Giving Compass' Take:

• Vikram Jain shares how the Program to Improve Private Early Education aims to help working-class families in India get their children a better education. 

• How can funders best support education for working-class families in India? How do the needs of families vary between communities? 

• Learn about four methods for effectively funding education in India


86% of low-income parents are spending on pre-primary education, but getting very poor quality.

India’s working poor – those working as domestic help, office clerks, and laborers etc. – make up 70% of India’s urban population. 86% of 4-5-year olds from these households are either enrolled in APSs or will transition to APSs in Class 1. Most schools use rote learning and strict discipline in early years leading to poor learning outcomes: 54% children entering grade 1 can’t count objects up to 20, and 78% could not read three simple, three letter words.

FSG’s Program to Improve Private Early Education (PIPE) aims to transform learning outcomes.

Through PIPE, FSG aims to create demand among parents for better preschooling and create supply of private sector activity based preschool education solutions to APSs. APSs pay and adopt these learning solutions. PIPE helps education solution companies to scale to 1000s of APSs in the tough APS market thereby transforming the “rote based” traditional learning to activity-based learning for the group requiring the greatest support: low-income children.

Read the full article about improving learning outcomes by Vikram Jain at Indiaspora.