HDFC Bank to train 15 lakh government school teachers in 12 states across India

Bangalore, August 23, 2017: HDFC Bank Ltd., today launched Zero Investment Innovations for Education Initiatives (ZIIEI) to transform education in government schools across India. As part of this initiative, the bank will train 15 lakh school teachers across 12 states and union territories of India to improve the quality of education in 6.2 lakh government schools, thereby benefitting 8.3 crore students.

Education is one of the core focus areas of the bank's Corporate Social Responsibility, where the objective is to Create Sustainable Communities.

In Rajasthan, HDFC Bank will train 2 lakh teachers in over 70,000 government schools that will benefit more than 81 lakh school students.

What is ZIIEI?
It’s an initiative to introduce innovation in school education at zero additional investment – by training teachers, inviting ideas from them, and implementing the selected ideas in schools to improve the quality of education. The initiative will be implemented in partnership with Sri Aurobindo Society and state governments.

Through the initiative, the bank aims to achieve the following:
1. Improved education delivery in classrooms
2. Reduced drop-out rate
3. Creation of a conducive learning environment for girls and children with special needs
4. Enhanced teacher, parent & community involvement in improving education quality
5. Effective implementation of government programs like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

At a function organized in the city, the initiative was launched by chief guest Shri Vasudev Devnani, Minister of State for Education (Primary and Secondary), Govt. of Rajasthan, in the presence of Ms. Nusrat Pathan, Head – Corporate Social Responsibility, HDFC Bank; Ms. Smita Bhagat, Branch Banking Head – North, HDFC Bank; Mr. Sambhrant, Director – Education, Sri Aurobindo Society; Mr. Satyen Modi, Zonal Head – Rajasthan, HDFC Bank; Mr. Mayank Agarwal, Head – Operations, Sri Aurobindo Society; and other senior officials of the bank and Sri Aurobindo Society.

According to a report, some of the problems facing school education in India are poorly qualified teachers, very high student-teacher ratio, inadequate teaching materials, and out-moded teaching methods, leading to students lacking even rudimentary reading and writing skills.

“As a socially responsible corporate citizen, HDFC Bank has started a movement to transform the quality of education in 12 states. We want to make education accessible, effective and bring it in tune with changing times. Who better than the teachers to bring about such a change in the temples of learning? This one-of-its-kind initiative is a part of the Bank’s sustained endeavour to create a positive impact in the lives of the local populace through its Corporate Social Responsibility programme,” said Ms. Nusrat Pathan, Head – Corporate Social Responsibility, HDFC Bank.

"If the Indian education system really wants to gear up its students for the global economy in the coming years, the only way forward is to find innovation at the grassroots and scale them up to improve the quality of education. ZIIEI is an answer to this call for action and its heroes are those teachers in every corner of the country who have come up with brilliant ideas solely thorough their individual efforts. This initiative is to recognise them, to bring their best practices alive in thousands of other schools, and create an ecosystem that facilitates sharing of knowledge and skills within the education fraternity," said Mr. Sambhrant Sharma, Director – Education, Sri Aurobindo Society.

In the pilot phase of the project last year, HDFC Bank trained 5 lakh teachers in 1.75 lakh government schools in Uttar Pradesh, thereby improving quality of education for over 2 crore school students in the state.