Registered name: Network for Quality Education Foundation

School Quality Enhancement Program (SQEP)

Child Friendly Classrooms at Lajpat Nagar III

In May 2015, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) partnered with Ark to improve enrollment and enhance the quality of education delivered in the Lajpat Nagar III primary school. Ark started its work with a focus on Nursery and Grade 1, eventually expanding the program to higher grades in subsequent years.

Through extensive community engagement and demonstration of strong academic practice, Ark motivated parents to enroll their students in the SDMC Lajpat Nagar III school over existing private schools in the neighbourhood.

Their efforts met with resounding success, as the enrolment in Nursery and Grade 1 went up from 9 students to 120 students. With constant community engagement attendance trends in the school started to improve with the school posting student attendance levels of 83%. Parents have become advocates for the school within their community on seeing the quality of education being provided to their children.

Creation of the School Quality Enhancement Program

Based on the success of the Lajpat Nagar III pilot, the SDMC formally launched the School Quality Enhancement Program in 2016, formalizing and extending the Partnership school model. Under the current model, the SDMC partners with non-profit organizations with an extensive track record in the education sector to ensure high quality, innovative and child-friendly teaching methods are introduced in the partnership schools.

In AY 2016-2017 the SDMC brought 12 primary schools under the SQEP supported by 8 partner organizations. This has expanded further to 28 schools, supported by 12 partners in AY 2017-18. While the schools are already off to a great start, over the coming years they will continue to build on their successes and become exemplars that drive quality in the SDMC’s school system.

Snapshot of Achievements in SQEP Schools

Note: This data reflects the performance of the 12 schools that were inducted into the SQEP in AY 2016-2017.

Role of The Education Alliance

The Education Alliance is working closely with the SDMC to secure buy-in for this project and play a project management role in facilitating the establishment and operations of these SQEP partnership schools. This involves generating a pipeline of operators who can deliver a high level of quality, setting up rigorous selection and monitoring processes, and collecting data to drive accountability conversations between the organizations and the SDMC as well as between the organizations and the funders. Additionally, TEA will support the SDMC on building its internal capacity to identify, select and performance manage partner organizations thus enabling them to scale the SQEP using its own staff and resources over time.

TEA has also helped set up a fund, which is now managed by Villgro, with the specific objective of channeling philanthropic funding to address the gap in operating costs that operators face. This makes it easier for partner organisations to focus on delivery and execution.

Click here to read the Yearly Report for AY 2016-17