Pratham began in 1994 with the mission of Every child in school and learning well.

Today, there exist four main verticals.

Read India
Programme for teaching-learning aimed at children in rural & urban areas Rural: Block Excellence Programme in rural districts - active in 249 districts across 19 states in India reaching 2.2 million children in 2011-12

PCVC
Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children Targets vulnerable & out of school children including child labourers, street children, child beggars & rag pickers. Mainstreams vulnerable children back into formal education. Works across 7 states with a focus on advocacy and awareness raising.

ASER Center
Undertakes one of the largest survey on educational attainment in India, ASER Survey Each year, more than 25,000 volunteers from over 500 organizations and institutions participate in ASER. Over 700,000 children in the 3-16 age group are surveyed Also undertakes research related to primary & secondary education

Pratham Institute
Training & capacity building initiatives for youth, both inside & outside of Pratham. Diploma courses & leadership programmes for Pratham staff. Industry specific vocational skilling courses, entrepreneurial development & employment readiness courses for youth from mostly rural areas.

Urban: Urban programmes in 33 cities across India tailored to the needs of the community, reaching 120,000 children.

Pratham works in 19 States across the country

What is the problem?

According to ASER 2011, more than half of all children in India will complete primary school without learning to read fluently
Std 2 level text

% Children in Std 5 who can read Std 2 level text

54 53 52 51 50 49 48 47 46 45
52.8 53.4

48.2

2009
(ASER tools are created after analyzing textbooks)

2010 All India

2011

Similarly, close to 3 in every 4 children in India will complete primary school without acquiring basic math skills
FOR EXAMPLE

UP : Arithmetic % Children in Std 5 who can do a division problem

50 40 30 20 38.0 36.2

27.6

10 0
2009 2010 All India 2011

How is Pratham trying to solve this problem?

Solutions : Prathams Read India program has 3 pronged goals to create effective demonstration models Read India Goals: Improve childrens learning Create demonstration models for replication on larger scale

Strengthen community engagement in childrens learning

Influence teaching practices in schools

In rural India, Pratham follows a dual delivery mechanism for the same overall strategy Read India Strategy in rural areas
100 village block is chosen in each district
300-400 Village youth (volunteers) mobilized to teach children Continuous activities with children communities & teachers

Delivery mechanisms:
Ongoing daily activities / classes Daily classes in village by village volunteers: 2 hours a day. 1 volunteer with 20-25 children. Training, monitoring, materials given by Pratham full time team . Pre test and post test of children conducted to gauge learning level improvement.

Short duration learning camps 10-day intensive learning camps held throughout the year in different villages Repeat camps are held in the same village within a certain interval of time Children grouped by ability rather than by grade. 4-6 people - Pratham & volunteers conduct camp. Villagers involved and engaged.

What is innovative about this approach?

We deliver learning outcomes at a very low cost

We do
Focus on Teaching Learning Material
Recruit and train volunteers

We dont
Focus on building classrooms for teaching
Focus on provision of blackboards

Train government teachers wherever interest is expressed Conduct community mobilization activities such as Re. 1 Testing to involve and orient parents to childs learning achievements Monitor learning outcomes of children closely

Focus on other infrastructural facilities that are not necessarily linked to a childs learning

We spend about INR 300 per child per year

Linking two problems can provide self-sustaining solutions

Low learning achievement among children

Children

+
Low skill development/ capacity building in youth

Education for Education

Youth

 through EFE we provide free basic computer course to all our volunteers (youth)
Read India classes & camps

Education for Education

72 hour basic computer course provided for free Examination followed by Intel-NSDCPratham certification

Youth (volunteers)

Children

Delivery through local entrepreneurs who own the laptops after 2 years and free to earn income from other youth

Delivery through 2 types of models dispersed and block

Case study: EFE center in Jamui district of Bihar, provides all kinds of digital services

Has Pratham tried out the EFE method somewhere else?

Pratham has tried to link the secondary school drop-out problem with the problem of low learning achievement among children

Low learning achievement among children

Children

+
High secondary school drop-out

Pratham Open School

Drop-outs

but this time we start from the other side of the spectrum
Read India classes & camps

Pratham Open School

200 secondary school drop-out girls/ women selected from 100 villages

Drop-out girls

Children

3 month Foundation course is provided to them, followed by a selection test 100 girls continue to be provided teaching-learning assistance in preparation for the years std. 10 exam In return for this free teaching learning assistance, girls teach primary school grade level children

Thank You
Boban Varghese Paul #09818617787 boban.paul@pratham.org www.pratham.org