We put out-of-school children back in classrooms and keep them there.

A child's school years do not wait

A child of ten who is out of school this year is eleven next year, with one fewer of the twelve years still ahead. The sooner a place in school is found, the more of those years are kept. That is why we fund enrollment first, and why we fund it now.

The same clock runs for countries. In 1950, Korea and the Philippines stood level in schooling. Korea built schools first and was developed by 1987; the Philippines followed in 2017. The difference was thirty years, and it was made in classrooms. See the evidence.

Our program: enroll, retain, teach — in that order

The OOSC Initiative is a grant-making charity. Our program is funding charities that enroll, retain, and teach out-of-school children — in that order, because each step only matters if the one before it held.

1. Enroll

   A child has to be in the building before anything else is possible. We prioritize funding charities that get out-of-school children registered and through the school gate.

2. Retain

   Enrollment fails quietly, weeks later, when the original barrier comes back. We fund charities that stay with the family so a filled desk doesn't go empty again.

3. Teach

   Being behind grade level is what pushes a child back out. We fund charities running targeted catch-up learning for the kids furthest behind — not generic classroom instruction for everyone.

Governments are the vehicle that reaches every child — they build the schools and pay the teachers until families carry it forward themselves. Millions of children still fall outside that reach, kept out by poverty, distance, gender, or conflict, and closing that specific gap — not replacing the system — is what a charity can do. Even the best charities need government schools to do this: the work is two-fold — enroll out-of-school children into schools that already exist, working with the government, and where no school exists yet, work with the government to build one, even a basic one.

Where we begin: Niger

Among countries with at least a hundred thousand children out of school, none has a larger share than Niger. Six of every ten children of school age are out of school: four in ten at primary age, eight in ten at lower-secondary age, nearly nine in ten at upper-secondary age. That is five and a half million children, and it is where our first grants go. The full list, ranked.

We are preparing our first grant there, with a partner whose work brings out-of-school children in Niger up to level and into the government school. Enroll, retain, teach, in that order, starting where the share of children waiting for a place is highest.

Out-of-school figures: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2024, primary to upper-secondary age.

Who we are

I have volunteered with India-focused charities in the Bay Area since 2000. Alongside that, I spent years on one question: why some countries developed and others had not. The record of 185 countries from 1950 to 2015 answers it plainly. The countries that put their children through school developed, rich or not. It was not sentiment that brought me to out-of-school children; it was the numbers. The OOSC Initiative follows from them.

Radha Krishna Pagadala, Board Chair. The research is at educationfirst.world.

Our mission is to return out-of-school children in developing countries to classrooms and see them through higher secondary education, by funding charities that enroll, retain, and teach them, in that order. Board and registration.

Why education, and not something else

Education makes countries develop. It drives birth rates down and life expectancy up — the same measures that put 80% of the world ahead of 1960s America. Out-of-school children are the reason the remaining fifth stays behind — which makes them, not low incomes or weak government budgets, the problem worth funding. See the evidence: countries that started together and split apart on schooling, one country divided in two, and a financial crisis that couldn't stop it.

What we mean by "out of school"

A child is out of school unless they get a full 12 years of real schooling — primary, then lower secondary, then higher secondary, in that order — with actual attendance and a teacher actually teaching. We count a child educated when they finish that 12-year run, not when a test says they've learned enough.

Immersion itself is the lever. A child immersed in a real classroom for years absorbs knowledge of the modern world and the capacity to participate in it, whether or not that shows up on a test.

Evidence and methodology at educationfirst.world.

How to donate

Gifts reach the organization directly through Zelle, and are tax-deductible under Section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code.