Reinforcing the role of CSR in education

As the world progresses, the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasing. Beyond its horrific effects on human life, COVID-19 significantly hampered India’s ability to access education, keeping 247 million kids in primary and secondary school out of the classroom. While school systems in India and throughout the world have employed a variety of strategies to reach out to children to impart education at home, there needs to be a concentrated push in education via CSR by businesses. Education centric initiatives may aid students who are marginalised by factors such as poverty, gender, language, handicap, displacement, and not attending school. It’s thus becomes one of the most important social sector which shapes our development landscape.

So far, companies would mostly intervene in Government schools on a one-time basis, providing infrastructural fixes with no maintenance and no sustainability. However, it is now crucial for India Inc. to create long-term, sustainable change through CSR activities. CSR activities undertaken around education need to evolve to become imperative in changing the face of education. While other sectors of the economy are opening up, the educational sector has been the slowest of all. According to the India Philanthropy Report 2022 by consulting firm Bain & Co, while education sector has been a key recipient of the CSR funds, however it saw a decline of 18% in the funding. Moreover, over the past few years, India has spent roughly only 3.1% of its GDP on education. Given India’s enormous population, the figure is lower than any other industrialised countries.