About us:

Pratham Books (www.prathambooks.org) is a not-for-profit children’s book publisher that was set up in 2004 to publish good quality, affordable books in many Indian languages. Our mission is to see ‘a book in every child’s hand’ and we have spread the joy of reading to millions of children in India. As a publisher serving every child in India, Pratham Books has always pushed the boundaries when it comes to exploring innovative ways in which to create access to joyful storybooks and have been fortunate in finding partners to collaborate with who share this vision.

In 2015, Pratham Books increased its footprint by going digital. As an industry leader, we were one of the first publishers in the country to open license our content. All this content is now available on StoryWeaver, which is a digital platform that hosts books in languages from India and beyond, so that every child can have an endless stream of storybooks in her mother tongue to read and enjoy. The books can be read, translated, versioned or downloaded for free. 

 

Our Programmes:

StoryWeaver has created the following educator focused digital interventions:

Reading Programme - RP offers 144 beautifully illustrated multilingual age-appropriate storybooks that provide a rich reading experience to all children.

Foundation Literacy Programme - The FLP program consists of 90 storybooks in Hindi and Marathi across 6 reading levels for Grades 1 to 3. 

STEM -Literacy Programme - Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver has created a comprehensive STEM literacy program for Grades 1 to 5 in five languages.

 

We are looking for an Associate Partnerships Manager for Maharashtra to join our Partnerships Team. 

 

Scope of Work/ Duties:

As Associate Partnerships Manager, Maharashtra, your core responsibilities with Pratham Books StoryWeaver will include the following: 

 

 Partnerships & Project Management

• Partnerships building with State Education Departments, Ed Tech Companies, NGOs and CBOs in the state of Chhattisgarh, in addition to other states 

• Identifying and bringing on board new Marathi language partners for STEM, FLP and Reading Programme

• Identify partnerships for platform (content and features) adoption at scale 

• Serve as the primary point of contact for all operational questions about the project internally and externally 

• Create and maintain detailed timelines/work plans for all project deliverables and key milestones

• Deliver project status updates to internal team and stakeholders

• Support in preparing project launch, weekly check-ins, to identify and capture recommendations for future execution

• Prepare monthly project reports, an end project report on best practices, challenges, case stories etc. 

 

Capacity Building

• Facilitate the planning of capacity building / training of various stakeholders in the program

• Support organising and completion of capacity building for stakeholders 

• Support the team to prepare lesson plans and editable collaterals 

 

Impact Documentation and Monitoring & Evaluation

• Support in implementing the monitoring and evaluation of project operating within Reading Programme, FLP and STEM programmes, developing and maintaining the MIS of the project/s

• Support the research agency to complete the baseline and endline evaluations and providing them with necessary support from the district functionaries 

• Submit monthly reports on the programme implementation, reflecting achievements made, challenges and solutions for donor agency, and other key stakeholders 

• Documenting project successes and learnings in the form of case studies, video stories and short films 

 

Eligibility:

• Post Graduate degree in Social Work/Sociology/Education/Management or any other relevant discipline

• Minimum 5 years of relevant work experience of working with Government Education Departments

• Dynamic person with good communication skills and zeal to learn

• Should be fluent in writing and reading in English and Marathi

• Should be able to work on word, PowerPoint and excel sheets

• Should be able to write reports and minutes of meetings

• Should be willing to travel within Maharashtra as the job requires extensive travel within the State

 

Reporting: 

The Associate Partnerships Manager, Maharashtra will be directly reporting to the Senior Manager - Partnerships 

Duration of the engagement: 

1 year (starting from September 20th, 2022)

Location: 

Pune

Compensation: 

Compensation offered will be commensurate with the qualifications and experiences of the candidate

 

How to Apply:

Interested candidates can email their detailed CV by the 15th of October, 2022 to [email protected]. In the subject line, candidates must specify ‘Associate Partnerships Manager, Maharashtra’. 

 

*Please note that only shortlisted candidates shall be notified by us. 

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This Hindi Diwas, celebrate the Hindi language with some of our Hindi-first books. This means that these books were first written in Hindi, and then translated into other languages. Our Hindi Diwas celebration list includes books by Hindi literary stalwart the late Kamala Bhasin, features whimsical silly poetry and also some simple books for young ones about how to count in a fun and engaging way.

 

1. सतरंगी लड़कियाँ सतरंगी लड़के

 

 

क्या सभी लड़कियाँ एक जैसी होती हैं? ज़रा सोचिए…

क्या सभी लड़के एक जैसे होते हैं? ज़रा सोचिए…

 

2. रंग बिरंगी किताब

 

देख भँवरी की सतरंगी किताब, दोस्त सभी चकित हैं आज। भँवरी ने बताया यह पीपल के पेड़ और मूँगफली मामा का कमाल। चलिए जानते हैं, कैसे हुआ ये धमाल!

 

3. मुफ्त की कुल्फी

 

उत्तर भारत में बचपन, गर्मियों और मोहल्ले की गलियों का एक अनोखा रिश्ता है और वह है ठंडी-ठंडी कुल्फियों का मीठा सा स्वाद। आइये नन्ही भँवरी के साथ इसका मज़ा आप भी लीजिए।

 

4. गप्पू गोला

पिटारा खुलते और गप्पू गोले के बाहर आते ही क्या क्या नहीं होता! गड़बड़ घोटाले की एक लड़ी सी फूट पड़ती है। तो आइए पढ़ें यह अगड़म बगड़म कविता।

 

5. चकाचक चीकू

चीकू में कुछ भी ख़ास नहीं था। पर एक दिन इस साधारण सी लड़की ने सब को दिखा दिया कि हर कोई असाधारण बनने की क्षमता रखता है।

 

Read more Hindi-first books on StoryWeaver here.

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Here’s a post by Purvi Shah, Senior Director — StoryWeaver, to mark our 7th anniversary.

The right to read. To learn. To discover… It’s what every child deserves.

Take 9 year-old Snehal, for instance. Born with impaired speech and hearing, she often struggled in school. There’s no measure of how deeply her learning journey was affected by her impediment. But a child is a child, and from the moment she first opened “Maaloo aani Kaaloo” (Maaloo and Kaaloo), a storybook from StoryWeaver’s Foundational Literacy Program, she was captivated by the new world among its pages.

Snehal Sampath, Grade 3, Kishtapur Aheri, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra

Snehal couldn’t read the book, at least not at first. But she could see the beautiful illustrations, and as she traced them with her fingers, as she turned pages to see how the story unfolded, she began to smile. Her teacher tells us that she used to copy the stories from these books to her notebook, and would retell them in her own words. Her parents were thrilled to see her express herself through the written word.

From curiosity, to reading, to writing – these are the journeys we celebrate today, on International Literacy Day. It’s been seven years since Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver took life online to help children like Snehal along their reading journey. And to celebrate our anniversary, we’re celebrating the right to read, in its many shapes and forms.

Pratham Books is the not-for-profit publisher of children’s books that aims to put a book in every child’s hand. Early Literacy is at the heart of our work. We know the power of reading to feed curiosity, shape imagination, and equip children with tools for social and emotional learning. The joy of reading is an extraordinary motivation for children to transition from ‘Learning to Read’ to ‘Reading to Learn.’ And we work to achieve this through a combination of methods.

Our storybooks are contextual, so that the child can relate to them. They are visually rich, to be attractive for the child. And finally, they are in the child’s mother tongue, so as to be as accessible as possible. Through our award-winning open source digital platform, StoryWeaver, we make thousands of such stories available easily to parents, teachers, and children in over 300 languages, all for free. 

 

#RightToRead through the pandemic and beyond

2020 was a year like no other. All over the world, the shadow of COVID-19 loomed large. School closures put an abrupt end to the planned learning journey for months to come. In the state of Maharashtra alone, 5.3 million* students of government schools were bereft of their regular learning environment. Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver, the Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research & Training (MSCERT), Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), and UNICEF came together to tackle this problem head on. StoryWeaver helped create the  Goshticha Shaniwar Reading Program (Saturday of Stories). 

Every Saturday, teachers, parents and volunteers would receive and disseminate the all-digital ‘package’ of storybook, posters, and activities via WhatsApp. The Program shone a light on the role remote learning can play in a student's life. As more and more children return to school, it falls upon us  to continue this momentum and keep building their reading habit by providing regular online and offline access to interesting, relevant storybooks in mother tongue languages. 

 

#RightToRead in your mother tongue

Language supports cognitive processes required for learning. They are intrinsically linked to culture and central to the identity of communities. It is said that children should be taught in their mother tongue for at least 6 years. According to Unesco, 40% of the global population cannot access education in a language they understand. StoryWeaver has been relentlessly  working on the right for children to read in their mother tongue for the last 7 years. Through partnerships and language champions we have made available storybooks in over 300 of the world’s languages, 70% of which are underserved.

 

#RightToRead so that children can ‘Read To Learn’

 A 2021 study conducted by Azim Premji University in 1137 public schools in 5 states of India found that the learning losses due to school closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an average of 92% of the children losing at least one specific language ability from the previous year across all classes. At Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver we took this time to pause, reflect and build a suite of programs that would help teachers and parents bridge this gap - leveraging the power of stories. 

Our Early Childhood Program supported early readers. The Reading Program guided children from Grades 1 to 8. The Foundational Literacy Program (FLP) built foundational reading skills. The STEM Literacy Program, to be launched soon, helps inculcate a STEM mindset. Each of these programs is linked to curriculum, learning outcomes and  scaffolded with activities, worksheets, A/V resources and training videos - thereby making it easier for any teacher, anywhere to adopt the program.

At Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver, we believe that every child has the right to read. And we’re drawing upon the best of technology and open licensing to make sure that children can have uninterrupted access to the books they so richly deserve to read and enjoy. Not just today, but every day.

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