Godrej Interio transforms the education experience in Rural schools

Through space management, design and ergonomics

 Inauguration of SHirwal school - pic1 Inauguration of SHirwal school - pic4 Mr Anil Mathur COO Godrej & Boyce inaugurates school in Shirwal

Shirwal, Satara, September 11, 2015: Godrej Interio, India’s leading furniture solutions brand, continues to transform lives for a better future with its initiative to refurbish rural schools across India. To flag off this initiative, Godrej Interio has transformed a government primary school in Shirwal. The school was chosen since it did not have adequate funds for basic operations and had low student enrollment numbers inspite of being centrally located. Interio’s primary aim has been to develop an ideal model school, which can be easily replicated by other schools in the neighborhood.

One of the key areas of focus has been to create a hygienic environment. Under this initiative Godrej Interio has re-built the toilet blocks, created large central activity space by reconstructing the drinking water tanks, fountains and kitchen. The second area of focus was ensuring safe common areas for children and staff by constructing railings for the corridors and terraces, repairing broken and unhinged doors and windows, and waterproofing the roof of the school.

On the occasion of the inauguration of this model school, Mr. Anil Mathur, COO, Godrej & Boyce, said, “Through this pilot we aim to transform lives at the ground level. We strongly believe that children from all strata of society deserve to receive quality education. Therefore, we collaborated with the DOE of Maharashtra to support the refurbishing of the Government primary school as a pilot.  This pilot will drive our collaboration with DOE to develop more schools in future. We started here, as most of our manufacturing plants are located in Shirwal, this project has given us the opportunity to use our core competency to transform spaces to improve the life of the community in Shirwal.”

At the event, The Sarpanch of Shirwal Grampanchayat said, “Godrej Interio has completely changed the look and feel of the school which has changed the behavior of the students towards the school as well. We request Godrej Interio to similarly help in transforming other Zilla Parishad schools in the vicinity”.

Another important objective was ensuring a conducive environment for brighter learning. To accomplish this Godrej Interio provided the school with innovative, children friendly furniture for classrooms as well as the computer center.  The classrooms have been well equipped with educational tools such as soft-boards and whiteboards. The play area has been renovated, gardens have been created through landscaping, and internal and external walls have been painted with carefully chosen shades by the team of experts executing the design process of this school restructuring.

Godrej Interio plans to continue the association with the school through engagement programs such as training sessions for staff to ensure good housekeeping, workshops on health and sanitation as well as computer and music training through employee volunteerism.