Annual Report 2008

 

Newsletters Fall 2009 Spring 2009 Summer 2008 Spring 2008 Winter 2007

ASER 2009 released   The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2009 was released on January 15 in New Delhi. The report was released by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal. Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Sibal commended Pratham for rendering yeoman service to the nation by bringing out the ASER report annually. Such work, he said, provided the government with critical inputs in formulating policy. View video address >>> ASER 2009 was conducted in 575 districts. Almost 700,000 children across over 16,000 villages were surveyed. Read more about survey findings >>>   Pratham wins Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership 2010   Claremont McKenna College (CMC) announced today the selection of Pratham, India's largest educational nonprofit organization, as the recipient of the fifth annual Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership. The Kravis Prize, which carries a $250,000 award designated to the recipient organization, recognizes extraordinary leadership in the nonprofit sector.   Read more>>> Pratham awarded the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2009 Pratham has been selected as the winner of the prestigious CNN-IBN Indian of the Year award in the public service category for its contributions in the field of literacy and education. The other nominees were Anna Hazare, Association For Democratic Reward, Dr Devi Shetty, Ecosphere Spiti and Naaz Foundation. The CNN-IBN award honors and recognizes Indians whose extraordinary endeavours have built brand India. Winners are chosen through a rigorous four-step process. Read more >>> MIT's Poverty Action Lab designates Pratham as a "must-buy" Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Poverty Action Lab has designated Pratham as one of seven "must buys" to reach the Millenium Development Goals. The must-buys programs were chosen for being highly effective at achieving specific development goals at a relatively low price. Read more >>>   Pratham USA Announces New Leadership We are delighted to announce that the National Board of Directors has appointed Arvind Sanger as the Chairman of the Pratham USA Board. Arvind is the founder and Managing Partner of Geosphere Capital Management, a global long-short equity hedge fund focused on natural resources and industrial companies globally. He takes over from Vijay Goradia, Pratham USA Founder and Chairman of Vinmar International Ltd. Read more >>>    Madhav Chavan on CNBC Pratham's co-founder and CEO, Dr. Madhav Chavan, was recently a guest on Nandan Nilekani's show on CNBC "Imagining India". The topic of discussion was the current state of primary education in India and the proposed reforms. View videos of the episode: Part 1    Part 2    Part 3   Pratham USA wins Charity Navigator's top rating third year in a row Pratham USA has won Charity Navigator's four-star rating (its highest possible) for the third year in a row, joining a select group of non-profits who have achieved this rare distinction. Our overall score also places us among the top 1 percent of all non-profits rated by Charity Navigator. With the proliferation in non-profit organizations, savvy donors are demanding more accountability and transparency from the charities they choose to support with their hard-earned money. "Careful stewardship of our donors' money and maximizing the impact of every dollar received has always been Pratham's top priority," says Dr. Atul Varadhachary, President of Pratham USA. "We are proud that our efforts are reflected in the high ranking that we have received from Charity Navigator."  Read More >>>   Article on "Slumdog Millionaire" highlights Pratham's work A recent article in the LA Times by author and Pratham Houston Board member Chitra Divakaruni on the controversies surrounding "Slumdog Millionaire" highlights Pratham's work with vulnerable children. Read More >>> Economist video featuring ASER The Economist newsmagazine recently released a video, featuring an analysis of primary education in India and showing a snapshot of Pratham's ASER in action. or click here to view video. Pratham's achievements in 2007-08 Thanks to the support of our donors, Pratham India was able to achieve  significant successes in 2007-08. Some of the year’s highlights included the following: ▪ Read India reached over 21 million children in 358,233 villages across 19 states. ▪ Our Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) tested over 720,000 children across more than 16,000 villages. ▪ Our urban direct programs benefited more than a million children across 15 states. Read More >>> Pratham wins award for Excellence in Information Integrity The Information Integrity Coalition (IIC), a not-for-profit organization that promotes awareness and understanding of Information Integrity, recently announced that Pratham is the winner of the Gold award in the non-profit category for its Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). Pratham shared the award with Akshara Foundation, a part of the Pratham network. The EII Awards recognize organizations that provide accurate, consistent and reliable information to their customers, suppliers and partners. The record number of applicants this year were evaluated by independent judges based on how they addressed Information Integrity issues and opportunities and used best practices on a sustained basis to produce demonstrable results. Kaajal, one of Pratham's many successes! Kaajal joined Pratham's library program two years ago. Till then, she had never attended school and did not know how to read. Today she is considered the brightest student in her third grade class. Watch a video about her here. " View more Pratham videos here. Pratham and UPenn jointly host conference on Read India The South Asia Center of the University of Pennsylvania and Pratham jointly hosted a conference on Read India at UPenn on Oct 3 and 4. The two day conference discussed the challenges of building the foundations of basic learning for children in a large and diverse country like India.  While the Read India experience provided the anchor for the discussions, participants used different disciplinary perspectives and experiences from diverse contexts to enrich the debate on how to generate and sustain quality learning for children on a massive scale in developing countries. Read More >>>   Rukmini Banerji speaks at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting Dr. Rukmini Banerji, a member of Pratham's national leadership team, recently spoke at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting held in New York on September 24. Rukmini was part of a distinguished panel on the "Global Expansion of Programs that Increase Quality Education". She spoke of Read India and the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), two Pratham-led initiatives that are receiving wide-spread attention and acclaim for their success in addressing the problem of poor education quality in school.   Watch the video of the discussion here You can also access the transcript here (Part 1, Part 2). Read India reaches 17 million children across India! Read India, Pratham's campaign to teach 60 million children across India how to read, write and do basic math, has achieved wide coverage across the country. In the first six months alone, Pratham has trained over 360,000 primary school teachers and 330,000 volunteers. We also have partnerships with 15 state governments. Most importantly, children's learning levels have improved across grade levels. Read More >>> Google awards $2 million to Pratham for ASER Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, has awarded a $2 million grant to Pratham. The grant will support an independent institute to conduct the Nationwide Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) as well as large-scale assessments in the education sector. The ultimate goal is to expand these types of assessments to other sectors. Read More >>> ASER 2007 Released! The Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) 2007 was released on January 16, 2008. This Pratham-facilitated survey has emerged as a powerful tool for advocacy and educational reform in India. This year, the survey was conducted in over 16,000 villages all across rural India. Surveyors tested over 700,000 children and visited over 13,000 schools. Read More>>> Watch this video for a glimpse of Pratham's efforts in Bihar View more Pratham videos here Madhav Chavan meets with Former President Clinton Dr. Madhav Chavan, Founder and Director Programs of Pratham participated in the Clinton Global Initiative as an invited member on Sep 26-27. On behalf of Pratham - including PrathamUSA and PrathamUK - he committed to taking Read India and "Book for every child" to scale. Read More>>> Pratham Launches Read India Campaign The objective of Read India, a two-year people’s campaign launched in April 2007 and led by Pratham, is ambitious, yet simple: all children of ages 6-14 years must know how to read with comprehension, write and do math by 2009. In the process, Pratham also hopes to make child literacy a top priority for the government, communities and parents, and change the attitude that some children cannot learn. Read More>>> The Hewlett and Gates Foundations Award $9 Million to Read India Campaign The grant supports Pratham’s Read India initiative, which is working in conjunction with Indian state governments to help ensure that children between the ages of 6 and 14 achieve basic mastery in these skills by the end of 2009. The grant to Pratham will improve basic learning skills in 100 districts of India, touching 10 million children spread over 10 states for three years  Read More>>>

Pratham Programs   Read India ASER Pre-schools Remedial learning Libraries Computer learning Vulnerable children Skilling centers Pratham Books More Info? Visit Pratham Read what visitors to Pratham sites have to say F Upcoming Events  Music for Literacy  Houston Saturday, March 20 Houston Gala Saturday, May 1 Featured Blogs Googlers at ASER In School and Learning Well Related Articles  Pressing issues in primary education Aid for Education Dropouts find their way back to school Goldman Sachs paper recommends expanding Pratham Implications of introducing English in primary school  Giving for dignity Teaching India's Kids  How to get 100 million children in India reading in three years A report card for India Elementary education making rapid strides Decline in number of out-of-school children Bihar improves primary education score Education in India is a marker of inequality Google, Gates, Indian diaspora bet on children Can India save its working children?