EurekaChild - making education a reality for ALL children
Synopsis of the initiative

Education in the primary schools in India is presently facing tremendous crisis. Surprisingly access to schools or primary education is not the actual problem. In fact more than 95% of the children in India actually go to schools. It is because of the poor teaching quality and learning levels that learning is not taking place in the schools. The 2007 national survey on education, which AID India participated in, has shown that 50% of the children in fifth standard in the schools in India are unable to read simple stories or do simple division problems!

In response to this crisis AID India had initiated an education program (EurekaChild program) presently encompassing the state of Tamilnadu. A pilot program conducted in 2006 covering about half a million children in 7000 village schools in TN met with staggering success. In just 6 months it lead to increase of number of 5th grade children who can read from 50% to above 80%!

The dramatic success of the pilot program has inspired AID to take this initiative to a much larger scale and eventually benefit about 10 million children in TN. Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), a leading foundation in the UK that is support by a hedge fund of the same name, conducted a thorough review of AID India and rated the Eureka Child initiative as one of the best education models in the world.
CIFF has announced their support for the state wide scale up of the Eureka Child program by granting a fist year support of $800,000. In the the first year of the program will target one million children in the state. The funding is in the form of a matching grant where CIFF will contribute $3 to every $1 raised by AID. That means your contribution to the project will be leveraged 4 times!

Donate today and make your contribution count towards creating a prosperous future of a nation where education is a reality for all children!
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EurekaChild - making education a reality for ALL children

The Problem


The 2007 Annual Survey on the state of primary education in India had some surprising findings. Of an estimated 140 million children in the age group 6-14 years in primary schools,

50% cannot read simple words or solve simple arithmetic problems
In 5th Grade: Only 58% can read a simple story Only 42% can do a division problem


Imagine the future of a child who can’t read a simple sentence at age 10! And, the future of a nation where 50% children finish primary school without learning basic arithmetic or reading! There are many reasons for the poor education status in India. Quite surprisingly, access to schooling is not one of them! Thanks to recent initiatives by the India’s government as part of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, about 95% of the children enroll in primary school. However, a child without good primary education is more likely to drop out from school, a fact confirmed by actual data. Over 55 million of these children will not complete four years of school, eventually adding to the India’s illiterate population.
This is an urgent education crisis in India! A crisis, that challenges those of us who care about the next generation and about India’s future in a fast changing world. As with any challenge or crisis, we can either accept it as a fact of life or treat it as an opportunity to create change. Yes, an opportunity to act before it is too late and to change the course of the nation.



AID India and education


Association for India’s Development (AID) is one of few organizations who have decided to tackle this challenge head on. Our core belief is that every child has a right to good education and to the joy of learning. True education should strive to inculcate the spirit of discovery (Eureka moments!) in every child. Only when education is engaging and fun, will children look forward to school and realize their potential. This is the only way to ensure that the current generation is the last one with a literacy rate below 50%!

Since 1997, AID India though Eureka Child, its key initiative, has focused on creating innovative and lasting interventions in the area of education. Over these years, AID India has developed many innovative techniques of teaching basic science, math and reading to children. The techniques have been in the form of subject based learning modules, garnered through extensive work with school children and field experimentation. In 2006, the Government of Tamil Nadu requested AID to train its teacher’s to improve the quality of education. Within a period of 6 months, AID reached out to 7300 schools in 5 districts in Tamil Nadu and trained the teachers on a novel approach to learning. The response from the children and the teachers was amazing. As the chart here shows, AID reached out to 450,000 children in that period and was able to achieve an improvement in reading skills by 30%, i.e., 150,000 new children who could now read. That means we have 150,000 more children now with greater self confidence to face the challenges posed by this world.

AID’s 4 Key Focus Areas to Ensure Sustained Learning.

Measurement:
Measurement works! It helps identify areas of improvement, track progress and focus on children needing the most attention. AID classifies children into 5 levels of reading/math ability. Each level’s progress is tracked on a bi-weekly basis.

Effective Resource Material:
AID has developed loads of fun and creative books, story cards, posters to explain reading, math and science concepts. We have also developed several low cost science experiments!

Better Teaching Methods:
Teachers are trained in the innovative methods and are involved in the entire process. Once they see the results they are hooked!

Community Involvement:
To ensure long term sustainability the community/parents need to take ownership of the schools. There needs to be an Education Watch! This is encouraged via regular learning festivals, libraries etc.



Having demonstrated success in 5 districts and 7300 schools, we now dare to ask the question, why shouldn’t we take this to ALL the 10 million children in Tamil Nadu and for that matter to the 100+ million children across India? The fact that we able to achieve dramatic success in short 6-month span shows that children have the potential to learn, it is just that they haven’t been allowed to! And, that we have figured out how to make them flower on a large scale!
The immediate question is can we take this initiative to 30 districts and 10 million children in TN? Yes we can! We do have the ability and the potential to do it. We plan to ramp up this program over the period of 3 years, demonstrating sustained success in 10 districts and then ramping up to 30 districts by leveraging on government support.
The only thing that constrains us is finances. How much does it cost? Actually, since we use the government infrastructure for the most part, it costs less than $1 per child per year! About $150 per school! However, since we are targeting 10 districts in the first year, we are looking at 7000 schools with about 1 million children. The total program budget for the 1st year is $1,050,000. In the 2nd and 3rd year, we plan to completely cover all the 13,000 schools in these 10 districts with an anticipated budget of $2 M.



Invest in the Future Generation


We are happy to share with you that we have been fortunate to receive a lion’s share of this funding from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), one of the largest UK based charity that supports children’s initiatives all across the world. Over the past year, CIFF conducted an extensive review of AID India’s work and organizational abilities. They concluded that AID India’s education work is one of the best in the world! CIFF has committed a grant of $800,000 to support the first year of this initiative. They plan to hire external consultant to review the first year progress and are committed to support the scale up of the effort.


The support from CIFF is in the form of a matching grant. CIFF will support 1 to 3 all the contributions up to $800,000. This is CIFF’s way of reaching out and involving a broader community into the process of change. However, it means that in order to realize the entire $800,000 grant from CIFF, we have to raise $260,000 from our donors. Donors like you!


We hope you will agree that we have a serious education crisis in the making. Especially in the information age, it would be a shame if we let another generation pass by without reaping the benefits of quality education and un-tapping their great potential.
Your contribution towards the Eureka Child program is an investment in the future generation. The rewards will be in the form of a more informed nation, and a work force with the abilities and self confidence to take on the challenges in a fast-paced and ever changing world. With the support from CIFF, this proposition has become even more compelling! When you make your pledge to support 1, 10 or 100 schools at $150 per school, CIFF’s matching support will step in and ensure that you contribution is multiplied 4 times! Every dollar you give is matched by 3 dollars from CIFF.

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