About Pratham Education Foundation

Pratham was created in 1995 to provide pre-school

pre school education to underprivileged children in the city
of Mumbai. Dr. Madhav Chavan and Ms. Farida Lambay co-founded
founded Pratham with support from
UNICEF and the Mumbai Municipal Corporation. The mission of every child in school and learning
well was stated. Since inception, Pratham has extended its impact across 20 of Indias 29 states, in
both urban and rural districts.
Prathams primary objective has always been to improve learning levels of children in India in three
major ways. First, we track gaps in learning levels. Second, we create and test large-scale,
large scale, low
low-cost
educational programs. Finally, we work with governments in setting policy and scaling-up
scaling
of these
programs. In 2005 Pratham pioneered a nation
nation-wide
wide assessment of learning that has influenced
national educational policies and budget allocations. The key to Prathams effectiveness is
continuous innovation
nnovation driven by the unique combination of large-scale
large scale programs and real
real-time grass
roots feedback.

Our Programmes
Prathams
s programs can be broadly divided into the following 5 categories:
Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)
Since 2005 Pratham has facilitated ASER, a citizens initiative that uses simple, low cost tools to
assess impact at scale and to increase the understanding of ordinary citizens about the current
status of elementary education. ASER primarily focuses on the learning outcomes
outcomes of children and is
the only annual source of information for learning levels of children in elementary schools available
in India. Each year, more than 30,000
30,000 volunteers from over 500 organizations and institutions
participate in this survey.. Over 600,00
600,000 children in the ages of 3-16 are tested
ed each year. The
models success in measuring educational progress has since been emulated through similar
initiatives in other developing countries, including Pakistan, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
Read India
To counter
ounter the problem of low learning levels in primary schools in India, Pratham launched its
flagship program called Read India in 2005. Read India is currently active in over 150 districts across
20 states. The campaign aims to generate large
large-scale improvement
ment in childrens ability to read
fluently and confidently, and do basic arithmetic. In every village where Pratham works, village
volunteers contribute their time to teach children. Pratham also works collaboratively with many
state governments to train and support teachers. In 2013-14,
201
Pratham reached over 4.7 million
children through various interventions both directly as well as via state partnerships
partnerships.
Urban Program
For four years, school enrolment in rural India has been on the rise, but reported learning levels are
still very low. In urban India, we see a similar condition, children are advancing from one grade to

another, yet many of them demonstrate reading and numeracy

nu
aptitude signicantly
cantly below their
grade level. Thus Pratham started the Urban Program that operates in slum communities and works
with pre-school
school children and those in grades 1-5.
1
The Urban Programme has a presence in 28 cities
in 10 states of India.
Second Chance
With nearly 40 percent of children in India failing to complete their upper primary level education,
and another 40 percent failing at the secondary levels, there is a huge need to address this issue to
prevent children from dropping out of school. The Second Chance was launched in collaboration
with GE and Deloitte to reach girls who had dropped out of school and give them
them an opportunity to
enrol for a free of cost course and complete their secondary schooling.
Vocational Training
Prathams vocational training courses provide disadvantaged adolescents with fundamental skills to
make them eligible for employment and further training. Several partnerships with industry leaders
such as Larsen & Turbo in the construction industry, Taj Ho
Hotels
tels in the hospitality industry, and
Landmark Group in the retail environment to ensure that youth who receive their vocational training
through these programs are employed upon successful graduation. Since 2005, over 3,500 youth
have been trained through these centres set up across the country.
country

How we Measure
Useful and new evidence is essential for the sort of action that leads to tangible impact. While
implementing activities on a large scale, Pratham has simultaneously tried to collect and analyze
informative evidence. This focus on data led Pratham to establish a research and evaluation unit in
2005 the ASER Centre. The ASER Centre has since been successful in shifting discussions at the
national, state, and local levels towards questions of outcomes
outcomes and their corresponding data.
Apart from its flagship survey, The Annual Status of Education Report, the ASER Centre has
conducted annual assessments on the outcomes of Pratham's Read India programme since 2009.
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
PAL) has also extensively evaluated Pratham's
programmes through randomized controlled trials.
In 2013, ASER expanded with the establishment of the Measurement, Monitoring, and Evaluation
Unit (MME). This team of researchers works to provide timely and relevant feedback on the
processes and outcomes of Pratham's programmes. The unit aims to be a paradigm of impactimpact
focused process evaluation and programme monitoring in the social sector both within Pratham and
elsewhere.

Impact and Scope

Since its modest
est beginnings in Mumbai in 1995
1995, Pratham has thus evolved as an innovator on large
largescale educational delivery at all levels across India. Prathams
s success may be attributed to many
things, including visionary leadership that promotes entrepreneurial ap
approaches
proaches to education, on-

going collaboration and partnerships with government agencies, corporations, and other NGOs, and
steady responsiveness to Indias evolving contexts and needs. Prathams
s model of success has
resulted in national and international rrecognitions,
ecognitions, adoption of its methods in other countries across
the globe, and increased global focus on the importance of empowering individuals and
communities through education so that they might lift themselves out of poverty and
marginalization and function
ction as productive citizens within their communities.
Prathams
s firm attention to transforming the educational landscape in India has thus seen
measurable results, though significant work remains. With a population whose average age is 26,
India has considerable
siderable distance yet to cover in ensuring that all her citizens access education and
prosperity through self-reliance
reliance and the dignity of work. Today, with an eye to Indias future and the
incredible potential that its children and youth might access in aan
n age of significant opportunity and
advancement, Pratham continues to offer new educational initiatives across India while also
increasing the scale and impact of its time-tested
time tested programs to reach new communities.