Overview

The Education portfolio supports civil societys efforts in the areas of elementary education,
adolescent education, child protection and the education of adult women. The Trusts work in the
field entails:

Efforts to improve access to quality education for children from marginalized

communities are supported.

The support of state-run schools in order to improve the quality of education and
facilitate easy access to marginalized communities.

The encouragement of integration projects; schools that cater exclusively to a specific

community are discouraged.

Financial resources are extended toward the improvement of the teaching-learning

environment; i.e. provision of teaching aids, safeguarding the benefits of children and
teachers. Requests for the creation of physical infrastructure are generally discouraged.

The Trusts approach is based on Education for All, and does not support projects where
children are excluded or discriminated on the basis of competency tests.

Areas of Engagement

The portfolio has four sub-thematic areas of engagement:

Elementary Education

Child Protection and Rehabilitation of Children in Distress

Adolescent Education

Womens Education

1.1

Elementary educations

The Trusts educational programmes are based on five principles:

Child-centric education

People participation

Local leadership development

Strengthening of local services

Enabling cooperation

The Trusts support a number of projects that facilitate easier access to and a higher quality of
education across the country. The projects have the following areas of focus in common:

Systematic engagement with the community

Bridge learning centers for out-of-school children

Child-centric pedagogy

Mainstreaming of children into local schools

Supplementary education to improve retention

Supporting schools for improved quality of education

Partner NGOs constantly track student attendance to maintain a high retention rate. Additionally,
the Trusts also support the enrolment and education of children from deprived communities and
those with disabilities. This includes, creating a supportive growth environment with better
learning and creative opportunities for children in schools. Collaborative initiatives with state
agencies are also encouraged to further the impact and quality of programmes.
Keeping in mind, the severe shortage of quality professionals, the Trusts also support a number
of resource organizations that engage in training programmes for teachers or the improvement of
pedagogy. Many of them have been encouraged to evolve into teacher training institutions.
Resource partners have also engaged with children to provide high-quality, subject-specific
inputs in science and language teaching-learning as well as accelerated learning methodologies.
The Trusts encourage activities and institutions, which employ modern, multi-disciplinary
academic programmes for teacher education; ones that are responsive to a childs learning needs
and environment.
1.2

Child Protection and Rehabilitation of Children in Distress

In the past, the Trusts have supported several productive projects aimed at diverse aspects of
child welfare. These initiatives have ranged from the promotion of education and a better
understanding of child-related laws to the launch of helpline services. The Trusts are currently
evolving the focus of future initiatives so as to build on past partner achievements, while being
in consonance with emerging opportunities.
1.3

Adolescent Education

The Trusts believe that it is critical to create opportunities for young people to realise their
potential, as individuals and community leaders. Committed to the task of nation building, the
Trusts have invested in creative and talented youth as agents of social change and development.
Supported projects have demonstrated the effective role of the youth in developmental processes.
The focus is on educationally backward areas mainly Dalit, tribal and minority communities
with equal attention to both genders. These projects are based on the Doosra Dashak model
developed in Rajasthan with the support of the Trusts, and include specially developed strategies
for education, life skills and citizenship. The basic activities include:

Community-integrated work

Residential camps for basic education

Curriculum development and training

Continuing education centres and camps

Life skills, creative activities and leadership development

Adolescent forums for peer learning

The Trusts have also supported projects to promote skill development, leading to
entrepreneurship and improved employment opportunities for the youth. This comprised a
residential course model, which was based on a comprehensive package of activities like
completion of secondary education, life skills, vocational training and personality development.
1.4

Womens education

Education is a tool that empowers women with the analytical abilities to address problems within
their environment. It is especially key to the development of backward communities such as the
rural, urban poor, displaced, migrants, minorities and Dalits. It can empower individuals with the
skills to take charge of their environment and deal with systems, without having to depend on
others to conduct their negotiations. Given the feasibility and easy reach, the Trusts have
developed educational programmes for women who are organized in Self Help Groups or
Sangathans. A new generation of literacy methodologies, devised by Trust-supported NGOs, are
already showing successful outcomes. While the approach is based on the acknowledgement of
the intrinsic value of literacy; the curriculum has been technically standardized to help the
women to access education at their doorstep. The highlights of the approach are:

Needs based

Accountability and ownership by womens institutions

Locally contextualised curriculum

Investment in capacity building

Emphasis on monitoring and reflection

Focus on innovations and materials that can be replicated

Knowledge generation and sharing

The efforts are towards sustaining literacy and its application in the real-life context of women

Programmes

2.1

Adolescent education

Adolescents today comprise 22 percent of Indias population. It is critical to create opportunities

for young people to realize their potential, both in terms of social leadership and
entrepreneurship, and enable them to positively contribute to the development of their
community. The Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Allied Trusts have always been committed to the
task of nation building, and have invested in creative and talented youth as agents of social
change and development. Projects supported by the Trusts, related to education and
empowerment of adolescents and youth have demonstrated the effectiveness of engaging with
the youth in the developmental processes. In this context, new strategies are also constantly
evolved to create new opportunities for adolescents and youth. The Trusts have supported the
creation of the Doosra Dashak model of adolescent education and development in addressing the
challenge of educating and enabling the youth; and in nurturing their creative energies in a
positive environment. This model has evolved relevant strategies for adolescents from the
marginalized communities in rural areas with an approach, based on constitutional and
democratic values.

Rural women publish Khabar Lahariya, a newspaperNirantar, Uttar Pradesh

A group of SHG women take lessons at a learning centreIBTADA, RajasthanImplemented Programms
Students design Teaching Learning Materials- FED, Rajasthan
Vocational training for tribal boys -Amrapali Utkarsh Sangh Maharashtra

2.2

Doosra Dashak

Doosra Dashak is a programme of adolescent education and development

evolved by the Foundation for Education and Development (FED) in
Rajasthan. It was initiated in 2001 with the support of the Sir Dorabji Tata
Trust as the major funding agency. FED was registered as a Trust in the year
2000 and its seven founding trustees, led by Anil Bordia, are eminent
educationists and administrators. Literally meaning, the second decade, the
Doosra Dashak model has succeeded in reinforcing the belief that
investment in adolescents past the age of primary education is possible, and
vital

for

the

survival

and

development

of

economically

backward

communities. In the ten years of its establishment, the Doosra Dashak

concept has matured and institutionalized in terms of its approach,
strategies, outcomes and impact on the community. It has evolved nuanced
strategies to meet the complex challenges of working with older children, particularly girls, and
has been able to establish a relationship of trust with the community.
Doosra Dashak has fine-tuned its mix of activities and schedules according to the geography,
social matrix and culture of different districts. The strategies are basic education, life skills,
vocational education and citizenship development programmes for adolescents. Its activities for
the education of adolescents have five main aspects, namely, residential courses, life-skills
training, continuing education, community mobilization and science programmes. The
programme has been largely successful as it incorporates elements which make it replicable in

other parts of the country. This is essentially due to the contextual variations in its core strategies
and basic approach. It is being implemented in nine blocks of seven districts in Rajasthan. The
Trusts also support 20 more projects in eight states based on the Doosra Dashak framework.
2.3
Interactive learning
Tata ClassEdge is an integrated learning solution for schools, designed to help teachers deliver
high quality instruction with an effective blend of classroom activities and interactive
multimedia.
Tata Interactive Systems brings about the most contemporary solutions in education. These
products are designed keeping in mind the needs of modern education. Most of the products
make use of state-of-the-art technology and foster collaborative learning.

Figure 3 Various interactive learning programs

.
2.3

Computer Based Functional Literacy (CBFL)

While several government initiatives are underway to address this problem it would take millions
of teachers and decades of education before India could achieve 80-90 per cent literacy through
traditional teaching methods. The situation calls for an out-of-the-box solution, and that is
exactly what Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) came up with in 2000, when they first
experimented with the Computer Based Functional Literacy (CBFL) programme in Beeramguda
village in Medak district of Andhra Pradesh.

CBFL is a multimedia-oriented software package, an e-learning system for helping adult

illiterates who speak the language to learn the skills of the 3 Rs reading, writing and
arithmetic. While TCS capitalized on its core competency in software development to develop
CBFL it also incorporated the extensive research done by the National Literacy Mission (NLM),
established by the Indian government in 1988 to eradicate adult illiteracy. CBFL is currently
available in nine languages Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Oriya, Kannada, Urdu, Bengali
and Telugu. It has also been implemented for the Northern Sotho language in South Africa and
for the Moore language in Burkina Faso. In India the programme has till date helped over
175,000 adult illiterates.
CBFL scores over conventional methods of teaching as it does not require large-scale school
facilities or teachers, takes shorter time to impart literacy (one-third of the time), can be taught
according to the pace of the learner, has a lower dropout rate, requires basic computers, and can
effectively supplement and enhance existing adult literacy programmes. The method has been
accepted as part of the 12th 5-year plan of the Government of India.
2.4

Tata Steel Education Excellence Programme (TEEP)

Based on the Baldrige Education Excellence Model, the programme is similar in many ways to
the TBEM assessments that Tata companies go through. Teachers and principals undergo training
to become assessors, who assess schools participating in the programme, once a year. Forty
schools currently benefit from this programme, covering 2,500 teachers and 100,000 students
from the ICSE, CBSE and other examination boards. The TEEP is unique in that it is run by a
private institution rather than by the government. Tata Steel has set up a special committee to
oversee and govern this initiative, and all resources are disbursed by the company.
2.5

Education Quality Improvement Project (EQUIP)

Another key Tata Steel education initiative Education Quality Improvement Project (EQUIP)
was introduced in 2010 to focus on the core value of Management by Fact. Team-based
EQUIPs involve the participation of teachers and students. Projects are classified into three
categories: improvement through problem solving, where the emphasis is on diagnosis of the
problem and remedial action; improvement through executing a task, where the solution to the
problem is known and the emphasis is on approaches used by the team; and improvement
through innovation.

In all, 50 EQUIPs were submitted by 20 schools in the year it was introduced. Within a year,
EQUIP has already made an impact: four of its projects were recognised during the TEEP Award
Function in February 2011.
2.5

Tata Learning Disability Forum (TLDF)

Nearly 3-5 per cent of children suffer from deceases like dyslexia and dysgraphia, finding it
difficult to cope with studies. In 2002, Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) took up support of the LD
community as part of its corporate sustainability programme, supporting various means to ensure
that students with LD get their rightful place in the educational system and rediscover the joys of
learning. Tackling learning disabilities,
Later, the company established the annual Tata Learning Disability Forum (TLDF), the first
platform in India for creating awareness about LD in children and sharing and learning from
reputed international and Indian LD experts. Students, teachers, parents and experts from the
field of education as well as government officials attend this annual one-day interactive seminar
and come together in a unique initiative to give impetus to this cause.
3

Scholarships and Travel Grants

The first step in this direction was taken by the Founder himself with the establishment of the JN
Tata Endowment Scholarship in 1892, which provided loans to talented Indian youth to pursue
an education abroad. Among the many luminaries who have benefited from this scholarship are
KR Narayanan, former President of India and Raja Ramanna, former director of the Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre.

Set up along the same lines, the Lady Meherbai D Tata scholarships, established in 1932,
offer support to young Indian women graduates pursuing higher studies abroad in the

field of social work and public health.

Thanks to a generous gift from the Tata Education and Development Trust - a
philanthropic affiliate of Indias Tata Group - a $25 million endowment has been
established that will allow Cornell University to provide financial aid to undergraduate

students from India.

Young Researcher Award of the Lady Tata Memorial Trust, held in mid-March 2015.

Travel grants are provided to the students proceeding for post-graduate and doctoral studies and
for professionals proceeding for their mid-career programmes or to attend relevant and
meaningful seminars and conferences abroad.A travel grant application can be made with the
following documents: A written application, a resume, Statement of purpose, confirmed
admission letter, letter of invitation, mode of presentation, recent pay slips
4.

Educational institutes

The Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Allied Trusts have pioneered several leading institutions. In
the process, these centres of excellence have made significant contributions to several fields,
particularly medicine, science and education.
As financial aid to NGOs is usually given for enabling them to implement a specific project, it
has a discernible and concrete impact of limited magnitude and sweep. However, grants made to
the institutions have a longer time frame and a wider canvas of impact.
Even though, the daily administration of most of these institutions has now been handed over to
the respective state or central governments, the Trusts continue to support and nurture them in
myriad ways. For instance, via programme and recurring grants for specific purposes.
Table List of supported institutes
Sr. No.

Name of Institutes

Location

Web-Link

1.

Indian Institute of Science

Bangalore

www.iisc.ernet.in

2.

Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Mumbai

www.tiss.edu

3.

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

Mumbai

www.tifr.res.in

4.

National Centre for the Performing Arts

Mumbai

www.ncpamumbai.com

5.

National Institute of Advanced Studies

Bangalore

www.nias.res.in