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In India, the problem with education isn’t quantity. We have the largest school system in the world with 1.6 million schools and 97% of our children aged 6–14 are enrolled in them. The problem is the quality of education the system’s 210-million students are receiving. Currently, half the children in Grade 5 can only read at a Grade 2 level, and nearly two-thirds struggle with basic arithmetic. And these numbers are only worsening.
The dearth of quality is perhaps most severe in the 1.1-million government schools, where despite a two-fold increase in budget in the last eight years, there has been little improvement. Parents are increasingly demanding better education for their children and are now moving them to affordable private schools, where they believe they can hold the management accountable for the quality of education. These private schools have their own challenges: limited financial resources, substandard curriculum, and low teacher retention to name a few.
At Acumen, we are keen to find and support innovative solutions to improve the quality of education for children in these affordable private schools that charge less than Rs 1,500 per month. Since 2011, Acumen has invested more than $1 million to help bring affordable, high-quality education to low-income Indian communities. We believe players that bring first-rate courses and content, enlist skilled trainers to improve the capabilities of teachers, and instil best practices in school management are required to usher in the much-needed quality revolution in India’s education.
Last month, we announced our investment in two such enterprises, Ignis Careers and Standard of Excellence in Education and Development (SEED). Ignis Careers has developed an English and LifeSkills Lab that addresses the gaps in primary and middle schools. The lab has already reached 28,000 students and more than 1,000 teachers, and early results are very encouraging. Improvement in learning outcomes is most rapid for children at the bottom of the class, thus helping every child gain the basic skills of comprehension and logical thinking. SEED partners with underperforming private schools to implement targeted academic and operational improvements to provide solutions to India’s unorganised, highly fragmented private education sector. Its first partner school won first prize in an inter-school competition of 120 schools and earned the distinction of Saina Nehwal becoming its chief mentor. We look forward to helping Ignis Careers and SEED grow and seeing what the future holds for their businesses but, even more so, for the students, teachers and schools they serve.
Acumen is committed to building the social enterprise space in India to bring affordable, high-quality education to the country’s poorest communities. As we continue to build our education portfolio, we will focus on the areas of mathematics, education financing and assessments. Through our investments, we hope to spearhead the quality revolution in Indian education.
Siddharth Tata is Associate Director at Acumen, a social venture capital fund that solves problems of poverty
Siddharth Tata is Associate Director at Acumen, a social venture capital fund that solves problems of poverty
