Sri Aurobindo Society

In 2015, Sri Aurobindo Society launched one of the world’s largest programs to transform government schools. Called as Rupantar, it aims to create a teacher-centric ecosystem of education stakeholders, working in synergy to achieve the objectives of the State and Centre-run education programs Area of Intervention Teacher motivation, support to CWSN, innovation in education Key Geography 12 states across India Need for the initiative Problem Shortage of 1 million teachers in the country, and declining quality and credibility of government school education Situation Before • Teacher absenteeism, poor classroom management, outdated teaching techniques • Lack of motivation, support and recognition for teachers • Poor learning outcomes; 100% drop out of children with ‘hidden disabilities’ Intervention

Overview

Rupantar is bringing about a transformation in government school education by motivating and up-skilling teachers, and making zero-investment innovation in classrooms a part of their daily job

Steps • 10-day motivational training of teachers based on integral education • Identification of teachers’ ‘zero investment’ best practices and their implementation in thousands of schools every year; grand felicitation of teachers at state level • 4-day Special Education Training of regular teachers to enable them to identify children with neurodevelopment disorders; psychological tests and counselling of students; on-the-job handholding of teachers by special educators

Resources

Necessary approvals and MoUs with State governments Over 200-strong team Financial resources from Corporate CSR funding; small contribution from State governments include TA/DA expenses of the participants

Impact and Key Learning Achieved so far • Motivated teachers, working together and innovating their classrooms • Increased student enrolment, attendance, learning outcomes • Improved dropout rates, morals and values, and the quality of life of CWSN

Key Learning • For large transformation projects, it is critical to engage State administrators in program design from the start • To achieve mass scale improvement through people, it is essential to eliminate monetary investment as a success factor