Dr. Rukmini Banerji, CEO of Pratham Education Foundation guests on the Decoding Impact Podcast

Education is the foundation upon which we build our future. It opens up job prospects, teaches life skills and transforms communities.

In India the enrolment for primary schools stands at the highest it has ever been in Indian education history at 98.4%, as stated in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2022, a nationwide survey that captures the status of children’s enrolment and learning outcomes in rural India every year.

Yet, only 42.8% of grade five students are able to read at grade level text.

Assessment and measuring foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes have been brought to forefront to understand what the problems in education are today, so that they can be solved more effectively.

To discuss this, accomplished educationist, Dr. Rukmini Banerji, CEO of Pratham Education Foundation spoke to Rathish Balakrishnan, host of the “Decoding Impact” Podcast about the success of ASER and how it all started.

In the episode Dr. Banerji also talks about how ASER has become an experience that connects every Indian to their homeland as ASER is a bottom-up ‘social movement’, involving the participation of thousands of volunteers from all over India.

It has helped raise awareness of the importance of education and creates a sense of shared responsibility for improving the quality of education in India.

Listen to the full podcast episode.