EDUCATION SPECIAL.... Creating classrooms for millions

EDUCATION Creating classrooms for millions 

MADHAV CHAVAN The co-founder of NGO Pratham recently won the WISE Prize, called the education Nobel. A look at his journey from chemistry professor to champion of literacy

At a time when most social activists believed in starting small and taking it one step at a time, Madhav Chavan dared to dream big. He co-founded Pratham Charitable Trust with educationist Farida Lambay in 1994, which set up 3,000 balwadis across Mumbai in just three years — at a time when educational non-profit organisations said this could not be done, for want of cash and space.

In these balwadis, women from local slum communities offered informal preschool education to thousands of children in classrooms as unlikely as temple compounds, local commercial offices and people’s homes.

In the 18 years since then, Pratham has expanded its various models of learning-oriented education to 21 states across India, reaching out to about 3 million children every year.

Last week, Chavan’s work was recognised by the international community and he was awarded the 2012 WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) Prize for Education, considered the Nobel in that field, in Qatar.

“In the 1990s, Mumbai needed about 4,000 balwadis, but municipal officers said there wasn’t enough space,” says Chavan, 58. “Our model proved that, even without money, space or trained teachers, you could plan on a large scale if you cleared the restrictions in your mind.”

Chavan’s innovative approach has attracted sponsorships and support from some of the biggest names in India Inc. But before distinguishing himself as an educationist, he inhabited a completely different world.

With a PhD in chemistry, which he completed in the US in 1983 and followed up with post-doctoral research, he began his career in 1986, as a teacher at the University of Mumbai.

Then-prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had just launched a national literacy mission for adults, calling for a people’s movement to help the government.

“I was attracted to that idea and decided to participate,” says Chavan, who set up an NGO — the Committee of Resource Organisations for Literacy — with a group of friends to rope in youngsters from the slums and schools of Chembur to spread literacy among adult members of their families.

In 1991, the university allowed him a three-year sabbatical to pursue his education mission. During this time, Chavan scripted and anchored a Doordarshan TV series in Marathi, among other things. Titled Akshardhara, the series sought to promote adult literacy through inspiring stories of those who had learnt to write late in life.

“Chemistry was fun, but the challenges and highs in the field of education were totally different,” says Chavan.

In 1994, the United Nations Children’s Fund asked Chavan and Lambey to spearhead a plan they had formulated to raise literacy levels in Mumbai by getting private companies, civil society and the government to work together. This is how Pratham was born.

With funds steadily trickling in by the late 1990s, organisations and private companies across India began to express a desire to replicate the Pratham model. “That’s when we began to work in other cities,” says Chavan.

In the next phase of Pratham’s operations, the NGO decided to address the issue of quality of instruction in public primary schools. Thus was born Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report, which has since earned a reputation for its startling findings about the levels of reading, writing and arithmetic ability in public primary schools.

Pratham then began to work on solutions, through the Learn to Read and Read India programmes.

While Pratham is constantly expanding its outreach and its programmes, Chavan believes the Right to Education Act has been of no help so far.

“The Act focuses on building classrooms, appointing teachers and providing mid-day meals, but these are not pre-conditions for reasonable learning,” he says. “Fortunately, with the 12th planning commission, I believe the government is now shifting its focus to learning outcomes.”

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