How good is the public primary school system in Karnataka? How much better can it become? How can we get every child in school to learn well?

Simple questions, with complex answers. But questions that need answers if the state is to take its rightful place in the country. And the corrective actions taken now within schools and the education system can resonate for generations to come.

It is this desire in everyone concerned with learning that has given rise to the Karnataka Learning Partnership. The Karnataka Learning Partnership is a unique partnership between the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and a number of NGO's including Akshara Foundation.

The focus of this coalition is to improve learning outcomes among primary school children. The aim and mission is to reach out to every child in Karnataka State and ensure that they are learning at the age appropriate level.

There are a series of interventions that are being implemented by the Karnataka Learning Partnership and these include programmes to improve reading and math skills and encouraging children to read.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is an effort to universalize elementary education by community-ownership of the school system. It is a response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is also an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving the capabilities of all children, through the provision of community owned quality education.

What is Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

• A programme with a clear time frame for universal elementary education.
• A response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.
• An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic education.
• An expression of political will for universal elementary education across the country.
• A partnership between the Central, State and Local government.
• An opportunity for States to develop their own vision of elementary education.
• An effort at effectively involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions, School Management Committees, Village and Urban Slum level Education Committees, Parents' Teachers' Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary schools.

Aims of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

The aim of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is to provide useful and relevant elementary education for all children in the 6 to 14 age group by 2010. There is also another goal to bridge social, regional and gender gaps, with the active participation of the community in the management of schools.

Useful and relevant education signifies a quest for an education system that is not alienating and that draws on community solidarity. Its aim is to allow children to learn about and master their natural environment in a manner that allows the fullest harnessing of their human potential both spiritually and materially. This quest must also be a process of value based learning that allows children an opportunity to work for each other's well being rather than to permit mere selfish pursuits.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan realizes the importance of Early Childhood Care and Education and looks at the 0-14 age as a continuum. All efforts to support pre-school learning in ICDS centres or special pre-school centres in non ICDS areas will be made to supplement the efforts being made by the Department of Women and Child Development.

Akshara Foundation

Akshara Foundation is a Bangalore-based Public Charitable Trust with the mission to ensure that every child is in school and learning well. Established in the year 2000, Akshara Foundation has a range of programmes that provide multiple solutions for universalizing elementary education.

Akshara is a part of the Pratham Education Initiative and has replicated Pratham's approach of comprehensive, scalable, replicable and cost-effective education solutions. Akshara works in Bangalore, North Karnataka and will soon expand its work to reach the entire state of Karnataka through its close partnership with the Education Department of the Government of Karnataka and the different school administrations.

All Akshara's programs are child-centric and are designed to ensure that:

• Enrollment in schools increase,
• Dropouts from schools decrease, and
• Children's learning outcomes and overall development improve

To date, Akshara has impacted over 3, 50,000 children in and around the state of Karnataka through its programmes.

Other NGOs

There are over a 100 non governmental organizations that are part of the Karnataka Learning Partnership. They have a strong grassroots presence in the districts and have added on quality primary education to their work charter. They strengthen the implementation of the programmes with their local knowledge and network.
Click here to view list of organizations