8/8/2019 About Pratham 2010

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8/8/2019 About Pratham 2010

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476,000 children attending Pratham learning support classes in schools and communities 400,000 children borrowing books from community libraries 37,500 child laborers and other children at-risk helped by the Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children 70,000 children prepared for the digital age by Pratham computer assisted learning centers

Evaluation and Recognition

Prathams work has been studied extensively and endorsed as aMillennium Development Goals best buyby the AbdulLatif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the leadership of Abhijit Banerjee,Ph.D., Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics, and Esther Duflo, Ph.D., Abdul Latif Jameel Professor ofPoverty Alleviation and Development Economics. Dr. Duflo received the 2009 MacArthur Fellowship for her work andthe 2010 John Bates Clark Medal also knows as the Baby Nobel in Economics. The researchers continue to studyPrathams impact and plan to release new research onRead India in 2011.

Prathams work has also been widely recognized in India and the United States. Pratham's most recent accolades

including the 2009 CNN Indian of Year Award in the Public Service Category and the 2010 Henry R. KravisLeadership Prize recognizing its extraordinary leadership in the nonprofit sector. The Kravis Leadership Prize isawarded to a single individual or organization annually and the honor is celebrated at a dinner at the Museum of Modern

Art in New York City. The Prize carries a $250,000 financial award.

What can the U.S. and other developed nations learn from Prathams success in India?

Pratham has successfully reached more than 34 million children across India. Millions of children who could not evenrecognize the alphabet when they began now read fluently and with passion. How is Pratham succeeding?

First, its a peoples movement, led not by government or academia but by individual communities and villages.Pratham volunteers help families realize the importance of education in school and at home. By making parents informedand equal partners, Pratham helps create accountability. And through private-public partnerships focused on education,Pratham enhances the impact of the billions of dollars already being spent on primary education.

Second, Pratham employs an accelerated learning techniqueproven to teach a child to read in less than two months. ItsLearn to Read(L2R) technique teaches in-school and out-of-school children to read using a non-linear method in whichchildren are exposed to multiple stimuli to improve learning levels.

Abandoning a traditional sequential method of learning, Pratham instead focused on the principle that when children areengaged in a variety of activities with interconnections, they will learn by doing. Thus, Pratham uses a techniqueincorporating four types of class activities:

Say something Do something Read something Write something

Pilot studies have demonstrated that the accelerated technique was capable of increasing the learning levels of 84percent of children in fewer than eight weeks. The outcomes underscore Prathams approach: focusing on learningoutcomes rather than simply school enrollment helps ensure that children are learning well.

For more information please contact Sangita Karra, Vice President of Development atskarra@prathamusa.org.

http://povertyactionlab.org/MDG/http://povertyactionlab.org/MDG/http://povertyactionlab.org/MDG/mailto:skarra@prathamusa.orgmailto:skarra@prathamusa.orgmailto:skarra@prathamusa.orgmailto:skarra@prathamusa.orghttp://povertyactionlab.org/MDG/