Piramal Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Piramal Group, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Assam government to improve the education indicators identified by NITI Aayog across five districts – Baksa, Barpeta, Darrang, Dhubri and Goalpara, for a period of four years.
As per the MoU which was signed on June 15, Piramal Foundation will support the state government and district administrations in leadership and professional development of individuals within the education department, through multiple channels of intervention, with a focus on two indicators – learning outcomes and transition rate.
Major intervention activities include coach and facilitator development, planning and governance support, school process improvement, and demonstration school and community engagement.
“The Assam government is committed to institutional and systemic reforms to improve standards of education to ensure enrolment and retention of children. The focus in the coming year would be on improving school performance across districts. We are pleased to partner with Piramal Foundation to make education interventions more robust and concrete,” Preetom Saikia, commissioner and secretary of the department of elementary and secondary education, said.
The signing of the MoU was followed up with a meeting of the Piramal Foundation office bearers with Assam chief secretary Alok Kumar to provide an update on the progress and seek support in accelerating the movement on indicators set by NITI Ayog.
“We are delighted to partner with the Assam government to build the leadership capacity of education functionaries and look forward to strengthening the existing government system,” said director of Piramal Foundation for education leadership Manmohan Singh.
In 2018, through joint initiatives led by deputy commissioners and the education department with the support of Piramal Foundation, the districts of Baksa, Barpeta, Dhubri, Darrang and Goalpara have shown improvement in several indicators including transition rate of Baksa District from elementary to upper primary level by 27 per cent, and in Goalpara district from elementary to upper primary level by 6 per cent, with Goalpara achieving a transition rate of 98.6 per cent this year.
