Education
Education is one of the pillars of sustainable economic development. Given that education enhances an individual’s capability to earn and come out of poverty, it becomes a key driver of a nation’s economic growth. Leading national and international development organisations, such as the M. V. Foundation and UNICEF, believe that out-of-school children in the age group of 6-14 years often get engaged in manual labour, which makes them susceptible to dropping out prematurely. The attraction of extra incomes for families struggling to make both ends meet, coupled with a less-than-encouraging environment in government schools often prompts parents to pull their children out of schools. In India, ~78,00,000 children work while attending school and 8,40,00,000 children do not attend school at all.
In such a backdrop, SNSF has chosen to lay a keen emphasis on education, channelising ~65% of its funds towards this area. An unflagging belief in the power of education lies at the heart of ‘Education for All’, a strategy for community development and poverty reduction. Consequently, SNSF has mobilised thousands of out-of-school children into both formal and non-formal systems of education. Engaging with ~81 government and government-aided schools, collaborating with corporates and working in lockstep with the Central Government, SNSF is building a strong framework for encouraging children to enrol themselves in schools. Apart from encouraging private schools to start bridge programmes, corporates are urged to support higher education of bright students.
SNSF selects schools on the basis of multiple factors, such as their proximity to ANAND factories, willingness of the school’s management to collaborate rather than focus on infrastructure development interventions and the relationship with other SNS programmes, such as providing microfinance to women’s self-groups. Based on four decades of experience, SNSF has developed a holistic strategy for elevating the quality of public education.
Associations
Corporate India believes that education is the foundation of a progressive society. In 2017, India Inc. allocated over 37% of its CSR funds to education and vocational skill building. SNSF’s thrust on education was led by 12 ANAND companies (including ANAND Automotive, Behr, Gabriel and Spicer, among others). Working with corporate-backed projects like the Philips’ Bright Life Studentship programme, the GE comprehensive programme and Agilent’s Quest programme, SNSF delivered a number of successful projects.
SNSF’s education initiatives were supported by multilateral agencies, state government bodies and domestic organisations. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Haryana Prathamik Pariyojana Parishad and United Way of Mumbai were some of the prominent donors that supported SNSF.
Over the years, SNSF developed several educational projects with associates, some continuing for almost two decades and bringing other associations into the fold. For instance, the TEAM project focused on the holistic development of children deprived of education, launched with British High Commission in India and UNDP in 2000. Today, corporates (Agilent Technologies) and associations (Max India Foundation) also support this project.
Facts & Figures
Schools
Students Getting Benefits Annually
‘MEDHAVI’ Scholarship Awardees In 13 Polytechnics
New Classrooms Across 14 Schools
Projects
MEDHAVI
MEDHAVI scholarship scheme brings together ANAND’s aspiration of employing a large number of women on the shopfloor and the CSR agenda of promoting education and skill development. The scheme is named after the Hindi word for an intelligent person who has the ability to think, understand, and learn things quickly and well. Readmore
REMEDIAL COACHING FOR ACADEMICALLY-WEAK STUDENTS
Students who are not able to cope with classroom learning often fall behind their peers. A lack of adequate coaching or guidance at home as well as at school, exacerbates this issue. SNSF provides remedial coaching to such students so as to ensure equitable academic development. Readmore