Deadline: 24-Apr-21
Wipro Foundation is seeking applications for its Systemic Education Reform Program to support diverse Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) engaged in school education, to develop and deepen their capacities to work towards systemic reform of education in the country.
Categories
- Early and mid-stage organizations working in school education
- For organizations currently working in school education, their grants aim to deepen capacities or build additional capacities of the organization to take its work to the next level. This could mean any of the following:
- Building capabilities in specific areas of focus within education, by working on the ground with support from experienced organizations or resource people
- Consolidating the work so far into approaches and models of engagement that are extendable, scalable, and sharable
- Building capacities to become a resource organization for other organizations in education in its area of focus/expertise within education
- For organizations currently working in school education, their grants aim to deepen capacities or build additional capacities of the organization to take its work to the next level. This could mean any of the following:
- Established Community-based organizations or Non-Education Organizations keen to strengthen their education program/team
- They support organizations with a strong community presence that work on one or more aspects of community development and desire to strengthen their work in school education
- The grant is also open to organizations working on health, environment, livelihood, human rights, governance, etc., and are keen on working in school education specifically to improve the public education system in their areas of operation
Their grants could support the following:
- Building a core team to work in the area of school education
- Developing or furthering capacities to work in school education, particularly the public education system, through on-the-ground work and specific capacity building opportunities.
Guiding Principles
- Demonstrated Capacities and Commitment: The program supports organizations with a serious commitment to the social/education sector through their past engagements
- Clear Organizational Objectives and Structures: The program aims to facilitate the development of stable educational CSOs that can engage with school education in the long-term and expects the work in education to align with the organization’s overall vision and objective. Structures and processes to facilitate smooth organizational functioning should also be in place
- Engagement with Class/School Issues: While issues outside schools/classrooms such as those related to community, nutrition/health, etc., are essential for effective education, they believe that to create effective educational NGOs that can have a systemic impact, a core education team that engages directly with the children and teachers within-class/school issues (such as curricular and pedagogic aspects) is critical
- Focused Approach: Education requires some degree of specialized knowledge, and effective educational NGOs are often willing to go deeper into a few educational domains/disciplines as opposed to being generalists who attempt to address all educational issues at once or play the role only of mediators (e.g. by providing readymade content available to a set of schools)
- Balanced Teams: If organizations have to develop and sustain over the long run, it is important to have balanced teams of partners/co-owners who while on one hand have allied sensibilities and interests (which geography to work in, which educational domains to focus on, which demographics to cater to, etc.); on the other hand, are also able to provide constructive feedback to each other and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses
Selection Criteria
- School Education Organizations
- Clarity on, and understanding of the sub-domain/focus within education
- 3+ years of work experience in the chosen education sub-domain
- Willingness to work with the public education system and relevant stakeholders
- Clarity on operational model/aspects
- The operational model must include education for children in the age group of 3-16 years as the key component
- A long-term commitment to a particular geography, preferably locations which are underserved by education-focused Civil Society Organizations
- Community Organizations/ Established Non-Education Organizations
- Strong community presence and/or expertise and credible track record in other areas of social action (e.g. health / environment / livelihood / governance / human-rights)
- Firm desire and strong rationale to work with School Education system (ideally within the same community context)
- An existing, committed team with some prior experience of working in the education field
- Willingness to engage with the public school system and relevant stakeholders
- The operational model must include education for children in the age group of 3-16 years as the key component
- Some existing demonstrable work in education (e.g., running 1-2 learning support centers; working with children/teachers in schools)
- A long-term commitment to a particular geography, preferably locations which are underserved by education-focused Civil Society Organizations.
For more information, visit https://sites.google.com/view/wipro-education-grants/systemic-education-reform?authuser=0