About - Adhyayan Quality Education Foundation

About us

Co-founded by Kavita Anand (Ashoka fellow) and Bhawani Singh Shekhawat (former CEO of Akshaya Patra, Europe), Adhyayan is dedicated to improving the quality of leadership and learning in government schools through good governance.

Reality of our schools today

The vision of a good school as defined by national and state policies

This gap exists for a variety of complex reasons, but starts from a fundamental gap in a shared vision of a good school. The government education system consists of multiple layers of leaders who are responsible for delivering and monitoring school quality.

However, rarely do all these stakeholders share one common vision of what a good school looks like. Further, while the policy expects a certain vision that emphasises active and engaged learning, the metrics and mechanisms to monitor that vision are not common. What is common is measuring metrics such as enrollment, attendance and pass percentages, which tend to make the system very exam and rote learning focused.

We bridge this gap between the vision and that last mile reality by enabling leaders in government schools to lead and govern their schools well. The last mile education revolution entails the following four aspects:

Map Key Stakeholders

Map key stakeholders and build their understanding of the vision and the problem till everyone knows what they are solving for and what the aspiration is. Key stakeholders include system leaders, school leaders, community leaders, teaching leaders and students. The starting point is to build a shared vocabulary and understanding of what a good school looks like. We usually use government embedded frameworks like the Shaala Siddhi to enable all stakeholders to review and benchmark schools.

Build Their Confidence

Build their confidence that they can address this problem together, collaboratively, with facilitators who can create enabling environments for solutions to be brainstormed and trialled. There is no one way of solving a problem but there are guiding principles that when applied can enable multiple ways of arriving at a solution.

Schools cannot do this alone

Schools cannot do this alone. For each child to have a holistic educational experience, galvanising the larger ecosystem of concerned adults who can enable schools to get better is crucial. This can include representatives from local industry who could provide career guidance to students or the local village librarian who could read aloud to children or local volunteers who can support in a variety of ways.

Find Early Adopters

The fourth is to find the early adopters who have already been working towards the solutions in their own micro ecosystems and develop them as mentors and cheerleaders of those who are in the process of learning. These champions feel recognised and motivated when they are able to share and explain how they use their circle of influence to grow the competencies and skills of colleagues, line managers and students.

To reach that last mile we work with

The State

We engage with the government bodies responsible for education such as the SCERT, the Department of Education, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan to institutionalise changes. develop systems to converge, review data and take decisions to support quality improvement

The District

We enable district officials to review data and take decisions, celebrate and socialise good practice, resolve challenges for complexes at their level, set targets for improvement

The School Hub / Complex

Through the formation of complexes, school leaders are enabled to review and support each other’s schools with measurable improvement targets

The Community

Whether it is activating community spaces like the village library or local industry, or encouraging volunteer participation, we look for ways in which the community can participate in this process.

Teacher

I work with children directly. I could be a volunteer in the school or a local librarian. While my capacity is usually built to facilitate engaged learning spaces. I receive 2 kinds of additional support:

1) School leaders and system leaders observe my sessions and share feedback.
2) I am part of a professional learning community to learn from my peers.

School / Complex Leader

I am a high school or middle school head and oversee a group of 5-10 schools in my vicinity.

I review these schools, enable them to create plans, then visit them regularly to support them. I also conduct meetings to help them learn from each other.

System Leader

I oversee a block (100-200 schools) or a district (1000 schools).

I convene meetings across complex leaders celebrate their best practice, solve challenges and review the data to make decisions to improve schools.

Enable schools and system leaders to work in peer communities of school leaders and system leaders (at the block, district and state levels) to visit schools, monitor progress and extend real time support.

We seek to create three layers of impact:

Schools

Schools that show measurable improvement in teaching and learning

Leaders

Leaders who have a vision, can monitor that and provide real time support to schools based on their needs

States

States that adopt the systems and processes to drive collaboration and improvement, enabling Adhyayan to exit sustainably