MUMBAI, India :  Educate Girls is launching Project Pragati with a vision to enable 10th grade credentialing for 10 million girls in 10 years. It is a flexible approach to secondary education for out-of- school adolescent girls and young women, which brings them back to education through the government-open school system.

India’s Right to Education Act covers children between 5-14 years of age; research shows that in India, 66 Million girls aged 15-25 are permanently at risk of never completing their secondary education. Completing 10th grade examination will enable girls to access entry-level jobs, traditional loans, further education, and vocational training. This boosts their agency and increases their potential for autonomy, growth, and aspirations towards an independent and financially inclusive life.

Project Pragati works with digital assistance alongside an empathic, human-centric approach at a programmatic level. At the heart of the program is a Prerak, a compassionate adult from within the community who identifies permanently dropped-out adolescent girls and young women, gets them enrolled with an open school and supports them in their exam preparation by conducting village-based learning camps.

Innovating the ‘Second Chance at Learning’ Approach:

According to research, a 10th certificate in India has a lifetime wealth effect of USD60,000. However, after the Covid-19 Pandemic, the number of out-of-school adolescent girls has significantly risen. Educate Girls has stepped forward with urgency to bring an immediate solution to this.

“For us, 2022 was about progress, about pushing our ambitious goal to provide education to every girl in India,” shares Safeena Husain, Founder & Board Member of Educate Girls. “With Project Pragati, it is our aim to ensure young women who have no hopes of being in school get a second chance at education and build a better life for themselves.”

“At Educate Girls, we believe that a second chance at education is a chance to move forward. Our mission is to build towards impacting a million learners per year through Pragati. Bringing about such a change at a population level scale will need an entire ecosystem to be catalysed, and starting this year that’s going to be our focus. We are very excited about the way forward.” shared the Project Lead for Pragati, Geetika Higgins.