A nation’s prosperity is intricately tied to the quality of education it provides its youth, and unfortunately, a substantial portion of India’s children are being left behind. The consequences of substandard education reverberate across generations, perpetuating cycles of poverty and restricting the full realization of individual potential.

Improving the quality of education is not just a moral imperative; it is an investment in the future of our nation, fostering empowered, informed, and resilient citizens who can contribute meaningfully to society.

The latest ASER findings report that a mere 11% of Class 1 children can read a grade-level text and just 15% of Class 2 children can read an age-appropriate paragraph. What’s even more worrying is that even by the time they reach Class 8, 27% of children cannot read a Class 2-level text. The gap between education and employability also continues to undermine India’s demographic dividend: a recent AICTE-UN report shows that 54% of India’s youth are not job-ready.

At Adhyayan, we identify the locus of the problem in the absence of a deliberate governance
strategy aimed at ensuring growth and achievement of students. We need an inclusively developed, implementable vision and vocabulary of quality education that is shared by all stakeholders, and governance that drives and sustains systems to build the capacity and agency of each stakeholder to ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved.