Google Awards
$2 million to Pratham for ASER
Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, has awarded a $2 million
grant to Pratham. The grant will support an independent institute
to conduct the Nationwide Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)
as well as large-scale assessments in the education sector. The
ultimate goal is to expand these types of assessments to other sectors.
The grant to Pratham is part of Google’s focus on “Information
and Empowerment to Improve Public Services”. Google.org believes
that meaningful, easily accessible information can help governments
spend scarce resources wisely and empower citizens to demand better
services or develop new solutions to meet their own needs. ASER
is an example of this principle at work. Before 2005, the education
sector in India was only focused on outputs. In 2005, the first
ASER provided data for the first time ever on basic reading and
math skills of rural children in India. Today, we see increased
debate around the quality of education in India.
Speaking about the grant, Dr. Madhav Chavan, Pratham’s Founder
and Director of Programs, said, “With Google's help we are
planning to strengthen ASER in many ways while retaining its voluntary
spirit and movement-like character. This partnership will help in
creating a new network of people and institutions who will learn
better skills of surveying, assessing, and analyzing data.”
Read more about Google’s approach to grant-making in the
area of on “Information and Empowerment to Improve Public
Services
Google.org supports efforts to generate accountability and "bottom
up" citizen engagement to influence the quality of public services.
We will support efforts to provide easily accessible information
to people so that they can choose the best strategy for themselves
and their community. We will use multiple modes of communication
(such as media, mobile, e-kiosks and other technologies) to allow
a broader range of people to access information and we will seek
innovative methods for disseminating information. We're focused
on:
- Informing individuals and communities of their rights, entitlements,
choices, and quality of public services
- Providing tools and information to increase access to and use
of available services
- Supporting civil society organizations that strengthen links
between communities and policy makers.
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