Pratham's learning camps are an effective way for demonstrating the impact of our approach - convincing governments and other organisations that change is possible, even in a short span of time. The following is a small incident, a few months into my joining Pratham, where I had the privilege to experience this first hand (2016).
Pratham's learning camps are an effective way for demonstrating the impact of our approach - convincing governments and other organizations that change is possible, even in a short span of time. The following is a small incident, a few months into my joining Pratham, where I had the privilege to experience this first hand. I sometimes forget how large the state of Uttar Pradesh is. Not just in terms of size, which is about the same as a small European country. But in terms of population. Which is about the same as the United States of America. With hundreds of millions of people split across religion, caste and class, I am often forced to wonder, what impact can a few hundred people have? However, on a warm summer day in Auraiya, a small district in a corner of Uttar Pradesh, I finally realized the answer to that question - quite a fair bit.
It was the month of April and we were organizing a small event to mark the closure of the program. It had been a long year, with camps organized in 100 schools. Not an insignificant number, mind you, but not a lot considering the district had about 1,000 government primary schools. And I only needed the back of an envelope to estimate that we would need to work in Auraiya for at least half a decade, if we wanted to reach even half that number. But improving learning outcomes for 7,000 plus children was a good year's work no matter how you looked at it and the people that day deserved to commemorate closure for organizing and supporting such a successful program.
Who were these people though? There were Pratham staff, who had conducted the intervention and were now organizing the event. There were the donors, whose generosity and support had made all this possible. There were a few children and teachers who we had interacted with over the course of the intervention. And then there were some government officials who had allowed us to do all this work in schools.
The event started as all events do (for the organizers anyway) – in a fair degree of chaos. And the chief guest (as chief guests do)was running late. Unfortunately, the guest was no ordinary person without whom we could begin things and continue as we wished. She was the district magistrate – essentially the senior-most government official of the district – and we could really not get things rolling without her. In her absence most of us were getting uneasy, wondering if she would turn up at all. But turn up she did and once present, the magistrate was most gracious in all her interactions - right from the donors to the children.
It was during one such interaction, when she asked a small girl to read a passage about a hare and a tortoise.
Now, this was a girl who at the start of the intervention had been unable to read words and who we were now proclaiming to be able to read basic stories. And so I was fairly confident that the girl would be able to read the passage. The only thing I was slightly unsure about was if she would be unnerved by what was by then a fairly large audience (I knew I would be had I been in her place).
But the girl read the passage. And read it well she did.
Suitably impressed, the magistrate then asked the girl what she learnt from the story.
If earlier I had been unsure how the girl would handle the audience, I did not have any idea what she would say. And for a split second, I thought neither, did she? But the girl thought for a moment. And she replied saying that she learnt that you should not be arrogant. That you should not be overconfident.
The magistrate was floored by her response! She became extremely nostalgic, speaking about her experiences from her own childhood and how her teachers had helped her over the years. Having witnessed the impact firsthand, she expressed her appreciation for Pratham’s approach and even enthusiastically invited us for further discussions to explore how we all could potentially collaborate together.
And it was as a result of all this that from 7,000 children across 100 schools in 2015-16, we reached over 60,000 children across 1,000 schools the subsequent year. The only difference? It was government school teachers themselves who implemented the approach - the Pratham team of 25-odd people having evolved from implementers to mentors.
Looking back, it is easy to think why I was sceptical of the impact that a few people can bring about. But after having witnessed first-hand the visible and demonstrable impact of our work, I can confidently say that never have I been happier to be proven wrong – or more accurately have the back of an envelope calculations made void!
From Auraiya district, Uttar Pradesh.
The author is Arjun Agarwal. He is a member of Pratham’s national Program Management Team. He supports the Uttar Pradesh Pratham team in managing all their education programs.
Pratham's learning camps are an effective way for demonstrating the impact of our approach - convincing governments and other organizations that change is possible, even in a short span of time. The following is a small incident, a few months into my joining Pratham, where I had the privilege to experience this first hand. I sometimes forget how large the state of Uttar Pradesh is. Not just in terms of size, which is about the same as a small European country. But in terms of population. Which is about the same as the United States of America. With hundreds of millions of people split across religion, caste and class, I am often forced to wonder, what impact can a few hundred people have? However, on a warm summer day in Auraiya, a small district in a corner of Uttar Pradesh, I finally realized the answer to that question - quite a fair bit.
It was the month of April and we were organizing a small event to mark the closure of the program. It had been a long year, with camps organized in 100 schools. Not an insignificant number, mind you, but not a lot considering the district had about 1,000 government primary schools. And I only needed the back of an envelope to estimate that we would need to work in Auraiya for at least half a decade, if we wanted to reach even half that number. But improving learning outcomes for 7,000 plus children was a good year's work no matter how you looked at it and the people that day deserved to commemorate closure for organizing and supporting such a successful program.
Who were these people though? There were Pratham staff, who had conducted the intervention and were now organizing the event. There were the donors, whose generosity and support had made all this possible. There were a few children and teachers who we had interacted with over the course of the intervention. And then there were some government officials who had allowed us to do all this work in schools.
The event started as all events do (for the organizers anyway) – in a fair degree of chaos. And the chief guest (as chief guests do)was running late. Unfortunately, the guest was no ordinary person without whom we could begin things and continue as we wished. She was the district magistrate – essentially the senior-most government official of the district – and we could really not get things rolling without her. In her absence most of us were getting uneasy, wondering if she would turn up at all. But turn up she did and once present, the magistrate was most gracious in all her interactions - right from the donors to the children.
It was during one such interaction, when she asked a small girl to read a passage about a hare and a tortoise.
Now, this was a girl who at the start of the intervention had been unable to read words and who we were now proclaiming to be able to read basic stories. And so I was fairly confident that the girl would be able to read the passage. The only thing I was slightly unsure about was if she would be unnerved by what was by then a fairly large audience (I knew I would be had I been in her place).
But the girl read the passage. And read it well she did.
Suitably impressed, the magistrate then asked the girl what she learnt from the story.
If earlier I had been unsure how the girl would handle the audience, I did not have any idea what she would say. And for a split second, I thought neither, did she? But the girl thought for a moment. And she replied saying that she learnt that you should not be arrogant. That you should not be overconfident.
The magistrate was floored by her response! She became extremely nostalgic, speaking about her experiences from her own childhood and how her teachers had helped her over the years. Having witnessed the impact firsthand, she expressed her appreciation for Pratham’s approach and even enthusiastically invited us for further discussions to explore how we all could potentially collaborate together.
And it was as a result of all this that from 7,000 children across 100 schools in 2015-16, we reached over 60,000 children across 1,000 schools the subsequent year. The only difference? It was government school teachers themselves who implemented the approach - the Pratham team of 25-odd people having evolved from implementers to mentors.
Looking back, it is easy to think why I was sceptical of the impact that a few people can bring about. But after having witnessed first-hand the visible and demonstrable impact of our work, I can confidently say that never have I been happier to be proven wrong – or more accurately have the back of an envelope calculations made void!
From Auraiya district, Uttar Pradesh.
The author is Arjun Agarwal. He is a member of Pratham’s national Program Management Team. He supports the Uttar Pradesh Pratham team in managing all their education programs.
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