Dr. Ramachandran has been working on elementary education, girls’ education and women’s empowerment. She was involved in the conceptualisation of Mahila Samakhya (Education for Women’s Equality) and served as the first National Project Director from 1988-93. She established Educational Resource Unit (now known as ERU Consultants Private Limited) in 1998 as a network of researchers and practitioners working on education. From 2011 to mid-2015 she was a National Fellow and Professor of Teacher Management and Development in NUEPA (National University of Education, Planning and Administration). She has been engaged in research on elementary and secondary education focusing on gender and equity issues, teacher status and motivation and systemic barriers to realising the equity goals of national policies and programmes for elementary education; adult literacy and continuing education. Most recently, she is engaged in researching educational needs of out of school youth, especially girls.
Some of her recent publications include: ‘Equity and Quality are Two Sides of the Same Coin in India’s School Education’; ‘Cartographies of empowerment – tracing the journey of Mahila Samakhya’; and ‘Inclusion and exclusion of students in schools and classrooms in primary and upper primary schools of India – a synthesis of a six state study’.