Improving Student Engagement in
Government School Systems
Bridging the gap between schooling and learning to achieve the promise of education
The Problem
Our children are going to school, but they are not learning
A student who misses the bus for learning reading and writing is forced to later drop out of school as she finds herself under-supported to interpret complex learning material. Hence a cycle of poverty is perpetuated where a child enters adulthood without a fair chance to lead a life of dignity. In 2020 the Government of India envisioned a nation where all children by grade five are able to read and write. We are a hand-in-hand ally of the government to support its mission.
We at Peepul believe that a child can be saved from poverty by building high engagement classrooms which supports the child in unlocking her absolute potential at the foundation learning stage. Today, we are working with governments to create a classroom environment for meaningful student-teacher engagement, which is key to transforming the system and breaking the cycle of poverty.
Our Solution
At Peepul, we look to improve learning outcomes in the public education system, by enabling ‘meaningful teacher-student interaction’. If a child is meaningfully and effectively engaged in the classroom by the teacher, she attends classes regularly, engages in learning, and in turn, achieves learning.
We closely partner with national, state, and local governments to design and implement high-quality, scalable solutions to achieve improved student engagement and a focus on academic outcomes.
Our Model
Improving Student Engagement at Scale
Our Reach
7
Programmes
300,000
Teachers
10,000,000
Students
Our Government Partners
Our Programmes
Exemplar Schools Programme, Delhi
In 2015, our journey began when we turned around an under-resourced government school under the first Public Private Partnership in Delhi. Eventually, we saw a dramatic improvement in enrolment – from 9 to 200 students in just a year. We worked on the towards the goal of 80% of children meeting or exceeding grade level expectations. When enrolment numbers increased and we had a waiting list at the school, we took on two more schools in Delhi to have a network of 3 Exemplar Schools. Today we support more than 1400 students in these three schools, which act as a beacon of excellence and constantly guide all our programmes on “what good should look like”.
Attendance
Learning Outcomes
Parental Involvement
Enrolment
>73%
Annual attendance
increased from 40% to 75%
>80%
Students meeting or exceeding minimum grade-level expectations post pandemic
>93%
Parent-teacher meeting
attendance
~1400
From 9 students in 1 school in 2015, we now have 1200 students across 3 schools
Delhi Systems Transformation Programme
We partnered with South Delhi Municipal Corporation to bring about systemic transformation across schools in south Delhi. We worked extensively on three fronts – administrative, academic and governance reforms. We helped build administrative capacity to provide academic mentorship to schools, we trained teachers to incorporate high-engagement teaching tools in their classrooms and we supported the creation of the right technology enablers to be able to track learning achievement. After the merger of the Municipal Corporation in 2022, we have now expanded the programme to all 1600 primary schools in MCD.
Assessments Reforms Initiative, Delhi
We have partnered with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to transform and innovate student assessment methodologies in public schools. The programme is one of its kind as it provides scope to reimagine student assessments in primary schools to increase engagement and better the learning outcome. The program is hinged on the belief the quality of teaching has a direct bearing on students’ performance during assessments. The programme will be implemented over 5 years. It was initiated by Peepul with the support of the Development Impact Bond in partnership with the Consortium consisting of reputed social impact assessment organisations.
CM Rise - Teacher Professional Development (TPD), Madhya Pradesh
We partnered with the Government of Madhya Pradesh on CM Rise Teacher Professional Development programme – which is a state-wide effort to support its 300,000 teachers in improving their pedagogical and academic interventions. We took on the challenge to train all teachers in Madhya Pradesh by building upon existing digital public infrastructure – the DIKSHA Platform. We build national assets by rolling out bite-sized modules digitally across the state and monitoring the participation by teachers.
CM Rise - Schools, Madhya Pradesh
The CM Rise-Schools Programme aims to build 9200 demonstration schools that will act as Exemplars and centres for excellence for the state of Madhya Pradesh. These schools will serve as live reference points for teachers and education officials across the state of Madhya Pradesh to run world class and high-impact schools, transforming the perception of government schools. These schools will be centres where teachers will exhibit what a high-engagement classroom looks like. The CM Rise schools programme is a flagship program of the state and will be implemented over a ten-year period. Peepul is running the Academic Support and Monitoring Unit (ASMU), driving the implementation of changes in teaching practices, mentoring and monitoring with school leaders, academic officials, district officials and teachers.
Mission Education - Alirajpur, Madhya Pradesh
Under Mission Education Programme, Government of India partnered with Peepul to uplift the lowest-performing districts in India on key academic indicators. Peepul is providing focussed support in the district, Alirajpur, situated in Madhya Pradesh. At Alirajpur our team is leading projects for teacher training and community engagement. Learnings from Mission Alirajpur has enabled us to build an organisation-wide capacity for improving educational outcomes in the remotest parts of the country.
Digital Literacy Programme
The Digital Literacy Programme was introduced to provide 21st Century Skills to children from underprivileged communities. Peepul and Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) have collaborated with a mission to set up digital labs and incorporate a computer science curriculum to impart coding and computational skills. We will implement capacity building among teachers, infrastructural support and curriculum development in Exemplar Schools in Delhi and CM Rise Schools in Madhya Pradesh.
Testimonials
Anil Swarup
Founder and Chairman, Nexus of Good
Former Secretary, Ministry of Education,
Government of India
Peepul provides a great example of improving quality of school education through public-private partnership, which is replicable and scalable. They have now also come up with commendable initiatives to grapple with the fallout of COVID 19 which are worthy of emulation. With the New Education Policy's much needed focus on Foundational Literacy, teachers, competency assessments, there is a huge need to focus on implementation. I look forward to Peepul's continued impact by making it happen.
In a very short period of time and in the middle of a very tough situation, the state government and Peepul have partnered to achieve something that was unthinkable even a few months ago. Our teachers have responded to the training modules with enthusiasm and have shared their ideas and feedback to help us make it even better. We are looking forward to pioneering teacher development together with Peepul.
Rashmi Shami
Principal Secretary, School Education
Government of Madhya Pradesh
News and Media Coverage
Our work and impact have garnered significant media coverage over the years.
A small selection below; head over to our "Media Coverage" section to browse more articles.
