For the past 25 years, Pratham has innovated low-cost solutions to deal with India’s education crisis. When our programs are proven successful, we partner with governments to scale them up. Along the way, Pratham ​has also been an incubator for ideas, catalyzing individuals in its network to effect social change. Below is a selected list of ​affiliate entities driven by Pratham’s mission of “every child in school and learning well.”

Established in 2008 as an autonomous unit of Pratham, the ASER Centre aims to evaluate the impact of social programs and to strengthen the link between evidence and action. Apart from the annual education survey, the Centre carries out independent research studies in the areas of early childhood, primary and post-primary education; disseminates data to build awareness and inspire action; and builds the capacity of individual citizens, communities and other institutions to improve student achievement.

Major supporters of the Centre include: Hewlett Foundation, Douglas B. Marshall, Jr. Family Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, The World Bank, UNICEF, Central Square Foundation and Kusuma Trust. Learn more at asercentre.org.

Pratham Books was launched in 2004 as a nonprofit publisher to promote learning and spread the joy of reading. They have provided millions of Indian children with engaging, affordable books in regional languages.

In 2015, Pratham Books launched StoryWeaver, an open source platform where users can access books, create and illustrate their own stories and print physical copies. The repository has over 23,000 stories in 259 languages and continues to grow. Learn more at prathambooks.org and storyweaver.org.in.

Pratham Books' StoryWeaver is free to use, and the content can be translated by users into any language for sharing with children around the world.

Child labor and other forms of abuse are linked to illiteracy. The Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children (PCVC) aims to raise awareness of such issues, rescue children from exploitative conditions, and give them back their childhood. Since 2001, PCVC has rescued and rehabilitated more than 25,000 children in partnership with eight states throughout India.

PCVC collaborates with government and advocacy groups in drafting child labor legislation, creating task force models, and providing education and residential care for rescued children. Learn more at pcvc.org.

Established in 2000, Pratham InfoTech Foundation (PIF) works to bring digital education to the underserved communities of India. It offers computer learning programs for K-12, provides IT training for young adults entering the workplace, and assists in equipping schools with digital technology. In its efforts to ensure “e-education for all,” PIF has reached one million school children in 2,500 schools across 17 states. Learn more at pif.org.in.

Pratham InfoTech Foundation works to bridge the digital divide, facilitate the adoption of IT in education, and equip disadvantaged youth with skills and tools to meet the demands of the global economy. 

TaRL Africa, a joint venture between Pratham and MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, is building the capacity of governments and other NGO partners in several African countries to address the learning crisis in primary schools across the continent. Supported by a multi-year grant from the global philanthropic collaborative Co-Impact, the current effort focuses on improving the foundational learning outcomes of three million students over the next five years.

The project supports African partners in developing and adapting Pratham’s TaRL methodology for local contexts and embedding it within existing education systems. Pioneered by Pratham, TaRL is an evidence-based approach for improving basic reading and math skills in a relatively short period that has been backed by multiple randomized control trials.

A series of randomized evaluations by J-PAL affiliated researchers over the past fifteen years have shown that TaRL consistently improves learning outcomes when implemented well and has led to some of the largest learning gains among rigorously evaluated education programs.