The National Picture on Private Tuition

By Renu Sharma

The trends of Indian education system are changing tremendously. And one of the most remarkable trends is the proliferation of private tuitions outside the regular school system.

This phenomenon is relatively new to India and today the practice has become quite prevalent and popular in both urban and rural India. The number varies by States and grade levels but children from middle class or poor households in both urban and rural India take tuitions more so at the higher levels of schooling. The Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) 2011 found that almost a quarter of all pupils in elementary schools in rural India rely on private tuition in addition to attending classes at school.

The problem is most acute in the Eastern states of Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal, where the survey found that more than 70 per cent of middle-school pupils in rural West Bengal were taking private tuition.

It is argued that this points to the poor quality of education in government schools, which forces children to go for private tuitions. But private tuitions do not guarantee acceleration in the learning levels. Most tuition teachers themselves are not equipped to teach children especially when it comes to English and vocational skills. Even then, tuitions become an important part of learning because of the lack of options, especially in the rural areas. Several surveys have found the performance of primary school children who did not go for tuition to be slightly poorer than those who did, but the difference in performance is not very large.

Talking about the above issues and also keeping in mind the advent of RTE, there can be multiple solutions to this problem of quality in and out of school.

1. One possible solution which might be the hardest to implement considering the nature of our school system, is to give regular training to government school teachers on how to teach specialized subjects like English and science.

2. Another important parallel initiative we plan to start is to support the teachers and tutors outside the school system who work in the education field. This would not only help in accelerating the learning levels but also give opportunities to people in the community who are seeking employment in the education sector.

Renu Sharma is associated with Pratham's English Programme

Bastar = violence?

What comes to mind when you hear of Bastar?

I know you cannot post a reply to this question but again, I write this as a rhetorical question.

Bastar inevitably reminds you of the violence between the naxals and the police. It reminds you of the 'government's war on its own people' as some intellectuals might put it. It reminds you of the various interviews

given by Home Minister, P Chidambaram vowing to remove naxalism. It reminds you of the cease fire called by naxals. It reminds you of the hundreds of CRPF men who were killed in neighboring district, Dantewada. It reminds you of the scape goats made of villagers by both the CRPF and the naxals. Well, it reminds you of a lot of things and for no strange reason, they are all related to either the government or the naxal movement and related killings.

As a result, when I was told that I needed to visit Bastar to do a pilot of one of our programs, I was excited. This is the kind of excitement you get when you do a bunjee or when skydiving. In all these cases, you know the dangers attached to what you are doing and that is what gives you the rush of adrenaline. And, I must also add, that is what makes you want to do it again....

After a 20 hour train journey we reached Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, where we had a briefing from the State head of our program. He successfully managed to convert hints of my excitement to fear, so much so that I dreamt of being shot at by a naxal that night. It definitely wasn't the best of feelings especially knowing that you had pretty much reached the point of no return. The fear was that this rhetoric point of no return could turn into reality any moment. But with a brave face and a few adieus to family and friends, we set forth.

Very soon we were making our way through the jungles on NH 30 and later on NH 43. The roads, though quite narrow, were in good condition and various cars and trucks were speeding their way on it. We reached our destination around 4:30pm that day and after a brief discussion with our team, we set forth to one of our villages. We reached this place just before dawn and spend some time talking with community members. In a span of about half an hour all we could see was the dim headlight of our car and the multitude of stars in the sky. We made our way to the class where I was taken by surprise at the dedication with which the volunteer was teaching kids around an inch long flame that was emanating a yellow light, that was just sufficient to help differentiate one word from another. We visited another class after this where the conditions were the same. We wa

nted to stay longer and bask in the light heat that the light produced, as it had started becoming chill, but we could not for fear of investigations from people on our way back out of the village.

The next day our local team took us to a village that came in the B category of a 3 point scaling system for severity of naxal activity (the previous village was C). The village was deep in the jungle and we had to make our way through 3 kilometers of somewhat densely covered forests and watchful eyes - some of which were visible to us and some others that we couldn't see but whose presence revered was the least fatal choice. Again, we reached this village just before dawn and managed to meet some villagers and click their pictures. Interacting with villagers here was slightly difficult, initially, because for them we were 'outsiders' and any suspicion would result in sharp stones making their mark on your bodies. But the situation eased out once we started interacting with villagers in the presence of the volunteer who taught children. My mindset was very much changed by the enthusiasm of the children there - once they felt safe, they were freely posing in front of my camera. Their poses, though, were very interesting because it only meant that they would stand at attention like a regiment of the army or the police or a guerilla group. It was too early and very futile to make conclusions. I had no vested interest but to see how classes were running. Along the way, if I got to learn a bit about their culture and lifestyles, it was great. The sun had set as we made our way back through the jungle and the tall trees had added to the darkness. I was in constant fear of getting lost and meeting the eyes we could not see earlier. The

se watchful eyes were known to come out in the night. Overall, this visit was very good in instilling more confidence in my mind about the level of safety in Bastar. (I use the word safety instead of danger here, which I hope will reflect my change in mindset)

The third day was very exciting as we got closer to the villagers we met in a third village. And, as is usually the case in most social gatherings, alcohol was the lubricant that smothered any differences or fear we had in our minds. I was introduced to the world of Bastar Beer (sulphi) and mahua and tadi. Well, usually, I am not fond of drinking but when the locals brought me these things with a lot of love I thought it would be a good idea to oblige. Though, there were no great utterances of words post this, I felt much closer to them than before. I felt very warm in their presence. And, this was not the alcohol taking effect, I genuinely felt like we were the same and that there was no need for fear any more. Their sense of hospitality was as good as you might find in any other normal village in India. The only difference here was the circumstances under which these people were living. These circumstances have defined their identity. And, unless you mustered the courage to get close to them, this identity will present itself to you as the reality. But as soon as you get, even remotely, close to them this false identity will fall apart to give way to the real self.

This is what provoked a line above on my wanting to do this trip again. I feel like I need to understand these places better. That I need to understand the people of these places better before taking any stance on the conflict between naxals and government. Till now I took a stance on this issue based my reading of articles in newpapers and my theoretical understanding of ideologies. But this trip changed the way I looked at this issue. I now want to

understand the people living in these situations before taking a stand eitherways. May be, eventually, I won't take a stand eitherways if I feel that taking a stance eitherways will hurt the livelihoods of the people here.

Before concluding, though, one observation that I feel I should share is that villages that were of C category of naxal activity, usually had a pukka road leading to it in addition to some signs of electricity (even if it is only a pole for transmission of electricity). On the other hand, villages that were of higher category of naxal activity didn't have any of these. Well, I do not want anybody to draw conclusions from these observations because in statistical terms they are based on a small sample size. But I hope this will encourage many others to visit these areas to truly understand the situation. For myself, I am quite sure of doing another trip to these areas some time soon.

Boban Varghese Paul

PRM Associate

This Time for Africa...

Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mali, Senegal... India. Different countries, different cultures, different contexts. Then what has suddenly made people from all these countries travel to each others' villages? What do we have in common? The Answer... A new challenge with Children.

The ASER National Workshop, held annually in Lucknow, brings together associates from all parts of India to kick off the beginning of the ASER survey season, a three month long initiative to gauge children’s learning levels across the rural areas of the country. This year, the diversity of the group was further amplified by the presence of visitors from three African countries, Mali, Senegal and Kenya. Inspired by ASER’s wide reach and impact, visitors explained that they had come to the workshop to get an ‘insider’s’ view of the ASER process in order to launch or strengthen similar surveys in their home countries.

In addition to attending sessions on tools, dissemination and trainings, the visiting teams were able to fit in a field visit to a village. When asked to reflect on their experience, our guests replied that they were taken aback by the hospitality of villagers and the comfortable interactions between the survey teams and local residents. What was a less charming aspect of their stay? The constant honking you hear on the streets they exclaimed.

Before leaving for home, members from all three countries noted that the workshop was a good way to understand the fitment of the nuts and bolts of conducing large-scale, community driven surveys.

By Shinjini Chatterjee

Research Associate, ASER Centre

Travelling through no man’s land….

My knowledge about Chhattisgarh was limited to the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency in India; the Dantewada incidents; that the State was a part of Madhya Pradesh in 2000 and that it was heavily forested and produced some amazing handicraft. My recent trip to the State for the Joint Review Mission helped me get a better view of the State.

Day 1 (March 5^th) – Dhamtari

I am accompanying a two member review team, Chloe O’Gara from the Hewlett Foundation and Basanti Roy, who once held a senior post in the Education Department, Government of Maharashtra. Our first visit is to the district of Dhamtari, where Pratham is working in 3 out of the 4 blocks in the district. The district coordinator, whom we had met the previous day in Raipur (the state capital), told us that he would like to take us to a village in the forested hills where no Government school exists but Pratham volunteer runs classes.

Our first stop in Dhamtari is an Education for Education (EFE) center. Education for Education is a Pratham program started this year. The concept of EFE is that in order to strengthen Read India (volunteer classes), Pratham will offer computer classes to volunteers in exchange for their teaching in the Read India program. We spent quite a bit of time in the first EFE center, where volunteers, many of them young girls, were taking computer lessons. Almost all of them were using computers for the first time. Apart from computers, there seemed to be a lot of demand for English as well.

After this, we visit another EFE center and then go to our local office to interact with the staff and to have lunch. The roads in Dhamtari are surprisingly good. We travel through paddy fields on both sides – Chhatisgarh is renowned for rice. The scenery is interesting because it’s a blend of light forest and paddy fields, a contrast to the rice-growing regions of West Bengal and Assam, where all you see on both sides of the road are paddy fields stretching for miles and miles, with very few trees interrupting the view. The other interesting thing is that every village in Chhatisgarh has two ponds – one large, deep pond and one smaller, shallow pond. Villagers dig these ponds, which get filled in during the rainy season.

In the late afternoon, the Dhamtari District Coordinator takes us to a remote part of the block, since he wants to give us the flavor for some of the difficult, tribal areas in which Pratham works. We go through beautiful forests. For miles, there’s no human habitation to be seen but just forest on both sides of the road. It is beautiful. Again, the road is surprisingly good. After many miles of forest, we reach some villages – most of them quite small. We pass by a few reservoirs created by dams. We also pass by a lake, in which a few boats stand motionless. The scenery is stunning – forested hills, lakes and the orange glow of the setting sun appearing in and out of view through gaps in the forest treeline. We finally reach the volunteer class – one of them is a housewife, who’s teaching children in Std 3 – 5. She’s a really good teacher and the children are participating eagerly and have made good progress. Another volunteer, a young man, is teaching children in Std 1 – 2. He’s not that great a teacher. Nevertheless, both of them seem really dedicated. It is great to see good learning happening in a remote village in Chhatisgarh, one of the most backward states in India. One of the children asks us why we are leaving the village at night. He asks us to stay over and tells us that he will take us for a stroll in the jungle the next morning. It was endearing but unfortunately, we had to go. By now it was pitch dark. The forest, which seemed so lovely during the day seems ominous now. I think about the Naxals – will we encounter them? Of course, the local team keeps re-assuring us that there’s limited Naxal presence in the area we are in. In any case, we go out of the forested areas without any incident and reach Raipur by 9:30 pm, ending an eventful day.

Days 3 & 4 (March 7^th and 8^th) – Bastar

Today we leave for Bastar, which Gaurav (state head of Chhatisgarh) keeps telling us will be the most interesting part of our trip. Bastar is a heavily tribal populated area with the entire area being covered by dense forest. It is also one of the severely Naxal insurgency affected districts, although Gaurav gives us multiple assurances that we would come to no harm. Bastar is a huge district. Farasgaon, the block in which we work is towards the Northern end of Bastar. Farasgaon is a 3.5 hour journey from Raipur. From Farasgaon, an hour and a half journey takes you to Jagdalpur, the district capital, famous for Bastar Art (bronze sculptures made in some tribal villages in the area) and two big waterfalls. Beyond Bastar is Dantewada, the infamous aforementioned Naxal controlled district. Gaurav says that the southern parts of Bastar are quite dangerous due to heavy Naxal presence but that Farasgaon is safe. Apart from Bastar, Pratham works in Dantewada, Bijapur and Narayanpur – all severely Naxal affected districts. In some parts of these districts, Naxalites run parallel administrations. In such areas, the army designates a certain area as a Naxal controlled area. They impose strict restrictions on people going in and out of these areas. Of course, this causes Pratham great difficulty. If an outsider goes into the Naxalite controlled areas, he is immediately arrested when he comes out. The army surmises that the very fact that someone is able to go in and come out means he must be assisting the Naxalites. The army has laid siege to these areas. No rations, school teachers, doctors, etc. are allowed in. Apparently, the Naxalites recruit teachers and have them run classes in the Government schools in these areas. Essentially, the Naxalites administer swathes of land in many districts in Chhatisgarh.

Anyway, coming back to Bastar - we reach Farasgaon at around 1PM. The route is lovely – we pass through lovely forests along the way. From time to time, forests give way to some farms and fields, with hills in the background. However, the forest would resume again and continue for miles. I have seen few places in India where you can go for so long without seeing human habitation. It is indeed refreshing to see. After a brief stop at the office, we go into a village where the local Pratham staff has organized a fair. We get a royal welcome and are treated to a local tribal dance, the name of which I cannot remember. A couple of men stand in the middle with a wooden hat shaped like a deer’s head, along with the deer’s antlers. Apparently, in the olden days, real deer heads were used. These men were the drummers, who keep beating the drums to a pulsating rhythm, while a group of women with hats adorned with flowers form a circle, dancing and revolving in their circle formation. It is lovely to see, especially in the setting, deep into the heart of Bastar. The dance feels authentic in a way that a similar dance in a tourist area just doesn’t. We spend quite a bit of time interacting with teachers and parents – both interactions give us considerable insight on the education related issues in the area.

In the evening, we visit 3 Read India volunteer classes. The first class is being held in a volunteer’s home. The house is a kaccha (mud) house but the floor is spotlessly clean. I have rarely seen such clean homes before. Gaurav had told me about the cleanliness of tribal households earlier – but it is really great to see. The volunteer is studying in Class 12 and again, has amazing dedication although his teaching is not of the highest quality. Part of the problem is that he is himself unable to read Hindi fluently. In tribal areas, language is often a problem because the home language is different from the language of instruction in the school. In this case, Hindi is the language of instruction in the school but Halwi, Chhatisgarhi and Gondi are the languages that the children speak at home. The review members suggest that in such cases, volunteer capacity needs to be built so that they themselves are comfortable with Hindi in order to teach children Hindi effectively. The second class we go to also has really dedicated volunteers, both of them studying in Class 12. The father is really happy that children in his house are studying and that his son is teaching and also receiving computer education.

During my time at Pratham, I have often wondered what it is that truly leads a volunteer to give 2 hours of her time everyday to teach children for free (they are being given computer education now, but in the past, they used to teach for free). The cynical answer is that deliberately or accidentally, we give volunteers false expectations that a Pratham experience certificate would help them get jobs or that they would get absorbed by the Government or that they would get absorbed by Pratham. However, I think a more optimistic and, I believe, accurate explanation is that teaching gives volunteers respect in the village. The teacher in a village is highly respected – especially in villages where most people are illiterate or have studied up to a very basic level. What truly motivates volunteers is still a mystery to me. Perhaps the creation of a sense of identity and the recognition they gain in the village is a big factor. I have been amazed at the level of dedication of the volunteers in Chhatisgarh. Most of them had weaknesses but they were all dedicated. You can tell from their interactions with children that they hold classes regularly. And it seems that the community has been giving them considerable support. It is really heartening to see. We came out of the last volunteer class – by now it is pitch dark. I gaze up to the sky and see millions of stars in a clear, unpolluted night sky. It is a lovely sight.

On the second day, we had wanted to visit a couple of schools in which volunteers were teaching during school hours. The drive is beautiful – we pass through light forests. The countryside has more fields interspersed with trees rather than it being the other way around. In the distance are rolling hills. Some of the most beautiful areas I have traveled in are Naxal affected – Puruliya, the route from Puruliya to Jamshedpur, West Midnapur. Somehow the Naxals end up choosing beautiful areas to operate out of! Along the way, we catch glimpses of village life – we see a group of men and women waist deep in a pool of water, fishing. The pool is actually dug up by the villagers and baby fish put in. Once the fish grow to a certain size, the villagers catch them. We seem mahua trees everywhere, whose flowers are used to create a liquor called mahua, commonly found in many tribal areas in Chhtisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhan. Bastar is a land of plenty – the team tells us how in peak mango season, you can see mangoes lying around everywhere on the ground around her and can buy them for very cheap rates. There is considerable money to be made too - during the tendu patta harvesting season (leaf with which beedis (Indian country cigar type cigarettes) are made), a tribal family can make 50-60,000 rupees in a couple of months, a substantial sum for rural India. I asked the team why then is there so much poverty in the areas. The answer is complex and sad. The tribals are simple people and hence there has been a lot of exploitation – often they are paid a pittance by the middlemen whom they sell their products to. There is massive corruption and exploitation – often money is deposited in banks but tribals are unaware about the use of those financial institutions, and the money is embezzled without the knowledge of the beneficiaries. Here, in this beautiful district, blessed with so many natural resources, I begin to understand some of the root causes of the Naxal insurgency.

We visit a couple of schools where the volunteer is teaching in school. Swami, the local zonal coordinator of the area points to a nearby forested hill and tells us in his disarmingly matter of fact way that there are three other schools behind the knoll. However, he tells us that with a big smile – “wo unka area hai” (“it is their area”). He says sheepishly that otherwise he would have taken us there. In such a tranquil, beautiful surrounding, it is hard to imagine that there is an armed insurgency lurking somewhere not too far away – an insurgency that has led to so much grief. But such is the complex story of India. This commences our visit and we make our way back to the state capital, Raipur and then onward to Delhi.

My World of Peace

Ross Holzman with his team of peace makers visited Rajasthan and worked with Pratham children. The project introduces the concept of peace to the children and then allows them to let their creativity flow on paper

Saare jahaan se achcha...

The fun side of things

With thinking caps on

I Made This

For more details log on to-http://www.createpeaceproject.org/blog/

What's on top of our mother's minds

Natasha Trivedi travels to Bihar to find out how mother’s involvement in their children’s education makes a world of a difference in their learning process.

This February, a handful of us from Pratham and the Aser Centre set off to Bihar as part of a workshop series to explore how mother’s literacy and an encouraging home environment could affect a child’s learning. The workshop was conducted by the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab and the ASER Centre. Having been to the vibrant city of Ajmer last July, for the first workshop in the series, I was excited about visiting Bihar this time.

According to my media exposure, Bihar is often depicted as a State with high crime, low literacy rates, politically turmoil ridden, often clouding our judgement and stereotyping the State as “backward”. I took it upon myself to speak as much as possible with the Bihari auto and taxi walas of Mumbai before leaving to get a feel of their views about their home.

Some said they could secure their children’s future in the city and run their homes with a stable income; while some said their children were more likely to attend school in Mumbai than back in Bihar. “Madame, main saat saal se ghar nahi gaya, kheton mein toh kuch aur hi mazaa hai...” or “Kaam dhanda udhar kum hee hai aur bacche bhi idhar school zyaada jate hain...” They asked me about my itinerary, advised me on places I should visit and told me about the not-to-miss ‘aloo-puri’ at the Patna station.

I was confused. The conversations made me wonder what anyone could possibly miss about places like Yusufpur or Kasba; unheard of with respect to any historical or geographic significance.

But I must say… Bihar took my breath away. I was instantly in love with the lush greenery and the simplicity of its people.

After spending a whole day in the train from Delhi to Kathihar, overlooking the green landscapes, lakes, rivers and livestock, we took a bus to our destination - a picturesque little town called Purnia just a two-hour drive away from the Indo-Nepal border.

On the first day, we were split into groups and sent to various villages. With my team, I went to a little village called Kajha where a Read India class was just completed and the children were sitting together waiting to get dispersed. We took pictures, heard a few children read and chatted with their teachers. I understood from them that the parents were very keen to send their children to school and feel strongly that their children should not lose out on education and other facilities provided. Teachers explained that student enrolment and attendance was healthy and that the parents were gradually getting more involved in their children’s homework, school attendance, parent teacher meetings and other daily activities.

The next day, my group went to another set of villages in the same district to witness the Mother’s Literacy Program. The mother to teacher ratio was 2:1 and the class was a hit with enthusiastic mothers from neighbouring villages learning basic language skills and math. On doing a few exercises with the mothers, it was evident that their mental math abilities were strong, and that they were quick with practical addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Concentrating on their writing skills, the mothers brought their infants to the class so as to not constantly run back home to attend to them. The atmosphere got serious as the women got busy working with the learning tools provided by Pratham.

They explained that the skills they learnt in this class enabled them to understand what their older children learnt in school and how there was a significant, noticeable increase in their interaction with their own children. A sense of pride was clearly evident as they could now sign on official documents than printing thumbs! They could also identify their names on lists and official statements. We were amusingly told that their husbands too were very keen that their wives learn and some of them even learnt how to write their names with a little help from their wives.

The JPAL training taught us the basics of how to conduct a Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) – a quick way to understanding the field layout and dynamics, and mapping inferences correctly., My group was sent to K Nagar to implement our newly honed skills. After understanding a basic village outline, we interacted with the people and surprisingly, here too the mothers were eager to send their children to school. Thus, learning was on top of every mother’s mind.

Post this interaction, we discussed our various experiences and decided to go into the field for one last time to test our newly gathered knowledge. With our simple tools that aided mapping functional literacy, basic literacy, general knowledge, storytelling and listening-comprehension we brainstormed on the different strategies one could use with the mothers for the next phase of intervention.

On returning back to Mumbai, I eagerly downloaded my camera chip onto the computer just to find one common emotion evident in all photos - that ‘yearn to learn look’ on each of the mother and child’s face.

Natasha Trivedi

Media and Communications Team, Mumbai, Pratham

It’s not just about Results

Callie Lowenstein’s visit to Read India programmes reaffirms her belief that Pratham’s work goes beyond the metrics for improvement in literacy and numeracy. For it’s not just the results that are meaningful but the processes as well.



Graduation was looming and I knew I’d need to find a good plan, fast. I was interested in education, interested in development, but unsure where I’d find a job that fit. Having previously worked on the grassroots level in Africa and Latin America, I thought it was time to visit India—a new continent, a new language, an opportunity to work in a country whose significance on the international playing field would continue to grow in the years to come. More importantly, after working for tiny village-level NGOs, I hoped for an opportunity to work on a national scope, to understand how change could be effected on a broader level, and to contribute my skills to a mission whose importance I felt so deeply—the idea of ‘every child in school… and learning well.”
Coincidentally, in the spring of my senior year at college, I was taking a course on development economics, and was reading academic papers on educational outcomes in India. A number of these papers cited ASER, and described research partnerships undertaken in collaboration with an organization called Pratham—working in villages and cities across the country to ensure that children were learning basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. I applied for an internship position and before I knew it, I was off to Delhi.

But even having read the content of the Pratham website, I couldn’t have anticipated what was in store—the inspiration of meeting volunteers across the country and the joy of children learning new things and taking pride in their accomplishments. Indeed, the week after I landed in Delhi, an American friend enquired about Pratham’s volunteer-based programs and how we compensate them. I answered in the abstract, explaining that the work was voluntary, that the teachers chose to participate out of their own interest or motivation, and that it often provided young people with valuable work experience which they could later leverage in order to get a paying job. She didn’t seem to believe me, but having only just started at Pratham, I had nothing more to tell her. It wasn’t until I visited the programmes myself that I saw those answers in action, and saw just how powerful the grassroots model really is, both for the children and for the volunteers.

Through my work I have had the opportunity to visit Pratham classrooms in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, and it has been these experiences that have reaffirmed the excitement I felt about Pratham when I first read about the organization in class a year ago. In Ahmedabad, I met an older woman who had lived in a conservative, traditional Hindu home before beginning work as a balwadi—or pre-school teacher’s assistant with Pratham. She described herself as meek and un-confident, living literally under the veil with no expectation of her own career, before she started teaching. But she found such empowerment as a teacher that during the Hindu-Muslim riots of 2002, she ventured into Muslim neighborhoods to ensure that her students went to their classes and to give those children an opportunity to express themselves freely in a tense, dangerous time. She is now a Center Director — the supervisor to a staff of teachers and the teacher of the older primary school students — and is pursuing a certificate in Early Childhood Education through Pratham Community College.

A girl named Aarthi in a village in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, was struggling to read before she started classes with Pratham’s Read India programme. With the encouragement of her volunteer teacher, a 20 year old college student from a nearby village, Aarthi has made such progress that I was able to watch as she helped a group of students in her class to learn the complex 148 letter Tamil alphabet.

Experiences such as these affirm my belief that Pratham’s work goes beyond the metrics for improvement in literacy and numeracy. For it is not just the results that are meaningful in Read India and Pratham’s other programmes, but the processes as well. Indeed, I have been pleased and impressed with the reading and math skills demonstrated by the children in centres I have visited. But I have been equally warmed by the pride Pratham students take in their learning and improvement, and the pleasure taken by volunteers in the improvement that they have helped to facilitate. Both the volunteers and the children enjoy deeply the process of learning, and it is this ongoing journey that makes their efforts meaningful.

For me, too, working with Pratham has been a powerful learning experience—both in observing the practices of teachers and students on the ground, and in participating in the management of a nation-wide education movement. I am learning about the work that goes into one of the world’s ‘best buy’ education NGOs, all the while experiencing the rich culture of India. What a wonderful chance to travel from Chennai to Anand, meeting women and men – many my age – who share my passion for education and my belief in the power of a grassroots movement. Time and again, in every centre I have visited, I have asked volunteers to explain their motivation for teaching, and each time they have answered the same way: “It makes me happy to see the children learning.” I cannot help but agree.

Callie Lowenstein is an Intern with Pratham’s Programme Review and Management Team, Delhi.