Pratham is an innovative learning organization that works to improve the quality of education in India. Founded 25 years ago in Mumbai with the aim of providing preschool education to children in urban slums, Pratham has steadily grown over the years, in both scope and geographical coverage. Today Pratham is one of the largest non-profit organizations in education in India. Focusing on high-quality, low-cost, and replicable interventions, Pratham has reached millions of children across 20+ states and Union Territories in both rural and urban areas of India. Pratham’s interventions demonstrate how impact can be created in a short period of time without a lot of resources.

Over the years, Pratham’s approach to teaching and learning has expanded to various segments and evolved both through direct work and in partnership with government systems. While direct interventions have expanded with a focus on increasing and sustaining program impact at the beneficiary and community level, partnerships have been pursued with the larger aim of creating impact not only at the beneficiary and community level, but also at the system level.

As a result of its work, Pratham has been the recipient of many national and international awards such as the Kravis Prize in Leadership (2010) and the Skoll Award (2011). In 2018, Pratham won the Lui Che Woo Prize in the Positive Energy Category. In 2012, Pratham’s Co-Founder Dr. Madhav Chavan was awarded the WISE Prize for Education which has been referred to as the “Nobel Prize for Education.” In the same year, The Global Journal named Pratham as one of the “Top 100 NGOs” in the world. In 2014, Dr. Chavan was recognized by the Asia Society as an Asia Game Changer. Most recently, Pratham’s CEO, Dr. Rukmini Banerji, has been awarded the prestigious 2021 Yidan prize for Education Development.

Pratham has 5 key programming segments being implemented today:

1. Early Years – Pratham believes that “early years” (age 3 to 8) are key foundational years - regarded as a continuum. Interventions aim for holistic physical, cognitive, socio-emotional, language and creative development and focus on use of local resources, appropriate materials and methods, and involvement of parents and caregivers, especially mothers. This is also done in partnership with the government in an attempt to institutionalize practices.
2. Elementary Grades – Pratham’s Read India program, launched in 2007, aims at ensuring foundational language and math abilities in children. More recently, Pratham launched Hamara Gaon (or Our Village), the latest version of “Read India” which aims to consolidate Pratham’s interventions for different age groups by working in one village over a period of three to five years. The focus of this intervention is to encourage community ownership of children’s learning needs. Pratham also implements Science interventions for this age group.
3. Second Chance – The Second Chance program focuses on providing school drop-outs, especially women, another chance at education. Second Chance aims to support those who could not complete their secondary education for a variety of reasons, such as distance, cost, access, socio-economic constraints and cultural barriers. The program focuses on completion of Grade 10, in the hope that this academic certificate would prove useful for the learners and further their opportunities for educational growth and employability.
4. Skilling – Pratham’s Skilling program aims to provide skill-based training to youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, to prepare them for jobs or self-employment and help build foundational life skills. Launched in 2009, this program has grown to cover many industry segments over time such as automotive mechanic, beauty and wellness, hospitality, construction, healthcare nursing etc. Entrepreneurship support programs are also run as part of the Skilling programs.
5. PraDigi Open Learning – Pratham has been exploring and implementing innovative ways of leveraging technology and digital content for rural contexts of India. Digital learning tools (device, technology and content) are placed directly in the hands of children and youth - thus providing them with the opportunity to learn at their own pace. Pratham’s experience developing digital content over the past few years has contributed significantly to its activities during the time of COVID-19. With digital content in 12 languages and across mediums of videos, games and applications - Pratham has been able to scale its remote learning programs.

Partnering with Pratham will give corporate organisations the opportunity to tackle some of the most complex problems in the education systems first-hand.

Pratham was founded in 1995 and has steadily grown in size and scale to provide children from underserved communities with the necessary educational inputs. Our high-quality, low-cost, replicable interventions allow us to reach millions of children across 22 states and Union Territories in rural and urban communities in India. 

Pratham’s mandate to ensure ‘every child in school and learning well’ is applied to five key program areas such as early childhood education, elementary grades, beyond elementary, vocational skilling for youth and digital learning programs. The design and outcomes of each of these verticals ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all – as outlined in NEP 2022 and SDG 4. 

We attribute a large part of our success to collaboration – with corporates, governments and community partnerships. Without the investment of our corporate partners, the scope and scale of our work would not be possible. Also, we strongly encourage our corporate partners to engage with our work in real-time, by volunteering their time and unique talent towards the organisation’s growth. Volunteering opportunities are customisable, so that their employees' time is spent meaningfully.