar Siddhayu Sugarcane Swarovski Tex Fasteners

University Partners

DIT University IMS Unison University Shoolini University Upes

Other Partners

G Suite Microsoft Nasscom Papyrs Hires Quick Heal


Secretary's Note

Anoop Seth

Purkal Youth Development Society (PYDS) is a registered Society located in village Purkal, a semi-rural region on the outskirts of Dehradun, Uttarakhand - a state with low socio-economic indicators. We provide quality education and holistic care through a CBSE-affiliated school, from Class I-XII, to children (predominantly girls) from deeply needy and underprivileged families. This is done through a combination of high-quality academics, adequate nutrition, health care, and full exposure to co-curricular areas, at no cost to them. The ultimate objective is to prepare them for adequate employability.

In 2021-22, PYDS achieved milestones despite COVID-19 challenges. PYDS maintained uninterrupted classes, mobilizing resources so that students received mobile devices and were trained to use the same to access online classes promptly. A progressive pedagogy, flexibility of class hours, and effective integration of technology were key in enhancing student participation.

After the two difficult COVID years, the school is back to normal and the classes are alive with students. As a part of our focus on providing well-rounded education, our students have already started participating in events including volleyball tournaments, debate competitions, movie making, TED Talk etc.

The Society has organized inter and intra-state educational trips every year. Over the years, our students have travelled to Odisha, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, North East, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. All such trips are full of learning not only in terms of places visited and its significance but also how the group conducts itself on parameters such as teamwork, not littering, living together, adhering to instructions and most importantly developing a feeling of gratitude for people who help our society in various ways. For the current year, we have planned to send three groups to Delhi in regular intervals. Out of this 2 trips have been successfully completed and the third trip will be concluded before end on 2022.

We look ahead at 2023-24 with a sense of cautious optimism. Like every year it will bring forth its challenges, some new, some repeated. But we enter it confident in our ability to assess the issues around each one, and our belief in being able to overcome these.

With 381 pass out till date, 232 are pursuing higher education and 139 are successfully placed, we yet again proved our firm belief that:

“Life is for Giving”

Anoop Seth
Director & Secretary

From The Principal’s Desk

“True education is to learn how to think, not what to think.”
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Principal Arati Nagaraj

PYDS was started because of a dire need in the community - education for the needy children of Uttarakhand. This need evolved into providing holistic education (primarily for girls) until adequate employability. Today, education at PYDS goes beyond the pages of a textbook because we believe that experiences, connections and real world applications are the tools that will show students how to learn, think and apply. This, in turn, will help them to develop into confident, creative and caring adults who can find their appropriate career.

At PYDS we believe that every experience is a core academic experience - Art, Maths, Language, Yoga, Games, Library, Science, Tinkering, etc. Our timetable reflects the importance of each subject for each child because we integrate all of them into the regular day. Because of this, students can find their inner spark and pursue it to their full potential.

Primary School - Grades I to V - follow a theme-based curriculum. This requires our teachers to be collaborative and innovative as we don’t use textbooks to guide us. Projects, role plays, field trips and presentations are how we ensure our students meet the grade level milestones.

In Middle School - Grades VI to VIII - our curriculum is cross-disciplinary. We take one topic in one subject as a core idea and build connections around it with all the other subjects. Languages and Computers are used as tools to make these connections.

Our Senior School - Grades IX to XII - follow the Experiential Learning model of learning. Despite having a prescribed CBSE curriculum, our teachers design experiences for students so that concepts are connected to the real world.

We also have a special program - Navjeevan, A New Life. This program focuses on children from remote areas of Uttarakhand who have missed primary mainstream education and do not have the academic skills or aptitudes of their peers. In the 18-month program designed by PYDS, these children undergo accelerated learning as residential students to equip them with the knowledge and skills they would have gained in primary classes. At the successful completion of the program, these children are mainstreamed into Grades V, VI, or VII based on the right fit - academically and socially. We are currently onboarding our 5th batch of Navjeevan children with the first batch in Grade IX.

PYDS graduates have a variety of options. From Hospitality Management to Physiotherapy to Computer Engineering, we are proud to say that we ensure each one of our students reaches “adequate employability”. Our University and Vocational partners support us in giving pathways for our students to achieve their dreams.

PYDS believes that each student has potential. We strive to help them find that spark, so they can go forth into the world and be the change agents of tomorrow.

I am honoured and proud to be the Principal of PYDS.

स्वस्मे स्वल्पम समाजाय सर्वस्वम

A little bit for yourself and everything for others.

Mrs. Arati Nagaraj
Principal