Ei Dialogues

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.