Vidur Sawhney began his career in consulting with KPMG and Deloitte — intellectually rewarding, but unfulfilling. He wanted to improve lives at scale.
Deepti Sawhney spent years in education — leading ICT initiatives at India Today Group's educational arm, working across government, public and charitable schools and teaching at top international schools. She witnessed the same divide everywhere: a privileged minority receiving progressive, world-class education, while the majority were left with rote learning, poor resources and minimal teacher support. That gap deeply troubled her. Together, they realised they couldn't change the entire system overnight — but they could do something powerful and practical: bring world-class curricula and pedagogy to regular schools at no extra cost. That became the foundation of C.R.E.A.T.E.
C.R.E.A.T.E. is the everyman solution: a complete, research-backed, skills-based programme delivered through teacher handbooks, student resources, hands-on activities, professional development and academic audits — priced at textbook-comparable levels. No heavy technology required. It works equally in elite urban schools and remote schools in Ladakh, Nepal or rural Punjab.
Every child, regardless of income or location, deserves education that prepares them for life. C.R.E.A.T.E. turns that belief into reality — one classroom at a time.
The C.R.E.A.T.E. Curriculum replaces traditional textbooks with proprietary student and teacher handbooks for Kindergarten to Grade 5 (ages 3–11). Teachers follow ready-to-use lesson plans that replace rote learning with experiential activities, discussions, projects and skill-building. We focus on the foundational stage deliberately: no formal examinations means less resistance to change. Most Indian schools still prescribe heavy content-based textbooks and teach via lecture and memorisation. We meet schools where they are — keeping the familiar structure, but transforming the content and pedagogy inside it.
Implementation is backed by intensive well-researched Professional Development workshops, monthly scaffolding sessions and quarterly lesson observations — critical support for schools that typically lack structured PD systems. Our solution is tech-agnostic, working equally in remote schools with no electricity or internet and in urban schools with advanced technology needs.
In our first year of internal testing, C.R.E.A.T.E. students significantly outperformed peers in parallel non-C.R.E.A.T.E. classes across literacy, numeracy, cognitive development and socio-emotional learning. Scholastic — one of the world's largest educational publishers — validated our work through a thorough evaluation and partnered with us from 2025 onwards for exclusive licensing and distribution.
C.R.E.A.T.E. began in 2020 with a single pilot — Silverline Prestige School, Delhi NCR — and grew deliberately, adding roughly 5 schools a year to ensure quality implementation and continuous refinement based on real classroom feedback. Five years on, we work with 25–30 schools across remarkably diverse settings: 7–8 high-altitude schools in Ladakh, 8 in the rural hinterlands of Punjab, and one in Nepal — environments with little to no internet. These implementations have proven that our low-tech, handbook-based model thrives even in the most challenging conditions.
The major inflection came in 2025 when Scholastic — one of the world's largest educational publishers — became our exclusive licensee and distributor in India following a thorough evaluation of our materials. This partnership unlocks access to thousands of schools previously beyond our reach. We are also in active consultations with South Asian governments on large-scale systemic adoption.
Next 2–3 years: Leveraging Scholastic's distribution strength, we aim to scale responsibly to 200–300 schools across multiple states while maintaining implementation quality. We will commission an independent impact evaluation and work closely with at least one South Asian country on systemic curriculum adoption. Our long-term goal: make C.R.E.A.T.E. the preferred K–5 solution for schools seeking progressive, skills-based education that is affordable and practical — everywhere.
The adoption process is simple and collaborative:
1. We begin with a call with your school leadership to understand your vision and context.
2. We organise a hands-on orientation session with your teachers and share sample Teacher Handbooks and Student Workbooks.
3. If it feels like the right fit, we schedule Professional Development workshops and plan full implementation before the new academic session.
We support schools throughout the journey with training, resources and ongoing scaffolding.
