Wharton Journal

Issue date: 12/4/06 Section: News

Wharton students are 'world class' in many ways. We apply 110 percent of our skills and talents to endeavors in our professional and personal lives every day. Below is the story of how one student, Himanshu Agarwal, a first year MBA student, is making a difference in the lives of children in rural India through India Schoolhouse Fund (ISF), a non-profit organization working towards developing education system for resource constrained rural areas of India.

The need for education is great in India, with illiteracy rates ranging from 70-90%. In Rajugella (Uttar Pradesh (UP) state, India), like in many villages where people live with less than $1/day, education is a rare commodity: 90% of women and 70% of men cannot read and write. In the state of UP alone, more than four million children do not attend school, and more than 50% of those who complete fifth grade cannot solve a subtraction problem. In the district of Mathura where Rajugella is located, natural resources are abundant but when 60-75% of fifth grade students cannot perform a simple division problem, economic development remains difficult.

To combat poverty, education is a first step and the ISF seeks to improve access to education by building an education center to not only providing primary level education but also to train public school teachers of surrounding villages. Their mission is to "ensure effective delivery of community-based education to break the vicious cycle of poverty in rural areas of India."

The ISF business model is uniquely designed to leverage the strengths of local and international capabilities to ensure effective delivery of community-based education. To sustain, scale and provide high-quality education, ISF is developing an integrated school system (nodal hub) where schools in each village are connected to a resource center (center hub). Resources and expertise are concentrated in one location and the network allows sharing of these resources across resource-constrained schools (satellite schools). This model is scalable as the marginal cost of educating a new child is minimal.

To date, they have made significant process. They have formed an executive board, which includes HBS professors Stacey Childress with input from Krishna Palepu, raised substantial resources (including $37,000 to set up the education center), developed partnerships with local experts in construction of school buildings (Round Table India) and in rural education (Rishi Valley Institute for Education Resources). They are nearing completion on the education center, which should secure high quality education to 1,200 children from 5 to 10 villages. The educational program should be implemented early in 2007. Through the process, Himanshu has discovered there is a lot that goes into creating a new non-profit organization and making it successful. Building the education center was just the beginning.

Himanshu said "To me, the most amazing thing is that ISF does not just talk about problems and solutions, it acts on them. With little effort from many of us, we will educate those who may not have the chance to get out of poverty otherwise. When you don't know how to count or divide, how can you think about economic development? What I would like to see in the future is a transformation of a poor village into a town with people capable of leveraging the amazing resources surrounding them. I want to see the four million children currently out-of-school in UP state getting the education they deserve to integrate the global economy we are benefiting from. Given our relationship with the local community and government, this is an opportunity that could not be missed! I hope that my current and future peers will see it as well."

Himanshu is also utilizing Wharton platform to make ISF's mission successful. Ensuring successful implementation in Rajugella is the first step toward our larger goal of strengthening the rural education system in India. To generate funds for ISF, Himanshu teamed up with another Wharton student, Pranjal Shah, and the CEO of ISF to participate in the JP Morgan $25,000 Good Venture Contest. They are currently in finals after being selected as one of six teams out of 66 teams from 41 schools nationwide. We wish them luck for the finals and hope that they win the competition.

Further, Himanshu is also organizing a day trip to the Rajugella village for Wharton students who are going on India-GIP. These students will get a chance to experience the underbelly of India, where 60% of the Indian population lives, and witness the progress of the ISF school. Overall, the India Schoolhouse Fund is a great success story which is truly making a difference.

To learn more about it or to get involved in this endeavor, please contact Himanshu or visit ISF's website at www.indiaschoolhousefund.com.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools