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.