Rishi Valley Institute For Educational Resources (River) company information, Employees & Contact Information

In developing countries, many primary schools (comprising Grade 1 to 5) in the rural areas are of a multi-grade, multilevel nature. A multi-grade, multi-level (MGML) classroom comprises children of different ages and varying abilities belonging to different grade levels. There is a considerable variation between the ages of children, their academic competence, the study materials (mostly in the form of textbooks), and the grades they belong to. Teachers in such a classroom are expected to manage diverse learners albeit with inadequate preparation and training. With access to only age-specific text-books, teachers find it nearly impossible to address the learning requirements of such a diverse set of children. Consequently, millions of children suffer in these joyless schools with low-levels of learning, rampant absenteeism and high drop-out rates. As per a report by the Govt. of India, the proportion of children in Grade 3 who could read a grade 1 text was under 50% in 2008 while in 2011, this figure was 30%. A child in grade 3 who should know addition and subtraction cannot even recognize numbers. In fact, the percentage of children who can identify numbers correctly has gone down from 70% to less than 50% from 2008 to 2011. While working with single teacher schools in rural India, the RiVER program saw demoralized students and passive communities that found no meaning in the existing schools. Consistent effort over the past 31 years has led to the development of the RiVER MGML pedagogy. This pedagogy attempts to solve the problem endemic in rural schools. The RiVER program currently covers over 900,000+ primary schools, with 320,000 primary teachers trained on the MGML pedagogy covering 20 million plus children (Grade 1-5) in over 16 states across India. The RiVER model has also been implemented at schools in countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and Germany. Awards and Recognition 2017: RiVER adjudged one of the top 20 best social innovations by the Government of India and the RiVER Director felicitated by the PM of India 2016: RiVER awarded the ‘Millennium Alliance’ award (R3) under the education sector 2012: The Global Journal (published from Geneva & New York) ranks RIVER as one among the top 100 most influential NGOs in the world 2011: RiVER awarded the Jindal Prize in the field of Education, with emphasis on moral upliftment, with a cash prize of USD 200,000 2011/2010 (RiVER representation at ) - World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland. - Visgrad Countries' Regional Meet, Prague on Global Development Education - Summer Davos Meeting of New Champions at Dalian, China - Clinton Global Foundation, New York 2009: RiVER Directors adjudged Social Entrepreneurs of the Year-India by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, World Economic Forum, Geneva 2004: RIVER awarded the 1st prize for the ‘Most Innovative Project 2004’ by the Global Development Network at the 6th Annual Global Development Conference held at Dakar, Senegal 2002: RiVER Directors awarded the Ashoka Innovators for the Public Fellowship by the Ashoka Foundation