About Educational Initiatives

Educational Initiatives (EI) is an educational research organization started by a group of IIT-IIM alumni working with over 2000 leading schools in India, Gulf and Singapore. Our vision is a world where children everywhere are learning with understanding. EI works extensively with schools, both private and government, to help parents and teachers identify common learning gaps and work towards remedying them. The organization's mission is to 'develop and offer products and services based on research in assessment that will (1) accurately and meaningfully measure how well students are really learning; (2) provide insights into the learning process and (3) actually help improve the quality of learning.'

ASSET - is a diagnostic test which actually helps students improve. Launched in 2001, ASSET is a diagnostic test for students of classes III to IX in Maths, English and Science. Over 3,00,000 students have participated so far from 2000 leading schools in India, Middle East and Singapore. Unlike regular tests which try only to find out how much a child knows (or has memorized), ASSET measures how well a student has understood concepts and gives detailed feedback on the same, to help them improve. ASSET helps each student know whether she has actually understood a concept early on so that immediate action can be taken.

EI has an extensive research experience in the educational domain; working on a wide variety of areas.

The Google Project - EI with Google Organization has embarked on a first of its kind, ambitious and complex exercise to measure learning levels of Children across a number of Indian States. The project involves assessment of student achievement in classes 4, 6 and 8 and will cover about 21 states and thus about 15 languages (http://google.org/projects.html). This study will establish student achievement levels and provide insights into comparative performances of different states, to create cross-learning and remedial opportunities.

The Bhutan Project - EI is currently working with Royal Educational council of the Royal Bhutan Government to help transform the quality of school education in Bhutan. EI will be conducting The 'Annual Status of Student Learning' study for all students in Bhutan in classes 4, 6 and 8 in Maths, English and Science to design and develop the assessments, draw upon its expertise based on the ASSET test and large scale assessments conducted in different languages across various states of India. The tests will measure how well students are learning in Bhutanese schools.

Student Learning in the Metros Study - EI and Wipro - Applying Thought in Schools, jointly conducted a national level research study to understand how well children are learning in the top schools of our country. Over 32,000 students from 142 leading schools of five metros - Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi and Bangalore participated in the tests conducted between February and April 2006. India Today cover story in November 2006 covered this article highlighting some of the main findings from this study conducted in Metros on the learning standards in India based on EI's research work.

Learning Standards - India does not have a comprehensive Learning Standards document, though some states and central agencies have educational objectives documents that lay down why and what should be covered, but not systematically and clearly. In the process of designing Learning Standards for KG- 8, a detailed review of what other countries do in K-8 education with what is being done in India (specifically, the textbooks of the Indian state boards, CBSE and ICSE; the syllabus document of the NCERT and the Anglo-Indian Board; the minimum Levels of Learning) was carried out by analyzing the documents and textbooks available.