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.