Ei Dialogues: Recent Episodes
Educational Initiatives
EI Dialogues is a podcast series brought to you by Educational Initiatives, an organization working towards creating a world where children everywhere are learning with understanding. In this podcast, we speak to entrepreneurs, academicians, policy makers and education leaders to delve deeper into the most urgent and important questions on solving for quality and equity in education.
Join us for an insightful conversation between Pranav Kothari and Shailendra Sharma, Former Principal Advisor to the Director of Education, in the latest episode of Ei Dialogues! Mr. Sharma shares a firsthand account of his impactful work to enhance educational outcomes for children across India. Drawing from his extensive involvement with government initiatives, he delves into the complexities of fostering systemic reforms. Through personal anecdotes, he reveals the strategies and practices that have driven positive change.
Don't miss out on this enlightening discussion! Watch the full #EiDialogues episode on our YouTube channel.
SystemicChange #GovernmentInitiatives #EducationalReform #IndiaEducation
In the latest episode of Ei Dialogues, Jigyasa Labroo, Co-Founder of Slam Out Loud joins Ritesh Agarwal for an insightful conversation on Social Emotional Learning.
Tune into the episode to learn more about Jigyasa’s personal journey in entrepreneurship, her work with Slam Out Loud and why she considers Arts Education a mandatory need for children.
Welcome to Episode 6 of Ei Dialogues Season 5! In this enlightening installment, join us as Ritesh Agarwal, Vice President of Ei Shiksha, engages in a thought-provoking conversation with Tarun Cherukuri, Founder CEO at Indus Action. Together, they delve into the genesis of Indus Action and its proud identity as a Do-Tank.Discover the intricacies of policy implementation as Tarun navigates through the complexities of the Right to Education Act and sheds light on the National Education Policy. Gain insights into the significance of civic action and the transformative power individuals hold in championing the changes they fervently advocate for.Don't miss out on this insightful discussion that explores the fundamentals of civic action and its potential to bring about significant societal change. Watch the full episode now!Stay connected with us:Website: www.ei.study#EiDialogues #PolicyImplementation #CivicAction #Education #IndusAction #RightToEducationAct #NationalEducationPolicy #DoTank
In the latest episode of Ei Dialogues, Pranav Kothari, CEO of Ei, sits down with Azeez Gupta and Siddhant Sachdeva, Co-Founders, Rocket Learning. Together, they explore the crucial realm of Early Childhood Education (ECE), delving into its importance and offering valuable insights into their experiences and challenges. From collaborating with Anganwadi workers, parents, teachers, to engaging with governments, they unravel the intricate dynamics involved.
In this captivating episode fourth episode of Ei Dialogues season five, we dive into an enriching conversation with Ms. Puja Marwaha, CEO of Child Rights and You (CRY), an Indian NGO advocating for children's rights for more than four decades. In a dialogue with Pranav Kothari, CEO, Ei, Ms. Marwaha candidly shares how CRY tackles challenges within the donation landscape, offering practical strategies to overcome them. She also sheds light on CRY's funding philosophy, emphasising the importance of crafting exit strategies for communities rather than merely focusing on individual projects. Lastly, she reveals how CRY has empowered its employees and motivated them to work for the greater good through the adoption of radical transparency.
In this latest episode, Sridhar Rajagopalan dives into a fascinating conversation with Dr. Bror Saxberg, Founder of LearningForge LLC and former Chief Learning Officer at Kaplan Inc.
Dr. Saxberg shares valuable insights on student motivation, the future of AI in education, and the transformative impact of well-designed learning opportunities. Discover how every child, regardless of their background, can achieve high levels of performance.
In this episode of Ei Dialogues, we chat with Mr Aakash Sethi, the founder and CEO of Quest Alliance, a non-profit working on scalable solutions for quality education and skills training. Aakash shares his personal journey, his passion for fostering 21st-century skills, and insights on organizational development and government engagement for impactful solutions.
In episode 5 of Ei Dialogues, Alejandro Caballero and Pranav Kothari discuss the growing power of digitisation, especially in higher education across the globe. Mr. Caballero speaks in depth about IFC's D4TEP initiative, which supports universities as they adapt to an increasingly online education ecosystem.
In this conversation, Rebecca Winthrop and Pranav Kothari discuss the need to build a trusting relationship between families, teachers and schools to improve learning outcomes among students. Dr. Winthrop also discusses the potential of harnessing innovation to rapidly accelerate educational progress.
In this conversation, Pranav Kothari and Dr. Mahnaz R Charania discuss the idea of social capital and its impact on student learning and well being. They also speak about bottom-up paths to scaling interventions, and how best to evaluate the impact of educational interventions as they grow.
In this conversation, Pranav Kothari and Mark Sparvell think through the role of technology in education as systems emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting key advances that will shape learning moving forward. They also discuss the challenges of identifying and scaling impactful interventions, and how educators and parents can choose effective solutions to help students learn.
In this conversation, Dr Langworthy discusses the power of deep learning in affecting change in the real world and the need to prioritise student well being to create an enabling environment for children to learn. She also discusses her thoughts on the future of learning and how data sourced through Edtech software can be leveraged to bring in systemic reform.
In this conversation, Pranav and Emma speak about the drivers of success in education, and learnings from high-performing education systems that can be scaled. They discuss the need for cultivating student mindsets, teacher directed learning, and implementing EdTech with high-fidelity to improve educational outcomes.
In this episode, we speak to Abhijeet Singh. Abhijeet is an Associate Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics. He is also a Principal Investigator on the RISE Programme's India Team and is affiliated with the Abdul Lateef Jamal Poverty Action Lab. His research focuses on topics in development and labour economics, especially relating to education, child nutrition and public service delivery in developing countries.
Pranav speaks to Abhijeet about his and Professor Karthik Muralidharan's evaluation of Ei's Mindspark, and what their findings mean for EdTech in India. Abhijeet also talks about the gap between evidence and policy-making in education, how it differs from fields like medicine, and the challenges of scaling interventions with governments. Discussing the urgent need for high-quality learning assessments in India, Abhijeet highlights how technology can enable this reliably, cost-effectively, and at scale.
In this episode, Sridhar Rajagopalan speaks to Andreas Schleicher. Andreas is the Director for Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Andreas spearheaded the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, in this role. He has also written the book World Class: How to build a 21st Century Education System, which we highly recommend you read. It's freely available on the OECD's website (https://bit.ly/3yWa17B).
Sridhar and Andreas discuss PISA and the role it plays in education and policy making. Andreas highlights how developing nations have improved greatly without excessive financial investment, and how equity and excellence in education are two sides of the same coin. Sridhar and Andreas also speak about the need for a 'Science of Learning' to help educators diagnose and address students challenges, just as doctors use the science of medicine to treat patients. Looking forward, Andreas charts a path for schools, parents and policy-makers to strengthen education systems, taking lessons from their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this episode, Pranav Kothari is in conversation with Seema Bansal, Partner and Director at Boston Consulting Group. Seema leads BCG's Social Impact practice in Asia Pacific and is a member of the firm's People & Organization and Public Sector Practices.
In the conversation, Seema and Pranav talk about the role of consultants in India's development journey. Using the example of school mergers in multiple states, Seema highlights the challenges of implementing large-scale education reforms with governments. She and Pranav also discuss the need for clarity in desired educational outcomes for successful reform and the importance of consensus-building and advocacy among stakeholders.
In this episode, Pranav Kothari was in conversation with Vineet Nayar, Founder-Chairman of Sampark Foundation. Vineet is also the former CEO of HCL Technologies, and the author of the acclaimed management book Ëmployees First, Customers Second. Sampark Foundation hopes to catalyse innovation-led social change to impact the education of 20 million children by 2025.
In this episode, Vineet and Pranav speak about how to design good EdTech, and Sampark's innovative ways to improve classroom engagement between teachers and students. They also discuss Sampark Foundation's self-imposed expiry date of 2025, and ways to catalyse change in education over a short time period of time, ensuring that costs remain low and that impact is sustainable.
In this episode, Pranav Kothari spoke to Rathish Balakrishnan, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Sattva Consulting. Sattva is a development consultancy firm motivated by the vision of ending poverty in our lifetime.
Rathish and Pranav talked about ways to strengthen India's social sector through innovative funding methods like Development Impact Bonds, value-based funding, the Social Stock Exchange and more. They also spoke about how civil society organisations can achieve greater freedom and agency in their work, and how and when to create meaningful collaborations for social impact. Finally, they discussed the role of government in scaling social impact, COVID's impact on learning, and ways to actively involve parents in their children's education.
In this episode of Ei Dialogues, we speak to Dr. Rukmini Banerji, CEO of Pratham Education Foundation. Pratham works to improve learning outcomes through high-quality, low-cost, and replicable interventions, and is world-renowned for its Annual Status of Education Report.
Dr. Banerji spoke about how Pratham helped children learn during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the growing importance of parents in ensuring high-quality education. She also talked about the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, and their importance in the context of the pandemic. Dr. Banerji sounded a note of optimism while positing a path forward for our education system, believing that with concerted efforts to help students catch-up our system can be stronger than ever in the years to come.
In this episode of EI Dialogues we speak to Aditya Natraj, Director of the Kaivalya Education Foundation. KEF works to improve public education in India by developing leadership among school, district, and state officials.
In this conversation, Aditya Natraj spoke about KEF's philosophy of leadership and it's application in the education sector, as well as the need for equity between private and public education and ways to enable this. With several insightful examples, Aditya emphasized the importance of partnering with expert stakeholders to achieve large-scale impact, and the role of empathy in working with governments.
This episode originally aired on 10th February, 2020.
In this episode of EI Dialogues, we speak to Dr. Santhosh Matthew, the Country Lead, Public Policy and Finance at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). BMGF works to improve people’s health and lift them out of hunger and extreme poverty.
Dr. Santhosh Matthew also has extensive experience as a civil servant and a Ph.D. in Development Studies. In this conversation, he spoke about his work as an IAS Officer, being an entrepreneur within the government, the growth of philanthropy in India, solving for capacity constraints in Indian education and the role of EdTech in improving learning outcomes.
This episode was originally launched on 24th December, 2019
In this episode of EI Dialogues, we talk to Ashish Dhawan, founder of the Central Square Foundation (CSF). CSF is a non-profit organization that works to make high-quality school education available to all children in India, and improve the learning outcomes of children, especially from low-income communities.
Ashish Dhawan is also the founder of ChrysCapital and a founding member of Ashoka University. In this conversation he spoke about his switch from the corporate sector to philanthropy, his approach to giving, the application of management principles to running and scaling a non-profit organisation, and his beliefs regarding the current needs of the Indian education sector.
This episode was originally launched on 27th February 2020.
In this episode of EI Dialogues, we talk to Saransh Vaswani, a co-founder of Saajha. Saajha works to build the capacity of School Management Committees (SMCs), which were mandated by the Right to Education Act. These SMCs comprise the school principal, a teacher, parents, a local ward councilor, and an educationist. Inspired by the potential of parent-teacher engagement, Saajha tries to create an ecosystem of support in government schools for child development.
Before founding Saajha, Saransh was a Gandhi Fellow and, later, a Young India Fellow at Ashoka University. During the conversation, he reflects on how these fellowships played a role in the conception of Saajha, how it went from training 90 schools to 1000+ schools in Delhi, and why it is important to create opportunities for a parent to support their child’s development.
This episode was originally launched on January 27, 2020.
In this episode of EI Dialogues, we interact with Prachi Jain Windlass. She is currently Director-India Education at the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF). In her role, Prachi leads the foundation’s efforts to improve the fast-growing affordable private schools sector and other high-quality market-based solutions for education in India. She is also on the board of several for-profit education companies and advisory committees to state governments and education departments. During the conversation, she elucidates on Michael and Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF)’s investing strategy in education, the rising significance of Development Impact Bonds (DIBs) and MSDF’s role as outcome funders, the need for technology to bridge the last mile gap when it comes to improving children’s learning outcomes, and what education entrepreneurs should keep in mind while doing business. This episode was originally launched on September 16, 2019.
In this episode, we talk to Sridhar Rajagopalan, the President and Chief Learning Officer of Educational Initiatives. During the conversation, Sridhar talks about why he co-founded Educational Initiatives after running a school for 6 years, the idea behind doing Assessments and using EdTech for improving learning outcomes. He further tells us about the discipline of Science of Learning, what investments we must make in education to yield maximum outcomes at scale, how can India do better on tests like PISA, and the role of nurturing gifted students for them to become leaders of tomorrow. This episode was originally published on July 31, 2019.
In this episode, we converse with Vishal Talreja, co-founder of Dream a Dream, an organisation working towards empowering children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds using a life-skills approach. An active writer on development challenges and human-interest stories, Vishal is an Ashoka Fellow, an Eisenhower Fellow, and a Board Member at PYE Global. During the conversation, he shares more about the life skills approach, his journey with Dream a Dream, scaling it, and collaborating with Governments. This episode was originally published on February 8, 2021.
In this episode, we converse with Prof. Karthik Muralidharan, who is the head of global education research at JPAL. He is also the Tata Chancellor’s Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). His research spans development, public, and labour economics with a focus on improving the effectiveness of public spending in the social sector. Here, Karthik breaks down for us what research for social impact is, the role of research to inform policy, role of independent evaluations and assessments in saving money, time, and effort. He also talks about why has he remained in this sector for so long, and what keeps him going, and what should the people joining the sector know about it. This episode was originally published on June 25, 2019.
In this episode, we converse with Anil Swarup. He is the Former Secretary of School Education and Literacy and comes from a long tenure in the civil services. In his career, he has been known to bring about a change in the way technology is used in governance, and has used social media extensively to advocate the #NexusOfGood movement, which identifies local heroes and homegrown solutions which have worked across India. He is also the author of Not Just A Civil Servant in which he articulates his journey. During the conversation, he tells us more about the #NexusOfGood movement, sustainable solutions, technology in Education and Governance, and scaling interventions. This episode was originally published on June 3, 2019.
In this episode of EI Dialogues, we have Dr. Dhir Jhingran in conversation with Pranav Kothari. He is the Founder Director of the Language and Learning Foundation. He has worked in the primary education sector for over two decades, within and outside the government. As an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, he served as Principal Secretary, Education with the Government of Assam and as Director in the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Mission Director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan as well as the District Primary Education Programme. During the conversation, Dhir highlights the learnings from his career, give some tips on multilanguage teaching, talk about how to take transformative ideas to scale, and describe his personal experiences in starting an organisation from scratch, after his stint in the government sector. This episode was originally published on April 5, 2019.
In this episode, we have Kruti Bharucha, the CEO of Peepul, in conversation with Pranav Kothari. Prior to Peepul, Kruti was Country Head for Ark India and led Ark India's work to pioneer PPP schools in Delhi as well as work with governments on improving governance and accountability systems on education. Kruti moved to the development space after working in the corporate sector for 19 years. The video highlights her journey, what made her move back to India to start the Peepul schools, how did she reach from an enrolment of 4 students in her first year to 800 students in a span of three years, what are her experiences in doing teacher professional development, and what does scale mean to her. This episode was originally published on February 15, 2019.
In this episode, we listen to Parth Shah, President, Centre for Civil Society in conversation with Pranav Kothari, VP, Large Scale Education Programmes, at Educational Initiatives. Parth breaks down the basics of policymaking, some benevolent aspects of the RTE policy, and his views on the recent amendment on removing the no-detention clause. The conversation further steers towards democracy in policy decisions and the top three ways to implement the RTE act differently. This episode was originally launched on December 10, 2018.
In this episode of EI Dialogues, Pranav Kothari converses with Amitav Virmani, the Founder CEO of The Education Alliance. Amitav talks to us about what is really meant by good quality education, how his organisation is creating effective partnerships by connecting governments with non-profits to leverage the strengths of both, and how they are creating a layer of accountability within the system for improving student enrolment, student and teacher attendance, and more importantly, learning outcomes. Amitav moved from corporate America to come work in the Indian social developmental sector, and in this episode, he busts some myths regarding the same. This episode was originally published on April 26, 2019.
In this episode of EI Dialogues, we converse with Ramya Venkatraman, co-founder of Center for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA). During the conversation, Ramya shares about her passion for education, her journey from McKinsey & Co to CENTA, and CENTA's work and why we misunderstand the teaching profession.
Vinod is the co-founder at TheTeacherApp, a not-for-profit education technology startup that creates open-source, digital learning experiences for the professional development of teachers in low-resource schools of India. Vinod has been driving the conversation on collaboration in the development space with over 20 partners ranging from government, content creators, media production, and funders. He drives home an important point regarding the availability of pedagogically sound content for teachers in vernacular languages and talks about how technology can be leveraged to reach the rising population of teachers with high-quality content.
This episode was originally published on January 11, 2019.
During the conversation, Ashok talks in-depth on building organisations that are scalable and sustainable. He also sheds light on his transition to the development space after spending 24-years in the corporate sector and his experiences with Akshara thereafter.
Ashok Kamath has been Managing Trustee since 2003 and Chairman of Akshara Foundation since July 1, 2008. In April 2019, he has conferred the prestigious 'Namma Bengalurean' award for exemplary work in education. His alma mater, IIT-Bombay, presented him with its Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2013 for his various initiatives and contributions to the field of child education.
Meeta Sengupta is a writer, speaker and advisor on education with a cross country perspective on policy, skills and pedagogies. She has written extensively on school systems and impact, pedagogies and processes, assessments and outcomes, teachers and leaders, and on education gaps and funding. During the conversation, Meeta elucidates on the role of educational research, India's participation and preparation for PISA, and developing the right kind of assessments. She also sheds light on the education policy in the country, the process of policymaking, and the role of public-private partnerships in education.
In this conversation, Dr. Pritchett provides a background about the challenges within education in the Indian context while explaining the importance of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) and sharing instances from education research. He also elaborates on the concept of RCTs, including when and how they can be adapted to the field of development economics, and to what extent policymakers should rely on impact evaluations when judging multiple interventions.
Neelima Khetan is former Group CSR head of Vedanta Ltd. Prior to joining HZL, she was the Director-CSR and Sustainability for Coca Cola in India and South-West Asia. During the conversation, she shares her 25-year long journey at Seva Mandir, and the consequent transition to the CSR department in the for-profit sector. Furthermore, she sheds some light on how to build synergies between the for-profit and non-profit sectors, what funders look at, and why impact evaluation is essential.
This video was originally shot in September 2019.
Sourav Banerjee is the Country Director of Room to Read. In this episode, he gives us a birds-eye view on the evolution of the Indian education system and the education governance landscape. The discussion then moves to the issue of multi-language literacy in India, where a child is often caught up in transitioning from home language, to market language, to state language, to English. The conversation further gains insights on various scale-up pathways for an NGO, elaborating on creating partnerships with the government and accountability in the system.
This episode was originally launched in November 2018.
Akshay is a Teacher-Entrepreneur with a passion for helping build organizations that create an equitable world. Through Avanti, he has helped teachers in 11 states across India transform Math and Science learning outcomes for India's 100M middle and high-school students through the use of collaborative learning and technology. Akshay candidly speaks about his Swades moment that motivated him to come back to India to set up Avanti. The conversation draws on the realities of working in the Indian developmental space, the role of social enterprises in bridging the policy gaps, and why India is the place to be at to solve interesting and important problems in education.
Trained as an economist in India, Dr. Rukmini Banerji completed her BA at St. Stephen’s College and attended the Delhi School of Economics. She was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and earned her PhD at the University of Chicago. The conversation gains insights on challenges of assessing student learning outcomes, the role of applied research, the importance of evaluation, inception of ASER, and the growth story of Pratham.
In this episode of EI Dialogues, we converse with the founder and CEO of STiR Education, Sharath Jeevan. During the conversation, he talks about his journey in the social sector, the importance of a teacher as a role model, and building foundations for life-long learning. Through experiences and role-plays, he also elaborates on STiR's work, its philosophy, and reforming education by maintaining the levels of intrinsic motivation in government school teachers of India and Uganda.