When Schooling Doesn’t Mean Learning by Dr. Rukmini Banerji
Writing in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the preeminent publication for people engaged in social innovation, Pratham CEO Dr. Rukmini Banerji describes the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), the citizen-led assessment facilitated by Pratham that for over a decade has been helping Indians gauge children’s learning levels and challenging a deep-seated belief that going to school means getting an education.
The ASER model, which has been replicated in several other countries, is an important step in understanding the scale of the learning crisis and in finding a solution. It empowers parents, educators and policymakers to act as agents of change to help shift the focus to learning.
“ASER reports on India have shown that only about half of all students in fifth grade can read text meant for children in second grade. Simply put, this means that five years of schooling doesn’t even translate to two years’ worth of learning for more than half of all children who have come that far.”
Read the article over at ssir.org and learn more about Pratham’s ASER research and advocacy efforts.