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Rehnuma

place India + 2 more

An incubator for school principals to drive rapid innovation in under-resourced schools

Research suggests that one single person can drive school improvement significantly more than others — the SCHOOL PRINCIPAL who impacts student learning by 30% (McKinsey, n.d.). Rehnuma aims to raise educational outcomes of disadvantaged communities by building the capacity of principals of low-fee and public schools in India.

Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Web presence

2021

Established

75K

Children

1

Countries
Target group
Leaders
Updated
May 2024
Our intervention leads to rapid improvements in schools. All principals are confident, set a clear vision, delegate, and initiate improvement projects. Rehnuma principals boost student performance, with 95% scoring above the national average. Our approach values community knowledge; solutions are published, reaching 100,000 educators. 1.4 Lakh Rehnuma principals impact 70 million Indian children.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

India hosts 31% of the world's "multidimensionally poor" children (OPHI), attending schools charging less than $12/month. However, these schools fail them, with less than 50% proficiency across four grades (NAS survey). A key factor is the inadequate skills of school principals, who can alone impact student outcomes by 30% (McKinsey), lagging behind global counterparts (GSL).

What does your innovation look like in practice?

Rehnuma addresses the identified need by adopting a three-fold approach rooted in empirical findings that emphasize the pivotal role of school principals in driving educational improvements, with potential gains of up to 30% in student learning.
1. Enable: Through workshops, exposure visits & personalised coaching, we build the capacity of school principals, empowering them to think innovatively and strategically, like entrepreneurs
2. Document: We actively document best practices originating at the grassroots level, curated by principals based on unique challenges they face.
3. Scale: Building on the track record of our proven contextual solutions, we grow our impact by collaborating with state governments and other non-governmental organizations. We also plan to scale through a content platform with dedicated leadership courses for school principals.

Our vision is that every principal in India has the skill and the will to make education meaningful for children, Now!!

How has it been spreading?

80+ principals have been trained directly with learnings from our 30 incubatees from impacting 75,000 students in the past 3 years. We have formed 2 strategic partnerships at the district and state levels -Mumbai and Himachal Pradesh to run interventions with a select cohort of school leaders on school improvement projects. Rehnuma was one of the 31 global initiatives published by UNESCO as a transformational innovation during COVID that could shape the future of education.
By 2025, we aim to:
1) Digitize workshops and best practices into 12 self-learning courses for principals and aspiring coaches
2) Forge partnerships with school associations and government to train more principals to become systemic leaders
3) Our alumni school leaders start collectives to make a systemic level impact

If I want to try it, what should I do?

If you are an education NGO, we would love to partner with you to integrate school leadership into your program. Furthermore, we can equip your team members to become school coaches who can drive innovations in your schools. Write to us at contact@barefootedu.com.

Implementation steps

Needs Assessment
Conduct a thorough needs assessment within your target community to identify specific schools and motivated School Principals that will benefit from the Rehnuma.
Understand Our Approach to School Leadership
Research and get to know Barefoot Edu's innovative approach to school leadership development, emphasizing entrepreneurship principles and grassroots solutions. Look at the online content platform, videos, and the open-source course.
Reach out to us
Reach out to our team, we will help plan an orientation for you and your team, taking you through each process of Rehnuma including workshops, peer-learning circles, coaching and other events.
Training Workshops
Organize training workshops to introduce school leaders to entrepreneurship concepts and equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge to drive innovation in their schools.
Implementation Support
Provide ongoing support and guidance to school leaders as they implement their chosen solutions, including regular coaching sessions and peer learning circles.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Establish monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to track replicated programs' impact and effectiveness, using quantitative and qualitative measures.

Spread of the innovation

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