Can social investment maximise impact in Indian education?
India’s education enrolment levels have increased dramatically thanks to the implementation of government initiatives. However, there remain significant challenges in India’s education landscape that risk holding back an entire generation.
At the primary school level, about 3.7 million children are still out of school. Low attainment levels continue to persist at the primary level and exacerbate as the child progresses through the school system. An estimated 250 million primary school children in India lack basic reading, writing and numeracy skills.
Gender disparity widens the educational gaps. Out-of-school rates for girls exceed those for boys between 10-14 years of age and this inequality worsens for the 15-16 age group. Children with special needs also face formidable challenges in accessing quality education. Around 28 per cent of these children are out of school, ten times as much as the national average. Another critical challenge facing the Indian education system is the lack of qualified teachers.
Complementing the government’s efforts, the rise of private investors opens up opportunities for furthering effective interventions. While grant-funding remains the dominant financing instrument, equity investments have also been made into affordable private schools, vocational skills and education technology.
While efforts are gathering steam, much more can be done to tackle India’s educational gaps at a meaningful scale.
Be it helping to scale up effective solutions or implementing new solutions in areas that have not been adequately addressed or strengthening the ecosystem, opportunities abound for social investors to maximise impact in the Indian education space. A mapping of existing interventions and funding landscape would be a useful starting point for this endeavour.
To this end, we at the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network, will launch the Funding Education with Impact – A Guide for Social Investment in India report at our India Summit on 14 September. The report is designed to be a guide for potential and existing social investors looking to maximise impact in the education sector in India. It identifies gaps, desired outcomes and existing interventions by various social purpose organisations along the life stages of a student as well as inclusive education. Funding examples will be provided across the spectrum of social investors. Barriers to funding will be analysed to provide investors with a comprehensive tool for decision-making. Finally, ecosystem initiatives will be discussed to bring out synergies that investors can potentially tap into.
Interested to grab a copy of the report? Get your tickets to our India Summit here!
Photo credits: APVN
Guest blog on funding education through social investment, co-authored by Martina Mettgenberg-Lemière, Head of Insights and Capacity Building and Anh Nguyen, Knowledge Manager at the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network.
