Last week, ARK India Country Director Amitav Virmani co-hosted a private dinner in Delhi for UN Special Envoy (and former UK Prime Minister) Gordon Brown and Sarah Brown, Chair of the Executive Board of the Global Business Coalition (GBC) for Education.
The dinner, co-hosted with Ashish Dhawan, Chief Executive Officer of the Central Square Foundation, was well-attended by private sector representatives from the GBC and people from India's leading NGOs, philanthropic organisations and education reform groups.
Gordon Brown was in India to attend the World Economic Forum while the GBC delegation, led by Sarah Brown, visited the country as part of their global tour to assess progress on Millennium Development Goal 2: to ensure that, by 2015, all children everywhere access a full course of primary education.
Mr Virmani spoke on the need to prioritise learning, as well as access, reminding the guests that while 2.3 million children may be out of school in India, nearly 100 million more are not receiving a quality education.
As part of her visit to India, Sarah Brown accompanied a team from ARK's partner organisation STIR Education on a tour of schools in Delhi.
Mrs Brown said that "It is inspiring to see teachers making innovations in the way they work in order to give children the best possible education - and STIR is a fantastic initiative for encouraging them."