Shiksha Sankalp has developed a unique approach called the “Learning Rewards Program” to address the challenge of school education for poor students.

Under this approach, Shiksha Sankalp encourages children from poor families in the target community to enroll in government recognized schools. Their learning achievement is tested through the Standardized Academic Performance (SAP) Tests conducted every six months by Shiksha Sankalp. Students are provided monthly cash stipends (Learning Rewards) commensurate with their grade appropriate learning achievement. The learning rewards are transferred directly into their mother’s bank account. With this the students feel encouraged to learn actively at school.

To address difficulties in learning at home (such as lack of guidance from illiterate parents and poor learning environment), families enroll their children at local private tuition centers and use the learning rewards money to pay the fees. Many of these tuition centers are run by senior school students from the same community or housewives from neighboring middle class families.

Many poor families also shift their children to private schools that provide better education.

Based on the SAP test performance, feedback is provided to the participating students as well as their schools and tuition centers. This enhances accountability for learning achievement among all stakeholders. Thus a new learning-focused ecosystem is created in the community, where parents, tutors and teachers actively respond to the learning needs of the children.