Pratham is one of the largest

non-governmental organisations A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

in India. It was co-founded by

Madhav Chavan Madhav Chavan (born 1954) is a social activist and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of the educational non-profit, Pratham. He also started the Read India campaign, which aims to teach basic reading, writing and arithmetic to underpr ...

an
Farida Lambay
. It works towards the provision of quality education to the underprivileged children in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Established in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

in 1994 to provide pre-school education to children in slums, Pratham today has interventions spread across 23 states and union territories of India and has supporting chapters in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, UK,

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Sweden
an
Australia
Pratham's founder and Ex-CEO,

, was the 2011 recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In addition, Pratham received the 2013

BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards () are an international award programme recognizing significant contributions in the areas of scientific research and cultural creation. The categories that make up the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards ...

in Development Cooperation, as a result of successfully catering to the learning needs of tens of millions of disadvantaged children for over twenty years. In doing so, it has designed and implemented new methods that accelerate reading acquisition, using a grassroots approach in which pupils are grouped by actual levels and needs instead of age, while providing specific training to the teachers and volunteers recruited to its programs. In 2018, Pratham was awarded the

Lui Che Woo Prize The LUI Che Woo Prize – Prize for World Civilisation (), is an international prize founded on 24 September 2015 by Lui Che-woo, Lui Che Woo, Chairman of K. Wah International of Hong Kong. There are three prizes for the three objectives of the Lui ...

, a cross-sector innovation prize that recognizes outstanding contributions benefiting humanity. Pratham was unanimously selected in the Positive Energy category, which this year focused on the elimination of illiteracy.

History

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

originally set up the Bombay Education Initiative in Mumbai to establish a tripartite-partnership between the government, corporate and civil society to improve India's primary education. This led to the formation of Pratham as an independent charity in 1995. Pratham started by holding balwadis (pre-education classes) for children in Mumbai's slums. Volunteers were recruited to teach in spaces within communities, including temples, offices, and even people's homes. The Pratham pre-school classes multiplied and were replicated in other locations.

Mission

Pratham's mission is "Every Child in School and Learning well". By increasing the

literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

levels of India's poor which account for about one third of the world's poor, Pratham aims to improve India's economic and social equality. This is carried out through the introduction of low cost education models that are sustainable and reproducible.

Work

Annual Status of Education Report (or ASER), is a household-based survey that collects information on children's schooling status and basic learning outcomes in almost every rural district in the country. The ASER survey is an enormous participatory exercise that has involved about 500 organizations and upwards of 25,000 volunteers every year since 2005. As part of the survey, estimates of children's schooling and learning status are generated at district, state and national levels. ASER is the only annual source of data on children's learning outcomes available in India today, and is often credited with changing the focus of discussions on education in India from inputs to outcomes. The ASER model has been adapted for use by fourteen other countries across three continents. These countries have organically come together to form the People's Action for Learning (PAL) Network, with a secretariat housed in Nairobi. Read India: Despite India's educational reforms in recent years, quality education is still a concern, especially among low-income communities. Findings of ASER 2005 and 2006 revealed that 50% of children in government schools could not read, write or do basic arithmetic despite being in school for 4–5 years. Hence Read India was launched in 2007 to improve reading, writing and basic arithmetic skills of 6 to 14-year-old children and is carried out by school teachers,

anganwadi An Anganwadi is a type of rural child care centre in India. They were started by the Indian government in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services program to combat child hunger and malnutrition. ''Anganwadi'' in Hi ...

workers and volunteers, whom Pratham trains. Read India has reached approximately 34 million children to date, resulting in large-scale improvements in literacy levels across several states in India. Pratham Books, a non-profit organisation which publishes affordable, quality books for children, was set up in 2004 to complement Read India. It has published over 200 original titles in 10 Indian languages and reached over 14 million children. Direct programs: Pratham's direct programs seek to supplement governmental efforts to improve quality of education through balwadis (pre-school education), learning support programs, libraries and mainstreaming drop-out children. Full-year learning support is provided at centres for children living in the immediate vicinity. These programs are typically conducted in urban

slums A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily inh ...

or poor villages, where children do not have easy access to quality education. Lakhon Mein Ek is a call-to-action campaign by Pratham Education Foundation and ASER Centre. Together with citizens from across the country, the organisation worked towards improving the status of children's learning in 100,000 villages and communities. The campaign started on 21 October 2015 and by 11 January 2016, had reached more than 150,000 villages and communities. Furthermore, over 300,000 volunteers had joined the campaign and interacted with about 1 crore (10 million) children. By 16 January 2016, success of the campaign will be marked by citizens everywhere resolving to help children acquire basic reading and math abilities in these locations. Vocational Training: In 2005, Pratham launched Pratham Institute, its vocational skilling arm. The objective was to train youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds (age 18‐25 years) and provide them with employable skills, coupled with access to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. Today Pratham Institute programs across the country enable youth to access entry-level positions and placements in 10 major vocations. Approximately 25,000 young people were reached in 2017–2018, and the youth were trained and subsequently placed in entry level jobs or helped to start their own businesses. Other Work: Pratham has also set up other programs for disadvantaged Indian children and youth, including Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children (PCVC), Early Childhood Care and Education Centre (ECCE), and Computer-aided Literacy.

Teaching at the Right Level

While universalizing access to schooling has been one of India's most remarkable achievements from its recent past, many children still do not acquire essential foundational skills such as reading and arithmetic at the right time, early in primary years. While several solutions have been proposed and implemented, in a scenario wherein a significant number of children are "lagging behind", Pratham has evolved a solution called Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) which enables children to acquire foundational skills, like reading and arithmetic quickly. Regardless of age or grade, teaching starts at the level of the child. This is what is meant by "Teaching at the Right level". The TaRL method developed by Pratham was originally designed keeping in mind children who have already reached Std. III, IV or V but still have not acquired basic skills. The focus is on helping children with basic reading, understanding, expressing themselves as well as arithmetic skills. These are foundational building blocks that help a child to move forward. Studies have shown that once acquired these capabilities endure over time. TaRL is an effective and low-cost strategy that helps children to "catch up" in a short period of time. Children, who are 7 or 8 and older and have been in school for a few years, can "pick up" quickly. To be effective, the "Teaching at the Right Level" approach needs to be embedded in a larger eco-system whose elements are aligned to support and ensure learning for all children. Here are the main features of the school system that need to be changed to ensure that learning for all is possible. TaRL reaches millions of children each year. It has not only been scaled to locations across India, but more recently begun to also be adapted and scaled by organizations and governments in countries in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.

Recognition

Pratham has been recognized internationally by prestigious awards and prominent organizations for both the quality of its innovations, as well as its extensive impact. *

Yidan Prize The Yidan Prize (/i:dan/) is a prize founded in 2016 by Chen Yidan for "contributions to education research and development". The prize is financed and governed by a HK$2.5 billion (about US$320 million) independent trust. It is a global, inclusi ...

for Education Development to Rukmini Banerji (2021) *

Lui Che Woo Lui Che Woo, GBM, MBE, JP () (born 9 August 1929, Jiangmen, China) is a Hong Kong business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is a member of the standing committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Jiangmen, ...

2018 Prize in the Positive Energy Category for eliminating illiteracy, Hong Kong (2018) * Medal for Distinguished Service to Madhav Chavan, Teachers College, Columbia University (2017) * BBVA Foundation 'Frontiers of Knowledge' Award (2014) * Recognition by the Asia Society as Asia Game Changer (2014) *

WISE Prize The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) is an international initiative aimed at transforming education through innovation. WISE was established by Qatar Foundation in 2009 under the patronage of its chairperson, Sheikha Mozah bint Nass ...

for Education to Madhav Chavan (2012) * The Kravis Prize in Leadership (2010)

External reviews

GiveWell review

In November 2011, US-based charity evaluator

GiveWell GiveWell is an American non-profit charity assessment and effective altruism-focused organization. GiveWell focuses primarily on the cost-effectiveness of the organizations that it evaluates, rather than traditional metrics such as the percent ...

identified Pratham as one of six "standout" organisations to give to in its list of top charities. This placed Pratham below the top-ranked charities

Against Malaria Foundation The Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) is a United-Kingdom based charity that provides long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) to populations at high risk of malaria, primarily in Africa. As of December 2021, the foundation has raised $425 million ...

and

Schistosomiasis Control Initiative The SCI Foundation (SCI), or the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, is a non-profit initiative that works with governments in sub-Saharan African countries to develop sustainable programmes against parasitic worm infections ( schistosomiasis an ...

and alongside

Innovations for Poverty Action Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is an American non-profit research and policy organization founded in 2002 by economist Dean Karlan. Since its foundation, IPA has worked with over 400 leading academics to conduct over 600 evaluations in 51 c ...

GiveDirectly GiveDirectly is a nonprofit organization operating in East Africa that helps families living in extreme poverty by making unconditional cash transfers to them via mobile phone. GiveDirectly transfers funds primarily to people in Kenya, Uganda, ...

KIPP The Knowledge is Power Program, commonly known as KIPP, is a network of free open-enrollment college-preparatory schools in low income communities throughout the United States. KIPP is America's largest network of charter schools. The head of ...

(

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

branch),

Nyaya Health Possible (also known as Possible Health, and legally registered as Nyaya Health, A Nonprofit Corporation) is a nonprofit that works to achieve the vision of everyone everywhere having access to high-quality healthcare. In pursuit of this vision a ...

, and

Small Enterprise Foundation Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF) is a microfinance institution operating primarily in the Limpopo province of South Africa; however, it also has branches in Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, and Guateang. It was founded by John de Wit in 1992. GiveWell ...

. GiveWell also lists Pratham as its top charity in the developing world education category. GiveWell has also published a detailed review of Pratham, last updated in March 2012.

Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel recommendation

Pratham's Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach was recommended as a 'Good Buy' in the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP)'s October 2020 report on Smart Buys in education for low- and middle-income countries.

References

External links

Official site

Pratham USA

Pratham UK

Pratham Sweden

Pratham AustraliaASER Centre
{{Non-governmental organizations in India Educational organisations based in India Organisations based in Mumbai Children's charities based in India Children's rights organizations 1994 establishments in Maharashtra Organizations established in 1994