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Azim Premji Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, operational since 2001, with a vision to – “Significantly contribute to achieve quality universal education that facilitates a just, equitable and humane society”.

The Foundation works in the area of elementary education to pilot and develop 'proofs of concept' that have a potential for systemic change in India's 1.3 million government-run schools. The Foundation focuses on working in rural areas where the majority of these schools exist. The choice to work with elementary education (Class I to VIII) in rural government-run schools follows from evidence of educational attainment in India, a summary of which is presented below.

A brief summary of India's education status, after 60 years of independence:

  • Literacy 65.38% (Male 75.85%, Female 54.16%) – average world literacy 80%
  • Children reaching grade V - 59.8 %(2000/01)
  • Gross Enrolment Ratio girls (Class 6-8) 56%
  • Human Development Index ranking 134/177 (2009)
  • Only 31% of children complete education upto 10th standard and 42% complete upto 8th standard
  • One out of three (67 lacs out of 1.92 crore) children in class 5 is unable to read and write
  • Only about 10% primary schools have majority of children learning as per expectations
  • More than 75% schools have unplanned multigrade teaching
  • Public examinations of all kind focus on rote learning - with practically no focus on application, analysis, critical thinking and creativity
  • 20 percentage point adverse ratios of literacy and drop outs for girls & socio-economically disadvantaged children

Our guiding principles:

  • Focus on “quality of education in rural government elementary schools”
  • Contribute to systemic change and not merely create islands of excellence
  • Partner with Government(s) in quality initiatives
  • Implement – not just fund projects
  • Significantly invest in people resources and continuously build capability within the organization to work on quality initiatives
Currently we have a team of 200 professionals associated with us, in addition to several hundred paid volunteers in the field.