Buy tickets to the Gala and  meet Cine Star Anupam Kher

Pratham is the largest non governmental organization working to provide quality education to the underprivileged children of India. Pratham was established in 1994 to provide pre-school  education to the children in the slums of Mumbai city. Since then, the organization has grown both in
scope and geographical coverage.

Today, they reach out to millions of children living in both rural and urban areas through a range of intervention While the initial mission of Pratham was to improve reading amongst school children, their focus on
outcomes assesment has lead to one of the most respected surveys on Indian Education.

"It was not our intent to become an advocacy group. In fact none of the donor money goes into advocacy. But we realized  early on that doing surveys and presenting actual numbers of failures in schools was very eye opening for government officials. The numbers empowered local government officials to bring attention to the problem."


So is he pleased with the Right to Education act? "I am pleased that the act is in placed. Unfortunately the act does not have any realistic outcome assessment measures in place. The idea should be to provide quality education and not just be a bill that helps build schools."

Are there other issues with the bill? "The big challenge is to distribute the resources in a way that will fair and reach those in need. For example
the needs in Bihar and UP are huge compared to other states. We have to see how it will all work"

Has the tough economic times impacted Pratham. "It very much has. But it has allowed us to refocus our efforts. "

What are the current highlights of Pratham?

"Pratham’s flagship program,  Read India, helps to improve the reading, writing and basic arithmetic skills  of the children in the age group of 6-14 years.Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children has  been working since 2001 with vulnerable and working children to help them receive basic education and  live a better life.Pratham Books is a not-for-profit organization that publishes affordable and quality  books for children in multiple Indian languages. Their mission is to see "a book in every child’s hand” and democratize the joy of reading.

Pratham’s Skills Training Program tries trains youth in market relevant skills such as banking, agriculture, hospitality etc. and helps them start their own businesses. We continue to work on innovative ideas to use our resources effectively. Advocacy is a big part of our effort as well"

What would he like from people in the New England area ? " I always looks to Boston as the brain capital. We look to people from New England to  bring their technical and entrepreneurial skills to Pratham.
There are many needs which lowcost technology can address.  One of the Boston based entrepreneurs , Venkat Srinivasan has created English Helper which is a tool we are currently piloting.I am very taken with the concept of a pico projector and I look to piloting that at Pratham.

I would very much like to see a Learning Surface which can record things that are written on it into a computer chip so that we can replace notebooks. A low cost cell phone like learning device would be very valuable. The demand for all these products is really high. If entrepreneurs are willing to work with us , we can help them set up businesses in this space that can be profitable while having great social impact"

Pratham is holding its gala event on Sept 25. Aunpam Kher will be present. Pratham welcomes everyone to attend and learn more
about this visionary program.

Buy tickets to the Gala and  meet Cine Star Anupam Kher

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