The Exemplar schools create a proof-of-concept for schools that would be run within government premises in a sustainable manner but with greater autonomy, accountability, and significantly improved learning outcom es. The students that the exemplars cater to come from the poorest of the poor background with their average family income being approximately Rs. 6000 per month. Most of our students are first-generation learners, and around 17% of them are from protected caste designations. Over 90% of them speak Hindi, while the others speak Bengali, Tamil, Punjabi, Nepalese, and Pashto.

The Exemplars demonstrate that good quality education is possible and can be provided all in the schools driven by the government system. They prove that it is possible! In the three schools that Peepul operates under a public-private partnership with the SDMC (South Delhi Municipal Corporation) which cater to 1000+ students, 85% of our children meet or exceed grade-level expectations.

In our exemplar schools, Peepul takes full ownership of the learning journey of a child–Starting from enrolment to the day he graduates from primary grades. Our work, therefore, has led to a remarkable retention rate of students at 95%. As part of our holistic transformation approach, our schools invest time in processes beyond the classrooms and teaching sessions. We make dedicated and routine efforts for community engagement, teacher selection, teacher training, pedagogy, and learning assessments. We constantly innovate and implement contextualized international best practices to drive learning in the classrooms. We lay great focus on using best in class classroom and behavior management practices.

To create transformative impact through whole-school intervention, we focus on five things we believe will have the highest impact: (I) an innovative curriculum, (II) rigorous, practical and continuous teacher training, (III) regular tracking of child-level assessments and school data, (IV) strong school routines, and (V) regular and intensive engagement with parents and the community.

The exemplars are set-up to ensure that the important characters in the learning journey of a child are provided with the structured support needed to support their learning journeys. For our children, the teachers are the constant pillars of support. For the teachers, we have a dedicated team of academic coordinators to provide them with the professional and technical support needed to excel. To drive ownership of the community and maintain the school-community link, we have a team of community officers that ensure the parents are engaged with the learning journey of the child at all stages.

• We undertake a whole-school and holistic transformation approach.
• We co-manage the school along with government staff – we continuously train government teachers to build their capacity to independently take on subject classes.
• We adopt a rigorous approach to teaching and learning and have developed a strong curriculum, using international best practices and guidance from reputed Indian experts.
• We put need based and context-specific processes and systems in place for teacher training, school information management, community outreach and parent engagement, health and hygiene monitoring and operational efficacy at the school
• We regularly roll out student assessments, tracking each child’s progress and sharing it with parents as well as recording their progress in our school information system.