In this conversation, Dr. Pritchett provides a background about the challenges within education in the Indian context while explaining the importance of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) and sharing instances from education research. He also elaborates on the concept of RCTs, including when and how they can be adapted to the field of development economics, and to what extent policymakers should rely on impact evaluations when judging multiple interventions.

Neelima Khetan is former Group CSR head of Vedanta Ltd. Prior to joining HZL, she was the Director-CSR and Sustainability for Coca Cola in India and South-West Asia. During the conversation, she shares her 25-year long journey at Seva Mandir, and the consequent transition to the CSR department in the for-profit sector. Furthermore, she sheds some light on how to build synergies between the for-profit and non-profit sectors, what funders look at, and why impact evaluation is essential. 

This video was originally shot in September 2019. 

Sourav Banerjee is the Country Director of Room to Read. In this episode, he gives us a birds-eye view on the evolution of the Indian education system and the education governance landscape. The discussion then moves to the issue of multi-language literacy in India, where a child is often caught up in transitioning from home language, to market language, to state language, to English. The conversation further gains insights on various scale-up pathways for an NGO, elaborating on creating partnerships with the government and accountability in the system.

This episode was originally launched in November 2018. 

Akshay is a Teacher-Entrepreneur with a passion for helping build organizations that create an equitable world. Through Avanti, he has helped teachers in 11 states across India transform Math and Science learning outcomes for India's 100M middle and high-school students through the use of collaborative learning and technology.   Akshay candidly speaks about his Swades moment that motivated him to come back to India to set up Avanti.  The conversation draws on the realities of working in the Indian developmental space, the role of social enterprises in bridging the policy gaps, and why India is the place to be at to solve interesting and important problems in education.

Trained as an economist in India, Dr. Rukmini Banerji completed her BA at St. Stephen’s College and attended the Delhi School of Economics. She was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and earned her PhD at the University of Chicago. The conversation gains insights on challenges of assessing student learning outcomes, the role of applied research, the importance of evaluation, inception of ASER, and the growth story of Pratham.

In this episode of EI Dialogues, we converse with the founder and CEO of STiR Education, Sharath Jeevan. During the conversation, he talks about his journey in the social sector, the importance of a teacher as a role model, and building foundations for life-long learning. Through experiences and role-plays, he also elaborates on STiR's work, its philosophy, and reforming education by maintaining the levels of intrinsic motivation in government school teachers of India and Uganda.