Today, on the International Day of the Girl, I visited Pratham Organization to learn more about the work they do. Pratham is a very big Non-Profit organization created to improve the quality of education in India. Pratham implements Teaching at the Right Level Approach for school learners from Grades 1-5 and they also do vocational training.
My visit started with a municipal school visit (ranging from nursery to grade 5). Pratham has a partnership with the government through which they offer learning content to municipal learning centers, making sure that the children learn at the right level. In the Pratham approach, they focus on basic numeracy skills and language skills. For example, in language there are five levels: letter level, word level, sentence level, paragraph level, story level. Children who are unable to read a paragraph will be given sentences to read, if still not able they will be given words, if still unable they will be given letters. So, this child will be taught through the letter level, then after they master letters, they will be given words, then paragraph, then story. That is how it is also done in numeracy starting from 1-9, then 10-99, then subtraction and addition, then division and multiplication
I also attended a learning camp intervention in the same school, where children who are not learning at the right level in different grades are given specialized attention, each grouped according to their level and then made to practice the concepts at their level. These children are given a test after every 10 days to gauge their improvement, if the child improves, they are taken to the next level, also children who are doing too well at their level are given more content to read so as to further develop them. The children gave me so many thank you signs and they even gifted me a packet of crisps. I was very touched by these wonderful gestures.
Next I visited an Anganwadi center which accommodates children between ages 3-6 years. Anganwadi is a type of rural mother and childcare center. They were started by the Government of India in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program to combat child hunger and malnutrition. The main beneficiaries of the program are children below six years of age, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Here mothers and their small children meet once weekly, each locality will have their own group, let by a Smart Mother, who is chosen from among themselves to be the group leader. The smart mother will receive learning content from Pratham every week via WhatsApp. She will then use this content to lead the discussion, aimed at providing basic learning to the children, and the mothers. I’m very grateful to Ms.Mahima Shankar, who is in charge of education at Pratham, for taking us round these two initiatives.
We thereafter met up Ms. Diksha Patial, manager in charge of Partnerships at Pratham. She took us to one of Pratham’s skilling centers for the Good Contractor Program, where she and other staff members gave a presentation on Pratham’s vocational training program. Pratham has 140 vocational training centers. Most of the vocational training centers (130 centers) are specialty centers focusing on just one skill. The rest (10 centers) are hybrid centers offering almost five to six skills.81% of the students are given placements. They have so many partner organizations, almost 2500 who absorb the students into their workforce. Also noteworthy is the fact that Pratham’s vocational training programs are free of charge.
I have also observed that the courses Pratham offers are short courses most of them ranging from 1 month, to 45 days and very few are three-month courses. Also, Pratham’s focus is on courses which have a practical approach, they don’t offer courses which are merely theoretical. They mentioned that most corporations will prefer to fund short courses as they are cheaper and hence a donation can impact the lives of many people as opposed to long courses which will require more money hence less people can be funded. The average cost of the courses is 20,000 to 25,000 rupees.
Everything I learnt at Pratham has been relevant for the journey that lies ahead. We plan on setting up a vocational training center at Wema in the next few months, and this visit has been very timely. Pratham is ready to partner with us to set up a Skilling center, they will provide learning content, the curriculum, and all the support required to make the center successful. I’m excited about this great collaboration opportunity and look forward to the exciting possibilities that lie ahead.
The most memorable part of my visit was my meeting with Dr. Madhav Chavan, the visionary founder of Pratham. Engaging in conversation with him was a delightful experience. His enthusiasm and commitment to education and the empowerment of young people are not only inspiring but also deeply moving. I felt extremely privileged to be in the company of such an exceptional individual, and I eagerly anticipate all our future interactions.
