Pratham CEO Highlights Innovative Educational Strategies in India

Chicago IL: Pratham Chicago hosted an evening reception on Thursday, April 25, 2013 in honor of Pratham CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Madhav Chavan at the Best Western Plus Hotel, 1725 E. Algonquin Road, Schaumburg, IL 60173. He had stopped over to en route to the Pratham Houston Gala on Saturday. Chavan, who is the 2012 recipient of the WISE Prize, a prestigious award considered to be the “Nobel Prize” in education, gave an impromptu talk on Pratham’s various initiatives, several of which the Indian government has been assiduously studying and even trying to emulate in view of their very tangible and demonstrable results. A recurring theme behind the case studies he recounted was how outmoded our current age-based assembly line system of education, geared to the bygone needs of the industrial revolution, had become. Instead of being pumped with facts, learners need their creativity to be unleashed.

Pratham Chicago Chairman Raj Rajaram introduced the Founder-CEO as having “transformed” education. Pratham is a non-profit organization that reaches millions of primary school age children in India. After obtaining his PhD in Chemistry in the USA followed by post-doctoral research, Chavan returned to India in 1986. In 1989, while teaching at the University of Mumbai, he started mass scale work for adult literacy in the slums of Mumbai as a part of the National Literacy Mission. In 1994, as a result of a UNICEF initiative, Pratham was setup to address problems of universal primary education in Mumbai. Chavan has since then led the development of the organization and its programs to 19 states across the country. Pratham has since been recognized by the Kravis Prize and Skoll Award for its innovativeness and leadership as a social entrepreneurial organization in the area of education.

The first and most effective initiative described, with consequences well beyond India, was the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) conducted since 2005 by Pratham Executive Board Member, Rukmini Banerji, who had done her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago (UC), then her post-doctoral work at the UC Population Research Center. Based on a huge sampling of 700K kids from 330K families in 16K villages across the country, ASER discovered that though 92% of rural children attended school, 50% had not acquired basic reading and math skills upon reaching fifth grade. Statistically quantifying the general perception of a quality-deficit has shaken up policy makers around the globe, and drawn attention to Pratham’s own initiatives that go well beyond the beaten tracks and challenge implicit assumptions and outworn models. The 2015 millennium goals have been redefined to focus on results more than attendance.

To meet the dearth of human resources (formally trained teachers, etc.) 4000 insured laptops were given to 14K roaming education providers with the incentive that the laptop would belong to them after two years. Only four were reported stolen. To train other volunteers, each provider was given two laptops, which was also available for their personal use. Some “entrepreneurs” started a business copying and selling Hindi movies, others did tutoring on the side, etc. Thereby Pratham got them personally invested in their own and others’ education.

Vocational training initiatives were exemplified by the dearth of skilled workers (housekeeping, etiquette, etc.) for the hospitality industry, where Pratham has partnered with Taj, the premier indigenous group of hotels, to train and place over 18K rural kids every year. Fourteen hotels visit the campus to recruit and the number is growing. The $300 cost per head of sponsorship is borne by Pratham against student commitment for the amount to be deducted over their first year of employment. Loan recovery stands at 70% with the outstanding 30% attributable to youthful uncertainties regarding career choices and paths, or an inhospitable work environment which some end up fleeing. The target intake quota is 20–30K over the next two years.

Chavan introduced Pratham’s “Second Chance” initiative through his encounter with a village teacher in the state of Madhya Pradesh, who had an astounding rapport with her students, despite being a volunteer without proper schooling. A leftover laptop with an Internet connection has been provided to see how she flowers on her own. Eighty percent of Indian girls do not enjoy the benefit of completing secondary education. Pratham is providing incentives for them to (want to) return after several years to school even in the face of parental resistance. Despite initial hesitation and apprehensions of flunking the exams, the girls undergo a tremendous transformation within just a few months that manifests as a new self-confidence. Pratham is now exploring avenues beyond the traditional curriculum for such women, who less mobile then their menfolk, by opening business opportunities, e.g. village beauty salons. $1.5K is provided for equipment and infrastructure and women invariably pay their installments on time.

Chavan displayed an impressive firsthand appreciation of the challenges and opportunities from both institutional perspective (government, employers, schools, etc.) and social psychology of the students and their life-support networks. He had begun by good-humoredly “complaining” how his “driven” Pratham hosts had been telling him what to do from the moment he arrived at the airport, including drawing up a list of talking points for his interaction, earlier the same afternoon, with students of diverse backgrounds at the Kellog School of Management at Northwestern University. “My job is to let loose ideas and let other people take the initiative…this is the kind of leader I am,” he now concluded. Chavan is a creative individual who has anchored television shows, written songs about human rights and women’s rights. He obviously enjoys blazing and exploring new trails to educate and train the underprivileged.

Chavan’s 45-minute talk was followed by an animated question and answer session with potential NRI donors to these ambitious initiatives.

Pictures captions for Chavan reception at Best Western Plus Hotel
1) [#29]: Pratham CEO Madhavan Chavan (C) addressing guests on education initiatives in India as Pratham Chicago President Raj Rajaram (R) looks on.
2) [#32]: Select invitees listening attentively to Madhav Chavan’s impromptu talk.
3) [#34]: Pratham CEO Madhavan Chavan narrating success stories from India.