Paragon Charitable Trust

The Paragon Charitable Trust was set up as an independent, non-profit organization in 1966 to promote education for underprivileged students. In 2003, Paragon initiated the 'Muktangan' experiment in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, to address the quality gap in mainstream education through an integrated, community-based model of school and teacher education. The Muktangan model is being implemented at the elementary level in seven Mumbai schools run by the Municipal Corporation. Paragon is extending the model to the secondary level, building in appropriate changes in pedagogy practice and curriculum content, to enable students to improve learning outcomes and access employment markets more readily. Paragon is using a participatory framework for monitoring and evaluation to ensure effective implementation and rigorous evidence building.