Nexus of Good: Deserving changemakers

Samina Bano and her wonderful team will be conferred with the Nexus of Good Award on August 27 this year at a function organised jointly by the Nexus of Good Foundation and FICCI Arise for their dedication, commitment and resolve to bring quality school education to the deprived and backward sections of society. Utilising public-private partnership, the model that they have created is already scaling in the true spirit of nexus of good.

Uttar Pradesh has been known for all the wrong reasons despite some outstanding work being done by numerous officers and institutions in the field of school education. I was on a visit to Lucknow in 2017 as Secretary, School, Government India, to discuss an action plan for the state. The schedule was packed. However, this young lady, Samina Bano, was insistent. She wanted time to narrate her story. I did finally relent and what an amazing story she had to narrate.

One of the provisions of the Right to Education Act aims at equal access to education and social inclusion in classrooms by mandating every recognised private school to reserve 25 per cent seats in entry-level classes for children belonging to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Disadvantaged Groups (DG). Samina Bano and her organisation, RightWalk Foundation (RWF), have accomplished a commendable feat in this field in Uttar Pradesh.

In 2013, as a young computer engineer and IIM Bangalore graduate doing management consultancy with a leading consulting firm in the US, Samina was determined to return to India in the uncharted territory of Uttar Pradesh. She decided to root her organisation in UP and anchored it with the idea of Public-Private Partnership right at the outset. Samina considers herself a living example of the transformational impact that inclusion in education can have on someone's life. Hailing from a family that barely sent girls to schools, her life changed when she gained access to Kendriya Vidyalaya, following her father's job in the Indian Air Force away from his village.

Samina's initial research revealed that Uttar Pradesh had approximately over 6,00,000 RTE seats available for vulnerable children, but there were only 54 admissions across the state in 2014, primarily due to fierce resistance by private school lobbies and prohibitive state policies.

To unite like-minded professionals, RWF initiated a 'nexus of good' approach and focused on cooperation with communities, teachers, principals, media and supportive bureaucrats. Owing to the national media coverage, the Chief Minister of UP soon took notice and extended support while his Secretaries, Partha Sarthi Sen Sharma and Amod Kumar, played pivotal roles in helping RightWalk traverse the complex bureaucratic labyrinth. Succeeding key officers, Vijay Kiran Anand, Rajshekhar, Pankaj Kumar and others, provided field-level support in various districts.

Yet, a powerful school moved to the High Court challenging this provision while several personal attacks such as civil suit, threats, etc. were aimed at Samina. It was a David versus Goliath battle. The opponents were experts in court battles and the RightWalk team had never even been to a courtroom. After six long months of court battles, in the High Court as well as the Supreme Court, justice eventually prevailed and they won. RightWalk led policy reforms, ran state-wide mass awareness campaigns, conducted several district capacity-building sessions with local administration and private schools, and designed some ground implementation plans. This resulted in over 40,00 poor children getting enrolled under the scheme across 26 districts of the state in 2015. The news was widely covered in the media and gave further push to the cause.

In the last seven years, RightWalk built a unique partnership with the Government of Uttar Pradesh supporting them as a Project Management Unit (PMU) while their extensive field team drove ground implementation along with District Education Officers (DEOs). The organisation initiated the development of an Online RTE Portal in 2017, which won a national e-Governance Award in 2021. RWF leveraged existing institutions of Lokwani/Common Service Centre (CSC) to make the online RTE admission process transparent and accountable, eliminating the corruption loopholes. This model has been immensely successful, having enrolled over 4,70,000 EWS children into 16,000 private schools across the state in the last seven years. With 48 per cent girls and 1.5 per cent children with disability enrolled under RTE, Samina and her team are aiming to close in on the gender and PWD targets as well.

RightWalk's work extends beyond schooling access and admission assistance. They closely engage with private schools' educators and train them on inclusive pedagogical practices to facilitate seamless integration of EWS children in diverse classrooms. They have trained over 2,000 educators across nine districts of UP in partnership with UNICEF and the state government. There is also an inclusion-centric training programme that is planned to be conducted online for more teachers to gain access. Their post-admission support programmes such as FABLE, PALS, EPL and Buddy Program have been charting new ways to close in on the learning inequality at home lately.

The overall behavioural spill-over of educational inclusion under RTE in UP was recently evaluated by two professors from University of Florida and Duke University. The RCT-based assessment covering nearly 2,000 households across 12 districts consistently showed that children admitted to integrated schools under RTE Act have more positive attitudes toward school, better health behaviours and outcomes, and induce parents to make more educational investments. Access to better schools makes families realise the value of education and thus promotes their education-oriented behaviour.

RightWalk has also ventured into the implementation of the Apprenticeship Scheme in collaboration with the Vocational Education Dept. of the state govt. following state PMU and Ground Delivery Network (GDN) Model. They have become the first non-profit organisation in India to work on this particular policy. RightWalk's vision on the Apprenticeship Scheme as a game changer in solving India's skilling and employment challenge is poised to impact a large number of youth grappling with unemployment. Thus far, they have enabled 40,000+ young people from ITIs and other vocational educational institutes across Uttar Pradesh to get recruited as apprentices in over 6,000 establishments. What is more, 3,200 school drop-outs have also been brought into the labour market via apprenticeships. Adolescents upskilled through the Apprenticeship Scheme are more employable in a progressive economy. RightWalk also worked closely with the development team of the Apprenticeship Portal (NAPS) at the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) to refine the software, thereby benefiting the whole country. Within 1.5 years only, the number of establishments registered on NAPS increased by 7,500 with RWF's help. Alok Kumar-III, then Secretary to the Chief Minister of UP, played a crucial role in enabling RWF to realise its full potential. Amrit Abhijat and Kunal Silku have been great enablers as well.

Unlocking welfare schemes and associated government funds, RightWalk's efforts have already prompted the UP government to spend over 300 crores on EWS children under RTE and 100 crores under Apprenticeship. RightWalk's model not only unlocked Public Funds but also ensured efficient utilisation of Public Money. The organisation, which aims at creating sustainable institutional change believes its model could unlock Rs 100 of public funds for every philanthropic rupee spent.

With interventions in education and skill/employment, the organisation is making poor households more 'sustainable' by ensuring access to quality education, income generation opportunities and health.

The improvement of institutions and policy reforms remains the fulcrum of RightWalk's planning, fundraising, and implementation activities. Under the exemplary leadership of Samina, this non-profit has not only managed to demonstrate good work but has also gone on to scale it through a public-private partnership that is truly inspiring.

Contact: samina@rightwalk.org, team@rightwalk.org

Views expressed are personal