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.

The grant to Pratham is part of Google’s focus on “Information and Empowerment to Improve Public Services”. Google.org believes that meaningful, easily accessible information can help governments spend scarce resources wisely and empower citizens to demand better services or develop new solutions to meet their own needs. ASER is an example of this principle at work. Before 2005, the education sector in India was only focused on outputs. In 2005, the first ASER provided data for the first time ever on basic reading and math skills of rural children in India. Today, we see increased debate around the quality of education in India.

Speaking about the grant, Dr. Madhav Chavan, Pratham’s Founder and Director of Programs, said, “With Google's help we are planning to strengthen ASER in many ways while retaining its voluntary spirit and movement-like character. This partnership will help in creating a new network of people and institutions who will learn better skills of surveying, assessing, and analyzing data.” 

Read more about Google’s approach to grant-making in the area of on “Information and Empowerment to Improve Public Services” here.