Profile
Archana Mehendale

Archana Mehendale

Instructor, Executive Certificate of Advanced Studies - Innovative Financing for Education
Geographical Region of Expertise
  • South Asia

Archana Mehendale is a social worker by training and has earned her PhD (Social Sciences) from the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, India.  She has over twenty-five years of experience working in academia as well as non-governmental organisations, primarily in India and briefly in the US. She has served on various official committees and contributed
to the drafting of laws and policies related to education and child rights. She was a Member of the Central Advisory Board of Education Committee set up by the Government of India to frame the Right to Education bill. She also served as a member of the Expert Group that provided the final round of feedback on the Abidjan Principles on the human rights obligations of States to provide public education and to regulate private involvement in education.
 
Between 2015-2018, Archana worked as a Professor with the Centre for Education Innovation and Action Research at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She was a Research Lead on the Connected Learning Initiative, a tripartite initiative of the Institute with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Tata Trusts, which won UNESCO’s prestigious King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize in 2018.  Archana has taught education law and policy to graduate students for almost two decades. She has helped to develop courses on the role of public and private in education and regulation under the UGC-UKIERI Thematic partnership with Azim Premji University and King's College London and on education finance for the Global Campaign for Education. At the Centre for Non-profit Management, she has taught certificate courses on needs assessment and outcomes evaluation.
 
Since 2017, Archana has led the work on innovative finance for education at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She represented her Institute on the SUDAC-COFER supported inter-university collaboration for the development of multi-media teaching material on innovative financing for education that was anchored by NORRAG. She currently works as an Adjunct Professor at the Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education at Tata Institute of Social Sciences and leads the team working on the multi-partner project “More and better financing: Innovative Financing in Education to Leave No One Behind” (IFE-2-LNOB) anchored by NORRAG and supported by the Swiss Development Corporation. She is presently anchoring the Education Development and Policy Research Group at the Institute.
 
Archana is a Member of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) and co-chairs the Special Interest Group on Inclusive Education. She is also a Program Lecturer for the Master of Advanced Studies in Child Rights offered by the University of Geneva, where she teaches right to education, child labour, and monitoring child rights. She divides her time between US and India.

 

Areas of Expertise

  • Education law and policy

  • Innovative financing

  • Regulation

  • Inclusive education

  • Child rights

 

Select publications
 

  • Bhatta P., Mehendale A. (2021) The Status of School Education in Nepal: Educating the Nation Through Schooling. In: Sarangapani P.M., Pappu R. (eds) Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia. Global Education Systems. Springer, Singapore.

  • Mehendale A. (2020) School Education Systems and Policies in South Asia. In: Sarangapani P., Pappu R. (eds) Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia. Global Education Systems. Springer, Singapore.

  • Mehendale A., Mukhopadhyay R. (2020) School System and Education Policy in India. In: Sarangapani P., Pappu R. (eds) Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia. Global Education Systems. Springer, Singapore

  • Mehendale, A. and Singh, A.K. (2020). India Education Outcomes Fund: A Case Study. Working Paper published by NORRAG and TISS.

  • Mehendale, A., and Raha, S. (2020). Schools as Safe Spaces: An Analysis of Public Narratives and Policy Actions in Bengaluru. Working Paper, No. 5, Education and the Urban in India Working Paper Series. Max Weber Stiftung India Branch Office. DOI: 10.25360/01-2020-00013.

  • Mehendale, A., and Mukhopadhyay, R. (2018). Right to Education Movements and Policies: Promises and Realities.  NORRAG News Special Issue 1.

  • Jain, M., Mehendale, A., Mukhopadhyay, R., Sarangapani, P., and Winch, C. (2018). School Education in India: Market, State, and Quality. New Delhi: Routledge

  • Mehendale, A and Mukhopadhyay, R. (2018). Regulatory State and the Diversified Private in Jain, M., Mehendale, A., Mukhopadhyay, R., Sarangapani, P., and Winch, C. School Education in India: Market, State, and Quality. New Delhi: Routledge