Education
In the last two decades, with increasing efforts at achieving Universal Elementary Education, elementary education has begun to receive unprecedented attention from government and civil society organizations. Significant improvements have been made in improving access to primary education, which is reflected in achieving near 100% enrolment and availability of primary schools within a kilometre radius for 94% of the children. While this is impressive, the real challenge lies in ensuring quality, by making elementary education accessible, enjoyable and meaningful for every child, as well as making the institution of schooling sensitive to the developmental needs of children and firmly connected with the local community.
Education has been one of the key areas of grant making for the Trust, since its inception. In 2004-05, the Trust commissioned a comprehensive external review of its education portfolio by a team of leading educationists. The review stressed that: (i) elementary education is a poorly developed discipline and hence the Trust should focus on developing the field; (ii) the Trust should continue to focus on institution building in the area of elementary and higher education and enhance the linkage between the two; and (iii) the Trust should focus on systemic reform of elementary education, by focusing on key gap areas and entering into partnerships with the government.
Based on the inputs received from the review in identifying key gap areas in the sector and critical assessment of performance of the portfolio, the Trust reorganized its education portfolio in following sub-themes: