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"All agree that the single
most important key to development and poverty alleviation
is education. This must start with universal primary education
for girls and boys equally". - James D. Wolfenhousen,
President World Bank
Pratham activities seeded by UNICEF
and Mumbai Municipal Corporation kicked off in 1994 to tackle
the problem of universalisation of primary education in Mumbai
by creating a Societal Mission. Very quickly Pratham was able
to establish that a low cost societal mission could generate
huge enthusiasm that actually solved the problems of universalisation
of primary education, even if not entirely. The lure of the
mission "Every child in school and learning" and
its replication in other parts of the country attracted very
diverse supporters and volunteers into its fold. Amongst them
were consultants from McKinsey & Co. A comprehensive study
of the Pratham Organization and its contribution to the problem
of primary education led the consultant volunteers to conclude
the Pratham model was effective and more importantly scalable.
This generated a lot of discussion within the Pratham family
and led to a more detailed study of the issues involved in
scaling the programme substantially.
Some
of the important findings were :-
-
Pratham programmes were societal missions and were best
run through Individual Trusts that had local commitment and
ownership.
A loose federation of multiple local initiatives, the study
felt, would gain tremendously from organized central support
in both overall directional guidance as well as in various
scale benefit activities.
-
The enormity of the task called for strong and effective
public/private partnerships for the sustained progress in
the universalisation effort.
-
Corporate India had a vital role to play if the Pratham
initiatives were to be scaled.
Corporate India responded wholeheartedly
and Pratham India Education Initiative was established as
a 'Not for Profit' Company in June 2002.
Role
of Pratham-India Education Initiative
-
PIEI's principal objective is to accelerate the pace of
activities of the individual Pratham Trusts towards the goal
of universalisation of primary education.
-
PIEI recognizes the need for autonomy for the individual
Trusts and will help them to build long-term financial and
operational independence.
-
PIEI will concentrate on scale benefit activities like
Funding, Content Development, Research, Evaluation and Implementation
Monitoring.
-
PIEI will build good governance guidelines and transfer
best practices.
-
PIEI will not directly execute programmes. Execution of
programmes is a city level activity locally managed albeit
with some central guidance.
The three
main pillars of the structure are :
-
A Board of Directors from amongst the leaders of Corporate
India who could oversee, guide and aid the progress of universalisation
through financial, managerial and organization support.
-
A Program Support Group drawn from persons with long experience
in corporate environment led by the CEO of Pratham India Education
Initiative to provide support in the areas of fundraising,
finance management, compliance and other related managerial
functions.
-
Resource Center comprising of people who have built Pratham
since its inception and have expertise in areas of mobilization,
social-organization, pedagogy, evaluation, research, training,
and related functions, namely Director, Resource Center and
five other Directors including convener of the Exchange Forum.
The last two together form the National
Executive Team of Pratham.
The Board
A very eminent Board under the Chairmanship of
Mr. N. Vaghul, Chairman ICICI Bank has been formed to take
forward the initiative.
The Board of Pratham-India
Education Initiative comprises :
Mr. Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Nicholas Piramal
Group
Mr Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries
Mr N Vaghul, Chairman, ICICI Ltd
Mr Kumaramangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group
Mr Vijay Goradia, Chairman, Vinmar
Mr Rajat Gupta, Managing Director, McKinsey & Co.
Mr Nachiket Mor, Executive Director, ICICI Bank
Mr Gautam Thapar, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, BILT
Mr. Keshub Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra
Mr. Sanjay Nayar, CEO & Country Head, Citibank, India
Mr. Sunny Varkey, Chairman, GEMS group, Dubai
Mr. Gunit Chadha, Managing Director and CEO, Deutsche
Bank Group, India
Role
of the Board
To oversee, supervise and guide the progress of
Pratham-India Education Initiative's mission of universalisation
of primary education.
The Board members through their companies have committed
financial, infrastructural and human resources support for
the activities of the Pratham network.
PIEI
and the Trusts
The National
Executive Team of Pratham will work very closely with
the Trusts in the Pratham network in building the programme,
programme related activities like Curriculum Development,
Performance Assessment and Evaluation, Training and will build
capacity in support activities like Fundraising, Accounting
Policy, Compliance etc. PIEI will serve to build best practice
and transfer to all the affiliates. PIEI will also actively
interact with National and International donor agencies to
raise funds for the affiliates. It will represent the interests
of the Trusts with the donors and vice-versa. Over a period
of time the interactions between PIEI and each of the Trusts
will be formalized through an MOU.
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