Pratham

Hello! We are the Pratham Education Foundation. In an old language from India called Sanskrit, our name, Pratham, means “first.” We believe that every child deserves to be put first and have a great start in their education. Our main purpose is to be a helpful group that makes sure all children in India can learn well. We focus on some of the most important skills a person can have: reading stories, writing down their ideas, and understanding numbers with math.

Our story began in the year 1995. We started our work in a very large city in India called Mumbai. In some neighborhoods of the city, called slums, many families lived in crowded areas with very little money. We saw that lots of young children in these places did not have a school where they could go to learn and play. To help them, we decided to open special preschools right in their communities. We called these little schools “balwadis.” They were created to be happy and fun places where the youngest children could get their very first chance to learn before starting elementary school.

After we had been working for a while, we noticed something important. It wasn't just the little children who needed help. Many older children who were already going to school were struggling to keep up. So, we came up with a new way of helping them learn. We call this method “Teaching at the Right Level.” In most schools, children are put into classes based on their age. But in our programs, we group children together based on what they already know and what they are ready to learn next. This way, no one feels left behind. We use fun games and exciting activities to help them practice and catch up on their reading and math skills quickly.

How do we know if our work is helping? We need to check! Every year, our volunteers travel to thousands of villages all across the country of India. In each village, they ask children to do simple tasks, like reading a short story or solving an easy math problem. This helps us understand what children have learned and where they still need help. We gather all this information into a big report that we call the Annual Status of Education Report, or ASER for short. This report is very useful because it shows parents, teachers, and leaders how schools can be improved to help every student succeed.

Today, we continue all of this important work. Our programs have reached communities all over India, and we have even shared our ideas with people in other countries who want to help children learn better. We know we can’t do it all alone, so we work together with parents, teachers, and community leaders. Our goal is still the same as it was when we started: to make sure every single child has the chance to go to school and learn well. We work hard so that no child is ever left behind on their learning journey.