Public schools cater to the low-income strata of our society yet lag far behind private schools in terms of academics and basic facilities.
According to the LEAPS Report and the Annual Status of Education Report 2014, students of Class III in public schools lag behind their private-school counterparts by 1.5 to 2.5 years in basic arithmetic and reading skills. As our curriculum is based on “learning to read,’ by Class III and “reading to learn,” thereafter, most students do not recover from this gap and as a result drop-out of school. According to a World Bank study, 50 percent of the students drop-out before Class V.
Hence, PEN works with public schools and focuses on primary-level as it has the highest rate of return on investment. Children with strong reading and arithmetic skills at primary-level are more likely to stay in school and more likely to finish matriculation.