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2:45-3:00pm       Welcome and Introduction

3:00- 4:00pm      Understanding the Indian Educational Landscape

India’s educational system is failing its children, and the implications for economic development are significant.  In the past ten years Government of India’s spending on education has grown and the results are discouraging; while enrollment levels have improved, students’ learning outcomes are dismal.  What are the structural changes that might improve learning in both the public sponsored schools and the private sector ones?  How do we frame and sequence the social investment to accomplish this?

Speaker – Karthik Muralidharan, Assistant Professor of Economics at University of California, San Diego

Moderator – Tarun Khanna, Director of SAI; Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School

4:00-5:15pm       What do We Know? What Do We Need to Know?

What evidence do we have, and what evidence do we need to generate to inform the design and content of this social investment strategy. Educators in India have worked on many levels and across many frontiers to promote improved learning outcomes. Non – profit service providers and philanthropic groups have developed a myriad of interventions; what works and what doesn’t? Looking ahead, where do we need to place our investments to generate the insights and findings that will influence policy makers? Are there important lessons from outside of India that can be applied?

Panel: Abhijit Banerjee, MIT, Abdul Latif Jamal Poverty Action Lab;

Felipe Barrera-Osorio, Assistant Professor of Education and Economics, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of International Education and Director of Global Education and of International Education Policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Moderator: Ashish Dhawan, CEO and Founder, Central Square Foundation

5:30-6:45pm       Critical Questions Unanswered: Funding, Research, and Advocacy in Education Reform        

The education reform movements outside of India have taken different directions and each offers some insight to efforts in India. The US offers many such important lessons for the emerging education reform movement in India. As we consider the past 20 years here in the US, can we apply “lessons learned” to the Indian context?  What are the critical questions that we should pursue —“excellence” or “scale” in program?  What is the best application of philanthropic capital: research, pilot stage intervention or scaling programs with promise? How do you support advocacy efforts?

Panel:  Tom Haslett, Senior Advisor, Central Square foundation

Stig Leschly, CEO, Match Education

Jacqueline Bhabha, FXB Director of Research; Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health; Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Lecturer in Law, Harvard Law School; Adjunct Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School

Moderator: Tarun Khanna, Director of SAI; Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School

6:45-7:15pm       Reception

Co-sponsored by the Central Square Foundation