The Global Education report 2014 ranked India in 168th position in a list of 234 countries clearly indicating the shoddy state of education India. In spite of being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it still houses almost 37% of the world’s net illiterate rate. Although the path to access to education has improved over the decade with a number of Government legislatures, still, the number of people going to school is comparatively poorer.
The Education Alliance (TEA), an organization based in New Delhi is aiming to bring a change in the education imparted by the Government schools. With a number of professionally successful people in its team with Amitav Virmani as its CEO, they are partnering with the Government schools to help the government provide top-notch education to every single child. Their main target is to attain an effective partnership between “state and non-state actors”.
“Out of 9 million Government schools in the country, about 3 million schools don’t have quality teachers. So a number of children are leaving Government schools for private schools. Even the private schools are lacking good quality teachers. So my main aim is to try and fix the Government schools. The idea was to help the Government in the area where it is unsuccessful” said Amitav.
Teachers interacting with the community about SQEP intervention in SDMC RK Puram Sector 9 by LEAD Schools #Engagement #TogetherWeGrow #SQEP. Courtesy: TEA twitter Handle
TEA takes over underperforming and under-enrolled government schools and works with them to improve the outcomes with the help of different non-profit organisations. In 2015, Education Alliance undertook a study of 500 schools under South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC). About 50 schools were hugely under-enrolled. The main problem was there weren’t good and qualified teachers and as a result, no one to motivate the kids of the surrounding areas to come to the school.
Amitav felt that the government intervention can help. He approached the Chairman of South Delhi Municipal Corporation(SDMC) to convince him to lend a helping hand to partner the government and the Non-profit organisations to deliver good quality education. TEA wanted to rebuild government School education system and make the parents believe in the government schools again.
Amitav said, “Parents want their children to come to school and learn. While giving them books, uniform and meals are important, if kids are not going to become literate, parents will eventually pull them out of the school.” They had to keep in mind this area. Resorting to investing money for upgrading the infrastructure wasn’t the only solution. TEA worked extensively on training the teachers, empowering the parents to put forward their demands on school and building accountability structures.
They launched their initiative with a Government school in SDMC Lajpat Nagar-III. In May 2015, the SDMC collaborated with Ark, a nonprofit organization to improve the quality of education and enrollment of the students in the Lajpat Nagar-III primary school. They first focused on the nursery and grade 1 classes. Through showcasing qualitative academic practice and community development program, Ark encouraged the parents to send their kids to the government school. The efforts bore fruit as the number of students enrolled in these classes shoot up to 120 students from a meagre 9 students. Thanks to the parents, the attendance level sprang up to 83%.
Sneak peek into one of the schools taken over by ARK.
With the success of the Lajpat Nagar School, TEA came up with the School Quality Enhancement Program in 2016 to ensure better quality education and support to the students and parents alike. They moved on to partner with 12 more schools and today they are operating 30 schools under Municipal Corporation under this program in the 2016-2017 academic year.
A fun rhyme class at SDMC Lajpat Nagar 3 – Well done Ark! #SQEP #GovtPartnershipSchools pic.twitter.com/cMAuYmtKFi
— The Education Alliance (@Ed_Alliance) November 2, 2016
TEA is in charge of not only fulfilling academic responsibilities but also shoulders administrative duties like increasing enrollment of the children, keeping track of their attendance and collaborates with government school principals and teachers. They also conduct a parents-teacher meeting to encourage the parents to be involved in their children’s learning process.
List of non-profit organisation The Education Alliance is working with. The process was not very smooth though. “It took us two years to convince the Government”, says Amitav. Although he admitted that lack of credibility on his part and constant change of government slowed down the process. “Once we made it happen, a belief was born.” When The Logical Indian asked how he built his executive team, he said he approaches people from different professions who are currently run…
