Pratham’s teacherless education model gets global recognition in WEF Report

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has picked up Pratham as among 16 ideal school systems under eight future school models. Pratham is one of the two school systems under ‘Personalized and Self-Paced Learning’ model. The second ideal school system of this model is Anji Pay of China.

Pratham, one of the largest non-government organizations (NGOs) in India, has been selected as an ideal school system by the World Economic Forum (WEF). In a report titled 'Schools of the Future: Defining New Models of Education for the Fourth Industrial Education' released on Tuesday, 16 school systems from throughout the world have been selected as global role models for future schools.

"There are no teachers in the Program. Instead the Program taps into children's natural learning curiosity to enable entirely student-group-led activities, with volunteers acting as supervisors and facilitators," said the report explaining the rationale behind its selection. Established in 1995, Pratham follows a community approach and 'Hybrid Learning Program'. The NGO particularly works for the education of village students. In this model the students are encouraged to form their own groups of 5-6 students, choose the projects they'd like to collaboratively work on, and present what they have learned in front of a live audience. "Project focus areas include health, the arts, financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Pratham provides learning content via an online application. Their resource center includes over 70 role-play based English lessons, math-based online games and project ideas that are executed offline," added the report. Pratham's digital program was launched in 2015 which presently serves over 90,000 children aged 10-14 in about 1,000 villages of India.

Pratham is the only school system of India among 16 school systems selected in the report. The report has presented eight school models for fourth industrial education for which two ideal school systems are also selected for each model. Besides innovative pedagogical approach, the application of technological tools in pupil learning has been cited as a ground for its selection; such as speech-to-text technology is used to support children's reading practices. It has developed its own teaching material and technological tools to assist the students in learning process. In the impact assessment, the students studying through Hybrid Learning Program were found 12 percentage points ahead of their counterparts in government schools under controlled groups.

Pratham has developed curriculum for early childhood education, elementary, beyond elementary, and digital initiatives. Besides, programs are also being conducted on vocational training, research and education and vulnerable children.