International Women’s Day: Meet Khushboo Awasthi, a key face in ‘mission’ to transform India’s 1 million govt schools

International Women’s Day: The public education system of India cannot be fixed overnight but needs small, incremental changes to achieve tangible goals, says Khushboo Awasthi, the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of ShikshaLokam, a non-profit working on the education leadership development mission.

ShikshaLokam works with the Department of School Education in different states and Union government institutions to design school improvement and leadership development programmes.

Khushboo is also the co-founder of Mantra4Change, a non-profit driving systemic public school transformation in the Indian education system. She is a member of the working committee of the National Mentoring Mission constituted by the National Council for Teacher Education.

In conversation with Mint on International Women’s Day, Khusboo, with over 15+ years of experience in the education sector, Khusboo spoke about how a ‘public movement’ bringing together different stakeholders is seeking to transform India’s one million public schools.

Mint caught up with Khusboo on the sidelines of InvokED 4.0, a education leadership dialogue, organised by ShikshaLokam in Bengaluru on March 7-8. Here are the edited excerpts from the interview:

What is lagging in government schools today?

India’s education system, with over 1 million public schools and 143 million children, faces staggering challenges. Approximately 3.7 million children drop out of school annually. At least 17 per cent of students fail to move from primary to secondary school (according to UDISE 23-24). Nearly 50 per cent of Grade 5 students struggle to read a Grade 2 text. Over half of adolescents lack basic arithmetic skills according to ASER reports. 

Over the years, these issues have led to widening learning gaps across the country, and perpetuating cycles of poverty for marginalised communities. Public schools also face negative perceptions, and parents are unwilling to enrol their children in these schools, impacting student enrollment and engagement with the parents and community.

How did the idea of ShikshaLokam come to you?

I am an engineer from Bihar. While working at Wipro and Honeywell many years ago, I realised that whatever I could do was due to my education. I and then my friend and now husband (Santosh) realised that we should do something for education. So, in 2013, we started Mantra4Change, a non-profit driving systemic public schools transformation in the Indian education system. The whole idea is how to ensure that kids from marginalised sections of society get a good education.

Then in 2017, we started working with the government. We thought of expanding our work into a movement across 1 million public schools of the country. We started ShikshaLokam – a non-profit working on the education leadership development mission. The idea was to provide a common technology platform with ministry of education through a programme called Diksha – the ‘national digital infrastructure for teachers.’

You speak about Shikshagraha. Tell us about it?

While working with different partners with different contextual knowledge, we considered solving the problem by developing an ecosystem. At present we are working with about 150 organisations in 20 states associated with ShikshaLokam. And last year, we decided to launch what we call a public movement – ‘Shikshagraha’. We thought when we can have a Satyagraha for freedom movement why not a Shikshagraha for a movement in education.

‘Shikshagraha’ isn’t just a platform. It is not a registered organisation. It is a collective of organisation that seeks to provide a thriving environment for co-creation of need-based solutions to become a reality. 

Any organisation can work with this collective. The unique aspect is that earlier we used to work with just government organisations. But today there are small grassroots organisations like self help groups who have joined us.

How does Shikshagraha work?

It’s like a ladder in which you take one step at a time. Each organisation is unique and works in its own way. If I were ShikshaLokam, my team would work with the government in Delhi (Centre). Mantra4Change and Piramal Foundation work in states on things like programme designing in Rajasthan, for example.

Our aim to tap the strengths of different organizations and officials working in different areas of the country. Today, we are working in 20 states including Meghalaya, Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir, etc. 

A Collective Effort

There are places where we found a government official in education department is proactive and then there are places where we find that a organisation is doing a good job.. Then ultimately, we find funders who are ready to collaborate for the collective that has worked.

Basically, we are unlocking three things – government partnerships, leveraging technology and funding. Tribal districts of Odisha are getting funded from Axis Bank in Bombay.

How have things changed on the ground?

Ever since we started working with government the idea is to bring change in micro steps. We will see changes overnight. The idea is to work through micro improvements. Today if you look at Diksha dashboard, there are about 10 lakh micro improvements have been recorded from across 20 states. 

For example, Xavier Chandra Kumar, a school leader, led the holistic transformation of Vallalar Government Higher Secondary School, Villupuram, Tamil Nadu. He helped tackle problem of drugs in the school. If these micro improvements increase, it means schools are improving.

Four years ago, we realised that while we were working, we need to focus on leadership. While we were working with partners and government, we found there was no focus on leadership. We began ‘invokED’ in 2021 to find if can we catalyse dialogue on leadership and importance of leadership. Today invokED has evolved as a space where global partners are coming and taking part in exchange of ideas.

The government of India’s secretary of education (Sanjay Kumar), education secretaries from six states are here for this two-day event. The idea is to see how all these stakeholders – government, NGO’s and philanthrophy organisations work together.

How do you think PPP model works to improve the public education system?

For the millions of children in rural areas and underserved communities, public schools are not just an option—they are often the only feasible path to education. Their reach, scale, and infrastructure make them uniquely positioned to serve as engines of equity and opportunity.

And this can only be realised through public private partnerships – bringing together the government, civil society and market players to work collaboratively for sustainable impact.

The government shapes policies responsive to grassroots needs, empowering communities to be active partners in decision-making. The people most impacted by the system — students, parents, teachers, and local communities – contribute to the design, prototype, and iteration of solutions. NGOs and market players offer innovations, technology, and resources, supporting localised solutions.