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Indian schools fight poverty armed with Nobel laureate's idea

New Delhi, Dec 10 (EFE).- Students aged between four and seven years old run anxiously toward a classroom with no benches to sit and no desks to lean on at a modest school in the Indian capital.They have to arrive in time and sit on spread-out mats on the floor and begin classes for a camp to learn to read and do basic arithmetic, a project based on the field studies of this year’s economics Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo.The aim is to improve children’s overall foundational skills of reading and arithmetic through instructional practice according to a method called “Teaching at the Right Level.”The project by nonprofit Pratham is an example of how the research of Banerjee – an Indian-origin citizen of the United States – and his wife Duflo (a French-born American) will help the students become employable and, ultimately, alleviate their poverty.The experimental methodology won the couple the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences along with their associate Michael Kremer, also an American.In their book "Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty" (2011), Banerjee and Duflo put forward the basic idea that poverty happens due to a combination of problems, which should be identified and understood one by one.For this, they formed a research center called the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-Pal) that has established a network of 194 professors in 62 universities with the mission of reducing poverty by ensuring that public policies are framed according to scientific evidence. (Camera: ALEJANDRO R.OTERO).FOOTAGE SHOT ON DEC 5 AND 6, 2019.SHOTLIST: 1) B-ROLLS OF KALYANPURI SCHOOL, WHERE THE “TEACHING AT THE RIGHT LEVEL” METHODOLOGY WAS EMPLOYED, IN NEW DELHI, INDIA.2.) INTERVIEWS WITH KAUSHAL, A TEACHER AND VOLUNTEER WITH NGO PRATHAM; DEVYANI PERSHAD, THE HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS AT PRATHAM; AND SHOBHINI MUKERJI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SOUTH ASIA J-PAL (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE).SOUNDBITES: 1.) KAUSHAL, A TEACHER AND VOLUNTEER WITH NGO PRATHAM (IN HINDI).2.) DEVYANI PERSHAD, THE HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS AT PRATHAM (IN ENGLISH).3.) SHOBHINI MUKERJI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SOUTH ASIA J-PAL (IN ENGLISH).TRANSLATIONS: Actually before lunch we have a library period, in which we issue books and perform some activities such as art & craft, book reading, story making, story telling. After lunch, we hold a learning camp. One hour for Hindi and one hour for mathematics. In Hindi, we include those students who are beginners or weak in studies (00:24-00:52).