Pratham addresses gaps in education systems with innovative, low-cost, replicable interventions that span the age spectrum. Working both directly and through government systems, these programs collectively reach millions of children and thousands of school dropouts each year. In “direct” work, a Pratham instructor works with children either in the school or in the community, whereas the “partnership” model involves Pratham teams working closely with government teams at the state, district or city level to design and implement programs. Pratham’s approach to improving learning outcomes continues to serve as a model, both within India and beyond.
HOLISTIC ASSESSMENTS
In Pratham-led programs, children are assessed on a variety of skills across all developmental domains: physical, language, cognitive, math, and social-emotional domains. For this purpose, Pratham has developed a set of assessment tools which are in line with the recommendations of NIPUN Bharat and NCERT. The tools have been developed keeping in mind that children learn at different paces; the tools are, therefore, progressive in nature. Each skill in the assessment tool is split into four stages and children’s progress is tracked over the course of an academic year in order to assess their growth.
In 2015, Pratham started tablet- and mobile-based initiatives that experimented with community-based learning using digital learning games, WhatsApp and text messages and videos. Pratham has also created a repository of digital content in the form of videos, games, online instructional material for caregivers and teachers of 0 to 8-year-olds.
Pratham’s artificial intelligence and machine learning-based content creation and development of speech-to-text and text-to-speech began five years ago. Pratham now collaborates with leading commercial and academic groups to develop independent learning and assessment tools.
Under the Early Years program, Pratham has undertaken a number of research projects to understand the scope, build evidence and plan interventions to scale impact. Learn more about these projects