In an exclusive interview, Mainak Roy outlines how the Simple Education Foundation has spent over a decade transforming public education across multiple Indian states. By shifting away from rigid, one-off workshops, the organization partners with governments to provide continuous, on-ground coaching for educators. Through a supportive Teacher Competency Framework, they have empowered over 300,000 teachers and impacted millions of students, proving that lasting systemic change begins by trusting and equipping the people at the frontlines of our classrooms.
A Legacy Of Education
Mainak Roy’s deep-rooted connection to education traces back to his childhood in Asansol, West Bengal. Following the partition, his family migrated from Bangladesh to India, where his grandmother took the extraordinary step of setting up the first primary school in their area. She later retired as the principal of that very school after it was integrated into the government system. Growing up surrounded by teachers, Roy witnessed firsthand the profound community respect and heavy administrative lifting involved in the teaching profession.
Despite a strong desire to teach, financial constraints as a lower-middle-class family pushed him toward studying engineering in Delhi. With an IT job offer in hand, he decided to pause and pursue the Teach for India fellowship, initially hoping to bolster his resume for research assistantships abroad. He had no idea this detour would entirely redefine his life’s purpose and lead him away from the corporate ladder.
The Sangam Vihar Awakening
Placed in a girls’ school situated in Sangam Vihar, one of Delhi’s largest slums, Roy was confronted with a harsh reality. Coming from a background where government schools in Bengal saw investment, he was shocked to find his assigned school lacking a proper building, boundary walls, and toilets. The academic disparity was equally jarring, as many girls in his fourth-grade classroom could not hold a pencil, read basic alphabets, or comprehend simple numbers.
Reflecting on the dissonance between his expectations and the ground reality, he noted:
“I used to read ASER reports and wonder, where are these kids who can’t do math in grade 5? … I realized that this is where the world is… everything else that I knew was probably a lie or probably only for a very select group of people in the country.”
By spending extra hours understanding the ecosystem, he realized that both teachers and parents desperately wanted the students to succeed, but their hands were tied by systemic neglect and a lack of resources.
Building A Systemic Symphony
To test a solution, Roy and his fellow volunteers initiated a small training program using math toolkits for the school’s teachers. The result was immediate, as teachers enthusiastically applied these practical tools in their classrooms. Recognizing the potential to scale this impact, Roy connected with co-founders Rahul and Chandni, combining his grassroots passion with their corporate experience to launch the Simple Education Foundation.
Because nearly 65% to 70% of Indian children rely on government schools, the foundation strategically partners with state governments to elevate public education. They help states effectively implement the 50 hours of professional development mandated by the National Education Policy. Crucially, the organization shifts away from ineffective, standardized workshops, championing an approach where experienced educators step into classrooms to provide real-time feedback and targeted support.
Redefining Teacher Competency
In partnership with SCERT Delhi, the foundation developed a groundbreaking Teacher Competency Framework. Rather than functioning as an evaluation metric to judge or rank educators, it serves as a curriculum of essential habits and practices. If data shows teachers are not asking diverse questions across the classroom, the framework guides targeted support rather than punitive action.
The organization models the behavior they expect from teachers, nurturing an educator’s strengths and development areas just as a teacher should support a student. However, transforming public education requires navigating deep-rooted systemic inertia. Roy explains that if a teacher implements interactive group work, a visiting school inspector might reprimand them for the classroom noise, meaning every layer of the bureaucracy must be aligned to support modern pedagogical strategies.
Overcoming Systemic Inertia
Additionally, they must combat textbook biases that reinforce rigid gender roles, which actively fight against a teacher’s effort to build an equitable environment. This requires immense patience and a long-term commitment to showing up consistently. Roy emphasizes that building trust with middle-management officials, who have seen countless NGO initiatives come and go, is critical for the long-term success of their partnerships.
Reflecting on the necessity of this patience, he noted:
“You have to show up every day, month after month, year after year… you have to build that trust that you are not here because of the funding cycle, you are here because you actually care about the kids.”
Over the past decade, the organization has reached over 300,000 teachers and impacted five to six million children across Delhi, Uttarakhand, and Punjab. Data reflects that students in their intervention areas are learning and growing faster than the national average.
Looking Toward The Future
Looking forward, the foundation aims to reach one million teachers in the next five years. To scale sustainably, they are investing heavily in Generative AI and Large Language Models, while also intervening early by equipping pre-service college students before they enter the workforce. Roy believes the future of Indian education relies on a deep, constitutional understanding of the nation.
He stresses the importance of grounding one’s work in history:
“Read up on the contribution of every community… Build that holistic understanding of what has brought us here… don’t just blindly listen to WhatsApp.”
For those looking to enter the social sector, Roy advises spending years doing the actual groundwork and performing the inner emotional work necessary to face systemic resistance. He concludes with a powerful final thought on resilience:
“You have to be prepared. There is a thing called self-purification where you have to do enough of inner work that you are strong enough to face that with love, with kindness. So that is very important. I think as you step into working in India at least… you have to do that work inner work and then come. Don’t just come to do the work because you are bored and you want a nice something that is impactful.”
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Mainak Roy’s journey highlights that genuine educational reform cannot happen through isolated technological upgrades or top-down mandates; it requires empowering the educator at the heart of the classroom.
By replacing judgment with targeted mentorship and dismantling bureaucratic friction, the Simple Education Foundation proves that systemic change is a slow but profoundly rewarding symphony. His philosophy of performing “inner work” to meet systemic apathy with resilience serves as a masterclass in driving sustainable social impact.
In our own professional and personal spheres, how can we shift from a mindset of passive critique to actively providing the right tools and mentorship that empower others to succeed?
