• Over the next three years, 500,000 youth will be impacted with this partnership.
• State-of-the-art courses for future skills will be developed through this partnership.

Reliance Foundation and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) have entered into a strategic partnership to create courses with future-ready skills for 500,000 Indian youth. This partnership entails the development of curriculum focusing on creating capacity for the youth in fields including EdTech, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), environmental sustainability, policy analysis and much more. With the help of Reliance Foundation’s digital-forward approach, this partnership is expected to garner popularity among youth interested in newer career avenues that require futuristic thinking.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, said, “India will become unstoppable by embracing the mantra of skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling. Various digital initiatives in the skilling ecosystem are ensuring Skills Anywhere, Skills Anytime and Skills for All. As India marches towards becoming a developed nation, by leveraging technology, scale and sustainability, Indian workforce will meet not only domestic demand, but also global demand and set new benchmarks.”

Emphasising the importance of this strategic partnership, Mr. Jagannatha Kumar, CEO, Reliance Foundation, said, “India has the largest youth population in the world, and this is our effort to prepare them with future-ready skills. At Reliance Foundation, we believe that this will help in fulfilling their aspirations and achieve their goals. This partnership with NSDC will help youth in skilling, to align competencies with evolving work profiles and opportunities. Reliance Foundation and NSDC bring a common vision and purpose along with our unique strengths, to contribute to our youth.”

Designing and development of high-quality curriculum; setting up student services; training of trainers; supporting collaborations; AI aided online assessments; certifications and industry aligned placements are an integral part of this partnership.

Reliance Foundation has been working on creating and enhancing livelihoods with opportunities for the marginalised and youth. This partnership with NSDC is yet another step in that direction.

About NSDC

Giving boost to Indian Government Skill India Mission, NSDC, a nodal skill development agency, working under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India, is a unique Public Private Partnership (PPP) that aims to catalyze the creation of a large and quality vocational training ecosystem in India. Since inception, NSDC has trained over three crore people in different sectors through its collaboration with training partners pan India. NSDC has established 37 Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) and implements the Government’s flagship skill development schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), among others. NSDC also funds enterprises, companies and organizations that provide skill training. The organization enables private-sector capacity building in skill development by offering concessional loans, other innovative financial products, and strategic partnerships. For more information, please visit at https://nsdcindia.org

While several educational institutes experimented with digital education to improve access during the pandemic, children are now back to school. The importance of playful learning is well established, especially for Early Childhood Education (ECE). As experts point out, children learn about “social norms, roles and responsibilities, and language through curiosity-driven, playful interactions and activities.” Given that at this age, children spend most amount of time at home or with caregivers, they need to interact with the child, which, according to science, helps trigger neural connections and strengthens child brain, stimulating social and communication skills. Several studies have demonstrated that play-based learning is significantly more effective than traditional forms of teaching.

While ECE, like any other stage of education, was significantly impacted due to COVID-19, several organisations innovated with available technology to strengthen play-based learning, involving parents and communities. In India, ECCE is delivered through one of the world’s largest early childhood programme called Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS), through a network of 13,99,697 Anganwadi centres. A study (as also cited in the publication Ideas, Innovation and Implementation: India’s Journey Towards the SDGs) by the Centre for Early Childhood Education and Development (CECED), Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) between 2011-2016 recommends play-based learning and experiences to help develop early literacy and numeracy skills at the foundational stage. It noted that children’s school readiness at age five in India is far below expected levels, hence there is a need to bridge the gap and provide age-appropriate pedagogies, activities as well as teaching material to help teachers overcome these challenges.

Tech toys: Using play-based digital tools to enhance foundational skills

During the pandemic, several prominent as well as smaller organisations experimented with tech-based innovations to enhance access to education for children. While using technology to enhance learning was the need of the hour, it was also important to be mindful of the fact that the technology is easy to use and understand for young children, as well as parents who would have to assist their children in efficiently using the technology.

In fact, studies show that parental engagement in a child’s learning is pivotal to help children engage with these technologies. According to a study conducted by the Lego Foundation, “Play with digital technologies supports children’s acquisition of knowledge and skills” – enhancing their digital skills, subject knowledge and holistic skills. Perhaps gamification of teaching materials has hence come up as a favourable solution to several Ed Tech companies that are catering to this age group.

Case of Bal Raksha Bharat: Going back to basics

However, digital play can sometimes be through the simplest game or device. As also demonstrated in the book Ideas, Innovation and Implementation, some organisations like Bal Raksha Bharat (also known as Save the Children) used basic and simple technology to reach children as well as involve parents. They initiated a programme called ‘Back to Basics’, which aims at improving the child’s learning experience both at the Anganwadi centre and home, to ensure effective transition from pre-school to Grade 1.

In collaboration with various State and Central government departments, this initiative developed and used audio-video modules for early learning. Under this initiative, Anganwadi workers and teachers are being trained in learning through activity and play-based methodologies to improve quality of the learning process. Besides, to include parents and caregivers in this learning process, during the pandemic, the organisation introduced 60 easy-to-follow instructions through audio-visual aids disseminated through WhatsApp called ‘Gulmohar’. This AV module is meant for the parents as a hands-on learning tool to develop activities for children at home, based on the child’s interests and skills.

Additionally, to reach additional children, Bal Raksha Bharat also launched ‘Story Ghar,’a low-cost digital compendium of 450 stories that was broadcasted on All India Radio in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Karnataka to provide interesting content to children. The AV aids under Gulmohar were developed with support of the caregivers from the community and disseminated through a platform that is widely used by the community.

The project has had significant impact on the way AWWs and teachers use child-centric methods of early learning. AWWs and teachers’ perceptions towards activity-based learning has improved, and one can see a change in trend towards the uptake of early learning activities in early 2020 (during the baseline study) vs in late 2022 (during the endline study). The key stakeholders have attributed the trainings, capacity building, innovative content as well as consistent on-site support for the impact figures.

Aligned to the findings of the endline study, the study by Lego Foundation also recommends teachers using a various form of approaches around the use of technology and ensure continuity between free play and instruction-based activities. Moreover, the study also states that innovation with technology in play should include children at the development stage as more autonomy over the process helps stimulate their critical skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving.

To read more about Bak Raksha Bharat’s Back to Basic programme, refer to Ideas, Innovation and Implementation: India’s Journey towards the SDGs, which showcases 17 lighthouse initiatives from India that are contributing towards the achievement of the 17 SDGs.

The way forward

Bal Raksha Bharat’s uniqueness also comes from the way the programme has been designed in a collaborative manner – involving the government and district departments, other key stakeholders as well as has been done in alignment with the goals of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 of India. To target SDG 4 of equal access to education for all, it is important to undertake a holistic approach to development:

• Collaborate extensively and utilise the strengths of the existing governance mechanisms, to be able to effectively implement and scale solutions in a country with a large population.
• -The goals and visions of development programmes need to be aligned to the national development goals so as to ensure that all efforts are leveraged towards achieving of the similar set of ambitions.

In this context, another initiative called the ‘Back-to-School’ Ed Tech outcomes fund and accelerator is helping support and mentor organisations that are working towards ensuring access and quality of education for young children at home or for their remote learning. The Accelerator will promote access to and use of high-quality and contextually relevant edtech solutions in foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) to encourage at home learning – aligned with government’s FLN mission.

Further, the Brookings Institute’s Centre for Universal Education collected a compendium of nearly 3,000 tech-based innovations that are facilitating ‘Leapfrogging in Education’. In 2019, a study by the Deloitte Global and the Global Business Coalition for Education had predicted that “half of all youth around the world entering the workforce in 2030 will lack basic secondary-level skills they need to thrive—from literacy and numeracy to critical thinking and problem solving.” Since then, the pandemic has further slowed the progress the world was making on this SDG.

Hence, there is a need to accelerate this progress through simple innovations that are time and cost-effective, engages the end users as well as are easy to use and implement. As the UN General Assembly deliberated its progress on the development goals, some ideas and innovation need immediate implementation to that beyond 2030 the progress becomes the foundation for further improvement in the pace and process of achieving an equitable world for all citizens of the world.

An evaluation of scholarships provided by Reliance through the years, found that beyond immediate individual scholar impact, there has been multiplier effect at a household, organisation and societal level.

Reliance has been providing scholarships to meritorious students through Dhirubhai Ambani Scholarship (DAS) since 1996 and through the Reliance Foundation Scholarships from 2020-21. A study was conducted by 4th Wheel Social Impact between March and June 2022, with focus on understanding the impact of the DAS programme on scholars supported between 2015 and 2020.

Guided by Reliance Founder-Chairman, late Shri Dhirubhai Ambani’s belief that the best way to ensure the nation’s progress is to invest in its youth, the Dhirubhai Ambani Scholarship programme supported meritorious students of standard XII to pursue college education in the stream of their choice.

Top ranking students of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and State Boards across 28 states and 5 Union Territories are identified based on need and provided financial support over the course of three years. Funds cover tuition fees and costs related to transport, accommodation, books, stationery, and various other allowances needed for the duration of graduation. Since inception, there have been 12,737 DAS recipients with equal gender ratio, including 2,755 specially abled scholars representing over 20 percent of the total scholars supported by this programme.

A total of 946 respondents (527 scholars and 413 parents), along with DAS team members and representatives from State and CBSE Boards participated in the study that included a mixed methods approach. Quantitative information and qualitative inputs were gathered through surveys and semi-structured interviews.

The study found the following:

Impact on Scholars

The scholarship is highly relevant for scholars who are from economically vulnerable backgrounds and for females, who report much higher probabilities of dropping out of education without scholarship support. The programme reduces the financial burdens faced by scholars and their families and enables them to pursue higher education in streams and colleges of their choice and move to bigger towns and cities without heavy debts incurred.

Being recipients of the DAS scholarship has very positive impacts on their own self-esteem, confidence and aspirations, and strengthens their academic and professional profiles. The scholarship has enabled scholars to pursue higher education and get good jobs. Through access to higher education and studying in good institutions they are exposed to varied education and career opportunities, have higher academic performance and get access to a strong support system and network of teachers, staff, mentors, and peers. A large proportion of scholars pursue medical and science related degrees signifying DAS’s support to creating skilled professionals across crucial sectors of the country.

• 72% respondents said they have improved academic performance
• 75% respondents said they have experienced increased aspirations
• 97% respondents said they were motivated to work harder in academics

Impact on Female Scholars

• 78% female respondents reported that the scholarship raising their education and career aspirations
• 22% female respondents felt without the scholarship they would not be able to study in thecollege/university

Impacts on Households

Many scholars represent a success story among their families and communities signifying how education leads to upward economic mobility and job stability. The programme supports scholars to pursue higher education, get good jobs and contribute to their household incomes. Scholar salaries are a stable source of income and form a significant proportion of overall household incomes. It creates upward economic mobility of scholars hailing from financially vulnerable backgrounds, where parents work in agriculture or the unorganised sector. Scholar salaries support an improvement in ownership of assets, sibling education, and better quality of life.

• 87% contribute to household income
• 25% support sibling education
• 61% bought assets

Organisational Impacts

Even though scholars are at a very nascent stage of their careers: in managerial or executive roles, results are very heartening with several scholars having contributed to innovations, product and service development within their organisations. Since the scholarship supports meritorious students, it is certain scholars go onto make great strides in their professional lives, and contribute to organisational successes in terms of innovations, awards and accolades.

• 36% improved organisational processes and functions
• 17% contributed to new service development
• 11% developed new innovative product

Community Impacts

Scholars gain increased confidence, admissions in good education institutes and get access to enhanced opportunities which enables them to partake in extra-curricular activities and be involved with social change endeavours. They are part of community groups like college clubs, welfare and charity groups, National Cadet Corps and professional support groups. Many hold leadership positions within these groups and at their colleges and workplaces. Scholars have contributed to social change by volunteering at NGOs and working closely with community issues like women empowerment, education, de-addiction drives, waste management and cleanliness, health and hygiene awareness, etc. Scholars showcase high levels of gratitude towards the DAS support and exhibit strong interests to contribute back to society by guiding or mentoring students like themselves and participating in alumni networks. While they are provided with these platforms at a university level, their engagement and involvement with societal change endeavours reduce when they enter the job market. For this sustained involvement it is crucial to provide them with alumni networks and platforms to pay it forward to the next batches of scholars after them.

• 20% of the respondents contributed to social change
• 10% of the respondents said that they are part of community groups
• 8% of the respondents contributed to programmes and policy changes

In 2020, Reliance Foundation launched the ‘Reliance Foundation Scholarships in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Sciences’ to achieve a deeper impact in the field of frontier sciences and engineering that are playing a key role in shaping India’s future.

In 2022, Reliance Foundation enhanced its commitment to India’s youth to support 50,000 students with scholarships over the next 10 years, aiming to nurture talented youth from across the country who have the potential to drive the nation’s future success for social good.

For 2022-2023, Reliance Foundation is awarding Undergraduate Scholarships to support up to 5,000 meritorious undergraduate students based on a merit-cum-means criteria for their undergraduate college education, empowering them to continue their studies without financial burden, and 100 of India's brightest postgraduate students studying eligible subjects in new technologies through the Reliance Foundation Postgraduate Scholarships. As scholarships have a great potential to nurture and empower meritorious students, Reliance Foundation believes that this approach will create robust, vibrant and engaged young professionals, who drive India’s growth.

Click here to know more about the Reliance Foundation Scholarships.

Through Reliance Foundation’s efforts at the Model Economic Township in Haryana’s Jhajjhar, 453 children have been provided with dedicated free coaching since 2018-19 to prepare for admission to prestigious government residential schools such as the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya.

Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV) select children on the basis of merit through an annual All India entrance conducted by the government. Admission to JNVs is open to children from disadvantaged communities.

Reliance Foundation forms an important bridge to these schools for many children from marginal communities. This year, through its “Mission Navodaya” free coaching programme, Reliance Foundation supported 32 students in clearing the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya entrance exam.

All the students are from eight Model Economic Township villages - Yakqubpur, Dadritoe, Saundhi, Pelpa, Kukdola, Ladpur, Lohat, and Badli. Coaching was provided to selected students every day for 10 months.

In the last four years, Reliance Foundation’s coaching programme has helped 68 students crack the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya entrance exam.

Through a multitude of initiatives, Reliance Foundation works to enhance youth’s access to education with an aim to empower them to lift themselves, their communities and be able to contribute to nation building.

Click here to read more about our work on Education.

As the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly week is underway, Reliance Foundation, Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and United Nations India are hosting two dialogues with the overarching theme of India’s journey towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

Delivering Development: Journeys, Directions and Lighthouses on 22nd September 2023, will focus on India’s ambitious agenda that aims to address the priorities and challenges including improved health and educational outcomes; food and energy security; economic empowerment and growth; and climate resilience. The approach to India’s development journey towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals will also be discussed in this dialogue.

The second dialogue, on 23rd September 2023, South Rising: Partnerships, Institutions and Ideas will discuss the role of India and the Global South in advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals agenda. The focus here will be not only on the significant role these regions play towards global development, but include deliberations on the post-2030 agenda and lessons to move forward from thereon.

Both dialogues will reinforce the commitment of various developmental organisations to generate continued dialogue, innovative partnerships, and new ideas in the pathway to accelerate the world’s progress toward the SDGs.

Following are the sessions for the Delivering Development: Journeys, Directions and Lighthouses dialogue:

Session 1 | The India Lighthouse: Serving the Farthest First

India has the potential to be a major partner for other Global South countries in supporting their sustainable development aspirations and bringing back lessons to enrich its own. In this context, this panel discusses some crucial questions (1) What have been the major challenges in developing wide-ranging programmes and public services, and what are the lessons to be kept in mind? (2) How are various stakeholders with their own challenges and advantages, such as the private sector, and local governments engaged in these? (3) How can India’s experiences be translated for other geographies and equally, what lessons can India learn from other countries?

Session 2 | #SheLeads: The Green Shoots of Change

There is an emerging global discourse for more women in decision-making positions in politics, entrepreneurship, civil society, and business. Are there justifications beyond the argument that greater female representation at all levels of society is a social necessity? What arguments and examples can we find across the world about the economic and social impact of ecosystems that empower women? Will communities that build these systems effectively have an edge in rapidly changing times? How can both public and private institutions overcome traditional barriers that curtail the effective participation of women in policy and politics?

Session 3 | Beyond the SDGs: Perspectives, Propositions, Pathways

The SDG Mid-Term Review – which was launched in July 2023 – is identifying the development milestones attained by UN member states so far, assessing gaps in progress, and re-setting the targets that must be met by 2030. How can the global community come together in these seven years to achieve what it set out in 2015? What are the chief lessons learned from the SDG implementation exercise? Who are the key actors who might define the next phase of international development, and what kinds of new strategic partnerships might one expect? Could existing development blueprints like Africa 2063, and India’s roadmap for becoming a net zero emitter by 2070, help shape novel pathways for global inclusive growth and green futures?