Learnings from Working with Governments to Improve Children’s Learning

• In Event: Implementation Science? Decoding the complexity and contextual nature of system change work in large scale government-nonprofit collaborative programs in India

Proposal

Working with governments at different levels in India over the last 25 years, coupled with relatively more recent new experiences in sub-Saharan Africa has helped Pratham accumulate a set of insights and learnings of “what works” (and what does not) and why? Based on these experiences, the paper/presentation will reflect on and, examine several dimensions of working with the government in education.

The analysis will refer to four strands of work – all focused on improving children’s learning. First, we will explore how practices and processes on the ground are influenced by changes in policy and national priorities. In particular, experiences in the phase prior to the launch of the new National Education Policy 2020 will be compared with the years since 2020. Second, in Pratham’s experience of working in partnership with governments, there have been distinct differences between efforts to enable young children (pre-school, Grades 1-2 to build strong foundations as compared to the initiatives that support older children (Grades 3 and above) to acquire basic reading and arithmetic skills. Analysis of the similarities and differences will add to the overall understanding of how large-scale system change can be brought about. Third, while the first two strands of work refer to in-school government-Pratham partnerships, it is worth outlining learnings from partnerships during the pandemic and post-pandemic government partnerships for working with communities. Finally, , Pratham’s exposure to how governments in sub-Saharan Africa collaborate as compared to those in India will add to knowledge of what and how scaling happens in different contexts.

Together, these sets of analysis will add to what is known about implementation challenges. “System change” and “scaling” are common words in the global development community. Unpacking these terms and assessing different cases adds flavor and color to “what works” (and what does not). This body of knowledge can be deepened by a more nuanced understanding under what conditions and contexts, the same system changes or remains rigid.

Author

• Rukmini Banerji, Pratham Education Foundation