In India, the literacy rate is still just 65% and only 10% of children make it through the tenth standard. The Akanksha Foundation has established centers to supplement government education and runs high-performing municipal schools, with a success rate where 80% of their alumni are in college or successfully employed.

 The Akanksha Foundation was started in 1990 by Shaheen Mistri to help the large population of slum children who did not receive educational opportunities to realize their potential. Together with a group of volunteers, she set up after school centers, utilizing preexisting local school spaces. Here, the children were taught by professional teachers, not only in the regular academic curriculum, but also in several extra-curricular activities such as art and sports. Currently, Akanksha is expanding the School Project, in which it runs municipal schools that the government could not otherwise afford to keep open.

 Lokvani spoke with Vandana Goyal, Ruchika Gupta, and Shuchi Vyas of the Akanksha Fund, which supports Akanksha from abroad. Vandana and Ruchika were in the US for a couple weeks to promote Akanksha and do research for their programs. Vandana, originally from Sudbury, MA, has always been interested in education nonprofits. After working at Citizen Schools here, she joined Akanksha through the Teach for India program. Currently, she is the Director of The School Project. The project works with the municipal corporations in Mumbai and Pune to run high-performing schools for the poorest children. Their vision is to recruit, train, and keep passionate teachers who are committed to education in slum communities and serve the most underprivileged children through strong curricular and extracurricular activities, all while spending the same amount per child as the government to form a sustainable model. They want to make sure that each child is not only academically equipped to go to college or have a successful career, but that they will also have the confidence and character to be able to carry out their goals.

 The mission is impressive given their challenges. Akanksha not only has to educate the children, it also has to convince the government, the parents of the children, and the children themselves of the importance of its mission. That’s partially why Vandana and Ruchika visited charter schools and the MIT Media Labs on their visit here – to learn about the technology and teaching methods available here that can be implemented in the schools in India. It’s also a two-way street: They have had teachers and numerous volunteers from the US visit Akanksha schools and centers in India.

 This ability to bring together the educational qualities of both worlds is seen in Sheena Matheiken and Eliza Starbuck’s The Uniform Project Foundation, which raises money for uniforms and other school expenses of the Akanksha Foundation. Sheena wears the same dress every day of the year along with different accessories to customize her look, posting photos of her outfit on http://www.theuniformproject.com.

 Akanksha has also had quantifiable results: around 70% of their students had passed the 10^th standard exams, a much higher percentage than their peers. They also emphasize the education of their female students, and find that the girls who attend Akanksha centers and schools are more confident in attended college or finding a career, and form healthier relationships. Currently, about 3500 children attend Akanksha schools and centers. They plan to have ten schools running by 2012 from their current six, and create a sustainable and scalable model that can be emulated in cities other than Mumbai and Pune. 

 It’s no surprise that Nalini Goyal said of her daughter , “Even though I miss my daughter, Vandana insists that she cannot come back yet. There is so much left to do, and I am so proud of her for doing it.”

http://www.sceneeast.com/AKANKSHA.htm

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