Simple steps can fill gaps in India's education system: Rukmini Banerji

Folks at Pratham have seen students struggling to cope with an advanced curriculum without having basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills

In the balmy warmth of the afternoon sun, an old gent plays croquet on the lawn outside the Tea Lounge at Delhi’s Taj Palace Hotel. Pretty porcelain teapots on silver salvers are being dispatched hither and thither to the handful of guests partaking of what many consider the most civilised meal of the day —afternoon tea. “It is picnic weather!” exclaims Rukmini Banerji delightedly, as she flops into a capacious sofa. “I was cooped up in office all day and didn’t even notice…” 

To be fair, Banerji and her cohorts at Pratham, one of the country’s largest NGOs that provides high-quality,