A multi-pronged approach to transforming education

We live in a time when we often hear of the brightest minds being produced in India. However, it is extremely important that we accept the fact that we also rank towards the bottom in almost every educational index that deals with primary education.

While the number of children attending school in India continues to rise (up to 94%), the education system has been inadequately developed. We are wracked by a shortage of resources, schools, classrooms and teachers.

The most worrying fact is that almost 34% of our children drop out before completing Standard V; many of those who stay on learn little.

Our strategy for furthering access to quality education relies on effective school reform, teacher capacity building, and helping communities establish small schools in extremely underserved regions.

This involves addressing major concerns in the areas of:

• existing teacher training curricula that is inadequate for the needs of an actual classroom setting

• school curricula that is uni-dimensional and solely exam-oriented

• assessments that only slot students rather than use it as an opportunity to address their learning difficulties

• respect and humaneness in all aspects that do not feature in the mandate of school's governance