Our Mission:

To enable young change leaders to build robust contextual solutions to achieve systematic education transformation across India.

From the Manager’s desk 

The idea of creating more organizations like Mantra4Change across the country gave birth to the EduMentum  (Education + Momentum) program. We believe local change leaders who are aware of their geography, with the knowledge and resources, can lead successful systemic transformation in education. In the journey of incubating 41 such organizations in the last 6 years, our belief has strengthened towards solving the perennial issue of educational inequity the “entrepreneurial” way. Now Edumentum has two programs : 

1. Edumentum R – a program that aims to support early-stage organizations in the Rural and Tribal geographies. 
2. EduMentumX – an accelerator amining to build a collective of organizations who are ready to  scale at the district level . The collective will contribute to the narrative building of  Educational Leadership leading to student outcomes. 

After EduMentum’s campaign School Sawarien Hum, to support to micro-innovations in classrooms across the county , we have now started our efforts to build Shikshāgraha – a movement towards Education equity, where more than 100 organizations will join hands at various levels and capacities towards decentralized action. We have over 7 organizations who have kickstarted their work in districts of Bihar, Karnataka and Odisha. We are now energized to begin work in 25 districts . You will read more about each of our initiatives in the newsletter . Do write to us if you want to know more or participate in any of our initiatives. 

 We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter and about EduMentum’s different initiatives. 

-Priyanka K Mohan

Shikshāgraha

The idea of building a people’s movement towards Education Equity, an EduMentum initiative, ‘Shikshāgraha’ was born to solve India’s education inequity by empowering local communities to reach a larger impact and scale. Driven by inspiration from India’s largest Movement, Satyagraha, Shikshāgraha is a portmanteau of two Sanskrit words, Shiksha means knowledge, and Agraha means with great enthusiasm. 

Shikshagraha as a movement for equity in education has shaped tremendously over the last couple of months. With over 20+ partner organisations taking their first steps towards orchestrating collective action in districts. We’ve gathered valuable insights from the field and through interactions with grassroots organizations as well as advisors who’ve brainstormed, guided and co-created with us this movement for education transformation through decentralised action.

The journey now continues into the implementation phase where different geographies have envisioned their own contextual forms of decentralized collective action, with the core focus on improving districts’ education metrics. From the King of Mysore, His Highness Yaduveer Wadiyar, who is championing collective action in the region, to SCERT Bihar who is amplifying DIET-led initiatives seeking active support of the NGO ecosystem; each state that has embarked on the journey with Shikshagraha is progressing through its own contextual model for decentralized collective action. We look forward to energizing and exploring more such context-rooted models for education transformation in many other geographies across the country.

Know more: Shikshāgraha – Edumentum

EduMentum-X

Cohort-2 

EduMentum-X 

1.Selection and onboarding of Second Cohort 

EduMentum-X onboarded six organizations as a part of its second cohort in October. These six organizations have converged under the EduMentum-X banner, each bringing a unique focus and passion to the table. United by their dedication to education, they are set to create waves of change across three regions: North, East, and South. 

1. Slamout Out Loud- Social Emotional Learning through Arts, Punjab 
2. Alohomora Education Foundation- Career Support and Guidance, Haryana 
3. Makkala Jagriti- Early Childhood Care and Education, Karnataka 
4. Eduweave Foundation- Early Childhood Care and Education, Chhattisgarh 
5. Northeast Center for Equity on Integrated Development (NEAID)- Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, Assam 
6. Karunodaya Foundation- Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, Bihar 

Over the next three years, these organizations, hand in hand with Mantra4Change and Shikshalokam, will craft and strengthen district programs. This collaborative effort aims not only to scale educational initiatives but also to create a roadmap for measurable outcomes. It’s a journey fueled by passion, guided by expertise, and grounded in the firm belief of visionary leadership, and systemic education transformation.

To read more: EduMentum X- Weaving the Future of Education Leadership

Alpha cohort- 

1.Community of Practice (COPs)- 

COP is held twice a quarter to create a sense of community engagement within organizations, sharing about their learning and challenges, and sharing their best practices and solutions. In the last quarter on 26th June, a COP was organized for Vidhya Vidhai, Involve and Sanjhi Sikhya on Designing the LFA – District interventions: Design and implementation where the organizations shared about their LFA, and their need and challenges, measurability and alignment with overall objective and sustainability.

2. Mentor Collective call: 

A mentor collective call was held on 12th July, which was attended by all the mentors of the EduMentum-X program, Vaishali Samanta, Chief Operating Officer, Veddis Foundation; KL Mukesh, Venture Partner Unitus Seed Fund; Purna Mukesh, Co-founder Kids Who Kode; and Sushant Thapparan, Senior Vice President and Head of Infosys Leadership Institute and Chetan Kapoor, Chief Operating OfficerTech Mahindra Foundation. The discussion revolved around the accomplishment of the organizations, common challenges and way forward on how to make engagements more engaging. 

3. Mentors Open Office Hours (MOOH): 

Organizations were guided by the mentors, in their District Program. The MOOH involves discussions on specific challenges faced, plus the best practices to be incorporated to move towards the outcome envisioned for the district program. A total of 6 hours of engagement among Sujatha Rao, Purna Mukesh, Sriram Chemuturi, Saurabh Singh, Luv Kumar, Neeraj Doddamane and organizations were seen in the last quarter. 

4. MoU signed between Involve Education Foundation & Sambal district: 

An MOU was signed between Involve where Involve will be working with the district on how peer teaching pedagogy can be used to ensure 100% of students achieve NIPUN goals. The thought is to create a mission around NIPUN Sambhal and motivate all stakeholders towards achieving the goals.

5. Samrath Cluster Program 

Samrath Cluster Program was launched by district lead for Padho Punjab team for the Patiala District encouraging every cluster team to conduct cluster meetings every saturday of the month while also emphasizing on the importance of conducting field visits by the Cluster Head.  

EduMentum-R 

EduMentum-R stands to strengthen the second line of leadership of the organization working in the space of education in the rural and tribal geographies of India. The program supports the capacity building of the CXO and Co-founders of the selected organizations. The program touches upon regions like Manipur, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. 

Activities: 

1.First Basecamp, Cohort 2

Cohort 2 basecamp was held from 19th to 21st June, which aimed at strengthening the organizations’ fundamental areas like Strategy, Budgeting, Fundraising, and Program Design. For day 1, some of the key topics that were touched upon were revisiting the organization’s vision & and mission, doing an organizational-level SWOT analysis, and identifying strategic priorities for the next 3-years. Whereas, for Day 2- an overview of fundraising and budgeting were the main topics. The sessions were facilitated by in-house experts where the budget heads and line items were mapped and a strategy for the utilization of funds for the next three years was designed. Further, the organizations were also equipped with the fundraising strategy, building and maintaining portfolios and challenges surrounding the fundraising. Day 3- consisted of Program design, specifically the fundamental stages of Program Design, the experts further reviewed the existing Theory of Change and helped with outlining their Theory of Action. Some of the key takeaways for the organization were strengthening the Theory of Action and Crafting a year-on-year funder mix based on the 3 years strategy. 

  2. Community of Practice (COP)

COPs are held twice a quarter to create a sense of community engagement within organizations, sharing about their learning and challenges, and sharing their best practices and solutions. In the last quarter, two COPs were held where one focused on reflecting on the journey of redefining their Theory of Action based on their takeaway from the Base Camp. The COP encourages organizations to lead the spaces through their journey of learning. For the second COP, Aavishkaar, an EduMentum-R organization, facilitated the spaces where all the three participating organizations shared about their journey in the last six months. 

3. Virtual Basecamp, Cohort 1-

The fourth base camp was organized for the first cohort which consisted of Gramothan, InsideNE and Shiksharth on the 10th and 11th of August, which revolved around strengthening organizations’ ‘People and Culture’ and ‘Fundraising’. The session was facilitated by Mantra’s People and Culture team wherein the key aspects of Performance Management, Recruitment cycle, understanding and designing SOP procedures were touched upon. For the first time a session on Fundraising focusing on geography contextualization by leveraging the presence of local influencers and securing government funding was conducted for the organizations.

4. Field visit to Gramothan: 

A field visit was made to one of the first cohort organizations of EduMentum-R, Grahmotan on 16th August. Grahmotan is one of the sole organizations working in the field of Education in Sonpur district of Odisha. The objective of the field visit was to understand the context, geography, and the organization’s works. The organization is actively working for quality education through the School Transformation Program (1-5 class) for effective classroom teaching practices and has set up a few community learning centers through their Community Learning Program that are facilitated by community volunteers to bridge the learning gap of students in core subjects like Maths, and Social Science. 

Section 4: 

EduLite: 

EduLite, an initiative of EduMentum aims to disseminate learning resources for the Early-stage organizations with their organization building. The idea of a self-learning chatbot under EduMentum was born to reach organizations at large in the ecosystem to disseminate learning resources and capacitate them in the area of organizational building. The need was seen while understanding the challenges faced by early-stage organizations in the area of organizational strengthening, especially during the early years of inception.

At present, EduLite is in its piloting phase with its first module on People and Culture which covers the domain in totality ranging from Recruitment, Onboarding, Performance Management, Learning and Development, and four others. 

To read more: EduLite- Concept note – Google Docs

Hear from our Team Members on their experience of the EduMentum! 

“Being part of an accelerator program for district-level systemic transformation and school improvement has been an exciting journey. Guided by the principles of collective action, and decentralization fostering micro-improvements, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to witness firsthand the power of collaboration in driving change & impact. This role has been both exciting and challenging, as it’s pushed me to constantly innovate and adapt, and I’m continually inspired by the dedication of our entrepreneurs & grassroots level organizations working towards a brighter future for education equity.”

-Shivangi Tripathi, Program Lead, EduMentum

“Leading the EduMentumR has been an enriching experience as it has allowed me to delve into understanding the Tribal context, not to forget, the beauty of the places and culture I get to see and experience. It’s amazing to see how the changemakers in these regions are committed to bringing a tangible change in their communities through building the second line of leadership. The resilience and determination displayed is contagious and encouraging.” 

–Soumyadeep Sarkar, Program Lead, EduMentum

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visit – www.edumentum.org