According to an official release on May 13, a Dubai-based philanthropic group has partnered with an Indian NGO to improve education for over 1 million school children in India over a period of three years.

Dubai Cares has joined hands with Pratham Education Foundation to launch a programme aimed to improve literacy among students in Grades 1 and 2, in six states across India. The charity, however, did not specify the states.

The two organisations will assist local communities by strengthening programmes focused on three core issues – enhancing learning levels of beneficiaries in government schools, providing school readiness among children, and supporting the Central Resource Group, a statement issued by UAE’s official news agency Wam said.

“Our partnership with Pratham will ensure quality education for children attending schools in India and will facilitate high levels of literacy and numeracy skills,” said Tariq Al Gurg, CEO of Dubai Cares.

“We lay a lot of emphasis on monitoring, evaluation and learning, so this programme will also serve as demonstration sites to generate evidence and showcase best practice that can be replicated across the country to enhance the educational support system on a national level,” he added.
     
The Dubai-based charity said the Indian education system has been handicapped by inadequate teacher qualifications, low teacher motivation, high absentees and flawed teaching methods, leading to a lack of incentives for students to stay in school.  

The partnership aims to reverse the school dropout rates and low learning levels prevalent in the country.

India is one of 135 nations to make education a ‘fundamental right’ with the Right to Education Act (RTE) in effect around the country.

Under the partnership, Dubai Cares has earmarked three programmes – to boost language skills, physical and emotional readiness, and innovation among children in rural areas – that will reach a total of 1,053,954 direct beneficiaries.

The programme will be delivered to 150,000 villages in 150 blocks across the country.

Similar to many Dubai Cares initiatives, the India programme is in line with the ‘Global Education First Initiative’ launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in September 2012.

Dubai Cares has so far reached over 8 million children in 31 developing countries.