Final Revised version, July 2007
Enabling most deprived children to learn
Lessons from promising practices
Report commissioned by
Department of Elementary Education, MHRD, GOI and
International Labour Organisation, New Delhi
KAMESHWARI JANDHYALA & VIMALA RAMACHANDRAN
Educational Resource Unit
July 2007
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the government and NGO programme leaders to participate in this
documentation project. We learnt a great deal from each and every project – thank you!
We thank the Department of Elementary Education, MHRD, GOI and International Labour
Organisation, New Delhi for giving us this opportunity. In particular we would like to
thank Ms Vrinda Sarup, Mr. Dhir Jhingran, Ms Surina Rajan and Ms Preet Verma for
resposing their confidence in Educational Resource Unit.
The case study writers were a wonderful group to work with and we thank each one of
them: Amukta Mahapatra, Bharat Patni, Nishi Mehrotra, Deepa Das, Shobhita Rajagopal,
Niti Saxena, Binay Pattanayak, Shaktibrata Sen, Shruti Nag, Parismita Singh, Mutum
Ashok, Suchitra Vedant, Rashmi Sharma, Naitra Murlykrishnan, K M Sheshagiri, P
Prashanti and Padma.
Bhavana Pankaj summarised the case studies and Harsh Sethi ploughed through the
synthesis document. Both of them ran their magic pens and made it presentable to the
world. Thank You!
Thank you all!
Kameshwari Jandhyala
Vimala Ramachandran
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New Delhi
2007
Table of contents
3
SECTION 1
Introduction
Children at risk:
This report
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SECTION 2
PROMISING PRACTICES
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1.Planning for Equitable Education: The Experience of Assam
2.Reaching working children: Indus project Virudhnagar
3.Activity Based Learning Programme in Schools of the Corporation of Chennai
4.From QIP to CLIP: The case of Andhra Pradesh
5.School Monitoring Profile, Uttaranchal
6.Learning Guarantee Program, Karnataka
7.Combining Deeni Taleem and Duniyavi Taleem: Madarsa Education in Madhya
Pradesh
8.Transforming AP’s Government School Teachers: An MVF intervention
9.Communitization of Elementary Education in Nagaland
10.The Pratham intervention in Kutch, Gujarat
11Active Schools – Latur
12.Intergrated Learning Improvement Programme – West Bengal
13.Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI): The case of Karnataka
14.Strengthening Science Education: Agastya International Foundation
15. Skill based education, Chandigarh
16.School Complexes of Goa
17.Upscaling an Innovation: the Rishi Valley experience
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SECTION 3
EMERGING LESSONS FROM 17 CASE STUDIES
Ensuring meaningful access for children at risk:
Confronting reality: Going beyond numbers
Planning for equity
Enabling empowered action
Facilitating two way communications
Energising the school
Monitoring and assessment
Local specific innovation going to scale
Conclusion: when do promising innovations become best practices?
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Section 1
Introduction
‘The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement
of this Constitution, free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the
age of fourteen years.’ (Article 45, Directive Principles of State Policy, The Constitution of
India, 1950)
The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to
fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine. (86 th Amendment, article
21 A, The Constitution of India, December 2002)
The number of primary schools in the country has increased from around 1.76 lakhs
(1950-51) to 7.67 lakhs (2004-05). and enrolment in the primary cycle has gone from
19.2 million in 1950 to 131.69 million in 2003-04. At the upper primary stage, the
increase in enrolment is by a factor of 13 for all children and 32 for girls. The gross
enrolment ratio at the primary stages often exceeds 100 per cent (this phenomenon is
fairly common in India because children below and above the 6-14 age group enrol in
primary classes), though the net enrolment ratio is about 20 per cent lower (Selected
Educational Statistics 1999-2000 and 2004, GOI).
At one level the problem of access seems to have has been significantly addressed with
close to 90 per cent children in the 6-11 age group reportedly enrolled in primary
schools (formal, EGS/alternative schools and private schools).
Drop out rates have also indicated an encouraging. The Select Education Statistics for
2004-05 indicate that gross drop out rates delclined frim 39.03% in 2001-02 to 28.49%
in 2004-05. In the case of girlsthis has been significan at around 15 % points from
39.88% to 24.82% during this same period.1 Despite these encouraging trends, the drop
out issue needs to be carefully tracked as regularity continues to be a problem. For
example, the recent ASER 20052 report cites that 51% of enrolled children were not in
school on the day of the survey, prompting educationists to question the relevance of
enrolment data. This data is particularly troubling because an overwhelming proportion
of children from disadvantaged groups – especially those who are at risk of dropping
out – attend government schools.
1
Report of the XIth Plan Working Group , Chapter on Elementary Education (SSA & Girls Education)
2 Pratham Educational Initiative: Annual Status of Education report, January 2006, New Delhi
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Children at risk:
Who are the children who are most at risk of not enrolling or dropping out of school?
a.
Children from very poor households;
b.
Children in migrant families;
c.
Children engaged in paid and unpaid work;
d.
Older girls who take on household responsibilities;
e.
Children in difficult circumstances – like children of sex workers, migrant
labour and most recently those affected by HIV and AIDS;
f.
Children with special needs;
Children drop out of school for many reasons – quality, relevance and dysfunctionality
being big issues. Yet, there is a significant group of children who are irregular or drop
out due to the burden of work. In a recent discussion with officials of Tamil Nadu and
Andhra Pradesh it emerged that the problem is perhaps most acute in the 10+ age
group and among communities that are forced to migrate for work. Describing the
enormity of the problem a senior officer explained that close to 40,000 children from
AP migrate with their parents for the construction work in urban areas. Recent
evidence from the tsunami affected districts of Tamil Nadu reveals that boys in the 10+
age group are pulled out of school to go fishing with their fathers3. Similarly, the
burgeoning infrastructure sector across the country employs migrant workers from
many states. While the younger children may be just hanging around, officials admit
that the older children are often put to work. Equally significant is the problem of
seasonal employment of children or even of short-term bondage – especially of boys4.
Another important insight that emerged during the course of doing the 17 case studies
and also from discussions with government officials at the state and district levels is
that working children who participate in bridge courses / residential programmes are
enrolled in formal schools. However, ground level experience in Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka reveal that a majority of such children drop out within 3 to 6
months of being “mainstreamed”. The reasons cited were as follows:

Inability to follow lessons in class – which is linked to quality of education
and the fact that teachers are not able to give individual attention to children;

The attitude and behaviour of children who have always been in school
towards former child workers was cited as important reasons for dropping out.
Interviews with children reveal that bullying and verbal abuse is fairly common.

Lack of a support group within the formal school to address the specific
needs / concerns of erstwhile child workers.
Drought, floods or any other disaster in the community, illness or indebtedness in the
family and any other crisis ends up pulling the children out of school all over again.
This is particularly so for older children (11+ age group) and the situation for boys and
girls is quite different. A recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India
(www.cag.gov.in, Report No 15, 2006) has noted that “the average attendance in
primary school among boys is 74.2 and girls is 75.3… the percentage of out of school
3
Aruna Rathnam of UNICEF, Chennai, May 2006
Vimala Ramachandran et al, Snakes and Ladders: Factors Influencing Successful Primary School Completion for
Children in Poverty Contexts, South Asia Human Development Series, Report No 6, World Bank, New Delhi, 2003
4
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children on account of their having dropped out was higher (54.9%) as compared to
those who never attended school (45.1%). The main reasons for not liking to go to
schools were the teacher beating up students, activities in the school being very boring
and not being able to cope with the happenings in school” (Page 18, CAG Report No
15, 2006)
While there is no reliable estimate on the percentage or the number of children who
are working, the moot point is that a combination of a dysfunctional school system,
poor learning outcomes and the economic situation of parents push children out of
school and into work. They are the ones who are most at risk. Improving the quality
of education is therefore quite central in any effort to guarantee education to
children who are most at risk.
The situation on the ground is complex. Addressing one or two issues with the
exclusion of others does not lead to improvement. Initiatives that address the entire
schooling experience as a continuum could lead to positive change. Talking to children
in three states in an earlier study done by Educational Resource Unit (2004) revealed
that the ability of children to successfully complete primary education depends on
multiple factors – as illustrated in the table below:
Table 2: Factors influencing successful primary school completion
Mild +, Strong ++, Very Strong +++ and Extremely Strong ++++
Boys
Positive Negative
Primary School
Bright and welcoming school
+++
Building and compound wall
++
Teacher pupil ratio between 1:20 and 1:40
+++
Teacher-pupil ration very high, above 1:40
+++
and in many areas 1:65.
Teacher regular
+++
Teachers irregular / take turns to come
++
Actual teaching time very low – less than
45 minutes a day and less than 20 minutes
++++
per period.
Actual teaching time satisfactory – more
than 1 hour 20 minutes a day and at least 35 ++++
minutes per period.
Female teacher who is regular
++
Distribution of textbooks
+++
Village Education Committee active
++
Active SDMC / PTA / School Education
++++
Committees
Mid-day meal – hot food
++++
Mid-day meal – dry rations
+
Punishment – mild
+
Punishment – harsh
++++
Teacher attitude towards poor dismissive
++
Teacher exhibits prejudices (caste / gender)
+++
Joyful learning methods used
++
Children learning to read and write
++++
Learning outcomes poor – children in class
+++
4 and 5 not able to read or write.
Learning songs, rhymes and poems
+++
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Girls
Positive
Negative
+++
++
+++
+++
+++
+++
++++
++++
++++
+++
++
++++
++++
+
+
++++
++
++++
++
++++
+++
+++
No-detention policy
Extra-curricular activities
Enrolment campaigns
Back-to school campaigns
+
+
+++
+++
++
+++
++
+++
Boys
Girls
Positive
Negative
Positive
Negative
Source: Vimala Ramachandran et al, Snakes and Ladders: Factors Influencing Successful
Primary School Completion for Children in Poverty Contexts, South Asia Human Development
Series, Report No 6, World Bank, New Delhi, 2003
This report
Recognising that the poorest go to government schools and to ensure that the most
deprived get a chance to learn and to complete elementary education the government
and NGOs have initiated a range of programmes and projects. India has witnessed a
number of promising initiatives from which administrators and practitioners can draw
important lessons. It is in this backdrop that the Government of India (Department of
Education) and the International Labour Organisation decided to study programmes
and projects that have successfully addressed issues of quality in government schools –
especially for children at risk of dropping out.
We identified 17 promising practices dealing with different dimensions of school
improvement for in-depth study out a of larger set of about 48 programmes identified
through a scanning of secondary published and unpublished material (see Annexure 2
This report presents 17 case studies and synthesizes the lessons from them.
Though the above programmes (chosen in consultation with GOIt and ILO) exhibit
some characteristics that have a potential for replication in the mainstream, we refrain
from calling them “best practices” because many of them are relatively new and are
yet to be embedded into the system. Individually, however, almost all of them address a
few aspects of the schooling experience or the education system.
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Section 2
PROMISING PRACTICES
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Case Study I
1.
Planning for Equitable Education: The Experience of Assam
DR. DEEPA DAS5
The Turning Point
DESPITE the expansion of the delivery system of elementary education (post DPEP)
that included a much larger number of children than ever before, there were some
residual issues to contend with when the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was poised for
launch in Assam. Unserved habitations, out-of-school children - particularly at the
upper primary level, high dropout and repetition rates, irregular attendance, skewed
Pupil Teacher Ratio in pockets; many single-teacher schools and inadequate school
infrastructure were some of them. Besides, a fully functional system was also a
pressing need in the context of universalisation of elementary education (UEE).
The thrust in the District Primary Education Program (DPEP) was largely on
universalizing enrolment. The DPEP experience, however, brought up some vital
issues before the SSA in Assam:

high
Proportion of out-of-school children in some DPEP districts was fairly

Persistent gaps were found in teacher adequacy as a result of the state
government’s inability to rationalize and create new positions (the aggregated
figure was well within the norms). The position was worse in some interior and
remote areas

The view that the needs of each school were different and merited a
school-based approach did not receive due consideration. As a result, the school as
a unit for planning remained on paper even though it was an essential precondition
of UEE

DISE data results masked the real problem of unreliable and inflated
school enrolment that escaped notice and remained unaccounted for. The relevance
of household data, thus, emerged as the basis for informed planning

Problems of ‘hard core’ children, including working and deprived urban
children, those who migrated with parents and disabled children etc. were not fully
addressed despite alternative schooling interventions

Many areas that do not have formal government schools, including tea
gardens (which have statutory tea garden management-run schools), and also
remote forest areas remained without schooling facilities.

There was need to focus on specific aspects of UEE based on habitationcentric analysis
5 With inputs from D Jhingran, Director, Department of Elementary Education & Literacy, MHRD, GOI, and assistance
from Atiqur Rahman Barbhuiya, Independent Consultant and Kamal Gogoi, Assistant Inspector of Schools, Jorhat
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
A plan needed to be formulated for universal (physical) access in a
systematic manner
A rigorous and efficient approach to work and a transparent and accountable system
were a must to provide equitable elementary education. Broadly, the key elements of
this approach were:

Creating clear situational understanding (of gaps, special/unique
circumstances, needs) to be able to plan and provide as per identified needs. This
was achieved through rigorous analysis of available data/information, updating of
the same and creation of new databases through participatory surveys

Identifying special areas and special groups of children in the state

Formulating a broad framework for operations

Rationalizing allocation of resources – the AWP & Bs being the major
vehicle for this

Operationalizing the AWP & B – affirmative action, facilitative guidelines

Working through partnerships with NGOs, tea garden management, Bharat
Scouts and Guides, religious leaders

Involving the district administration

Creating special structural arrangements

Ensuring matching policy shift

Setting ground rules for operations – rights-based, transparent and
accountable
1. Creating the Requisite Situational Understanding
Sharing and analysis of the DPEP experience enabled deeper insights into issues that
had to be prioritized and addressed with urgency. Financial allocations, human
resource and systemic support in keeping with the disparate needs of the state were
recognized as crucial for UEE to be effective. The deliberations also facilitated the
concept of a framework of operations. It became clear that ensuring empathy and
understanding of the situation among officials at all levels of delivery was critical. It
was also important to take the community and its representative bodies into confidence
to establish the necessary two-way interaction for better delivery by the system.
2. Identification of Special Areas and Special Groups of Children in the State
Provisioning of elementary education had to be planned for diverse contexts to ensure
the inclusion of all children. Most of the special/difficult situations had not received
due attention because the planning process was not competent to do so. Therefore, the
deprived continued to stay deprived.
The most disadvantaged, in terms of availability and quality of schooling facilities, was
a high proportion of out-of-school children in the tea gardens, and border, riverine
(char) and hilly areas. There are backward pockets even in the educationally-advanced
districts, mainly on account of tea gardens. Non tea-growing areas were found to be
much better of compared to the tea-growing areas in terms of the number of out-ofschool children and merited special attention.
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With this as the backdrop, criteria-based identification was done, and four types of
special and educationally-backward areas were listed:
Type A: All tea gardens
Type B : Educationally-disadvantaged areas (age-specific enrolment rate
<60, 65, 70)
Type C
: Remote, inaccessible areas
(i)
All villages/areas (non-revenue village)/CRCs which are,
at least, 20 km from the block headquarters and any part of the distance
has to be traversed by public transport + boat + bicycle/on foot.
(ii)
All villages/areas (non revenue village)/CRCs which are at
least 20 km from the block headquarter with public transport facility
(bus/shared auto) and a distance of at least 10 km with no transport
facility (20 km by public transport + 10 km by bicycle/on foot).
Type D: Other categories: Insurgency/ethnic conflict prone areas, urban
slums and pockets of high incidence of child labour.
Lists of these areas were verified, notified, corrected and published. Special
arrangements were made for stepping up implementation, technical support,
monitoring and supervision in these areas.
3. Formulating a Broad Framework for Operations
The government recognized its role in augmenting the delivery systems of elementary
education. It agreed that providing schooling facilities in the first place was the basic
minimum condition for learning and providing quality education. It evolved a
framework for operations with a strong rights and people-centric perspective. It
nurtured this approach to make education easily accessible and more accountable and
the stage was set for fulfilling the constitutional objective of free and compulsory
education to all 6-14 year old children. This implied:

Adequate schooling facilities are available with ease of access

All children are brought within the fold of elementary education

Schools function regularly

Learning takes place in schools

Children complete the education cycle in the ‘ideal’ time and cut down on
wastage
4. Rationalized Allocation of Resources through Planning
The Annual Work Plans and Budgets (AWP & B)
were the obvious vehicle for rationalizing resource
allocation that enshrined the district-specific targets
and were the envisaged means of getting to them.
Unlike in the DPEP plans where Assam followed
the conservative line of equal allocation of
resources and effort that fell short of providing
adequately for the “more deserving” areas,
equitability was the watchword in the planning
process for UEE under SSA. Planning in SSA
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Leading the campaign for
UEE the Assam SSA
Mission statement focused
on a rights approach, equity,
accountability, transparency
and a participative work
ethic.
sought to wipe out the disparities in supply by providing strong norm and need-based
programs depending on whether a school needed a building, more teachers or more
materials etc so that schools could provide basic learning conditions. Alongside,
‘compensation packages’, targeted at specific areas/schools and children, were
designed to mitigate the educational disadvantages faced by underprivileged children.
The government became conscious of the fact that it was not enough to provide inputs
for ensuring quality improvement in schools. It was equally important to be able to
ensure outcomes which meant, for example, that enrolment figures must translate into
regular attendance of children, their transition from one grade to the next and their
completion of primary and upper primary stages.
The implementation plan in 2002-03 was based on the following data:
(i) Creation of household database and community engagement in education
A massive survey-cum-community mobilization campaign – Alokar Jatra – was
launched to create, for the first time, a database of ‘school going’ and ‘not school
going’ children to facilitate the planning process under SSA. Alokar Jatra also:

created awareness about the prevalent primary education scenario by
sharing the data at village and Gaon Panchayat (GP) levels with the village
community

Formed Village Education Committees (VECs), Tea Garden Education
Committees (TECs), School Managing Committees (SMCs) and Gaon Panchayat
Education Committees (GPECs) with the support of the community.
(ii) Infrastructure survey
Infrastructural requirements of every school were assessed through a Technical
Infrastructure Survey covering each of the 40,000 schools (primary and upper primary)
between April and May 2002. The survey ascertained the actual status of the school
building (together with photographs) so that norm-based prioritization could be done
for the civil works program under SSA. The survey was able to list the schools into 13
categories according to which schools without a building would get top priority
followed by those that required renovation, and then, schools that needed repairs,
additional classrooms etc.
Besides ensuring prioritization on the basis of technical assessment that highlighted the
status of school infrastructure in the state it also enabled a comparison of the condition
of schools before and after completion of the work.
Thus, the somewhat open-ended, experimental approach of the DPEP gave way to a
more systematic, convergent planning for achieving UEE that made it possible to make
preferential allocation of resources to specific villages, schools and pockets. Examples
of evidence based allocations are seen in the demands for EGS and bridge course
centres that were derived from VERS, allocation of para teachers on the basis of
children’s attendance, placement of remedial support teacher based on the number of
low performing children, etc.
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5. Operationalizing the AWP & B
Instructions regarding implementation of the Annual Work Plan 2003-04 were issued
to the districts6. These instructions pertained to financial norms and practices and also
provided programmatic guidance.
Sankalpa Jatra - a mass orientation and training program – was organized in all the
districts to orient the grassroots committees on their roles and responsibilities in the
educational arena. They were made aware about education as a fundamental right, their
role in monitoring, fund distribution, sanitation, and were also informed about the
delegation of powers to the PRIs. As a part of the five-day schedule, the trainees went
to schools and discussed the problems faced by the schools and the community. The
issues that emerged in these discussions became the basis of the ‘School Development
Plan’ that was formulated by VECs and TGECs (Tea Garden Education Committees).
Over six lakh people, including members of VECs, SMCs, TGECs and GPECs, were
trained. Post-training, they made house-to-house visits that led to significant
mobilization.
One of the major initiatives undertaken towards UEE was Shishur Uttaran. The
Shishur Uttaran program launched in 2003 was declared the ‘Year of Universal
Enrolment for Children in the 5-6 years age group’. As an integrated program initiated
in all the districts, it had ‘Drive for Universal Enrolment’, ‘Remedial Teaching’ and
‘Bridge Courses’ as components that are of direct relevance to the achievement of
UEE. At the end of the process, 90 per cent children were found to be enrolled.
These programs were conducted in 237 urban areas through 14 NGOs in 11 districts.
They covered 8,527 children of 5-6 years of whom 6,961 were enrolled. As many as
3,336 children in the 8-10 years age group and 3,378 in the 11-14 years age group were
identified as ‘hard-to-reach’ children for whom separate interventions were designed.
Affirmative action for disadvantaged areas/groups (the latter included children with
disabilities and urban deprived children) was pursued through special packages that
included the following:

Flexible norms for setting up of bridge courses/community schools;
responsibility for ensuring complete coverage

Engagement of local community resource person or motivators

Specific schemes for assistance to NGOs willing to work in such areas for
mobilization and school improvement

Earmarking Innovation Funds for these areas

To facilitate intensive monitoring and supervision through regular and
mandatory visits of program and education department personnel and members of
6 Some Expenditure Related Instructions
 All releases to VEC, SMC, CRC, BRC will be through Bank transfers. For civil works funds will necessarily have
to be released through Bank transfer.
 District will maintain a Register of GPEC, VEC, TGEC and SMC Bank Account Numbers.
 If bearer cheque is issued in certain emergent cases, the payee will first deposit the cheque in the Bank and encash
it, so that the transaction is reflected in the Pass Book
 No grant will be provided to any school which has not filled-up DISE format. The schools which have not filledup DISE format but received the grant already will have to fill-up the DISE for 2002. FAO & programmer MIS
will be responsible for compliance….. In case any school for which grant has already been released is found to be
a venture school, the amount has to be recovered. The responsibility will have to be fixed for the violation of rules.
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the Block and District Academic Core Group, TA/DA norms for visits to special
areas revised

Any additional funds were preferentially allocated to these areas

Investment in training of youth as change agents in tea garden and
Muslim- dominated areas

The Reading Guarantee/Learning Assurance
intensively implemented in these areas

MOI)
Program was
more
Special programs for helping transition to the second language (used as

Innovative/holistic strategies for specific areas like tea gardens, remote
forest habitations and riverine, minority-dominated areas

visits
Flexibility in school holidays and schedule, additional personnel for school

Development of local materials for transaction through documentation by
local people.
The underpinnings of quality education were that a school system must ensure that all
children learn and all children complete the elementary cycle of education in the
stipulated seven years. These are the two parameters on which the performance of the
school can be assessed. Teachers’ training, appropriate curriculum and textbooks and
regular academic support are key to improving quality in schools.
For the first time in 2003, the dimensions of the rights approach and accountability of
the school system for learning of all children were introduced in the training
curriculum for teachers. Besides, these programs focused on teaching methods,
orientation to the new curriculum and textbooks and multi-grade teaching. The focus at
the upper primary level was on science, mathematics and English. New textbooks
based on a child-centred and activity-based pedagogy (in contrast to rote
memorization) were introduced for classes 1-4. Workbooks that provided greater scope
for children to work on their own and practice were introduced for grades 1 and 2.
Academic support and the supervision system were revamped to ensure regular visits
of more resource persons to every school. These people were also getting involved in
target setting and planning for improvement of each school.
Pupil evaluation was done on a quarterly basis and made more systematic. The
evaluation test items focused on the skills, concepts and their appreciation rather than
mere memory recall questions that traditionally formed the basis of evaluation.
6. Working through Partnerships
Implementation of many of the targeted and nuanced interventions was well outside
the means of a government system. It, therefore, became mandatory to create
facilitative partnerships that could proxy for the government in specific areas and
situations to reach specific groups of people.
14

Partnerships that evolved in the process included:

NGOs

Tea Garden Management, Assam Tea Employees’ Welfare Board, Youth

Forest Department

Bharat Scouts and Guides
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
Religious Leaders
The basis of these partnerships varied. For example, NGOs collaborated with the local
VEC/CEC to ensure program implementation in remote or educationally backward
areas and tea gardens with greater intensity and focus. They also engaged with special
categories of children (disabled, urban deprived and working).
In the case of tea garden areas, the SSA Mission agreed to bear the costs of
establishing EGS centres, providing school infrastructure and para teachers, enrolment
drives, midday meals, textbooks, etc. The tea garden managements, on the other hand
picked up the non-financial responsibilities of ensuring that the Tea Garden Education
Committee was active and functional, providing space for conducting bridge
courses/Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) Centres or other alternative schooling
initiatives, ascertaining that learners of the bridge courses were enrolled in the schools
run by the garden management and teachers were able to participate in training
programs etc.
The education of minority children, especially girls, was a matter of concern in Assam.
A multi-pronged approach was, therefore, adopted in the educationally disadvantaged
Muslim pockets, primarily in the riverine areas (char). Support of religious leaders and
local influential leaders was mobilized. Institutions of religious instruction, such
madarsas, were offered assistance in case they decided to introduce subjects like
mathematics, English, local languages, science, computers etc.
7. Involving District Administration
The Deputy Commissioner (DC) and other sectoral district level officers were made
part of the planning and implementation committees at the district level. The SSA
Mission made special budgetary provisions to facilitate their involvement in
monitoring and supervision processes to ensure effective school functioning. For this
purpose, each DC submitted a proposal that was reviewed and approved at the state
office. Separate expenditure guidelines were provided to the DCs for formulating their
plans and implementing them. The communication from the state office expressed
special interest in the district officials visiting schools located in remote and
disadvantaged areas.
8. Creating Special Structural Arrangements
A variety of support groups were formed at different administrative levels from the
State to the Block levels to meet the needs of additional human resource. These
academic support groups were responsible for academic issues that worked with the
formal schooling system as much as they did with the bridge courses and alternative
schooling system. For administrative issues, District Working Groups (DWG) was
constituted at the district level with the Deputy Commissioner as the chairperson, and
District Mission Coordinator, Inspector of Schools, President ZP, Project Director
DRDA, Deputy Inspector Schools (HQ) as members. The DWG is the core
implementation body that makes suggestions to the Mission Director pertaining to
change of guidelines etc. It was also authorized to take decisions about other issues
related to program implementation.
Block Vigilance Committees were constituted with the President of the Anchalik
Panchayat as the Chairperson. The committee monitored implementation of the AWPB
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and facilitated in generating a block level plans related to schooling facilities. For the
effective functioning of the BVCs they were provided Rs 9000/- per year for a period
of nine months.
With the creation of different bodies schools began to be visited more frequently and
reports of their functioning and the difficulties they face were more easily and
regularly available. Involvement of people from different backgrounds also helped in
making the system transparent and accountable.
9. Ensuring a Matching Policy Shift
Several initiatives have helped to streamline the enrolment procedure in schools to
make education easily accessible to people. Broadly, some of these are:
(a) Schools cannot refuse admission to children of 5-6 years age in class I on
grounds of shortage of space or teachers.
(b) Head teachers are not to insist on production of birth certificate by
parents/guardian at the time of admission of children. A written statement by the
parent/guardian of the children stating the age of the child would be considered
valid for admission.
(c) Schooling hours have been increased to five and a half hours a day and it
is mandatory for schools to function for 1000 hours in an academic session.
(d) Infrequent visits by education officials to the remote riverine and forest
areas were a major problem. This has been overcome by making new norms that
took into account the cost of travel, locally available facilities, the time taken in
travelling as well as the need for spending a night in such an area – and the
process of TA/DA reimbursements has been made easier.
(e) Planning, execution, monitoring or selection – all these processes and
management of finances etc have been decentralized which makes education
delivery far more competent and speedy. The community, for example, has been
involved in selecting the location for running bridge courses. SSA functionaries
organize to orient GP presidents, Anchalik Parishad presidents and ZP members
to the concept of bridge courses and their role in implementing the strategy etc.
Village action plans are formulated and responsibilities fixed at public meetings.
Information about out-of-school children is collected from the VER for every village
and signatures of parents are collected as a token of their consent to send their children
to the bridge course. Such steps have succeeded in involving people in a big way to
make them aware of all the developments taking place with regard to elementary
education.
10. Ground Rules for Operations – Rights based, Equitable, Transparent, Accountable
(a) Rights-based Approach
Despite the considerable challenge of sensitizing the education system and other
stakeholders to the fact that every child between 6-14 years has the right to quality
education, efforts to push the rights perspective did result in a supportive environment
in the state. The right to learn was a direct corollary of the right to education. This
emphasis on learning by all children shifted focus on school-based development
making school the primary unit of work. The realization grew that infusing quality into
schools needed appropriate teaching methods, remedial teaching for low performers
and sharing of curricular goals and learning outcomes of children with their parents.
That saw the beginning of the Learning Assurance Program (LAP) and the more
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specific time-bound Reading Guarantee Program. LAP is an outcome-based initiative
that rests on the tenets that:

The entire focus has to be on school-based development

Each school must be aware of the results expected from it

Each VEC/SMC must appreciate the expected results

Performance of each school has to be measured and the results must be
made public

Demands from parents, community, and administration must be converted
into plans that can be implemented.
(b) Equity
As a policy, ‘equity’ has been the overarching principle of implementation under the
SSA. It has enabled rationalizing resources, both human and financial, with an
emphasis on the deprived and backward schools and sections of children. This is being
attempted through identification and notification of special focus areas, strategizing for
universal access and targeting out-of-school children, mobilization through the system
as well as NGOs, and special quality initiatives.
(c) Transparency
The effort to keep people informed of all the developments has paid off. They are
eager to voice their concerns about anomalies as a matter of right and with the hope of
a fair hearing. They are able to fearlessly express their views about what should happen
at the local level as they are now equipped with facts about their own areas.
To make this into a robust initiative, the SSA Mission has made it a point to
disseminate all decisions, guidelines and relevant publications right down to the
grassroots. As a result, people are far more aware about the present education scenario,
of the efforts being made to include every child in the education net, the role of people
in making UEE a success and financial provisions for different activities. Such
transparency has enthused people to actively participate in educational processes and
gone a long way in reinstating their faith in state-provided education in Assam.
(d) Accountability
Internal accountability for performance based on identified measurable outcomes was a
weak link and external accountability to parents, community and civil society almost
did not exist. Disaggregated information was not in the public domain to enable
others/stakeholders to ask questions.
The Asom Sarba Siksha Abhijan Mission (ASSAM) has decided to undertake
Performance Grading of Schools as a useful tool for measuring quality of education
delivery at the school level. The Mission felt that unless the quality of education
delivery is measured on agreed parameters and in quantifiable terms, quality issues of
education will always remain subjective. It also believed that grading is an effective
way of factoring in the accountability of teachers and field-level education
functionaries. The performance gradation of schools based on student attendance,
completion and achievement levels is the essence of LAP.
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The Shiksha Nyaya Manch was introduced in collaboration with the Law Research
Institute of the High Court of Guwahati as an innovative way for stakeholders to raise
their voice in matters related to the delivery of elementary education. Feedback,
redressal and transparency of operational norms are the dominant strands of this effort
at institutionalising accountability. The programme aims at improving school
functioning by addressing the issues of non-attendance of teachers, quick disposal of
the complaints of SMCs and VECs. One of the most important features of the scheme
is holding of Lok Adalat type of meeting at the sub-district level – at least 2 times a
year.
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Case Study II
2.
Reaching working children
INDUS Child Labour Project, Virudhunagar,Tamilnadu
Naitra Muralykrishnan
Introduction
Building on the experience of the National Child Labour Projects (NCLP’s) initiated
by the Ministry of Labour during the Eight and Ninth Five Year Plans in areas with a
high concentration of child labour, the ILO in May 2004 initiated the INDUS Child
Labour Project to contribute to the prevention and elimination of child labour in
Virudhunagar district, Tamil Nadu. The overall goal of the project is to withdraw
children working in the hazardous sectors in Virudhunagar district and integrate them
into formal education. The approach adopted is to provide transitional and prevocational education to the identified children, and provide social support to prevent
relapse. The target groups include the children in the age group of 9-13 years working
n hazardous sectors in the district and their families.
INDUS Child Labour Project:
The Approach:
The INDUS project envisaged a multifold intervention programme focusing not only
on the child, but also on the family and the society at large. Thus the following
approach was adopted.
1. Children working in hazardous sectors identified and withdrawn.
2. Provision of transitional education to children in the age group of 9-13 years
3. Vocational training of adolescent workers in the age group of 14-17 years.
4. Income generating alternatives for families of child labour.
5. Strengthening public education in the district
6. Monitoring and tracking the beneficiaries over the project period and monitoring
the changing child labour situation.
7. Social mobilization and raising awareness on child labour.
8. Capacity building and training government agencies and civil society partners on
child labour.
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Strategy for intervention:
Identification and withdrawal of children in the age
group of 9-13 years from hazardous work
Enroll children in Transitional Education
Centres (TEC)
Books, stationary, games etc
given to children.
Strengthen public awareness on
child labour
Provide social
support to the
child, family
and society
Income generation
alternative for families
Nutritive MDM for
children
Primary health care
for children
Monthly stipend of
Rs 100 for each child
TEC also acts as
resource centre
Identify and mainstream children into
‘lead’ schools (regular schools)
Monitor and track the progress of each child
The Implementation framework:
The most vulnerable children in the age group of 9-13 years of age working in
hazardous occupations were identified through a district survey, who were then
enrolled in the transitional education centers (TECs). Younger children (below 9 years)
were directly mainstreamed into regular schools. Children who could not be enrolled
into the TECs were accommodated into ongoing alternate/transitional education
initiatives implemented by the Department of Education. The TECs impart primary
education upto class V. ‘Lead schools’ which are regular formal schools located within
close proximity to the TECs were identified and the children were then mainstreamed
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into the formal education system. A bridge course is conducted for children before they
are mainstreamed to smoothly integrate them into regular schools. The TECs act as
resource centers in the evening and are equipped with reading and play material and
children also get extra coaching/tuition from their tutors. The resource centers also help
by reducing the risk of children getting lured into working in the industry after study
hours at the TECs.
Realizing that the families of children experience a sudden economic deprivation when
children are withdrawn from work, the INDUS project initiated income generation
alternatives for the families of children to prevent drop out and a possible relapse into
child labour. Apart from this, a monthly stipend of Rupees 100 is paid into a joint bank
account opened in the name of the child and parent. This is provided on the basis of the
child having a minimum of 80% attendance in the TEC and would be paid to the
parents only at the time of mainstreaming. The fund is provided with the view that it
will cover the additional expenses that the child would require at the time of
mainstreaming into regular schools.
Facilitators of the project:
The project is implemented through the district level NCLP society. The District
Collector is the chair person and the NCLP Project Director is the member secretary of
the society. The other members of the society include officials from the Department of
Education, Rural and Urban Development, Health, Women and Child Development,
Social Welfare, Information, Municipal Corporation and representatives from the
executing agencies. The NCLP society also partners with NGOs and Trade Unions in
the running of the TECs. Currently of the total of 54 TECs 30 are run by the NCLP
society, 22 by NGOs and 2 by Trade unions.
Monitoring and Evaluation:
The NCLP society reviews the progress of the project every quarter. The executing
agencies also submit their quarterly progress reports for review to the ILO-IPEC. A
Mid term review workshop is conducted with representatives of key stakeholders and
the ILO-IPEC coordinates and reviews the progress. The executing agencies are also
required to participate and provide official data on beneficiaries to the Child Labour
Monitoring System (CLMS) which monitors the child labour scenario in the district.
Finally, the executing agencies undertake mid term and final self evaluations and
report to the ILO-IPEC.
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Table 3: Timeline of the INDUS project
2004-2005
Programme/activity
INDUS Project initiated
Identified beneficiaries through district mode
survey.
2005-2006
Month
May
June
Training for teaching volunteers
‘Vasanthathai Noki’ conducted
May
1609 children were enrolled into the TECs.
2 day workshop for the children to be mainstreamed
was conducted.
1 week training on joyful teaching
To showcase the talent of children who are to be
mainstreamed.
Bridge course carried out
March
Details
Medical check up for children
Children mainstreamed into formal schools
Block level meeting on child labour
‘Kala jatha’ conducted
June
Factories in 8 blocks raided for child labour
September
October
November
December
Children from the TECs taken on educational
tour
Teaching volunteers trained on running Resource
center
Diwali celebrated at block level
Sports day for children in TECs conducted
Teaching volunteers trained in conducting Nila
Palli
Teaching volunteers trained on art and craft.
40 ‘lead’ schools identified and 1645 children
mainstreamed.
It was carried over one month
43 children identified as child labourers and enrolled
into TECs.
Visited Pullarkal Dam in Madurai
3 day residential training on theatre, mask making,
greeting cars preparation.
2006-2007
Participated in district level exhibition for
promoting rural youth
February
INDUS Project stall was managed for a whole month
in 8 blocks and it won the first prize in Sivakasi
block.
Teaching volunteers trained on General
Knowledge
World book day celebrated with children
March
April
2 day Training for SHG members
May
Inter TEC visit conducted
Medical check up
Mainstreaming of children into formal education
‘Job mela’ conducted
June
Anti child labour day celebrated
40 SHG members trained on leadership, health,
sanitation and family planning.
Children and teaching volunteers visited each others
TECs as an exposure to children.
Conducted for children in TECs who were withdrawn
from hazardous working background.
654 children from TECs were mainstreamed.
Cycle rallies, human chain, awareness program for
SHG members conducted to strengthen public
awareness.
Teaching volunteers trained on TLM use
September
November
World literacy day celebrated
Signature campaign, sticker campaign and rallies
conducted
150 children from TECs in Sivakasi were given 1 day
computer training
1 lakh signatures from people were collected in
support of anti child labour. Employers and factory
owners participated in sticker campaign.
Stakeholders speak:
The views of various stakeholders in the project- the project staff, administrative
officials, teaching volunteers, vocational instructors, children, their parents, VEC
members, and teachers of regular schools on the impact of the project were collected
through a series of discussions.
There was unanimous agreement that the INDUS project had indeed changed the lives
of several children who were earlier child labourers. To several parents, the TECs and
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related interventions such as the income generation alternatives, formation of SHGs
and the stipend for children were turning points in their own lives and the lives of their
children. The District Collector said “A change in parental attitude is happening
because of the INDUS project.” There were many success stories linked to the project.
Several students who were mainstreamed continued to do well academically and some
were pursuing their higher studies in colleges in the district and outside. A few students
presently studying in the TECs had been awarded the ‘Young Scientist Award’ by the
National Science and Technology Department (GOI) for their project on ‘Bio
Diversity’ and were proudly on their way to meet the President of India in December
2006.
There was better public awareness regarding child labour and the hazardous nature of
labour in match and firework factories. Consequently the incidence of child labour had
‘visibly’ reduced. Fewer children were seen working in tea shops, hotels and
stationeries. Moreover, the INDUS project along with the support from the Labour
department and the Supervisor of Industries conducted raids in these factories and
shops. This resulted in children being withdrawn from work and a penalty levied on the
factory/shop owner for practicing child labour. The project staff said that the public
raids had also increased the accountability of the project to the public and society at
large and resulted in better communication with people and a greater interest shown by
people in the activities of the project.
Best practices in the field:
a)
The TECs:
The TEC teachers reported that children had a tendency to be absent on Mondays, so
they used to go personally to their homes and literally ‘bring’ them to the TEC. This is
the most ‘fragile phase’ for the child as their impulse was to escape the TEC and get
back to the factory. The Teachers also said that a very important feature of the TECs
which can also be dubbed as the reason for the success of the TECs was their teaching
practice. They said that they were constantly finding ‘innovative and attractive’
methods of teaching the lessons. The children were taught lessons upto class V
adopting a curriculum very similar to the one followed in regular schools. Using songs,
stories and group activities, the teachers converted the teaching process into a
delightful learning process. In addition the constant attention given the children
coupled with frequent home visits and meetings with the parents was also responsible
for children’s’ successful retention in the TEC.
Box I
TEC as a Resource Center
The resource centers played a very big part in the retention of children in the TEC. The TECs, doubling as
resource centers in the evening maximized leisure and play for the children. Here, they found ample time
to play, read books, learn new art and craft techniques and also complete their homework. It was also a
viable option for working parents who were formally worried about their child’s whereabouts while they
were at work.
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Speaking with children, it was clear that the years in the TEC had become memorable
days for them. They said “our teachers at the TEC were very good to us. They used to
stop whenever they spotted us on the road and enquired after us. Even to this day, they
continue to do so and keep motivating us to stay in our new school.” Several of the
children are reportedly doing very well academically in the formal schools they have
now joined
Parents were pleased with the functioning of the TECs. In particular, the attitude of the
teaching volunteers towards their children, the provision of the mid day meal,
vocational skills imparted to children, the monthly stipend, the resource center and the
hope of their children being mainstreamed into formal schools were key attractions of
the TECs.
b)
Nila Palli (Moon school):
This ingenious concept is immensely responsible for the scale that the project has
achieved in its two years. A native folk concept of the village community gathering on
full moon nights to participate in ‘nila choru’ or supper under the moonlight has been
very beautifully adapted to the advantage of the project. It has strengthened public
awareness on child labour and created an opportunity to showcase childrens’ talent on
a public platform. The Nila Pallis are organized once a month on full moon days in
open spaces in areas and villages neighboring the location of a TEC. Upto October
2006, 51 Nila pallis have been organized. The Nila Palli serves as a platform for
children enrolled in the TEC to exhibit their talent through cultural programs and as a
public forum for the project staff, teaching volunteers of TECs, parents and
participating members from the NCLP society to express their experiences and views
on issues such as enrollment and mainstreaming of children into regular schools, the
push and pull factors influencing child labour and drop out.
c)
Income generation alternatives:
The formation of SHGs and initiation of vocational training centers for mothers whose
children are enrolled in TECs have made it possible for families to retain their children
in TECs and simultaneously find alternate means for additional income. A total of 63
SHGs of women have been formed in the 54 villages where the TECs are functioning
and with this support they have independently started the cultivation of ground nuts,
cattle feed, flowers and also rear goats.
Box II
Self Help Groups
The INDUS project realized that since several families were living in abject poverty, withdrawal of children
fromc)
work
would result in
until the family
foundschools
a viable means to economically compensate for
Identification
anda relapse
mainstreaming
into ‘lead’
the income earned by the child. SHGs were started in all 54 villages where the TECs were located. Initially,
d) Collective
supportwas started and each member saved Rs 10 monthly. This soon rose to Rs 30 and
an internal
savings exercise
the members were ready to formalize themselves into a group and opened a bank account.
During my discussion with 11 SHG members of Muttarpatti village in Sattur Taluk, they said that the
formation of the SHG had brought a positive change in their lives and they no longer depended on their
childrens’ economic support. The SHG leader said that with the one lakh rupees that the group obtained as a
loan, most members bought goats and it had turned out to be a profitable investment. The group today pays
an interest of Rs 200 and each individual saves an average of Rs 50 monthly.
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As a part of the vocational skill training, the project has made sewing classes
operational in several villages where the mothers of children enrolled in TECs are
given free classes in sewing for a period of six months. The cloth required is also
provided for free by the project and the class timings are scheduled keeping in mind
the working hours of the mothers.
d) Monthly stipend given to children:
The TECs report a high retention rate. The project reports that there have been only 10
children who dropped out because their parents migrated. The monthly stipend of Rs
100 given to each child is an important factor which has helped to retain children in the
TECs. The District Collector feels “the stipend is a very important economic incentive
for the family to retain the child in the TEC. This practice should be continued.”
Though the stipend is not much relief when compared to the monthly earnings of the
child, parents said that given their economic plight, it is the only way parents who are
keen to send their children to school can do so and yet stand to gain marginally.
Table 4: Impact of intervention 7
Sl no:
7
8
Title
1
Beneficiaries identified
2
TECs
3
Children enrolled in TEC
4
Children mainstreamed
5
Vocational training (VT)
6
Primary Health Care
7
Income generation Activities
Scale
Male
Female
Total
1224
2036
3260
Sanctioned
Running
Mainstreamed8
83
54
29
Male
Female
Total
793
816
1609
Below 9 years (direct
9-14 years
mainstreaming)
30
204
Number of
Number of TECs
children (9-14
Number of
imparting VT
years) attending trades within VT
VT
54
1609
15
Health check ups
Number of
Visits by Govt
conducted
children covered
doctors
Monthly once by
1609
Once in 2 months
VHW
Number of
Number of
Number of
Total loan
SHGs formed
members
members
amount
(for mothers)
enrolled
provided
provided (in
with a loan
Rupees)
63
1112
489
9,89,000
Data provided by the INDUS project
These TECs are shut since all the children attending the TEC have been mainstreamed into regular schools
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Problems and challenges
The changing face of child labour is a major concern. While the problem has been
tackled fairly successfully in the hazardous sector, child labour has been driven
underground and is now not in public view.
Box III
Child labour at the doorstep!
Returning after meeting with several teaching volunteers and children in a TEC in Sivakasi block, I got a
preview to the latest ‘avatar’ of child labour through the open doors to the living room of a house. Several
children were sitting in a circle and filling match boxes with match sticks.
When I enquired with the field staff accompanying me, she confirmed that the children were child
labourers. The problem she explained was that since these homes or ‘outlets’ were not registered factories
or shops, they could not be raided. They fell into the disguised labour category that resulted in a direct
hindrance to the identification and withdrawal of these children. I was also told that with children no longer
being employed in factories and shops (for fear of the penalty if caught), they were driven to working in
these homes. Moreover, the house owners were veterans in defending such incidents with excuses such as
the child was only ‘helping out’ or was not a ‘regular employee’ or most commonly that ‘ the child was
replacing his/her parent during the parent’s tea break’.
Though parents were growing more aware of the situation of child labour in the
district, a proactive role was yet to be taken by a few parents in prioritizing the
withdrawal of their children and enrollment into schools before other needs. Further,
several families were interested only in enrolling their children in the TECs and not in
mainstreaming children as their interest lay in the stipend and not in the merits of
education per se. Employers also had to take responsibility for the demand they created
for child labourers. Their support in the area of making sure that all children employed
in their factory or shops were above the age of 14 years needed reinforcement. Better
employment opportunities also needed to be generated in the district which would
place greater value to education.
Some teachers felt that the children from the TECs were not able to cope with English
and Maths of the formal curriculum and this could also lead to their dropping out of the
formal schools when mainstreamed. In their opinion, the curriculum followed in the
TECs needed to be revamped.
While discussing ‘mainstreaming of children’ with parents, a common problem stated
by the parents is the discrimination their children faced after mainstreaming. They said
that their children were mocked as “Noor ruba makkal” or “Hundred Rupee child” by
their peers studying in regular schools.
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Box IV
“100 rupee schools”
An anguished mother whose son is in the VIII standard recounted the harsh discrimination her son had to
face in the formal school.
She explained that after her child was mainstreamed, he was constantly taunted by peers on the grounds
that he was a ‘child labourer’ and had studied in ‘100 rupees school’. When the mother approached the
headmaster with this problem, she was told that “children from TECs need to be working in shops and not
studying along with regular school children.” She was also told that “when the family doesn’t have money
to buy books, why is it necessary to educate the child at all?” Not withstanding this insult, she complained
to the Collector who dealt with the Headmaster with an iron hand. The Headmaster was transferred and a
new Headmaster was brought in his place. She said that “discrimination does exist against the children who
are mainstreamed into regular schools, but action needs to be taken against such behavior”.
The project staff felt that the project received tremendous support and co-operation
from the government and the members of the NCLP society. The District collector in
particular was very interested in the project and personally participated in Nila Palli,
rallies, sticker and poster campaigned against child labour and had become the leading
mascot for the INDUS project. They also mentioned the support given by the
Department of Education, Health, supervisor of industries and the block level officials
like the BDO, RTO etc. The District Collector recognizes that “convergence among all
other government department is the key problem.” The success of the NCLP project
depends on the coordinated efforts of all concerned departments.
The INDUS Project through its approach and interventions has been able to eliminate
child labour from the lives of several children who were identified as child labourers.
These children have also been successfully enrolled in TECs or mainstreamed into
regular schools. But at the same time, since the factors behind the persistence of child
labour continue to exist, it is difficult to prevent new incidence of child labour.
Moreover, with children being employed in homes, it has become difficult to identify
children from the working sector. However, two important aspects that have
contributed to the effectiveness of the project which need to be taken into consideration
prior to any replication are the necessary complete support and convergence from the
allied government departments and the availability of local staff members and teaching
volunteers.
In the case of the INDUS project, the chairperson, the District Collector has
become the motivating spirit for the project and some of his recent innovative
strategies like the anti child labour signature campaign and sticker campaign involving
public undertaking by the employers and shop owners in the district to support the
cause has had a tremendous influence on the public and strengthened their awareness
like none before. Moreover, his active interest is also responsible for the convergence
achieved so far of the government departments. Regarding the project staff, the
strength of the project lies in the fact that they belong to Virudhunagar district and are
familiar with the community, their psyche, the pattern behind the incidence and spread
of child labour and the local language and dialects spoken. They are able to tap the
needs of the families and cater to them effectively. The ILO through the INDUS
Project has made a significant impact to this situation and has successfully withdrawn
several child labourers through its integrated approach of providing alternatives for
schooling and mainstreaming of children and at the same time ensuring that they are
not pulled back into work by addressing the livelihood needs of the families.
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Case Study III
3.
Activity Based Learning Programme in Schools of the Corporation of
Chennai
AMUKTA MAHAPATRA
Threads Woven Together
THE Activity-based Learning (ABL) Program initiated in 260 schools of the
Corporation of Chennai is the result of various programs implemented by different
departments at different points in time.
The program started in May 2003 with the following objectives:

To ensure that a majority of the children can read, write and acquire basic
math skills

To address child development in a holistic way, not merely in the
academic areas

To enable the development of all faculties of the child

To create opportunities for children to learn with the teacher as a facilitator

To make classroom practices attractive for children

To retain children in the school system

To make the goals of SSA, a national program for providing quality
education for all children by 2007, a reality
Tamil Nadu has been weighed down by the feeling that its education system has not
been quite up to the mark in spite of it having one of the best infrastructures among
large states, high enrolment rates and enough regular teachers. Many agreed that the
state needed to walk the last few miles to get its children to attain good competency
levels. This acceptance, by and large, paved the way for the ABL program.
The years preceding the ABL saw several developments.
1.
With the start of the District Primary Education Programme, education in
Tamil Nadu entered a new phase. Thousands of teachers were trained under the
program. Ideas such as TLM, innovation in classroom teaching, government-NGO
coordination etc took root. Textbooks were reviewed on a large scale and the focus
shifted from course curriculum/subject to the learner. Dropout rates, child retention
in schools and action research became all important for the state education
department, the Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation, teachers and educators.
2.
The concept of ‘Joyful Learning’ brought about another wave of change in
the state, including the Corporation. Teachers began to harness their creative
energies to reach out to the children.
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In 2001-03, the DTERT trained almost the entire 500-odd DIET faculty of
the state in developing a professional attitude to quality education and delineated
the role of DIETs in the goal of enhancing quality schooling at the district level.
One of the main outcomes of the program was that it was more critical for the child
to participate in her learning and construct her own knowledge than for the teacher
to be active and creative.
3.
One of the perceived effects in Tamil Nadu of the SSA (launched in 2002)
was decentralization of planning at the block and district levels. The finances
distributed district-wise also made an impact. The SSA brought to the forefront
many issues of reaching quality education to the children among the teaching
fraternity in the state.
In May 2003, the present Commissioner of the Corporation brought with him his long
association with education. As soon as he took office, the Chennai Corporation made
reaching good education to the children in its schools a major thrust area. As he said in
discussion with the author, “…we knew the problem, we knew the solution, and it was
put into practice straightaway.”
The plan was to start with primary classes and graduate to addressing the issues of
learning in the upper primary. The authorities also felt that once these children went up
to higher classes with a new base and spirit of learning, the senior classes could be
better enabled to change their approach to teaching and learning.
The corporation adopted RIVER – the methodology developed by the Rishi Valley
Rural Education Centre in its satellite schools. The method has been well documented
and its details are in the public domain. For the Corporation, the USP of the model was
that it was a readily available system, with built-in processes that ensures learning
happens at every step along with continuous evaluation. The sequence of learning is
open and transparent, known to the child and to any visitor who walks into the class at
any time of the year. It has been adapted by many large programs in India and has been
successfully implemented in government systems. The ABL program was started with
this as a framework for classroom practice.
Lessons from the professional development program conducted for the DIET faculty
and other education personnel for bringing in quality education processes through
participation, was also woven into the framework. This experience yielded materials,
mainly for mathematics, based on the Montessori idea of self learning; the strategy and
approach to training; understanding of classroom practices and behaviour of teachers;
and the understanding of children’s learning requirements and the gross
underestimation of their capabilities in schools.
These two streams, woven together by the Corporation to bring quality learning at the
primary level, seem to be providing a solution to the problems that dog the system.
Some of these problems identified by the teachers themselves are:

A child’s learning of basic academic skills is not ensured

Teacher dominates the classroom all the time, with no allowance for
children to learn or develop on their own

It is assumed that all children will learn the same thing at the same time
and in the same manner
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
The multi-grade and multi-level nature of a classroom is not addressed

The teacher depends purely on conventional modes of teaching
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
TLM is rarely used as a normal practice

Most of the materials used do not lend themselves to self-learning

The syllabus is ‘covered’ by the teacher, but not necessarily by the child

There is no opportunity for the child to learn the lessons missed, if s/he is
absent

Evaluation methods are not scientific and do not feed into classroom
transactions

Parents’ participation in their child’s school life is minimal
The ABL program set out to overcome these difficulties and make the classroom a
more holistic space for learning and working with children through the year.
Timeline: May 2003 to March 2006
May-July 2003
Besides the AEOs and supervisors who are a part of the administration structure of the
corporation (refer organogram), four coordinators with experience of the Joyful
Learning program and one with additional experience of what is now called as the SelfLearning Method in Tamil Nadu, were appointed to look after the implementation of
the ABL program. Teaching cards were prepared following a visit by teachers from
three corporation schools to RIVER in 1997-98. The teachers had brought back a set in
Telugu. The coordinators in charge of different subjects translated and adapted the
materials along with a team of teachers. The program took off without ado in these
three schools with photocopies of the translated material.
August 2003
It was decided to include in the first phase 10 schools - one school in each zone - plus
the three schools whose teachers had gone for training earlier to RIVER and had
already started in July that term. An orientation-training program was held in Chennai
for teachers from these 13 schools. An MoU was signed between RIVER, the Chennai
Corporation and UNICEF to the effect that a team from Rishi Valley would visit for
supervision and guidance.
September 2003
A team went for training to RIVER for five days. It consisted of two teachers each
from the selected 10 schools across the zones, plus the teachers from the earliest three
schools, two supervisors from two zones, a lecturer from DIET and a professor who
was on lien from the DTERT and was one of the coordinators of the ABL program.
The Joint Commissioner, Education, acquainted himself with the method, the
classroom practices and the support required adapting the model successfully to the
corporation schools.
Post-training, the 13 schools spread over 10 zones started with a set of photocopied
materials end of September. Children of classes 1 and 2 were clubbed together to get
the advantage of a multi-grade classroom. * These schools were the forerunners for the
others to follow.
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Oct 2003-March 2004
This was seen as an experimental phase in which the teachers were helped to
appreciate the details necessary for any product/ program/ process to be qualitative.
Meetings were conducted every Saturday with the teachers of the 13 schools. The
coordinators and the Commissioner would be present at the meetings and together they
resolved issues, helping each other to look at some deeper problems and find
pedagogical solutions.
Mr Padmanabha Rao and his team from Rishi Valley came to help and guide
frequently, especially in the preparation of materials and for further training. This time,
the prototypes cards were printed.
Pedagogy in Place
The focus of the intervention in the first year of scaling to cover all the primary and
middle schools was on training the teachers and BRTs, distribution of materials and
putting the system in place.
The week-long training program conducted by Mr Padmanabha Rao & Ms Rama, in
the Rishi Valley Rural Education Centre saw vociferous protests from many of the
teachers about sitting on the floor, the seemingly chaotic classroom, the variety of
symbols used, about working in a multi-grade classroom... Gradually, however, the
protests gave way to excitement of implementing a new program, of being among the
first agents of change, of improving the lot of children under their care – and knowing
that the corporation would back them in all their efforts.
From photocopies to printed learning cards for classes 1 and 2, the material itself went
through many changes. Class 3 had photocopied material this year. But from the new
academic year in June 2006, both classes 3 and 4 will have attractively printed learning
material. The Tamil Nadu syllabus and textbooks were the reference point for the
subject material that was prepared keeping in mind the competencies and skills
expected of each class.
The cost of one set of material for all four subjects (Tamil, Math, EVS, English) for
Classes I and II, printed in colour was Rs. 2023/- for a group of twenty children. This
works out to Rs 100/- per child, which is comparative to the cost of a good textbook.
Here they were getting four textbooks and more packed into each set. In fact the life of
the card material will be more than a year definitely, with a few spares required to
replace damaged or lost pieces in the second and third years. One cannot say the same
of a textbook, which by the end of the year is usually in tatters.
The Corporation initially paid the total cost for 2000 sets to the Textbook Corporation,
Department of Education, Government of Tamilnadu. SSA paid this back after the
proposal given by the Corporation to the SSA in Chennai district was accepted in mid
2005. It may be pertinent to mention here that in the scaling up of the programme
across the state (10 schools have been selected in each of the 400 odd blocks adding up
to about 4000 schools), the Textbook Corporation will distribute the sets free, since it
is like giving an extra textbook to each child.
Over January 2005, 1346 sets of learning cards were issued to schools. Two sets each
were given to the 10 BRTs in Chennai district and 29 DIETs. UNICEF got 100 sets for
future distribution, a set each to the Block Resource Centres and each Director from
the various education departments and two sets went to the SSA. Besides the cards, a
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Self-Learning Material (SLM) kit for conceptual understanding of mathematics (was
earlier developed along with the former principal of Abacus School for a DTERT
program) is also being distributed to schools in phases.
The whole range of materials is displayed in various places - exhibitions/melas, for
example – to generate awareness among parents and the community in general.
Challenges
The biggest challenge for any kind of systemic or large-scale change is to keep out
mechanical reproductions. Efforts to upscale an already existing model or follow in its
footsteps have been made many times, but without much success.
Each effort has to be a generative process. This does not imply that one has to start
from ground zero each time. Every fresh beginning needs to take off from the earlier
points of arrival. The past has to be taken into account, principles culled out and plans
made, building on earlier achievements. Can the Chennai Corporation and the state of
Tamil Nadu enable this process, while establishing standards in all the spheres of
quality education? Can the state use its authority and responsibility in the right
direction to give children the quality they deserve? The question that the
Commissioner often posed to the teachers was ‘If we cannot do it, who else can?’ - If
the Corporation of Chennai and the Department of Education, Tamil Nadu cannot do
this with all the built-in advantages, who else can?
To create the right atmosphere for a large-scale program with all the right ingredients
and the right approach to quality learning is very much a possibility within the ambit of
the state. It needs a calm, long-term, positive effort from which the gains can be
immediate and visible, right from day one.
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Case Study IV
4.
From QIP to CLIP: The case of Andhra Pradesh
BHARAT PATNI
Background
Bringing visible change in 64,161 schools where learning levels were clearly abysmal,
in a system which boasts of 4.17 lakh teachers strongly knit into five trade unions,
annual admissions of over 10.80 lakh primary age group children, more than 4.23 lakh
out-of-school children – the task would be clearly daunting for even the strongest
administrators!
Till 2001, the AP state administrators were grappling with age-old issues, such as their
schools not opening on time, abnormal levels of teacher absenteeism, practically no
inspection visits for the last 15 years, and low children attendance. In the academic
session 2001-02, the state launched the Learning Guarantee Program (LGP) on a pilot
basis in two mandals of two districts. Data about the children’s low learning levels of
all the 3-Rs was shared with the stakeholders, including parents, panchayats, teachers
and supervisory/monitoring staff. The government looked forward to generating a
sense of urgency and enthusiasm among them as also replicating the LGP in the other
districts with the help of NGOs.
The Pupil Assessment Reform at the Primary Stage – another AP Education
Department initiative in this period - focussed on assessing children during the
teaching learning process itself by increasing the frequency of unit tests, and including
project work etc while making formative assessments of learning levels.
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Several other strategies and initiatives, such as Chaduvula Panduga (Learning festival),
the Mid-day Meal Scheme, etc., resulted in a surge in school enrolment at primary
level, and the Education Department reported that 97% of eligible children were now
“in school”. But the problem of low learning levels of in-school children, and the
consequential low retention rate, led to a serious rethink within the system.
Thus, during the academic session of 2003-04, the then State Project Director for the
SSA introduced “Quality Improvement Program” (QIP) with a clearly articulated
objective that most children will achieve minimum specified competency levels in the
3-Rs within 45 days of intensive teaching in mission mode. The government attempted
to build up the capacities of teachers – with extra emphasis on child development, the
assessment procedure, and of course, the subject teaching.
Pre-tests were conducted on children in grades 2 to 5, and based on their performance,
they were graded from A to E. Appropriate level of remedial teaching followed
thereafter backed up by regular monitoring by district and mandal education officers.
Post-tests indicated that percent children in A-B-C categories went up from 48.5% to
77.15% in language, and 47.88% to 71.14% in arithmetic! The QIP process – after
planning from pre-tests to implementation to post-tests – took 45 days.
Box V: Confronting Reality
Chandramouli brought into play his formal training in mass communications 9 to reach out to the
hearts of his teachers, via his mandal and district education officers, by adopting a unique
communication strategy. He had realized that most statistics reeled out by the district and
mandal teams were, perhaps, not based on the whole truth. Step one was to make them realize
the ground realities about the pathetic levels to which their teaching staff had fallen.
On July 18th, 2005, “Children Language Improvement Programme” (CLIP) was announced to
all the DEOs, DIET Principals, and SSA’s Additional Project Co-ordinators who are located in
the districts. Each of the three key officers of every district was required to personally (i.e., not
depute other officers for this task) spend as observers one whole day separately at any two
schools of their choice in their district on 21 st and 22nd July... The ground rules were simple: do
not cheat (yourself!) by dishonest reporting, and clarify to the MEOs and school staff that the
intention was not to take disciplinary action as a result of this exercise. The data collection was
to be as per a specified proforma10.
Twenty-three district teams disclosed their findings during a state-level meeting on July 25th at
Hyderabad. All myths were demolished as realization dawned on the assembly that even though
the TPR was an overall healthy 1:26 11, the actual status of children’s learning level was way
below what they had always imagined it to be! Even, in East Godavari District, for example,
which has for long been considered as the most “developed” in AP, only 8% of the children in
this sample were found as able to read a simple text, and just 3% able to perform the
multiplication and division operations! Mere numbers no longer made any sense!
Source: Bharat Patni, QIP to CLIP, field notes 2006, Case Study III Annexure I
9 Mr K. Chandramouli earned a Mass Comm degree from Birmingham, UK, before his appointment in the IAS.
10 Data was collected on total school enrolment, number of children present; numbers of sanctioned teacher posts,
numbers actually working, and numbers actually present; the TPR; the %-age teacher attendance in the previous year; the
%-age children in Grades II-V who could read, write, and perform the 4 basic arithmetic operation; whether the duties
were assigned to teachers class-wise or subject-wise.
11 “Teachers” here include Vidya Volunteers, who are para-teachers
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Two academic sessions later, AP’s emotionally charged new SPD K Chandramouli
was confronted with the still appalling condition of the state’s primary education
system. Members of the community, the panchayats were more interested, for obvious
reasons, in spending funds on school infrastructure rather than on improving the
teaching learning process. The indifference of the system in general, “was a pain in the
heart” of the SPD. Even in the universally acknowledged most-advanced district of
East Godavari, barely 27% children between grades 2 to 5 were able to read simple
text, and 17% were able to write! The “system was rotting”; something simply had to
be done, and there was little time to waste.
It was now clear that the QIP strategy needed to be considerably modified. For one,
there was no sustained and visible change in the mindset of the teachers after the 45day period of intervention. Further, it was also back to normal business for everyone in
the system as soon as the 46th day dawned! What the SPD really wanted was a
seamless and continuous intervention during the academic session.
The Action Plan for 2005-06
The SPO then rolled out its action plan.
Academic year 2005-06 will primarily focus on improvement of the 3-Rs (reading,
writing, and arithmetic) in classes 1 to 5. Program will commence on August 11, 2005,
to be preceded by a very tight orientation.
Testing and identification of children under A or B (i.e., can or cannot) categories,
based on their achievement in language and numeracy skills12 would form the baseline
for the program. Testing would be, thereafter, undertaken by teachers on a month-wise
basis, and progress of individual children would be recorded in teacher-wise registers.
Grading of schools under A (80% and above), B (60-79%), C (50-59%), or D (49%
and below) based on their pupils’ performance in the tests.
Strengthening of external inspection and monitoring system, involving MRPs, MEOs,
Deputy EOs, etc.; institutionalizing district, divisional, and state-level monitoring
mechanisms
Teachers to assume responsibility class-wise rather than subject-wise. Special focus on
classes 1 and 2: only active regular teachers (i.e., not Vidya Volunteers - VVs) to be
allotted these classes. Special programs for remedial teaching, with special attention to
slow learners in classes 3, 4 and 5.
Use of TLM / modules developed by the state pedagogy and teacher’s training
department team for accelerated learning of language and basic arithmetical operations.
Provision of adequate quantities of children’s literature and strengthening of school
libraries, with a view to focus on the development of the reading habit, and
encouraging children to read for pleasure.
12 Teachers, MRPs, and MEOs were assured that no adverse action would be taken on them as long as test results were
honestly recorded in child-wise registers teachers were expected to maintain on their own.
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The Ground Rules
The following simple rules were drilled into the entire team:

Teachers and Headmasters shall not leave their schools without prior
permission; MEOs and DEOs will NOT withdraw teachers from the school
without clear approval from the Director of School Education

There shall be a very strict embargo on record keeping / report writing
during school hours. Mandal Resource Persons will visit schools and collect
records / data from school records themselves

Teachers shall, henceforth, take all the subjects for one (or more) specific
class(es), and stop teaching many classes subject-wise

Tools and techniques for accelerating the development of the 3 R’s shall
be utilized, as specified by the pedagogy and teacher training team at SPO in
Hyderabad; one period in all primary and upper primary schools every day shall be
assigned to library activity – children shall be encouraged to borrow books and
read on their own

Only active regular teacher(s), and definitely not Vidya Volunteers, shall
teach classes 1 and 2. This was with a view to forming a firm foundation of the
child

TPRs shall be maintained at specified levels; vacancies, maternity leave
positions, and long leave positions to be immediately filled by Vidya Volunteers,
to be paid via School Education Committees out of SSA funds

Teachers shall be required to track irregular children and counsel parents
by visiting their homes, and recording details of such visits in their registers

Besides other normal duties, HMs shall also conduct meetings with
parents, once every month, to discuss attendance and child’s test performance;
review child’s performance every Saturday with the teachers; minutes of both
these meetings shall be recorded and made available to inspection teams
Most importantly, the SPD shall keep his cell phone on all the time to enable him to
receive feedback from any interested stakeholder, which included the children!
Monitoring
The SPO laid down clear instructions for monitoring at each level.
At the school level, the teachers and HM are responsible for:

Baseline and monthly testing / data analysis / record keeping of each
child’s performance on reading, writing, and four basic arithmetical operations
(addition, subtraction, multiplication and division)

Saturday discussion meetings with teachers on weekly performance /
achievements / problem solving

Maintenance of month-wise tables indicating class-wise grading, and
overall grading of the school.
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Reading
Table 5:
Testing of Children’s Performance
Reading of 5 sentences of the previous lesson
Writing
Dictation of 20 words from the lessons completed
Addition
Two numbers each of 2-digit numbers for Class II
Two numbers each of 3-digit numbers for Class III
Three numbers each of 4-digit numbers for Class IV
Four numbers each of 5-digit numbers for Class V
Subtraction
Two numbers each of 2-digit numbers for Class II
Two numbers each of 3-digit numbers for Class III
Three numbers each of 4-digit numbers for Class IV
Four numbers each of 5-digit numbers for Class V
Multiplication
2-digit numbers with 1-digit numbers for Class II
2-digit numbers with 2-digit numbers for Class III
3-digit numbers with 2-digit numbers for Class IV
4-digit numbers with 2-digit numbers for Class V
Division
1-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers for Class II
2-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers for Class III
3-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers for Class IV
4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers for Class V
If the child can do with minimum 80% accuracy, the grade is A; otherwise, Grade B
Verbal problems may also be given by examiners for the arithmetical operations
Problems may be given from the completed chapters, or, in the event the chapters have
not been completed, from even earlier classes.
Teacher’s Child-wise Grades Register
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Typical Charts on School Notice Boards
Monitoring at different levels
At the mandal level:

Every school will be inspected for one complete day at least once every
month; MRPs / MEOs will test every child in that school, compare their own test
results with the grades given by the class teacher, analyze reasons for variance (if
any), record progress made since last visit;

MEOs will visit at least nine schools every month, and spend one full day
there; they will divide the remaining schools in the mandal between themselves

MEOs will also conduct a review meeting with the school committee and
other community members, after school hours for the every school visited by them

MEOs will also conduct a review meeting with all HMs at the beginning
of every month
At the district level:

The leadership for monitoring vested with the Deputy EO

For every five mandals, a six-member inspection team13 constituted,
further grouped into three teams @ two members per team

Each two-member team will randomly visit one school per day (covering
three schools) for five continuous days, covering all the five mandals during one
13 Members to be chosen out of active HMs of High Schools / DIET lecturers, to represent each of the 5 mandals
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week. Inspection visits are facilitated by the use of one vehicle per Education
Division to be hired14 on a monthly basis for utilization by this six-member team
on simultaneous basis.

The two-member team will test all children, verify / compare grades given
by MRPs and prominently display the grade of the school based on children’s
performance; also, meet community members / parents after school hours

The DEOs, APCs, and DIET Principals will visit five schools in a month
individually, stay one full day at the school, test all the children, and compare /
analyse grades awarded by others

In the presence of state level observers, DEOs will conduct monthly
reviews with (a) monitoring teams, and (b) MEOs / MRPs, along with first-level
monitoring team members.
At the state level:

One team constituted for each of the 23 districts to randomly visit those
schools across the divisions which had been visited by the district teams

State teams to also stay for one whole working day in a school, administer
tests to all the children, compare grades awarded by district teams; if the variance
was unacceptable, caution the district team; after school hours, the teams to
conduct meetings of the SEC and community members

State team members to attend the review meetings of the district
monitoring teams, MRPs, and MEOs – to be conducted at the office of the DEO;
teams to visit the district schools in the week prior to the district review meetings
At the RJD level15:

Random monitoring of at least two schools per district per month, stay one
whole day in the school visited, and personally assess and compare children’s test
scores with other monitoring reports

Monthly review of the outcomes with DEOs, Deputy EO, APC, and DIET
Principals, and submission of progress reports to DSE and SPD
At the SPO level:

The SPD will conduct monthly teleconferences to review district-wise
outcomes

Accompanied by a 30-member state team, the SPD will also visit different
districts every month and, thereafter, conduct district review meetings at district
headquarters
The entire expenditure on school monitoring, including the payment of travelling and
daily allowances, hiring of vehicles, printing of reporting formats, generation of
reports, etc., is being borne out of the R&E component of the district SSA funds.
14 Expenditure on vehicle to be met from the R&E component from SSA funds available to districts
15 Regional Joint Directors are education officers in-charge of approx 5 to 6 districts each
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Box VI:Call me anytime!
It is 11.30 am on a Monday morning on 28th February. The cell phone sitting on State
Project Director’s desk starts ringing in between a serious discussion on CLIP. He glances
at the caller’s name and immediately picks up the phone – the call is from the DEO of West
Godavari. The loudspeaker mode is activated since the SPO CLIP team is in his office; the
team is all ears. This turns out to be an unsolicited personal report on the month’s positive
outcome of the CLIP programme. A 5-minute animated conversation in Telugu follows,
and the SPD is visibly moved at the end of it! Yes, he says, his untiring efforts to change
the mindset of the education bureaucracy are yielding results.
He recounts calls from two young children in the last two days – Aishwarya and Pallavi.
They had called him from public phone booths, spending a rupee each from their meagre
pocket money, and read out extracts from the daily newspaper to prove that, thanks to their
vastly improved schools, they were now able to read!
The SPD believes that his task as SPD would be really completed the day a village kid
makes a scheduled stop on his way from home to school at 8.30 in the morning, and at the
wayside tea shop or a barber shop, reads out the headlines from a local newspaper to the
assembled mostly illiterate senior citizens – a few having eyes with blurred cataract
affected vision- and then runs off in time for his 9.00 am morning prayer in the school!
Teachers’ Training
The Pedagogy and Training Unit of SPO, Hyderabad, is actively engaged in designing
the training content for the CLIP program, as well as in ensuring that the teachers are
trained on a regular basis to perform the teaching tasks assigned to them. The State
Academic Monitoring Officer (SAMO) and his team are involved in the development
and dissemination of tools and techniques for accelerated teaching and learning of
deprived children.
The Assistant Monitoring Officers attached to the district offices, in turn, are required
to

arrange trainings at the district and mandal levels

disseminate from the district project office all proceedings and orders
issued by the SPO to DIET Principals and MEOs for effective program
implementation

conduct monthly review meetings with Deputy EOs at the divisional level,
and at the district level with DEOs, APCs, and DIET Principals

monitor the divisional level monitoring team visits, consolidate and submit
to the SPO such visit reports through the APCs and DEOs

conduct TC meetings / school complex meetings and discuss language and
arithmetic issues

collect and disseminate success stories of CLIP program implementation

coordinate the visits of the state teams to the districts

initiate action on monitoring reports through APC and DEOs

regulate the printing and supply of monitoring formats to all monitoring
officers
Observations during visits to randomly selected schools in three mandals of Ranga
Reddy District
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The following schools were visited on 28th Feb 06 and 1st March 06: CUPS Parvatapur,
PS Gandhinagar, and PS Laxmi Narsimha Colony in Ghatkesar Mandal; CPS
Sheriguda in Ibrahimpatan Mandal; UPS Dadpalli and UPS Cheeded in Manchal
Mandal.
Prior to 9.00 am, almost all teachers & VVs were present at Parvatapur and Sheriguda
schools. At 9.00 am sharp, the children had assembled for the prayers, oath taking
ceremonies, and other tasks such as reading from the morning papers, announcements,
etc. were conducted. Average TPRs were very healthy at all the schools, though at the
remotely located Gandhinagar school, which has only 55 children with two regular
teachers, each of the teachers was necessarily involved in multi-grade teaching.
Average school attendance was observed to be a high of 84.6% of enrolment! Teachers
and VVs appeared earnestly engaged in the task of improving their class, and hence the
school grades. They were utilising their TLM allocation out of SSA funds.
Children appeared happy and interested in their school. Both the children and teachers
were pressing the observers to conduct tests and award grades to the classes.
Areas of concern were the continuing pathetic levels in writing and multiplication /
division operations among children. Class teachers were searching for quick fix
solutions to tackle this. In general, they felt that more practical training was required if
the SPO is really keen on all schools achieving Grade A by the end of this academic
year.
Class-wise libraries were functional at all schools, though the books available were
neither enough, nor did they appear age appropriate or attractive. Post lunch, one
period was being devoted to reading of library books.
Though the schools closer to the main roads were on the regular inspection beats of the
officers, remote locations such as Dadpalli and Cheeded had not been visited for
almost 2 whole months. Reason provided by Mr Babu Rao, (the MEO Manchal
Mandal) was that the MRP, Mr Srinivas, had been seconded for “ration card duty”!
However, L Ravindra, one of the recently promoted MRPs in Ghatkesar Mandal,
landed up on his own to meet the observers, and explained his role in the CLIP
program.
The MDM (mid day meal) at the two schools visited during lunch time tasted very
good. Children were clearly enjoying their meals. SHGs had been involved in cooking
and serving the MDM.
School infrastructure was adequate though lack of toilets in two of the schools must
surely be an issue for the girl child.
Community contributions at all the locations were satisfactory. Children’s furniture,
almirahs, steel plates for children
The Impact
As mentioned earlier, all the 23 districts themselves conducted rapid assessments (six
schools per district) via their DEOs / APCs, and DIET Principals in July 2005; the
results presented to the SPO on July 25th were tabulated. On an average, the
percentages of children who were able to perform on various operations were as per
the following table:
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Table 6: % 6-14 year olds who were able to perform with at least 80% accuracy
R
W
+
-
X
Division
42
24
47
33
23
17
During November-December 2005, an independent assessment of AP’s learning levels
was completed on a sample basis in 22 districts (out of 23) by Pratham, who networked
with Lok Satta, and hundreds of unpaid volunteers.
The published results for classes 2 to 5 in government-run rural schools are as under:
Table 7: Published results for classes 2 to 5
% children who can read
% children who can solve numerical written sums
Level 1
Level 2
Subtraction or Division
Division
60.4
37
59.8
28.3
Legend
Level 1:
difficulty
Level 2:
difficulty
Subtraction:
Division:
ability to read a small paragraph with short sentences of Class I
ability to read a ‘story’ text with some long sentences of Class II
2-digit subtraction with borrowing
3-digit division by 1 digit
Conclusion
It is, perhaps, a little too early to conclude whether the dice has been cast in favour of
Mr Chandramouli and his team at the State Project Office. Qualitative indicators are
certainly very positive. When asked about his reaction to ASER 2005’s findings, Mr
Chandramouli simply said, “We have the data from ASER 2005; please wait till ASER
2006!
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Case Study V
5.
School Monitoring Profile, Uttaranchal
NISHI MEHROTRA
The Canvass
THE new state of Uttaranchal was carved out of the northern part of Uttar Pradesh in
2000. Out of its 13 districts, a majority are mountainous and hilly, with some regions
having scattered habitations (particularly rural). The urban towns and cities have a
larger concentration of population whether in the plains or the hills. Therefore, schools
are located as per the spread of habitation. This particular case study looks at the
School Monitoring System of the state with reference to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan,
which had its beginnings while within UP when the Basic Education Project (BEP)
was initiated in the early nineties.
The present school monitoring system of Uttaranchal was in use in the UP BEP and
DPEP III (District Primary Education Project) districts. When the Uttaranchal Sabhi
ke liye Shiksha Parishad came into being in the new state of Uttaranchal in 2001, it
retained the school grading system which focused largely on the physical aspects of
schools, tracking interventions for civil works and maintenance during the DPEP
phase.
The state Uttaranchal Sabhi ke liye Shiksha Parishad took a conscious decision to
further develop the school monitoring system so that it could deliver a comprehensive
status of schools, both physically and academically, on a regular basis for ensuring the
quality of basic education.
The school monitoring system covers over 11,700 government primary schools,
including primary sections of 2,500 upper primary schools, of the state. Until 2005 the
system was focused on primary schools only, but upper primary schools have also been
included in the coverage plan since 2005-06.
The schools are intensely monitored on two broad parameters –

Physical Infrastructure which includes status of building and compound,
teaching aids/materials and school administration, school management, teachers,
students, classroom practices, extra-curricular activities, community involvement
and assessment procedures of children.

Student Achievement which includes classroom processes, co-curricular
activities, academic achievements of students and their learning levels.
Table 8: Timeline
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Dec. 1999
First initiative to grade schools with a checklist in all UP DPEP districts on
three basic parameters-physical status, teacher related and general
classroom environment.
Oct/ Nov 2001
Three state-level workshops in Uttaranchal to further develop and refine the
grading format into parts A for physical aspects and B for students’
achievements.
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October 2003
A modified tool for school grading and monitoring communicated for use
at the field level.
2002-2003
School monitoring system extended to all 13 districts. Earlier, it was used
in the primary schools of six districts only.
2004-2005
Primary sections in 2500 upper primary schools also included for school
monitoring.
Near-universal use of question papers to test students in the last round of
assessments.
August 2005
Instructions issued to functionaries at the district level to prepare block
wise school grading maps after each round of school monitoring in
October, January and March.
Decision to use Grading Achievement Percentage (GAP to create maps to
show the position of clusters/blocks/in a district and districts in the state.
Key decisions communicated to CRCCs, BRCCs, DIETs, DPO, Additional
Basic Shiksha Adhikari to implement the school grading system.
2005-2006
Upper Primary schools too included for school monitoring.
Complete coverage for use of question papers to test students.
Annual Work Plan and Budget prepared with a focus on school monitoring
and grading right up from the cluster level.
What was initiated as a school grading
system in 2000 has now evolved into a
systematic ‘school performance and
tracking system’ for comprehensive
school assessment. The school has
become the focal unit for decentralized
planning
interventions
that
are
localized, demand and need based
through use of the grading tool.
‘Koti karan’ is a familiar word in SSA
Uttaranchal, no matter with whom you
interact - the functionaries of the
education system or the community. It
means grading in Hindi and is used for
the school performance tracking and
grading system.
Objectives
The school monitoring and grading system has been developed to target weak areas,
teaching, performance of children, capacity building, competency enhancement etc
and, thereby, improve school infrastructure and classroom processes. It envisages
child- friendly assessment opportunities so that children do not feel encumbered by
constant evaluation. It is an instrument for the development of schools through the
processes of planning and implementation. In order to do achieve this, capacities are
being built to identify problems and solutions right down at the micro level. The
system also endeavours to establish linkages between cohort, Comprehensive and
Continuous Evaluation (CCE) and grade maps. The goal is to ensure that children with
better achievement levels enter higher education.
The defined objectives of the school monitoring system are:

Every child and every school to be periodically assessed by an external
evaluator.

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Every child to be assessed on minimum competencies.
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
Each school to be assessed taking into account the performance of
students, teachers and SMCs (School Management Committees).

Identify factors that affect the learning performance of students at various
levels.

Enable teachers to develop strategies to improve achievement levels of
students rather than spend time on evaluation.

Involve the community in the overall school assessment process,
particularly in monitoring the progress of their children and the school.

Develop a standardized tool that generates data to analyse the impact of
interventions and initiatives.

Establish a fair, objective and unbiased assessment system.
The school monitoring system is based on an evaluation tool that seeks the holistic
development of the school, cluster, block and district. The system embodies the
following components/features to impact quality education:

A competency-based testing tool (CBTT) for school monitoring.

An evidence-based testing tool that is “developmental”, not “inspectorial”.

A holistic approach in which all factors of school development are
included as parameters of assessment.

A dynamic, evolving system with an inherent capacity to incorporate
required changes.

A transparent and participatory design for involving the community and
wider sharing by implementers.

Amenable system for analysis to detect weak areas and gaps to inform
remedial measures.

The basis for formulating the Annual Work Plan and Budget to maintain
the quality of basic education.
Evolution of School Grading
The first step of grading schools with the aid of a school-based checklist was initiated
in all DPEP districts of UP in 1999-2000, when Uttaranchal was a part of that state.
The grading parameters were developed with the involvement of DIETs (District
Institutes of Educational Training) and BSAs (Basic Shiksha Adhikari).
These grading parameters were divided into three categories:

the physical environment of the school,

teacher-related interventions

the classroom environment in general.
There are 10 sub- parameters within each of these three categories which are allotted a
mark each, totalling 30 marks. On the basis of this, grades are allotted to schools as per
the marks given to them by the Nyaya Panchayat Resource Centre Coordinators
(NPRCC)16.
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This basic format was developed to facilitate periodic assessment of improvements in
schools by the NPRCCs, Block Resource Centre Coordinators (BRCC) and other
visiting officials to schools. It was designed so that they could offer suggestions and
facilitate remedial measures, which, in turn, would enable the schools to improve.
Also, members of the Academic Core Team in DIETs were to assess the improvement
in grades on a monthly basis.
When Uttaranchal came into being, SPO (State Project Office) of the Uttaranchal
Sabhi ke Liye Shiksha Parishad awarded special priority to quality education in the
state. Keeping in mind the merits of the school grading system, the new state program
resolved to further develop the model of school monitoring into a more holistic and
comprehensive system. Through the constitution of a State Resource Group (SRG) that
included academicians, educationists, teachers, representatives of NGOs in the
education sector and others, the SPO set about the task of identifying needs and
addressing the gaps to fulfil its goal of quality education.
In the very first year, the SPO held workshops to refine and develop a comprehensive
monitoring tool. Firstly, a draft grading format was developed with SRG members and
project functionaries during three state-level workshops in DIET Rourkee, DIET
Bhimtal and in Dehradun. A format that took into account the physical condition of the
school and the status of students’ achievements evolved from these workshops.
Consequently, parameters emerged for grading, division of grades as per marks in the
format, the schedule for grading and guidelines for implementing the grading system
and monitoring it. Finally, by the end of October 2003 the DPEP III districts were
communicated guidelines for evaluation of schools along with the finalized format.
The Grading Process
The process of school grading and monitoring is quite interesting as it involves the
different vertical tiers along with horizontal strengthening and accountability in the
education system. While the schools are graded by the Cluster Resource Centre
Coordinators (CRCC) at the NPRC level with the support of teachers and community
(somewhat) in each cluster, they are further grouped and mapped at the block level by
the BRCCs. The picture of each block is then mapped in the context of others in the
district with BRCs, DIETs and District Project Office (DPO). The SPO, State Council
for Education Research and Training (SCERT) and others are responsible for
comprehensive school grading and mapping at the state level. This shows the results of
interventions, crisis areas, need-based capacity building, remedial measures undertaken
and the overall situation of each cluster, block and district on a quarterly basis. The
main think-tank operates at the state level involving the SPO, DIETs and the SCERT.
It is the second level of DPO, DIET and BRC (Block Resource Centre), which is the
hub for monitoring, academic support, analysis of data and response for remedial
measures.
The Grading Tool and its Operationalisation
The school grading tool, being used since 2004, comprises –

proforma A that lists the status of the school through nine sub-sections
totalling 100 marks
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
proforma B listing students’ learning achievements in Language, Maths,
Science, Social Studies, extra-curricular activities etc., also totalling 100 marks.
Each school is graded every quarter on both proforma by the CRC.
Marks allotted in each format are converted into respective grades. Each parameter is
graded separately. For example, a school may be graded A for physical parameters and
C for academic so its grade would be AC for that quarter. In the next quarter, it could
have AB or BB grades. The score for that grading combination during a quarter
illustrates the position and status of a particular school, cluster, block or district in
comparison to others providing a basis for analysis and inputs.
According to the position, gaps and deficiencies can be assessed right to the school
level, thereby enabling the flow of remedial measures. There are 25 possible
combinations of grades through AA to EE.
The academic assessment tool and its implementation, unlike the physical assessment
tool, have evolved over time. The process of assessment has moved from oral testing to
written tests over the last three years. From writing the questions on the blackboard and
using photocopies to giving written test papers, prepared by DIETs, even the format
has come a long way. Even now individual test papers are not available for all the
children in a class. Teachers and CRCCs feel that each child should have his /her own
question paper. This may prove an expensive proposition to undertake.
As for the actual process of exams, four sets of test papers are prepared for each block
for random use so that children do not have access to test papers in advance. Post-tests,
the CRCCs and teachers from other schools in the cluster evaluate and mark them. The
test papers are kept in the school itself but there is no register to record the
performance of children over the three phases. In the schools visited in the two
clusters of Chamoli district, all children in classes 2 and 5 were administered the tests
in all subjects and the academic performance of the school was graded. The total marks
obtained by the children in all test papers were divided by the number of children who
were administered the test.
It is debatable whether this system can be used effectively and in a sustained manner in
schools, especially in urban areas, with large numbers of children and several sections
to a class. Some suggestions have been made by the implementers and administrators
of the system on how to effectively use this system:

To take a representative number of children from all classes for testing a
percentage of children per class, not numbers per class should be fixed children
from classes 2 and 4 should be administered the tests so that there is the leverage
of an academic year for improvement.
Management
The human resources for school monitoring and grading system are the existing
personnel and structures at all levels with no extra deployment of people. The SPO,
SRG, SCERT, DIETs coordinate, direct and review. They provide the backup for
academic support like development and refinement of the tool and guidelines for its
implementation. DIETs now have been actively involved in the preparation of question
papers, monitoring and mentoring at the district and block levels and data analysis, and
grading with BRCCs and CRCCs. After grading and analysis of schools/clusters the
DPO, BRCs and CRCs, along with DIETs, work towards facilitation of specific
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capacity-building inputs. The School Management Committees (SMC) and Village
Education Committees (VEC) also play a crucial role in the implementation and
monitoring of the schools in some areas.
Box VII: What has worked to make it an operational model on scale?

The commitment of the SSA to follow up through the monitoring system
and evolve planning around school development.

A wide awareness about quality education at all levels through all
stakeholders.

The evolving design of the grading tool and the management system for it.

Use of existing human resource structure at different levels.

areas.
The indicators thrown up at the cluster level to diagnose and address weak

Building parents’ confidence in the school system so that they realise its
value for their children.
Using school/cluster grading as the basis of developing annual work plans.
The program has taken systematic monitoring down to the cluster and school levels.
There is a new consciousness about maintaining consistent quality in education.
Districts are learning to take the initiative to build capacities among teachers and
implementers at the cluster level. So far, some functionaries have learnt to critically
examine and analyse school grading data, but this analysis has to pervade at all levels
so that monitoring is not seen as a top-down mechanism but a need based quality
improvement tool.
Observations from the field
1.
The schools visited looked welcoming, perched on a hillside or standing
on a nearby road - painted, clean, swept and neat. Fruit-laden trees, flower beds
and bright young faces – the picture was complete. Virtually each class had a
teacher and even though not everyone was participating, students were aware of
what they were learning.
2.
A majority of the women teachers (who commuted from the nearby town
to the school) in the blocks visited admitted that they had become conscious of the
school timings. Their skills had improved due to the monitoring system as also
their preparedness for taking classes so that during each quarter they were able to
complete the course for that period. A few teachers said they helped needy students
with notebooks and other stationery etc.
3.
Teachers were comfortable learning from and help each other. Along with
remedial assistance, they had started seeking solutions on their own. They were
using TLMs to assist children to learn. Schools were borrowing and lending
teachers wherever there was a shortage.
4.
The focus was shifting to academic performance of children in poor
performing clusters and blocks because both teachers and implementers were
becoming conscious of quality.
5.
Parents, particularly mothers were positive about the school environment
and the learning of children. Though they were not literate in some areas, they
were proud of their children, especially girls learning in the school. They did not
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intervene in the day-to-day activities of the schools but kept an indirect watch
whenever they passed by the school.
6.
Some VECs and SMCs had also started evincing interest in the schools
and their status though it has yet to become a norm. There were instances where
they had provided labour or materials for construction of kitchen sheds in the
school or making pathways to schools and keeping an eye the administration so
that schools remained in good condition and children attended regularly.
Challenges
The program has been able to take forward the school monitoring system through an
evolutionary process. Various strategies have been used to involve all levels of
personnel. However, there are certain challenges on the horizon:

There is a need to develop options for the tool/system to evolve in the
context of specific local interventions/inputs.

Teachers and CRCCs have to make a conscious effort to maintain grade
levels of the schools/clusters, once attained so that they do not fall behind.

Clusters with average to poor academic performance need to be given
attention on a priority basis

Functionaries at block and cluster levels have to develop critical analytical
competencies to use school-level academic assessment data to track the
performance of children on a quarterly basis.

School-level data must be used intensively to plan localized strategies for
academic improvement inputs that show up in children’s achievements.

There is a need to visualize how the process can be decentralized at the
district level and also made less burdensome for the implementers and the children.

Communities, SMCs and VECs need to be more intensely involved in
school support and monitoring through links with children.
The Uttaranchal SSA is in a position to address these challenges because it is already
deliberating on making the grading tool more comprehensive and the system more
inclusive regarding quality indicators – GER, NER, retention/dropout rates, promotion
etc. The effort is to enhance competencies of teachers and implementers through
cluster-based work plans and also formulating need-based activities and budgets.
Schools are being visualised as centres of quality education for children as also the
focal point of community education.
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Case Study VI
6.
Learning Guarantee Program, Karnataka
V I M A L A R A M A C H A N D R A N 17
INDIA has witnessed a huge expansion in demand for education at all levels. More
importantly, people’s aspirations regarding education have also changed enormously.
At one level, it seems India is poised for a take off. Yet, many characteristics of the
system remain unchanged – children continue to drop out or opt out of schools,
teaching learning quality is abysmal, classroom practices have changed little and the
debate at higher echelons continues to be dominated by writing and re-writing history
or some other politically topical aspect of curriculum. Yes, a change seems to be in the
air. But there is also an undercurrent of unchanging turf battles over curriculum and
textbooks – and children continue to be deprived of opportunities to learn inside a
poorly functioning government school system. The “system” itself is rarely challenged
as successive governments and their supporters continue to focus on soft issues.
It is in this context that the entry of new players in the elementary education sector
comes as a whiff of fresh air. Interventions in the social sector have, hitherto, been
seen as the exclusive domain of the government and, at best, a few non-government
players who are seen as being on the same side of the ideological fence. While most
stakeholders acknowledge the need to create space for non-state actors in the field of
education, the space for people and organizations outside the voluntary sector was
highly restricted. The private sector in education was confined to running “for-profit”
schools. The last five to eight years has witnessed the entry of CSR (Corporate Social
Responsibility) initiatives in the social sector. The corporate partners bring to the table
valuable strengths in terms of managerial expertise, an organized manner of dealing
with HRD issues, enhancing motivation levels and working in teams to achieve stated
objectives. The Government of India and some state governments, today, recognize the
merit of harnessing more support for quality improvement through public-private
partnerships. The Learning Guarantee Program (LGP) was a product of similar new
generation partnerships.
Key Features of LGP
The Azim Premji Foundation, in collaboration with the Government of Karnataka,
initiated the LGP in 2002. According to the foundation “one of the key objectives of
the program is to create a spirit of accountability among schools and education
functionaries for the learning of every child. The other key objective is to advocate a
systemic shift in assessment - from the traditional test of rote learning to test of a
child’s understanding, application and problem-solving ability.18”
17 Ms Naitra Muralykrishnan assisted in the preparation of this case study.
18 S.Giridhar, D.D Karopady and Umashanker Periodi: Assessment reforms through voluntary participation of schools:
Experience fro Learning Guarantee Programme, APF, Bangalore March 2006.
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The program did not start off as a “model” but has evolved over the last four years. As
a first step, the Foundation initiated a discussion with the government in the firm belief
that sustainability of any intervention could be assured only if the two worked as
partners. To this end, the Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding with
Government of Karnataka on June 12, 2001 spelling out the respective roles,
responsibilities and commitments.
Having decided to work in partnership with the government, the next crucial decision
was where the educational initiatives would be focused. Generally, a major concern in
piloting totally new innovations and strategies is to ensure a modicum of success and,
therefore, sites with a high probability of achieving success are selected for piloting.
The Foundation decided to take the bull by its horns as it were and decided to work in
the most backward region, i.e. North Eastern Karnataka, which represents on-third of
the geographical area and a quarter of the population of the state. This region, which
comprises the seven districts of Gulbarga, Yadgir, Bidar, Raichur, Koppal, Bellary,
Bijapur and Bagalkote, is economically and educationally backward. The geography,
climate, poor resources and historical backwardness all conspire to keep this region
that was a part of the erstwhile Nizam’s territory in a continued state of
underdevelopment. More importantly close to 51% of all out- of-school children in the
state were from these districts.
Box VIII: Key Elements of the LGP Program
Voluntary participation of schools – a signal of preparedness for accountability.
Assessing understanding and application of knowledge versus traditional rote / memorybased examination.
Credible and transparent evaluation.
Recognition for performance.
Research and analysis of factors that help or hinder performance.
Feedback for improvement to every school.
Assessment results to guide reforms in classroom practices and culture.
Source: APF, March 2006.
The idea of the program was fairly straightforward. As spelt out in the box above,
schools were invited to participate in a process that would start with testing the
learning levels of children and also ascertaining their enrolment and regular
participation in the school. The participating school had to agree to external evaluation
and assessment. Schools were given a choice of when to be evaluated during the
project period. They could decide if they wanted or did not want to be evaluated every
year. This had to be indicated in the application form, which needed to be
countersigned by the Headmaster and the SDMC Chairperson along with the names
and signatures of other members of the SDMC. Once the Foundation was satisfied that
all the criteria had been met, it gave a certificate of participation to the school
The main thrust of the testing process was on concepts and skills and special efforts
were made to move away from a rote learning and mechanical recall. The testing itself
was to be organized by an independent professional team. As Giridhar et al explain:
“There is more than general consensus that the present education system is
examination driven and this impacts all classes from Board Examination downwards.
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Moreover, the examinations are essentially content based that largely test the child’s
capacity to memorize text and recall without the need to test her understanding or
application of concepts… Thus, a child may be able to answer pre-defined questions at
the end of each lesson in the textbook without understanding what it means or without
being able to apply the same knowledge in another situation… Further, what gets
tested in the examination system also gets focus and attention in the classroom
practices… Therefore, one approach is to reform the examination system so that a
student’s understanding, application, problem-solving and analytical ability is tested
and not merely memorized content. There are high chances that the teacher learning
processes will also move in sync with this direction.” (Giridhar et al, 2006)
One of the noteworthy aspects of the program was that the conventional quality
improvement inputs like training of teachers, production of teaching and learning
material and other in-school inputs continued to be the responsibility of the
government. The LGP program was about enthusing and energizing the school system
through an open process of testing and rewarding. Right from the start the Foundation
was fairly clear that they did would not duplicate the core responsibility of the
government school system.
The program worked with four key stakeholders: the educational administration in the
district and block, the teachers, the community (through the SEC / SDMC) and the
children. The latter three were rewarded through public recognition and prizes in cash
(for the school) and in kind for the children and teachers. Schools, communities and
teachers were selected on the basis of publicized criteria for a learning guarantee
school. The criteria were identified to fulfil both equity and quality parameters. For
example, no school could claim to be a learning guarantee school unless every single
child in the catchment area of the school was enrolled and children attended regularly.
Table 9: Criteria for a “Learning Guarantee” school
Criteria
Category A
Category B
Category C
Enrolment
100% of children in the 6-14 age group
Attendance
90% of the enrolled to have attended at least 75% of total number of
working days in school
Learning
80% of all children
enrolled in classes 1,
2, 3, 4, 5 should score
90% on competencybased tests.
70% of all children
enrolled in classes 1, 2,
3, 4, 5 should score
90% on competencybased tests.
60% of all children
enrolled in classes 1,
2, 3, 4, 5 should score
90% on competencybased tests.
Source: APF, 2006
The implementation process also evolved as the program took root. Looking back, the
key players delineated the following process:
Step 1: Communication about the program to schools, community
members and education functionaries – through the Foundation staff, a
media agency and partners in the government.
Step 2: Evolving evaluation tools with inputs and advice from a panel of
national experts.
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Step 3: Schools volunteer to participate in the program and are explained,
in advance, on the way they will be evaluated.
Step 4: Training of identified, independent evaluators to evaluate schools
and children for expected learning outcomes (both written and oral).
Step 5:
Analysis of evaluation and announcement of results.
Step 6: Feedback to every school on their results, including handing over
the assessment papers.
The LGP program was started as a time-bound initiative. The idea was to nurture it and
manage it for three years, use it as a pilot to see whether such an approach would work
and, more importantly, fine tune the testing mechanisms. At the outset (in 2002) 9000
schools in North East Karnataka were informed about the program through school
visits by a media / communications group and through local newspapers and radio.
Headmasters were personally contacted, and given a flier on the program and requested
to consider participating. Meetings with SDMC, youth groups and other community
groups, to whom the program was explained and who were requested to assist the HM
in deciding to participate, followed this. The support of all the Block Education
Officers, Cluster Resource Coordinators and Block Resource Coordinators was also
sought with the expectation that they would encourage participation by schools during
the course of their regular interactions with HMs and schools.
Discussions with key players in 2003 were quite revealing. A whopping 70 % of the
schools - 6484 out of the 9203 - sent in their requests for the prospectus! This made
everyone sit up to the fact that even schools and teachers were keen to look at learning
outcomes - the awards offered certainly making it all the more attractive19. The fact
that there would be no screening and that participation was not contingent on the status
of current learning levels may have spurred such a huge response Perhaps, the program
was on the right course after all despite some misgivings voiced during the designing
of the program. Three years later a district level official echoed the same amazement.
After four to five months of intensive work, 1889 schools confirmed their participation
– opting to be tested at different points of time. The pilot phase that started in
November 2002 concluded in December 2005. Towards the end of 2005, the state
government announced that this process would be upscaled to the entire state and that
the government would take this forward henceforth. This was an important milestone
for the Foundation as well as the government. If we scan the history of NGOgovernment collaboration in the country – this was an uncommon occurrence. Way
back in 1987, the Government of Rajasthan had introduced the Shiksha Karmi Program
on a model tried out in the NGO sector. The Tamil Nadu government also took the
TINIP pilot to scale.
The process of launching the program is captured in the time-line below.
19 Interview with Mr.Giridhar, Coordinator, Research and Advocacy, 10.7.03
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Table 10: Timeline of the Learning Guarantee Program
2002
November
2003
January
Learning Guarantee Program launched at Gulbarga.
9000 schools of North East Karnataka informed about LGP.
Applications received from 6484 schools.
List of schools published in newspaper.
“Gothenri” (Handbook on the LGP evaluation process, inclusive of
sample question paper for interested schools to do a self
assessment, formats for documenting the results of self assessment
and details about the school) mailed to the 6484 schools.
March
1889 schools confirmed their participation.
Schools were given a choice of being evaluated in all 3 years
(2003-05 or 2004-05 or 2005 only). Consequently, 896 schools
opted for evaluation in 2003-05, 547 chose 2004 and 05, 446 chose
2005. i.e. 896 schools: 2003; 1443 schools: 2004; 1889 schools:
2005
April
Planning under way forSchool evaluation
Development of process manual for evaluation
Finalization of evaluators
Recruitment of volunteers required for the evaluation process
Training of evaluators, team leaders and area coordinators
Schedule for school evaluation
Developing software for data processing and analysis.
Posters, wall paintings etc sent to schools to motivate the school
and community.
May
Certificates of appreciation sent to all participating schools.
265 evaluators recruited.
June
Training of evaluators at MYRADA, Gulbarga.
July
Additional 420 evaluators recruited.
Evaluation of participating schools begins
August
Training of a new batch of evaluators.
October
Evaluation of all 896 Schools completed.
November-December
Data entry and processing.
Prof. Dean Karlan of Princeton University directed a research to
study through his research student why schools participated or did
not participate in the LGP.
February 2004- April 2005
2004
February
LGP award function at Gulbarga
March
30-minute film on LGP featuring best practices of successful
schools made.
Research undertaken to understand the factors that differentiated
the winning schools.
School performance reports shared with the CRCs of eight
districts.
CRCs were given the individual school reports to be given to their
schools.
April
CRCs distribute school feedback report to the 896 schools
LGP film screened at all 1889 participating school habitations
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May
July
October
December
2005
January
February
April to June
Processes such as evaluation of schools and school scheduling
simplified.
Recruitment of evaluators at blocks. 260 old evaluators retained,
200 fresh evaluators selected on the basis of tests and interviews
Data processing: Manual data entry eliminated and ICR formats for
scanning introduced.
Evaluator’s training at MYRADA.
Evaluation of 1443 Schools commenced – completed in September
Data processing and analysis carried out.
LGP award function at Bellary
School feedback report made user friendly and presented to all
CRCs.
Reports distributed to schools by CRCs.
Volunteers visited 1443 schools to assess the school’s use of the
feedback reports and the CRC’s contribution to preparation of
school action plan.
Schedule for evaluation of 1889 schools prepared.
April
May 2005-January 2006
2005
May
Dissemination of the research findings and performance analysis in
the eight districts with the purpose of motivating blocks to develop
their specific action plans for improved performance during the
next round of evaluation.
Researches undertaken with an objective of understanding  the effectiveness of the film on community and parent
perceptions.
 the interest / participation levels of CRCs
 the difference in learning levels of participating and nonparticipating schools
 460 volunteers for next round of evaluations recruited.
June
Decentralized training of evaluators.
July
Evaluation process of 1889 schools begins. Completed September
October
Data processing and analysis carried out.
December
LGP award function held at the district level.
It was attended by all the participating schools and approx. 7000
teachers and SDMCs.
Books for school libraries gifted to participating schools as tokens
of appreciation.
School feedback report distributed to the Head Teacher of every
school at the award function.
Government decides to expand and upscale!
2004
April
The government decides to expand program.
Conducts communication program in each of the four divisions
The DSERT made in charge of LGP expansion.
June
Training of 100 master trainers from 20 DIETS.
List of 32 participating schools sent by every BEO to the DSERT
December
The government commits funds for expansion and implementation
begins.
Government functionaries recruited as evaluators and trained by
100 master resource persons.
2005
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January
May
August - October
2006
January
Evaluation of 6462 Schools carried out by government
functionaries. (32 schools per block across 202 blocks)
800 schools from the pool of 6462 schools were short listed
APF volunteers and government functionaries together evaluate
these 800 schools.
Announcement and communication of results to the education
department.
Assessment – the Pivot of LGP
Assessment has always been a contentious issue - both teachers and administrators are
anxious about it as it has the potential of “exposing” the real picture. At the same time
assessment of learning outcomes is emerging as one of the key elements in monitoring
quality. It is in this context that the LGP strategy of communication is interesting:
First, the concept of the LGP program was communicated to all the schools in North
East Karnataka. Advertisements were issued in papers and on radio. At the same time
meetings were organized with SDMC and panchayat members. Communicating the
concept directly to the main actors was important – especially in an environment where
important decisions are just sent down through impersonal government orders. The
objective was to strike the curiosity of the teacher and the community.
Second, the names of the participating schools were publicized, thereby putting them
in the spotlight. Having signed up to be a part of the LGP pilot phase, the schools were
asked when they would like to be tested. Preliminary learning assessment was done
and this was shared with the schools as well as the SDMC. The schools were, thus,
made aware of the levels of learning.
Third, at the end of the first year (similarly the second and third years), an independent
team visited the schools and the village community to get authentic information on
enrolment, regularity of attendance and the learning levels of children. Again this was
compiled school-wise and shared not only with the school but also with the supervisory
structure. Taluka-wise data was compiled and disseminated at different levels. The
winning schools were awarded in a public function. Information about the performance
of schools received wide publicity. On the flip side – the schools that had enrolled in
the program but had not made a mark also came into the spotlight – with many of them
spurred to ensure better performance next year.
Fourth, feedback on individual performance of a child in evaluation was
communicated to the school so that teachers could recognize the child’s weak areas
and also monitor his/her progress over a period of time.
Fifth, the progress of the LGP program was constantly in the public domain. This not
only established the credibility of the testing mechanism, but also kept up the pressure
on all the players – participating schools, the supervisory mechanism and the APF.
This has led to introspection among stakeholders within the government and outside. A
host of new generation issues are now being debated. There is a realization that the
factors that inhibit effective learning in schools may have more to do with broader
systemic and governance issues like teacher absenteeism, pre-class preparedness,
actual teaching time (time on task), assessment processes and overall monitoring
mechanisms. Equally, the inability of our schools to give attention to every child has
dominated the discourse on quality education. The larger system now recognizes that
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learning is an individual struggle / process for every child. The ability of teachers (and
the administrative system governing schools) to recognize this and reach out to every
single child would make a big difference – as is evident in the lessons of the LGP
programme in Karnataka.
Box IX: Reaching out to every child!
Discussing how they were able to improve learning levels among children in the “winning
schools” of the Learning Guarantee Programme initiated by the Azim Premji Foundation in
North-east Karnataka, the teachers said that they were introduced to new techniques in DPEP
and were encouraged to develop teaching-learning material. They made a lot of interesting
charts and cut outs and hung them on the wall. The pictures of the Nalikali schools in HD
Kote of Mysore district inspired many teachers. Unfortunately, the reality was this material
above a child’s gaze, remained unused. Teaching continued in the same old manner.
However, once they were expected to ensure that every single child achieves grade specific
learning levels under the LGP programme, many went back to the TLMs made under DPEP.
Earlier TLMs were seen as decorations in the classroom but when -teachers were motivated
enough to reach out to every single child they “rediscovered” the material they had prepared
and also realised the usefulness of TLM in helping children learn on their own or in small
groups.
This sentiment was echoed by the officials we met in Bellary. One of them said, “The LGP
programme did not organise additional training or produce material – essentially made us
look inwards and use the skills and the knowledge we already have. Reaching out to every
child means that the teacher not only has to teach the ‘group’ but has to find ways and means
to help every individual child learn. Working in small groups, producing and using
appropriate self-learning materials alongside a range of non-curricular activities have helped
the winning schools to demonstrate that it is indeed possible to ensure every child learns.”
Source: Vimala Ramachandran, LGP Programme field notes January 2006
Assessment Leads to Improved Teaching-Learning Practices
During discussions with teachers on the replicability of the LGP, they said the program
had provided them with an insight on certain non-negotiables, which guaranteed
‘learning’ among children and led to an improvement in their learning levels. They
said they realized the key to make ‘learning in schools’ sustainable was in preparing
lesson plans, discussing them with co-teachers and implementing them, pre-class
preparedness, identifying gaps in student’s learning levels and working with them in
groups to provide remedial teaching and maintaining a record of the progress of each
child. They said the continuous support of the SDMC, community participation and
motivation of government functionaries were essential to enthuse both the teachers and
children. They also brought to our notice the efforts of the BRCs and CRCs to make
non-winning schools also winning. These included taking the latter on a guided tour of
winning schools to observe their teaching practices and a constant supply of innovative
thoughts and suggestions on improving teaching practices.
When teachers were asked their opinion on the program sans the Azim Premji
Foundation, the teachers said that they were ready to take up the program and were
truly motivated to bring about a revolutionary change in their teaching and evaluating
practices. They were confident that their schools would guarantee ‘learning’ in the
times to come and the program would continue in the future.
Thus, the Foundation has been able to bring to centre-stage the importance of initiating
a systemic change in Karnataka’s education sector by influencing key stakeholders
such as the BRCs, CRCs, SDMC and teachers. Instead of beginning with policy level
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changes that do little for any significant alterations within the classroom, the efforts
were primarily targeted at changing classroom practices that, over the years. have
grown into tangible systemic changes. The Learning Guarantee Program has brought
vigour into the school environment that has made both ‘teaching’ and ‘learning’ joyful
experiences.
Making Assessment Child-friendly
The key attraction of the LGP is their vision of creating a child-friendly environment in
the participating schools, especially during evaluation. The attempt is to do away with
the ‘fear of examination’. Prior to the evaluation process, the evaluators undergo a
training which focuses on using child-friendly evaluation practices in school. Firstly,
APF insists on evaluators spending some time to ‘interact’ with the children. They
strive to prevent a scenario where children would feel that ‘outsiders’ had visited their
schools and conducted an examination.
Secondly, the LGP evaluation pattern includes the use of competency-based question
papers that evaluate children on both written and the oral abilities. Unlike in the
traditional evaluation system, the competency-based question paper assesses the
child’s competency to apply learning and not his/her ability to merely ‘recollect
information’. The rationale for oral examinations is that if a question were
straightforward, it is not necessary to tax children by making them ‘write’ the answers.
Oral exams are also especially significant in the context of young children of ages 5
and 6 where their writing skills may not necessarily be well developed. Here, the oral
exam also reveals that children who are unable to write the answers (who in the
traditional exam system would have failed) but can answer the oral section
successfully do, indeed, have the ‘learning’ but haven’t acquired the competency to
write. Therefore, the exam pattern itself is pro-assessment - of children’s different
competencies - and reflects on their weak areas as also their strengths. This gets
recorded in the individual child’s feedback and is given to the schools. Also, several
picture-based questions (which are region specific) are included which make the
evaluation interesting and child friendly on the one hand, and tests the child’s
competency to identify pictures and his/her knowledge of the environment on the
other.
Finally, the question paper also includes several short stories that need to be read out in
the class. Questions are asked based on these stories. Evaluators are told to make this
story narration a truly joyous process for the children. It is, therefore, hoped that if the
question paper is child friendly, the approach to evaluating would, probably, not
intimidate the children.
Understanding the Texture: the Program in Kudligi taluk of Bellary district
During a brief field visit to the LGP program in Bellary, we asked the APF
functionaries the key highlights of their relationship with the government. They said
that APF consciously involved the State Directorate of Education and other
functionaries in the school education system in the implementation process. They also
made sure that the School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC) was in
the picture at all times.
We posed a similar question to some of the important government functionaries in the
district. Mr Jatti, an official who was closely associated with the program since its
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inception, spoke of it as one that belonged equally to the government. Describing the
launch of the program in 2002, he recalled: “There was some reluctance when we
introduced the program to the teachers and BRC and CRC. We encouraged the
teachers and told them to not approach this with prejudice. We worked closely with
CRP, BRP and BRP-C and Education Coordinators and motivated the field
functionaries after which they started fixing dates for CRC-level meetings. We
explained the program to HMs in these meetings. We had to convince them as
voluntary participation was the key. There was chaos in the meeting when we talked
about testing… it took time to convince them. We also sent postcards to all the schools
and tried hard to bridge the wide communication gaps between taluka administration
and the schools. Out of 268 schools, 240 asked for applications and only 140
completed all the formalities. We did not reject any school. APF visited the block and
scrutinized the applications. The number of applications from Kudligi was higher than
from other blocks and I believe that participation is more important than winning.20”
While the Foundation had its own strategy to communicate the concept to the
headmasters and other stakeholders, taluka and district level officials also did their bit
to get the program off the ground. The Kudligi taluk officials wrote letters to all the
schools. They conducted meetings at the BRC level to explain how the learning levels
of children could be improved. Mr Jatti said that they organized meetings every
Saturday and invited headmasters, teachers and SDMC presidents of seven to 10
schools. Their forum was used to discuss how the learning levels and regularity of all
children could be improved. The school meetings were held regularly in the first year
of the program. Interestingly, all the participants took oaths in the meeting and efforts
were made to not only encourage each other but also learn from each other, Mr Jatti
said. Six Kudligi schools received the award in the first year. This award function was
followed up with block level and cluster level functions and teachers for other
participating schools were encouraged to visit the winning schools.
The second year of the program also started with letters to SDMC members and also to
the children of the participating schools. The focus was on ensuring regular attendance
of all children. Simultaneously, the importance of paying attention to every single child
was discussed with the teachers. Mr Jatti recalled that: “When nine schools won and
got incentives in the second year, all the winning schools SDMC members and
teachers went to the award function together in the bus. We also organized an event
where the winning schools shared their strategies. Some highly motivated teachers and
SDMC presidents went to other participating schools to talk about their experience.”
The third year started with preparation of action plans. The taluka team prepared
separate action plans for the 17 schools that had the potential to win and for the other
schools that were “lagging behind”. These plans were prepared by a group consisting
of functionaries of APF, CRPs and SDMC representatives. Apparently, the SDMC
from some villages asked the administration to remove teachers who were coming late.
This was followed by a signal from Mr Jatti that salaries of the teachers coming late or
not spending adequate time in the school could be withheld. However, given the
prevailing administrative system this could not have been done. The teachers were also
assured of full academic support from the BRC and CRC.
District officials and headmasters said that the performance of Kudligi taluk was
special, partly because of the enthusiasm of key officials. The result speaks for itself –
20 Interview with Mr Jatti, Bellary, January 25, 2006
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five of the 10 school in 2005 demonstrated complete success with 100% achievement
on all three parameters – enrolment, attendance and learning achievement.
Box 10: Experience in a “winning school”
I was sitting in one corner of a classroom where a single lady teacher was taking class 1 (12
children) and class 2 (5 children). The children were sitting in two groups facing a
blackboard, which was divided into two halves, one for each class. The teacher was taking a
lesson on ‘Gandhiji’ for class 2 while, the class 1 students were assigned the task of writing
the alphabet on their slates.
During the lesson, the teacher asked a class 2 student Gandhiji’s full name. As he couldn’t
answer the question, it was passed to the next student who promptly answered it. Following
this, the first student was asked the question again and then asked to write the answer on the
board. Next, the teacher asked another student Gandhiji’s popular names. Question
answered, the student was asked to write these names on the board. Thus, through a round of
questions and answers, the teacher taught the lesson to the students and key words were
being written simultaneously on one half of the blackboard.
The teacher then asked students from both classes to stand up and taught them a song on
Gandhiji. On the one hand, it detailed his life and struggle for the country which added to the
lesson in class 2 and at the same time, it spoke of his ambidextrous ability through which the
teacher taught class 1 the concept of ‘right and ‘left’ through actions. Thus, the activity was
made relevant for both the classes and it was carried out as a group activity.
After the song, the teacher asked the class 2 students to use the keywords on the blackboard
and write a paragraph on the lesson in their notebooks. Meanwhile, she checked the work the
students of class 1. Next, she drew the outline of an earthen pot on the blank half of the
board and asked the class 1 students to join the alphabets on their slate and write the words
thus formed inside the pot until the pot was filled to its brim. As class 1 students went up to
the board and completed their task, the teacher corrected the notebooks of class 2.
I was amazed at the teacher’s command over both classes; her ability to keep them
continuously occupied in the class work which included innovative activities where both
classes could participate. Most importantly, the teaching, I observed, reflected on the
teacher’s pre-class preparedness and her ability to make optimum use of her teaching time a
multi-grade teaching set up.
Source: Field notes of Naitra Muralykrishnan, January 2006
Scaling up LGP - Reflections and Concerns
Discussions with people involved in the LGP program in Bellary revealed that the
actual improvement in learning levels was made possible through a well-organized
system of feedback on the performance of every child and of each school. These
feedback forms were filled with care and handed over to the head teachers concerned.
The winning schools we visited used the feedback form quite effectively. But we were
also told that many schools did not look at the forms.
The big issue, therefore, is whether the same rigor will go into the feedback process
when the government scales up LGP to the entire state.
Preliminary discussions on the new government initiative called the Karnataka State
Quality Assessment Organization (KSQAO) reveal that all the schools have been
administered the tests – the voluntary program is now mandatory. Equally, classes 5
and 7 will be tested and in some schools, class 2 would also be tested in four schools in
each cluster. The teachers admitted that they “worked” intensively on the students who
were to take the test while the other children were left to their own devices in this
period.
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The success of the LGP pilot could be attributed to the care taken in testing and
feedback. Now that all schools are mandated to participate in quality testing, the big
question is whether the government will take the same care to correct the test papers
and give feedback on each child and school. It may be early to say it won’t, but
preliminary feedback reveals it may not.
Another important factor that contributed to the success of the LGP program was the
credibility of the testing mechanism. An independent team of evaluators went around
the participating schools and made the testing process both rigorous as well as above
board. In the KSQAO, existing teachers, D. Ed and B. Ed students are involved in the
testing. While the KSQAO is an autonomous organization within the government, it
may be premature to say whether it is truly independent and if they will take the same
care that went into LGP testing. This is a big issue in almost all the states because state
governments are under pressure to show that they are doing well and that quality is
improving. The process could be manipulated to “show” results, something similar to
what happened with data on enrolment for over four decades.
Lastly, the annual awards for recognition played a big role in motivating the teachers,
school committees and also the children. Indications are that they may have to be
satisfied only with certificates instead of prizes. Whether this will affect motivation
levels is difficult to say at this point in time.
Another big concern is that the academic support structure of the government is not
fully geared to support the schools to improve the learning levels of children. Even in
the pilot phase, the teachers of the participating schools had to depend on CRCs and
BRCs for academic support. Over the years these bodies have become data-gathering
institutions and teachers admit that the resource persons do not respond to the problems
faced by teachers in the classroom. Training programs are designed around predetermined “hard spots”.
While the LGP pilot is certainly an important innovation in quality improvement, it
remains to be seen whether when taken to scale not only in Karnataka but in other parts
of the country whether the spirit of the initiative will be nurtured with the same care
and rigor.
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Case Study VII
7.
Combining Deeni Taleem and Duniyavi Taleem: Madarsa Education in
Madhya Pradesh21
D R S H O B H I T A R A J A G O P A L 22
Introduction
THE National Policy on Education, 1986 (NPE) accorded priority to equity concerns in
terms of ensuring quality education to children from socially disadvantaged and
educationally deprived groups. Many innovative programs have been implemented
across states in the decades following the NPE, both within the government and nongovernment sectors to achieve the goals of universalization of elementary education
(UEE). However, despite considerable progress made towards achieving these goals, a
large number of children from the marginalized groups and minority communities
continue to be out of formal schooling for various reasons.
The under-representation of Muslims, India’s largest religious minority, in education
has been an issue of intensive debate. The educational status of Muslims is, probably,
the lowest compared to other major religious communities in India. As per Census
2001, the literacy rate amongst the Muslims was recorded at 59.1 per cent against the
overall literacy rate of 65 per cent (AKF, 2005). The differential in educational
attainment between Muslim children and other children becomes much wider when the
proportion of students completing upper primary and secondary levels of schooling is
taken into account. A large proportion of Muslim children are reported to be attending
school only occasionally. The dropout rate is also said to be relatively higher among
them. Many children (especially boys) join work at an early age. The reasons for their
educational backwardness are mostly attributed to religious orthodoxy, socio-economic
conditions, poverty, cultural isolation and resistance to change. It is apparent that they
have not taken to secular education in a big way even in the past decade, when there
has been considerable expansion of school facilities and significant increase in
enrolment in the country (Jha and Jhingran, 2005). This situation poses a challenge to
achieving the goals of UEE and makes evident a strong need for making education
more accessible to children from these communities. Several voices, from within the
Muslim community, have called for improving the educational standards of their
children and for introducing reforms in the traditional institutions of learning i.e. the
madarsas.
In 1993, the Government of India (GOI) launched a scheme to modernize madarsa
education following a series of meetings with the representatives of the madarsas. The
scheme promised financial assistance to the Madarsas for teaching of science,
mathematics and social science and language, sans interference or compulsion from the
government. Taking a cue from the GOI scheme, the Government of Madhya Pradesh
(GoMP) also initiated a scheme to modernize the Madarsas in the state in 1996.
21 Case Study prepared for the ILO-supported ERU study on ‘Best practices with respect to systemic intervention
programs and practices that seek to strengthen the public education system with special attention to children at risk.’
22 I am grateful to Farooque Siddiqui Assistant Manager (Access), RSK, Bhopal, for facilitating my visit to the districts
and the extensive support extended during the field visit.
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The present case study attempts to capture the efforts made by the Government of
Madhya Pradesh for mainstreaming madarsa education and reaching out to non-school
going children enrolled in Madarsas. The study is based on field visits and discussions
held in 14 Madarsas across three districts in MP – Burhanpur, Khandwa and Indore
which have a substantial Muslim population. The number of Madarsas functioning in
these districts is 170, 189 and 167 respectively. We spoke with various stakeholders madarsa management functionaries, teachers, children, parents and government
functionaries at the state and district levels.
Madarsa Education: The Concept
Madarsas are traditional centres of religious teaching and learning wherein Muslim
children are imparted Deeni Taleem (religious education) with a focus on learning the
Holy Koran and basics of the faith. Recent estimates point out that there are close to
30,000-40,000 madarsas in the country. These can be classified into three categories:

Maktabs impart religious education up to the primary level

Madarsa impart religious curriculum up to the secondary level

Jamia are institutes of higher learning.
Evidently, madarsas are the only source of education for children of many poor
Muslim families. Supported by endowments and community money, they offer very
low-cost education, since they charge no fees. The residential Madarsas also provide
free board and lodging to their students.
Madarsas are usually affiliated to religious societies and trusts. In some states
Madarsas are registered with the State Madarsa Boards and receive support/grant-inaid from central and state governments. Every madarsa follows its own curriculum.
Neither is there uniformity in the number of years for preparing students for various
degrees (Khan et.al, 2004). The languages of instruction include Urdu, Arabic, Persian,
local and vernacular.
It is argued that those accessing Madarsa education do so for the following reasons:

Preparation of children in religious instruction at the primary stage

Lack of access to Urdu medium instruction in state formal schools

Aspiration to become religious functionaries (clerics) (Ahmed, I as quoted
in AKF Report 2005)
The Context
Madhya Pradesh was geographically the biggest state till 1999. In 2000, the state was
divided into MP and Chhattisgarh. According to Census report, the Muslim population
in the 48 districts of MP was recorded at 60,348,023 - 6.3 per cent of the total
population of the state.
In the past decade, Madhya Pradesh has benefited from a series of initiatives founded
on decentralized governance of elementary education. It is one of the earliest
beneficiaries of the District Primary Education Project (DPEP), which was introduced
in the state in 1994. The combined effect of initiatives such as the Alternative School
Program (1994), Seekhna Sikhana (1996) and Education Guarantee Scheme (1997) etc
is evident in the literacy rates that increased by 20 percentage points between 19912001. Enrolment levels also show a steady rise.
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Mainstreaming Madarsa Education: The Beginning
As part of the educational reforms carried out in the state, the initiative on
Modernization of Madarsa (MOM) began in 1996 under the aegis of the DPEP.
Traditional institutions like Madarsas and maktabs imparting religious education were
seen as partners in helping with education of out-of-school children. The primary
objective of the intervention was to mainstream these children into formal education by
introducing a ‘modern’ curriculum in Madarsas.
The government felt that introducing ‘modern curriculum’ in the Madarsa would
enable children from poor households, especially girls, to learn subjects like English,
Hindi, Social Science and Mathematics. Both the Madarsa managements as well as
parents of the girls who were getting only religious education welcomed the move.
About 1200 girls benefited from this project in the pilot phase and were able to
continue their education in schools after class 5. The scheme was gradually expanded
to 14 Madarsas and has, since, covered more than 4000 Madarsas in 2004-05.
Present Status
The MOM scheme, like all other educational initiatives, is today part of the SSA.
While the Madarsas continue to provide religious education, they have also
incorporated the formal state curriculum for transaction in Hindi, English, Urdu,
Environmental Science (EVS), Social Science, Mathematics and Science at the
primary and upper primary levels. As many as 2,41,085 children (1,44,651 girls and
96,434 boys) have been enrolled in the Madarsas with girls constituting 60 per cent of
the total number.
Management and Implementation
The Rajya Shiksha Kendra (RSK), the nodal agency for implementing the SSA,
implements the MOM initiative in the state. It is based on a tripartite partnership
between the RSK, the MP Madarsa Board and the Madarsas implementing the
program. The RSK absorbs the cost of academic assistance in the form of teachers’
training (maximum two teachers per Madarsa), free textbooks to all non-school going
children, school grant to purchase basic teaching aids for the classes and teachers' grant
(maximum two teachers per Madarsa) to prepare teaching aids for the better classroom
transaction. The Kendra also takes care of monitoring and supervision.
The MP Madarsa Board was established in September 1998 by the GoMP School
Education Department to give an impetus to education among educationally backward
minorities and for universalizing elementary education. The board is responsible for
registration and recognition of seminaries, conducting various examinations in
mainstream as well Islamic courses, monitoring the implementation of central and state
projects and coordinating the distribution of free textbooks for children studying in the
Madarsas. But its specific objective is to mainstream children receiving religious
education in Madarsas into ‘modern education’ (Annual Report, MP, Madarsa Board,
2005).
Currently, only those madarasas which are willing to introduce modern curriculum are
registered with the board. The main criterion for registration is that they should have
out-of-school children receiving only religious education.
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Table 11: Budget for the Modernisation of Madarsa Scheme
Interventions
Unit Cost
Total Budget for 4017
Madarsa
Free Text Books
Rs 2500/-
100,42,500.00
20 days teachers training
Rs 1400/- (Maximum 2 Madarsa
teachers)
112,47,600.00
School Grant
Rs 2000/-
80,34,222.00
Teachers Grant
Rs 500/- (Maximum 2 Madarsa
teachers)
40,17,000.00
Total
333,41,322.00
Source: Rajya Shiksha Kendra, Bhopal, 2005
Key Elements and Strategies
The principal objective of the MOM initiative is to make formal education accessible
to non-school going children attending Madarsas. The intervention employs the
following strategies to realize this objective: training of teachers, distribution of
textbooks and preparation of prototype teaching learning materials, and helping with
school and teachers’ grants (started in the year 2005-2006).
Teachers’ Training
The 38 DIETs in the state organize teachers’ training every year as envisaged in the
initiative. Every Madarsa is expected to send two teachers to the 20-day training which
focuses on developing skills of the teachers for various subjects. Special training
modules have been designed in Urdu for EVS and social science. The modules are
based on the need, approach and content. They are child centred, and ensure activitybased teaching and joyful learning.
The training uses the cascade mode where training is handed down from the state to the
district and then, to the block level teachers. In 2004-05, 5784 teachers were trained in
4,472 Madarsas. Trainees could have done their intermediate or graduated in Islamic
studies. Most of the teachers are untrained and do not have the experience of teaching
the ‘modern’ subjects.
Discussions with the teachers in various Madarsas revealed that the training had aided
them with ‘new’ and ‘simple’ ways of teaching children. It had also helped them clear
their own doubts. They had prepared teaching aids and learning material during the
training keeping in mind the holistic development of child. Some teachers also
admitted that they were not able to apply these new methods in the classroom while
some others lamented the paucity of women trainers.
Distribution of Textbooks
Free distribution of textbooks to all children is a crucial aspect of the MOM initiative.
The textbooks (English, Hindi, Mathematics, Urdu, Social Science and EVS) are
distributed to the Madarsas through the Zilla Shiksha Kendra and District Project
Coordinators. The books are done both in Hindi and Urdu. While Urdu is taught as a
subject, textbooks for EVS (primary level) and Social Science (upper primary) are in
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Urdu medium. The books for Mathematics (at both levels) as well as Science (at upper
primary level) are in Hindi.
Even though the very process of distribution is fraught with hitches, the number of
children who have benefited from the textbooks has grown from 43,110 in 2001-02 to
1, 77,000 in 2004-05.
Some Madarsa functionaries complained about delays in the distribution of textbooks.
Many of them said they had received the books in Hindi instead of Urdu. Some had not
even bothered to collect the books because they were in Hindi. While the functionaries
said that both the teachers and students found Hindi books difficult, RSK and district
officials argued the teachers saw it as an additional burden to teach the subjects in
Hindi. They were unable to cope and received no incentives for teaching the other
subjects.
Grant for Schools and Teachers
A school grant of Rs 2000 (per year) and a teachers’ grant of Rs 500 for two teachers
per Madarsa has been introduced in 2005-06. The school grant has been given to all the
4017 Madarsas in the state to purchase basic aids/facilities like blackboard, chalk and
charts. The teachers’ grant has been given so teachers can prepare teaching aids to
promote better classroom transaction.
Program Review, Monitoring and Feedback
Drawing on the DPEP experience, the RSK has chalked out a detailed internal review
and monitoring mechanism for the SSA. Field-based monitoring of the Madarsas forms
a part SSA monitoring and is carried out through the School Improvement Plan (SIP)
with the participation of the Madarsa Committee, Urdu In-charge, the Parent Teacher
Association and cluster/block/district level functionaries. The monitoring takes place
through monitors identified at different levels.
The state formulated the SIP which focuses on improving quality in elementary
education. The SIP is responsible for adoption of Madarsas and intensive visits to
them. Detailed monitoring formats have been drawn for the SIP and it is expected to
ensure that all agencies (i.e Zilla Shiksha Kendra, DIET, JPSK and JSK) will work
towards improving the achievement levels of children.
Although reporting and feedback mechanisms are in place at the state, district and
block levels, discussions revealed that monitoring was weak in the Madarsas because
of a bias among government functionaries. Many monitors hesitated in visiting the
Madarsas because of the feeling that they being religious institutions would not take
kindly to monitoring. This, in effect, translated into poor monitoring on academic and
qualitative aspects of teaching and learning. The involvement of the members of the
Madarsa Board appeared non-existent in the exercise.
Teaching and Learning Environment
We visited small and large Madarsas, in both rural and urban areas, during the course
of the study. A majority of the smaller Madarsas had poor infrastructure and
functioned out of a couple of rented rooms which were cramped and poorly ventilated.
Several classes were grouped together in one room. Only the larger, well-endowed
Madarsas had their own buildings, with some open space. The Madarsas in the urban
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slum areas were particularly wanting in terms classroom space, drinking water
facilities and toilets. The external environment was not conducive to learning and there
was no space for children to play. They sat primarily on floor mats or durries.
A Madarsa in Indore was housed in a tin shed which doubled up as the ‘residence’ for
the family of the madarsa coordinator. An all-boys residential madarsa in Khandwa
had lots of open space, separate room for every class, and accommodation facilities for
250 boys.
Classroom Interaction and Processes
A majority of the Madarsas functioned like a formal school and some even charged a
nominal fee. Children attended classes in shifts. Every subject period was of 35
minutes and the time table included religious education.
Classroom interaction between the teacher and the students was limited, with the
teacher being the primary player. The teachers rarely used TLM or innovative methods
to make learning more interesting for children. In fact, it was evident that many of
them needed more inputs in the various subjects. Children came across as confident
and vocal in some places and silent and shy in some others. Hindi and Mathematics
clearly emerged as subjects in which they needed greater inputs. However, every
Madarsa reported that the children did well in the examinations. Those who had
cleared the upper primary levels in the madarsa had joined formal schools for further
studies.
Assessing Outcomes of Mainstreaming Efforts
Box XI: Challenges
When I proposed the idea of including modern curriculum in the Madarsa, I had to face a lot
of opposition from my community. They did not want to take any support from the
government. I was socially ostracized. I had to close the Madarsa and shift to another
locality. I introduced modern curriculum in the Madarsa in the new locality. Many children
were out of school as the government school was far. Around 50 children have been
mainstreamed in regular schools. The people who were against me are now persuading me to
come back.
– a Madarsa coordinator, Indore
Given that opinions are sharply divided on whether or not secular education should be
part of the traditional Madarsa curriculum, the MOM initiative is a step towards
change. The entire approach is geared towards reaching out specifically to a large
number of children who have been left out of mainstream education in the state.
Broadly, the achievements of the initiative are:
Beginning with seven Madarsas, MOM now covers more than 4000 (of the total of
4017) Madarsas in the state.
A large number of children are attaining primary and upper primary levels of education
every year.
According to official reports in the year 2003-2004, 87 per cent of the total number of
children who appeared for the class 5 examination conducted by the Madarsa Board
passed the examination.
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Teachers’ training and free distribution of textbooks have also facilitated learning.
Parents and other community members have accepted the initiative even though they
are not equipped to provide any educational support to their children at home. They
realize that an educated person has better chances in a changing world than the one
who has not gone through school.
Sixty per cent of the total children enrolled in the Madarsas are girls. This is an
achievement given the strict gender norms in the community. Teachers say girls put in
a lot of effort and their performance is better in the examinations as compared to boys.
Most Madarsa functionaries view the introduction of modern subjects as an enabling
step for children from poor backgrounds to access education.
Enrolment of out-of-school children has increased in the Madarsas after the
introduction of MOM. Children have also been mainstreamed in regular schools after
attending the madarsas.
In a few cases, efforts have been made to keep track of the children who left the
Madarsa for regular schools.
Emerging Issues and Challenges
A number of issues emerged during discussions with Madarsa and field-level
functionaries regarding the implementation of MOM:
1. Role of the Madarsa Board
Madarsa functionaries felt that the Madarsa Board had been largely ineffective –
whether it was to do with conducting primary and upper primary levels exams on time
or issuing school-leaving certificates. Last-minute information regarding examinations
had a ripple effect on children seeking admissions at the higher levels, especially in
formal schools. They also complained that children seeking admission in government
schools were often harassed or given least priority in admission as the Madarsa Board
Certification was recognized but not considered in formal schools. Clearly, there was
urgent need to address the problems between the Madarsas and the board in view of the
latter’s critical role in the success of the intervention.
2. Strengthening Teaching and Teacher Training
The issue of imparting quality education is extremely significant in the context of the
Madarsas. Financial constraints do not allow most Madarsas to hire two separate sets
of teachers for religious and secular streams of education. Besides, there is no added
incentive to teach all the other subjects. Some teachers who attended the training
programs suggested that they be rescheduled with more time for subjects like
Mathematics, English and Hindi to augment the teacher’s middling competencies.
There was a demand also for a review of the outcomes of the current training modules
to generate a fuller understanding of how quality education can be imparted and help
the teacher make appropriate pedagogic choices in a contextually relevant manner.
3. Monitoring and Academic Support
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While the monitoring system designed under the SSA is extensive and qualitycentered, there is a discernable gap in the monitoring of the Madarsas. The emphasis is
more on collecting quantitative information rather than qualitative. On the other hand,
government functionaries are tentative about offering inputs to the Madarsas. There is
a need to break this impasse.
Box 12: Specific suggestions emerging from the field
Urgent need to mount a vigorous advocacy campaign to get parents to see the value of
education. Need to explore possibilities of getting the Muslim community to enter into a
sustained dialogue with the government for discharging its role towards quality education of
children.
Provide one or two teachers under the SSA for teaching the modern subjects.
Include all the Madarsas in the mid-day meal program to help increase the attendance of
children.
Like government schools, distribute uniforms to the girls and regularize health check-ups for
Madarsa children.
Provide computer and library support to Madarsas
Vocational training may also prove fruitful for the livelihood of poor Madarsa children of
10+ to 14 years age group.
Need for a scheduled monitoring structure at all levels and for identifying and training
monitors at all levels
Need to assess children at regular intervals and mainstream them in schools according to
their competency levels
Evaluate the MOM initiative through an external agency for its effective implementation
Organize a state level convention/meeting/workshop to discuss the achievements,
opportunities and challenges of the MOM scheme in MP as well other states.
Field notes, February 2006
Conclusion
In the context of UEE, the effort to mainstream Madarsa education through the
Modernization of Madarsa initiative is an important step towards enabling Muslim
children to access and participate in education. Given the scale and expanse of the
intervention, there is a need for sustained engagement with the various players to
ensure that equity and quality considerations become integral part of this process.
Lastly, the state also needs to review existing policies and ensure that schools are
available in the areas of Muslim concentration in accordance with national norms so
that children can become part of mainstream education and get rid of the ‘hard to
reach’ label.
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Case Study VIII
8.
Transforming
intervention
AP’s
Government
School
Teachers:
An
MVF
BHARAT PATNI
The Background
The year was 1996. In the state of Andhra Pradesh. “Teacher bashing” was at its peak.
The indifference and arrogance of the government teachers of the state, their
complacency, disinterest, and lethargy was the main topic of conversation in
practically all fora.
The primary school system of AP had over 300,000 government school teachers. The
number of children enrolled exceeded 60 lakh. Officially estimated numbers of out-ofschool children were over 4.23 lakh – there were certainly many more, if only one redefined “out-of-school” children as those who either were not enrolled at all, or else,
were extremely irregular.
Cynics23 had declared that motivating this lot of government teachers was an
impossible task. But MV Foundation, who had been working in Ranga Reddy district
since 1991 on the inter-related problems of illiteracy and child labour adopted a unique
strategy to attack this problem. Ms Shantha Sinha, Secretary Trustee of the Foundation,
and Mr R Venkat Reddy, State Convenor of the MVF, set out to, inter alia, create a
platform which would become the rallying point for that 15% of the teacher population
who were struggling hard to mobilize the rural communities into sending their children
to school!
On April 13, 1996, Mr Varak Kumar, a conscientious HM in Nawabpet mandal of
Ranga Reddy district, invited Mr Venkat Reddy to address a group of trainers on
teacher motivation at the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) located at
Vikarabad24. He had convinced the 100-odd trainee teachers at DIET to attend this
presentation. Even though it was the second Saturday of the month, and, hence, a
holiday for the teachers, 85 of them actually came to listen to Venkat Reddy in the prelunch session. Post lunch, 22 stayed back. By the evening, 15 or so had pledged to
form a core group initially to meet regularly and exchange ideas on the way forward –
and, thus, Bal Karmika Vimochana Vedika (BKVV) was born!
MV Foundation (MVF), a registered Trust established in 1981, is currently involved in
mobilizing communities for abolition of child labour. The Foundation’s charter of
basic principles for the emancipation of child labourers25 is simply:

All children must attend full-time formal day schools (and not night
schools or NFE centres)

Any child out of school is a child labourer
23 Shantha Sinha believes that all cynics are “status quoists” – they do NOT want change!
24 Vikarabad township is strategically located in that it provides accommodation to over 200 school teachers, who fan
out to their schools all over the district every morning, and return by the evening to be with their families.
25 Referred to by MVF as “The Non-Negotiables”
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
All work / labour is hazardous; it harms the overall growth and
development of the child

There must be total abolition of child labour

Any justification perpetuating the existence of child labour must be
condemned.
In order to make visible and significant impact on the existing child labour situation,
MVF targets to influence government programs and policies, and consciously avoids
setting up parallel structures. Instead, it utilizes existing government institutions, and
deliberately includes the official government machinery into its programs.
Published MVF literature announces its declared strategy being based on age and
gender, with the following clear action points for out-of-school children:

9-14 year olds are put through residential and non-residential bridge
courses in order to equip them to catch up with regular school-going children

Younger children are directly admitted to mainstream schools

Detailed follow up programs are run to ensure a minimum drop-out rate,
making the school more accessible to first-generation learners; issues such as
organizing children’s birth certificates, negotiating with Head Masters (HM) and
teachers for school admissions, ensuring admissions for eligible children in social
welfare hostels run by the state etc.

Education activists are trained to identify and resolve impediments in the
way of converting child labourers into fulltime students
The most important aspect of MVF’s strategy is the sensitization and mobilization of
government school teachers around the issues of child labour. Mr Venkat Reddy
estimated that while perhaps 15% of the teachers were clearly “negative” in their
outlook, 70% were more in the “neutral” category. The remaining 15% were definitely
potential motivators for converting the neutral category into active community
mobilisers who would participate in the state-wide campaigns to bring out-of-school
children into school. It was with this intention that he chose to accept Mr Varak
Kumar’s invitation to address the trainee teachers at DIET, Vikarabad.
Speaking about the initial days of BKVV, Mr Venkat Reddy said: “The Vikarabad
meeting led to MVF’s establishing a drop-in centre, with a small library, for the 200odd government school teachers residing in that township – the teacher-to-teacher
transaction which earlier took place at a chaurasta (i.e., a road crossing) shifted to this
centre. If, say, teacher Bhaskar Rao had a specific problem with respect to out-ofschool children or mobilizing a targeted community into sending its children to the
school, he would engage 14 others in a discussion at the centre in the evening. A few
of them would, then, even accompany him to the problem location in their free time –
i.e., evenings or on weekly holidays! One of the elder teachers, Chandrayya, who was a
known regular at bhajan26 gatherings, usually returning home only after 10 pm,
conceded that helping to release bonded labour was the original bhajan, and confessed
to the gossiping crowd at the drop-in centre that he saw God Himself in these
children!”
26 Bhajans are Hindu religious songs, normally rendered in large groups either at temples, or even at private prayer
meetings.
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In sharp contrast to normally accepted practice of “teacher bashing”, the MVF gave
visible respect, and space, to the teachers who assembled at Vikarabad in the evenings.
Strange things started happening – it was not unusual, thereafter, to, for example, spy
two members of radically opposed teachers’ unions riding the same bike on a mission
to rescue some child labourer, or speak to the erring communities on the practice of
child marriages etc!
Over the years, the role of the government school teacher had been limited to imparting
education to whoever came to the school. In other words, it was generally accepted that
the teacher's role commenced only after a child reached the school. Children outside
school, including dropouts, were never thought to be the problem of the average
teacher.
Box 13: Motivating teachers for UEE, the experience of M V Foundation
State Convenor, E. Anjaiah, in an interview, identified BKVV’s one point agenda as simply:
“Teacher to teacher motivation through practice”. He outlined the process to be followed by
the BKVV member as follows: a “committed teacher” leads the campaign by reaching his
work place at least a half hour earlier than schedule, and travels to the village to meet with
the parents of the children “at risk” and motivate them to send their ward(s) to school. Since
in the Indian rural context, the school teacher is one of the most respected persons of the
community, parents find it very difficult to counter the teacher’s arguments. Most parents
give in, and their children start attending the village school. Over time, this teacher’s standing
in the village community enhances considerably, and he becomes the envy of those teachers
of the village school who are fence sitters – should they not also meet with the village folk
and parents on a regular basis? Hesitatingly, some of them agree to attend a weekly meeting
of the nearest BKVV chapter, and slowly but surely, they transform into teachers who
understand that their task is more than simply teaching in the school. The weekly meetings
are held only after school hours, on second Saturdays or on Sundays – under no
circumstances are meetings to be held during school hours.
Anjaiah clarifies that while teachers’ unions fight for teachers’ rights, BKVV fights for the
child’s rights. Members appreciate that the poor children go through a daily struggle to stay
in schools and that it is their (the teachers’) responsibility to make it as easy as possible for
them to remain in schools. Further, they recognise that the older children require special
attention to bring them on par with other children of similar age group in school. Teachers
under the BKVV umbrella find that their capabilities are better tested while dealing with
working children since they have to fine-tune their own skills and adopt innovative methods
of teaching to be more effective. In short, this new activity raises the teachers' self-esteem
and results in genuinely empowering them as teachers.
Apart from withdrawing children from work and retaining them in the education net through
bridge courses, BKVV is fast developing as a lobbying and advocacy organisation for
protection of child rights. It is playing an active role in highlighting issues relating to girl
child education, early child marriages, and bonded labour and so on.
BKVV’s Anjaiah now claims a membership of over 2,000 committed government teachers,
each of whom pays an annual membership fee of Rs 20. This is supplemented by financial
support from MVF to meet the costs of workshops and other activities.
Source: Bharat Patni, Field Notes, 2006
The BKVV27 provided the forum for those government school teachers who believed
that the teachers' role actually goes beyond the school, and, indeed, extends to the
home of the underprivileged child who is out of school. In tune with MVF’s
philosophy, BKVV members accepted that all children who are out of school were in
27 Bala Karmika Vimochana Vedika (BKVV) literally translates as “Government Teachers’ Forum for the Liberation of
Child Labor”.
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fact child labour, and have, since, accepted the responsibility to especially ensure that
no child is subjected to the drudgery of work and exploitation.
Some other teacher groups joined the bandwagon – hubs such as Tandur, Vikarabad,
and Ibrahimpatnam emerged. The other hubs at Chittoor, Srikakulum, Mahbubnagar,
and Adilabad were set up much later.
BKVV’s charter of basic principles, or “non-negotiables”, emerged over the next two
years:

BKVV and ‘Non-Negotiables for School Teachers and Schools

All children must join schools in classes according to their age.

School teachers must recognize that it is the responsibility of the school to
give children a guarantee that they would learn.

School teachers must provide a guarantee to build competencies of
children in order to reach the class in accordance with their age.

School teachers must guarantee that corporal punishment will not be used
in the classroom to discipline children.

School teachers must ensure that all children feel wanted and are
comfortable in the school.

The school must ensure that there is no violation of child rights in the
school as well as in the community.
In 1999, under heavy pressure from the MVF and other groups, the state government
decided to close down all the 17,000 non-formal education centres in all its 23 districts.
The education department requested the assistance of interested organizations to
change the mindsets of their teachers. The earlier “night schools” were to be converted
into “dawn to dusk schools”, and MVF threw the challenge at the BKVV. In right
earnest, MVF began the task – by first identifying a core group of 80 BKVV master
trainers, who were assisted by 100-odd MVF volunteers. Official leave was sought and
obtained for the BKVV core group (it is interesting to note that even in this hour of
crisis, Tandur Mandal had initially refused to grant leave to the BKVV volunteers!)
The campaign mode in which this 180-strong group worked created a huge mass of
energy in the entire BKVV team, enthusing a lot of neutral teachers into “falling in
line” with the committed few. The hidden agenda of the MVF in this exercise was to
identify potential BKVV members – these were to be the ones who would make the
ultimate difference. From each district, five best BKVV supporters were chosen, and a
well knit core group of 120 members, finally, emerged.
In 2000-01, all state teacher trainees were asked to visit various MVF camps and
interventions, and what ultimately resulted out of their interactions with the BKVV
core group was the definition of a good school (see below) – which has since been
adopted by the SSA as a model.
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Box 14: What is a ‘good school’?
A good school is one
 Which keeps track of all children in the area / village and not just school-going
children
 Where all children who are enrolled and whose names appear in the attendance
register are actually physically present in the school
 Where all children are in their classes according to their age
 Where the distribution of the children among all classes is balanced, i.e., if there are
35 children on class 1, then there are approximately the same number in classes 6 or 10
or any other class
 Where the teacher pupil ratio is not greater than 1:40
 Which ensures that child rights are not violated in the schools as well as in the
community
 Where school teachers guarantee that corporal punishment will not be used in the
classroom to discipline children
 Where school teachers ensure that all children feel wanted and are comfortable in
schools – letting children conduct reviews of classroom transactions and taking their
feedback
 In which schools recognize that every child has the capacity to learn and that it is
the responsibility of the school to give children a guarantee that they would learn
 Where regular SEC meetings are held and parents and community are involved in
planning, monitoring, attendance, and reviewing the progress of children, besides
providing material support
 In which academic planning and evaluation is at the school level and effectively
decentralized.
The BKVV recognizes schools as effective and, the only, institutions that keep
children out of work. Schools perform the radical function of enabling the children
break with their tradition of backwardness and the teachers become the harbingers of
freedom, equity and justice. In order to encourage working children to access schools,
the teachers have established processes to reach out to the parents and give them the
confidence to send their children to schools. They have enthused the villagers to
contribute generously to building the infrastructure in schools. The needs of the school,
such as more teachers and accommodation, education material, have, thus, become
community issues. Once the teachers extended their domain to cover children out of
schools, not only are they in greater control of the process of getting children into
school but they also enhance their own status within the community. A strong belief in
the non-negotiable principles for emancipation of child labour is a precondition for
membership to the BKVV.
Action Points
During the new millennium, the BKVV will focus on:

Instilling and motivating other teachers, peer groups and teachers' unions
by spreading the message amongst government school teachers. Organizing
seminars and workshops for teachers to improve the quality of education in
schools. Imparting training to education volunteers.
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
Releasing and motivating child labour to enrol in mainstream schools.
Running workshops for district level officials from the education department on
how to combat the menace of child labour.

Assisting running of intensive bridge courses (for newly enrolled older
children), of school strengthening programs

Setting up a database for all children in the 5-14 age group in every
village.

Building pressure to modify and simplify the policies and practices
relating to admissions, promotions, retention, and attendance - and make these
more contextual to the social and cultural background of the rural children.

Stronger focus on the quality of education, on the girl child, and on
recruiting more female teachers to redress the current balance of the membership,
which is tilted in favour of males.
BKVV Membership and Outreach
The BKVV claims a membership of over 2,000 committed government teachers, each
of whom pays an annual membership fee of Rs 20.
Work is spread over all the three regions of the state - Telengana, Andhra and
Rayalseema. The MVF actively supports the BKVV both technically and, to a limited
extent, financially in 14 of the 23 districts. Recent expansions have been into Nellore,
Medak, and Prakasham districts which are being covered without MVF’s support. The
nominal expenses on meetings, workshops and travelling for the purposes of
mobilization are being met in these districts out of local retail donations.
Districts into which the BKVV is still to make an entry are Krishna, Khammam,
Karimnagar, Nizamabad, West Godavari, and Guntur.
BKVV, Teachers’ Unions and Political Parties
Significantly, all the BKVV members have joined together for the protection of child
rights - in spite of the fact that most members of the BKVV are affiliated to their
respective teachers' unions. Initially, the powerful (and politically protected) teachers’
unions28, as well as the HMs’ Association, summoned the BKVV top brass to
brusquely enquire if this was meant to be a separate union29. But they were quickly
assured that this forum was meant to only fight for child rights, and that BKVV
members would continue to be active members of the recognized unions, which would,
in turn, continue to fight for their own rights.
One of the tactics of the BKVV is to utilize the clout of the politically supported
teachers’ unions to influence government policies and practices in respect of child
rights. But Mr Venkat Reddy concedes that “as yet there is only 10% positive
movement on this score”.
28 Five teachers’ unions referred to here are: PRTU, STU, APTF, DTF, & UTF.
29 “Tum log koi nayee dukaan khol rahay ho kya?” - translated literally, this means “Are you folks planning to open a
new shop?”
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BKVV and MVF
The MVF facilitated the birth of the BKVV in early 1996 – but now it is a full-grown
adult institution. The MVF continues to nurture the BKVV by providing financial and
institutional support for conducting meetings, seminars and workshops at mandal,
district, and, even, state levels. BKVV members travel extensively in their command
area in order to mobilize support of more and more teachers, as well as communities,
and chalk out action plans for the immediate and not-so-distant future.
Issues
The BKVV code of conduct necessitates that all work be done strictly outside of
normal school hours, i.e. in the evenings, on weekends, or on holidays. For obvious
reasons, this does not suit the female teacher, who has to mind her house and her
family when she is not at school. This has clearly resulted in the BKVV staying largely
a male-dominated body – in a teacher population, which has at least 30 to 35%
females!
As yet, the BKVV are largely dependent on the MVF for funds. On being questioned
about his long-term thinking on the financial self-sufficiency of the BKVV, Mr Venkat
Reddy explained that an attempt was made to obtain direct funding for the BKVV from
donors. But this resulted in the BKVV office bearers loosing focus of the main
objectives of the movement – instead diverting their time and energy into fund-raising
activity. He mentioned that the fund requirement was so meagre that, perhaps, it was
still worthwhile for the MVF (or similar organizations in other states) to continue
providing the funding and administrative support to the group.
Conclusion:
BKVV convenors and functionaries claim large-scale successes in “teacher to teacher
motivation through practice”. Yet, over the last decade, only approximately 2,000 out
of the 4.17 lakh teachers in the government school system have been “converted”.
Having said this, one must appreciate that the number is at least 2,000 more than it
would have been without the MVF intervention. Indeed, this unique model is worth
piloting in a few other states of the country.
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Case Study XI
9.
Communitisation of Elementary Education in Nagaland
PARISMITA SINGH and MUTUM ASHOK
What is Communitisation?
In many ways, ‘Communitisation’ of elementary education is in keeping with the
tradition and spirit of the Naga society. Education has always been a priority for the
community. In the older days, the ‘Morong’, or meeting hall, of the village served as
space for the education of the young, and the entire community took interest in it. Even
before the process of communitisation began, village communities, often, used the
Village Development Board (VDB) funds and other resources and came together, often
from more than one village, to establish a school. They would, then, approach the
government to take over its administration. So, it became a “government school”.
Consequently, the community’s role and participation in the school, often, ceased, and,
according to reports, this hampered the effective functioning of the system.
Communitisation was, thus, conceptualized and effected to evolve a system of
management in which the community could play an active role. It was an attempt to
make use of this ‘social capital’ to help achieve universal elementary enrolment and
retention in Nagaland’s schools.
The word ‘communitisation’ was coined by Mr R S Pandey, Chief Secretary to the
Government of Nagaland in 2001 to articulate the concept of the government sharing
with the community the management and operational control of government
institutions in various social sectors, like education, health and electricity. For
communitisation of elementary education, village-level authorities like the Village
Education Committee (VEC) were created to share with the government the
responsibility for managing institutions, and become a stakeholder in the effective
functioning of the schools. The VEC comprised representatives of the different
stakeholders in education, including parents, women and local church groups. Thus,
communitisation sought to put into place a system or process by which involvement
and participation of communities were facilitated by creating village level authorities
and by empowering them to manage their elementary education institutions under
different jurisdictions. This would translate into effective management by giving the
VEC, for example, the power to disburse teachers’ salaries, enforce ‘no work, no pay’,
and source funds from the government and the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) effectively, transferring “power to the people”30. While the government would
supervise and support the activities, the management functions would rest with the
community.
With the enactment of the Nagaland Communitisation of Public Institution and
Services (Act no. 2) 2002 (Nagaland Communitisation of Elementary Education
Institutions and Services Rule, 2002) on the April 15, 2002, the education department
began working towards Communitisation of elementary education. Implementation
30 In conversation with Mr K J Lohe, SPD, SSA, Nagaland.
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began in September 2002 and by 2003, the department had communitised 402 schools
in 218 villages. The state government has now decided to communities all elementary
schools w.e.f. 01/01/2004
Main Objectives of the Program
Promoting government -community partnership at the grassroots
Empowering the community by delegating management and supervision of
government schools to the VEC
Ensuring accountability of teachers in the villages to local communities by giving the
latter the power of disbursing salaries to them
Village Education Committee (VEC)
What is a Village Education Committee (VEC)?
In a communitised village, the Village Council constitutes a Village Education
Committee (VEC). The VEC comprises a VEC chairman selected by the Council and
the following members – Village Development Board (VDB) Secretary, head teacher
of the communitised school, three representatives from among parents (which includes
at least one woman), two representatives of teachers, a member from the Village
Council, a representative each from different church denominations in the village, two
members from the village community which includes, at least, one woman, sub
inspector of school (SIS) of the area and the head teacher of the Government Middle
School (GMS) as member secretary.
The VEC may also include other residents of the village. The VEC members (other
than those who are ex-officio members) have a term of three years while a parent or a
guardian will discontinue as a member once his/her ward ceases to be a student of the
school.
The VEC shall meet once in three months. A Common Education Committee (CEC) is
constituted in case more than one village shares a communitised school.
31
What does a Village Education Committee (VEC) do?
Communitisation has empowered the VEC as the legal local authority to manage
elementary education in the village. To be able to that, it has certain powers and
functions - administrative, academic and financial. The administrative functions of the
VEC include disbursing salaries and granting casual leave to teachers and the staff of
the school, procure furniture, stationery etc and select/recommend appointment of
substitute teachers against long-term vacancy. It also has academic functions like
ensuring universal enrolment and retention of all children aged 6-14 years,
implementing annual plans and programs towards quality improvement, and ensure
supply of free textbooks, mid-day meals etc to students. To fulfil its financial
obligations, the VEC must open a savings bank account which is operated under the
joint signatures of the chairman and member secretary of the committee. It has to
31 We have relied on the Handbook of Communitization of Elementary Education , Govt, of Nagaland, Directorate of
School Education for this section.
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generate resources from the community, form an education fund, sanction and incur
expenses from this fund, maintain proper accounts of income and expenditure and have
them audited.
District Coordination Committee (DCC)
What is the District Coordination Committee (DCC)?
Every district has a DCC to support communitisation of elementary education
institutions. The Deputy Commissioner (DC) is the chairman of the committee which
comprises several other members. The DCC has been formed to plan, monitor, review
and improve upon the program.
Box XII: Time Line32













In 2001 Mr R.S. Pandey, Chief Secretary, coined the word
“Communitisation” to articulate the concept of the government sharing with
the community the management and operational control of government
institutions in various social sectors.
January 2002– An ordinance on communitisation issued.
March 2002– The Nagaland Communitisation of Elementary Education
Institution and Services rule 2002 was notified by the Nagaland government
The District Coordination Committee constituted with the Deputy
Commissioner (DC) as chairman.
The State Resource Group is formed with members from the Directorate of
School Education, field officers and teachers, and the Nagaland Board of
Secondary Education (NBSE), SCERT, DIETs and Nagaland University.
July 2002– The government relaxes rule 217 of the central treasury rules so
that pay and allowances can be drawn in advance of up to three months.
The delegation of financial and cognate power rules 1964 delegating full
powers to the DIS to sanction grant-in-aid to the VECs of communitised
schools.
Training of education administrators, officers of the Directorate and field
officers like DEO, DIS and SIS for initiation into the various aspects of
communitisation.
All DDOs, accountants and bill assistants given practical training to
acquaint them with the financial aspects of communitisation.
Resource persons from the School Education Directorate, SCERT and NBC
are trained to impart training at the district level to the members of VECs of
communitised schools and district level officials.
Formal launching of the program by Mr Pandey at Phek town.
August 2002– Training at district level of the chairman, secretary and
selected VEC members of communitised villages by the four teams of
resource persons. Training given in financial transaction, educational
administration, local academic inputs and the general concept of the
program. A handbook on communitisation of elementary education was also
released.
The Educational Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP) project is
launched. This is a partnership venture of the state government and UNICEF
to bring about quality improvement in schools. The State Resource Group
32 We have relied on the Government of Nagaland, Directorate of School Education publication First Year of
Communitization of Elementary Education in Nagaland, October 2003.
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


(SRG) members are trained in child-centred and activity-based pedagogy.
This is followed by mass training of teachers at the EBRCs to introduce the
new pedagogy in schools.
September 2002– Communitisation of voluntary elementary schools/villages
begins.
July 2003– Second round of training of VEC members of all communitised
and non-communitised villages of Nagaland conducted in 21 DIS
jurisdictions.
January 2004– The Nagaland government decides to communitise all
schools of elementary education.
Zhavame Village – A Case Study
Zhavame is a Chakhesang village in Phek district with two government primary
schools and one middle school. Zhavame followed in the footsteps of the successfully
communitised Rajeba village and volunteered during the second phase of the program
in 2003-04. The VEC is empowered here and has replaced the school management
board in the last two years. It has financial and management powers and far exceeds
the authority and efficiency of the management board. At the beginning of each month,
the VEC chairman signs the cheque for the teachers’ monthly salary. The school
consults the committee in matters of leave and the latter has the right to use the “No
work, no pay’ rule if a teacher shirks his or her work. This has significantly increased
the authority of the VEC, a member tells us, even though there has never been the need
to enforce this rule. The spirit of “communitisation” prevails here – he says.
It has been a busy year for the VEC – sorting out issues of repairing and extension of
classrooms, teachers’ grants, mid-day meals (MDM) and other financial and
administrative duties. The training programs, says Mr. Paul, (ex-VEC chief), have also
been very useful in helping the VEC in the exercise of its responsibilities. From
learning how to source government funds to managing accounts, there have been
several training programs on academic, financial and administrative aspects. The VEC
in this village meets at least twice a month instead of the mandatory once every three
months. One of the issues taken up in the last meeting was that of the shortage of
teachers in the Zhavame Govt. Primary School A. There are four classes but only three
teachers. The VEC forwarded the issue to the DIS with the request that it is forwarded
to the DEO and higher authorities. No action has been taken yet but the VEC members
assure us that they would continue to advocate for more teachers so the children do not
suffer. The VEC is proactive on issues of poor infrastructure, loans for buying
textbooks, creating awareness among parents that the school provides free books and
MDMs etc. Everyone agrees that such information has convinced more parents to send
their children to the communitised school. The district education authorities also
support the VEC and School Inspectors and other district-level officials often come for
the VEC meetings.
The Teachers
Before communitisation, teacher absenteeism was the bane of elementary education in
many of these villages. On the day of our visit, all the eight teachers were present in
Zhavame Govt Middle School. The teachers admit that teacher attendance has
increased significantly as they have to go to the VEC for casual leave.
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Mr. C. Charles, Head Teacher, tells us that the school has been able to access
educational grants through the VEC after it was communitised. School construction
and maintenance has also been possible through community participation. Inadequate
school infrastructure and resources has been a problem in many of these villages. But
the VEC and the community have come together to help the school. Teachers also feel
that the VEC meetings have been very useful as it provides a platform that brings
together the VEC members, teachers as well parents and guardians. The teachers have
used this forum to address the issue of parent’s responsibilities and the problem of
dropouts and irregular attendance of students. The problem is far from resolved but a
beginning has been made. Greater emphasis and more persuasion in the future by the
teachers and VEC members will change the situation, they say.
The relationship between the VEC and the teachers is not without its share of tensions.
The teachers, for instance, feel that there is need for a clearer understanding of the
policy of communitisation. However, on the whole, the teacher in charge, Mr Theko,
feels that the program has instilled discipline in the staff and made them more
competitive and eager to take on even the private schools in the area. In Rajeba village
in Kohima, communitisation actually led to the closure of private schools in the
village.33
Ward Education Committee (WEC)
Communitisation began in the villages of Nagaland. With more and more villages
volunteering to be a part of the successful program, urban areas also followed suit and
scale happened “by example”. The structure is similar for urban schools, but certain
aspects have been adapted to suit the demands of these areas. The Ward Education
Committee (WEC) replaces the VEC in these parts. The program continues to be
voluntary in the urban areas too. People realize the benefits of the program and as Mr
Zewetsomero, WEC Chairperson of Pfutsero Adminstrative Colony put it, “We are
very grateful to the Nagaland government for giving us the responsibility.” The rights
and responsibilities of the WEC are similar to those of the VEC. Parents, too, have also
been supportive. But the challenge is that most parents in the towns prefer to send their
children to the English medium private schools. “The children of the poorest are with
us,” Mr Zewetsomero says. Government schools are improving following
communitisation but a lot of work is still needed to improve the quality of education,
and children’s learning levels.
Resource Group
The resource group has been training teachers and VEC members in teaching learning
methods, and child-centred and activity-based pedagogy to make the curriculum more
specific to local needs. The Educational Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP)
project, a collaborative effort of the state government and UNICEF, is also an attempt
to improve the quality of education. The resource group also makes inspection visits to
the various villages post training and supports their work. While the VECs have made
the job of the resource group easier following communitisation, the latter hopes the
quality of data will improve with time with the help of monitoring by the VECs. The
33 Communitization and Resurgence of Naga Social Capital, Impact Assessment of Communitization of Public
Institutions and services in Nagaland in the sectors of Elementary education, grassroot health services and electricity
management by Pradip Prabhu and Dr. V. Suresh, September 2004.
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resource group also feels that teachers could benefit from pre-service training for
teachers in the future.
Parents
What do the parents think of communitisation?
A lot of parents in Zhavame and its neighbouring villages we spoke to felt that the
functioning of government schools had improved post communitisation and they were
encouraged to send their children to these schools. Apart from good quality of teaching
and learning, free textbooks and mid-day meals were added incentives. They also said
teachers in government schools were far more qualified than those in the private
schools but often the latter were perceived to be better, because of their better
management and discipline – and, therefore, better results. They knew, however, that
communitisation had led to better systems – “no work, no pay” for example - even in
government schools. Be it management, school infrastructure; pass percentage of
students, teacher absenteeism or quality of teaching – things were looking up, they
said.
One could sense a new resurgence of faith in government schools. An important reason
for this was that for the first time, parents had the chance to participate in the decisionmaking process of the school, and voice and resolve their concerns in the VEC
meetings. They felt confident enough of taking up with the VEC their problems
regarding the school. This, they felt, had forged a new bond between the parents and
the teachers
Impact
Dr V. Suresh and Mr Pradip Prabhu of the Organizational Development and
Excellence Consultants Pvt. Ltd, Chennai, and UNICEF conducted an external impact
assessment of the Communitisation of Public Institutions and Services in Nagaland.
(September 2004). They studied communitisation of elementary education for its direct
visible impact, management indicators, and increase in student enrolment, pass
percentage and teacher attendance. It also explored the dynamics of the VEC, and the
challenges of communitisation. The study was conducted in 50 villages of seven
districts between June and July 2004.
The study highlighted some specific findings:

There was an increase in the enrolment of boys and girls in all
communitised schools, with a 0% drop out rate in 23 of the 28 villages

Teacher attendance improved to more than 90% in 18 of the 28 schools

The pass percentage rates of children improved to 75-100% in 24 out of 28
schools covered in the survey.

100% pass percentage in Rusoma village of Kohima district and
Chingmelen village in Tuensang district.
The Future
Along with flowering wild apple trees are the stone menhirs that dot the landscape of
Zhavame village. These stone menhirs belong to an old tradition in which people got
together and pulled a large stone to a particular spot in the village. This was hard work
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and required much effort, and was followed by a feast. A family that performed this
ritual stone carrying and provided the feast, would then be accorded the high honour of
a traditional roof crest, one that could be seen from a distance. With time, traditions
and symbols have changed here, as anywhere else. But the spirit of community feeling
and responsibility, and working together stays just the same – that is the foundation of
communitisation. Perhaps in the future, it will be the quality and performance of
village schools or the coming together of the community to construct a school that will
serve as the source of pride and prestige for Zhavame and Nagaland.
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Case Study X
10.
The Pratham intervention in Kutch, Gujarat
NITI SAXENA
“People don’t believe us when we tell them that we can make their wards read and
write in 45 days but using the Pratham module they do see the difference in the
learning skills of their children. This module works as a `Jaadu ki Chadi’ (the magic
wand) for us. On the one hand, through this we get to do what we have to do (making
children read), and on the other, we also gain the trust of teachers and parents
instantly,” exclaims a confident Usha, a Pratham Karyakarta in the Kutch region. Mr
Patel, Head Master of a primary school in Nakhatrana block shares similar views. “The
improvement in children’s learning skills are amazing. Frankly, I feel insecure looking
at the achievement of these village volunteers. In a short span of time they are doing
what we should have done in 3-4 years. I have asked my teachers to learn and adopt
this method of teaching in regular classrooms. ”
It is not just the ‘45 days’ module’ (Accelerated Learning to Read technique) but also
the intensive interaction with members of the community which has been the magic
wand for Pratham in Kutch! However, a couple of years back the scenario was not so
encouraging for the Pratham karyakartas working in rural Kutch.
Remote and sparsely populated, Kutch is the largest district (covering 45,612 sq km) in
Gujarat and the second largest in India. This western region of the country faced the
most devastating earthquake in recent history, which killed 12,221 people in Kutch
alone. The devastation also included immense damage to the educational infrastructure
and processes. Teachers, administrators and students were killed or injured. Ninety per
cent schools in Kutch were rendered unusable.
While assessments could be made regarding the physical and economic losses, it was
impossible to gauge the gravity of psychological toll of the earthquake on the people.
This was especially true in the case of the most vulnerable sections of the affected –
the children. As an immediate and most natural step towards bringing their lives to
normalcy, efforts were made to resurrect the schooling system and bring students back
to their usual routine.
At this critical juncture in 2002, Pratham initiated its work in the region. Since the
state was making heavy investments on the infrastructure and teacher recruitment,
Pratham decided to work on enhancing the learning abilities of the children through
alternative educational interventions.
With its experience in urban areas, Pratham entered the villages of the Kutch region to
find there was no one effective and scalable model that could be good for all the
villages. Different strategies were, then, adopted and varied techniques were
experimented with to improve the learning levels of the children. These included the
Direct Initiative: three-month bridge courses for out-of-school children, remedial
teaching module, NaMaGaJa technique (renewed pedagogical technique based on
phonetics, adopted by GCERT) and VaGaLe (Vaachan, Gannan, Lekhan – the 3 Rs).
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Approaching the Community: The RCA Framework
After initial experimentation, it became apparent towards the end of 2002 that
community participation, with the right support of government institutions, was crucial
for the sustained success of any educational initiative. By now Pratham had also started
working in the other districts of the state. These ongoing efforts were simultaneous
with the pilot project on the collaborative effort with people and government, to
rapidly enhance the reading skills of children in Maharashtra, which began in JanuaryMarch 2003.
Under this Catalytic Initiative, Pratham devised ways of enabling the community to be
more responsive and accountable to the educational needs of the children.
Simultaneously, it rendered technical support in the regular teacher’s training program
in selected districts. But as these techniques were not being disseminated to their
optimal effectiveness, this intervention could not go very far. However, a sub-model of
the initiative, being implemented on an experimental basis in Kutch, was gaining
momentum. Strategically, this approach for strengthening village institutions to
catalyze communities to drive educational change in their villages was taken up by
Pratham as a movement (i.e. “everyone doing the same thing at the same time”) in the
other districts also. Thus, the Rural Community Approach (RCA), which was initiated
in 500 villages of Kutch, reached 2670 villages in 29 blocks of nine districts of
Gujarat. In Kutch, it spread out from 60 villages to all the 958 villages in the district
(10 blocks).
Under the RCA, Pratham has evolved processes for enabling the community to own
the educational agenda in villages, facilitate participation for sustained reform and for
change to be in consonance with local needs and issues. The over arching goal has
been to help communities to articulate their needs, so that SSA goal of UEE can be
achieved by the year 2010. Pratham’s innovations in community mobilisation are as
under34:
Activation of Village Education Committees (VEC)
During the initial experimental phase, Pratham discovered that the status of the Village
Education Committees (VECs) left much to be desired. Community involvement for
taking up educational reform without involving the VEC would have been
meaningless. So, Pratham decided to work towards activating VECs and evolved
simple steps to make them confident of taking decisions on education. The process
involved ranking the VEC on a scale of 0 to 4 to assess its status, followed by another
step-wise process for activation.
The ranking scale is as follows:
Ranking
0
1
2
3.
Indicators
The villagers do not even know that they are on a VEC.
VECs members know they are members but do not do anything or attend any
meetings.
Members at least visit the school regularly whenever the principal or the
teachers call them or when functions are organized in the schools.
They do some work, though not very effective or adequate. They would take up
basic responsibility of enrolment, retention, reduction of dropout rate,
34 Ref : Enabling Community Participation in Universalizing Quality Education, Pratham, Gujarat
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4.
infrastructure facilities.
They know that the VEC is active, has a plan and is executing it in order to
achieve some basic quality of education.
In July 2004, 1140 VECs in four districts of Gujarat (Banaskantha, Rajkot, Surat and
Kutch) were ranked. The results were staggering. Fifty-two per cent of the VEC
members across Gujarat were not even aware of their membership, 40% were aware
only of the existence of a body called VEC but they had never attended any VEC
meetings. In Kutch, 61% of the 420 VECs ranked were in zero category.
The six-step ranking process of a VEC was evolved to ensure that the local
community, elected panchayat members and government officials were involved in the
process.
Table 15: Six steps to rank a VEC
Step Number
Activity
Step one
Ranking. Each VEC activist first ranks the VEC in his / her village on a
scale of 0 to 4 (as defined above).
Step two
The Taluka Development Officer organizes a meeting of sarpanches of
10-30 villages, in which the issue of education is discussed and then
introduces the role/working of the VEC in that meeting
Step three
Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators organize a meeting of VEC
members of 8-10 villages, in which the education status and the role,
functions and powers of working of the VEC are discussed. Attending
such a workshop clarifies the role of VEC members and excites them to
take action.
Step four
VEC activists hold a meeting of the panchayat and VEC members at the
sarpanch’s house to discuss their apprehensions, clarifications, plans etc
and motivate them to hold Shikshan Gram Sabha (SGS) to discuss with
the people the basic educational problems in the village.
Step five
The SGS provides space people to vent their problems and then
contextualize the VEC as an intermediary to solve these problems. At the
SGS, the VECs are put centre stage for education issues in the village.
The VEC members are formally recognized by the villagers at the Gram
Sabha.
Step six
A specific action plan is drawn up at the SGS (regarding volunteers, time
lines, contributions etc). It may include issues like demanding an
additional teacher, enrolment, applying for alternative schooling, issues of
water, construction of toilets, teacher irregularity, reduction in dropout
rate, quality of education-reading/writing/math etc. The plan is then
pasted in the school or Panchayat Bhawan
Shikshan Gram Sabhas (SGS)
Shikshan Gram Sabha (SGS) is a common platform for sharing education issues,
expressing aspirations and making community-owned action plans on improving
education. This involves deciding on a mutually agreeable date, public testing to gauge
the learning levels of children in the village, formulating an action plan, committing to
that action plan and community/individuals taking responsibility for working on the
action plan so formulated.
Shikshan Gram Sabhas form an important step in VEC activation. These Sabhas are
organised with prior consent of the sarpanch and VEC members on a date decided by
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them. (Refer to Steps 4, 5 and 6 in the six-step ranking process table above) To
engender a greater level of involvement, certain activities are conducted during the
sabha, like public testing35 of the children present in sabha. This acts as an immediate
check of the status of the education delivery system in the village. The results of 1100
public testing in 1385 villages of the four districts36 revealed that 60% children
assessed could not read.
Following the Shikshan Gram sabhas, action plans are made by the VEC members and
people present at the sabha. The action plan is a simple document that specifies the
work that villagers have decided to complete within a mutually decided time frame;
and the persons who agree to take the responsibilities to accomplish the work to be
done. Ninety percent of the 922 VECs prepared action plans addressing issues
relating to the children’s attendance, teacher absenteeism, and school infrastructure.
Volunteers
A volunteer is an educated community member taking the ownership of making
children read in the village. Unpaid volunteers, wanting to contribute to their village,
have come forward to help children with no reading abilities in their village read
through reading classes using Pratham’s reading technique.
VECs in Kutch, Banaskantha, Rajkot, Baroda and Surat mobilized 1,174 volunteers to
conduct remedial reading classes for 20,000 rural children in these districts. In order to
ensure that everyone in the village, including teachers and parents, took collective
responsibility to improve the education scenario in the village, the VEC proposed that
people from the village come forward to conduct remedial reading classes for the
children. In most cases, young girls and boys, present during the public assessment of
children, volunteered to take the classes. Pratham conducted training of 1,035 such
village youth from over 500 villages.
Dhan Patrak
The education profile and learning level of every child in a village has been captured
through a report card called ‘Dhan Patrak’. The word ‘Dhan’ means wealth, and, in
this case, it refers to the wealth, which is in form of children, who are the future of a
village. Dhan Patrak is a record of the education profile of each child, between 3-14
years of age, in a village. The data is collected habitation-wise and is much detailed
than the Village Education Register or Ward Education Register, being used by
education functionaries under the SSA.
The Dhan Patrak, filled by the volunteers with help from Pratham, acts as a tool to
decide the intervention that can be made in the village for various categories of
children – in school, out of school, those with low learning levels and children out of
anganwadis etc. Pratham is in the process of collating child-wise data through Dhan
Patrak in its areas of operation.
Witnessing the Change: Challenges and Impact
35 Public testing is done through Pratham technique, where in, a child is tested on a scale of 0 to 4 to gauge his learning
level. (0-Cannot identify any alphabet; 1- Can identify only alphabets; 2-Can identify/read words; 3- Can read a simple
sentence; 4- Can read a story/paragraph)
36 Kutch, Rajkot, Surat and Baroda
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The RCA experience, so far, has been the learning curve for Pratham both in terms of
achievements and challenges. When Pratham entered Kutch, it faced several problems
pertaining to the educational environment in the region. The most immediate ones
were:

Teacher absenteeism

Poor achievement levels in classrooms

Declining children’s attendance

Lack of school infrastructure

Many teachers got themselves transferred out of and migrated from this
area after the quake

More than 80% of the new appointees did not belong to Kutch. This led to
lack of empathy with the local issues

Lack of fluency in Kutchi was a hindrance for most teachers in
communicating with VEC members, parents and, also, children

Irregularity and absenteeism among the new teachers

Dysfunctional VECs, community oblivious of its potential to challenge the
schools, no local mechanisms demanding accountability from the system

Socio-political and cultural rifts within the community made it extremely
difficult for the karyakartas to make people agree on critical issues

Cynicism marked the initial response of government functionaries and
local representatives.
The meetings of block teams with the Taluka (Block) Development Officer (TDO)
signalled the turning point in the initiative. Perceptions of both the community and
government functionaries changed towards Pratham whose work is now seen as
leveraging the state’s initiative. Today, block teams work closely with BRCCs (Block
Resource Centre Coordinators), CRCCs (Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators) and
school teachers. Pratham facilitators also act as resource persons for VEC trainings and
community mobilization activities at the BRC level. The initiative is credited for
bridging the distance between the community and the school.
Impact
Education functionaries in the region and other stakeholders at different levels respond
affirmatively when talking about an improvement in the educational environment due
to the coordinated efforts of the district education machinery and Pratham.
1.
Significant change and steady movement upwards, especially in the
categories from 0 to 3, in comparison to the baseline ranking of the VEC
2.
VEC members participate actively in the local planning processes. The
phenomenon is gaining visibility, affirming the conceptual belief in bottom-up
planning processes.
3.
The school has benefited in many ways, including in infrastructure
development, improvement in classroom processes, effectiveness of MDM and
AWC and also opening up of proper communication channels between school and
the community.
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4.
Steady increase in the number of village volunteers being appointed by the
VEC. A substantial number stay on with the program, which indicates a sustained
engagement of the community in the education activities, and not a one-off
involvement.
5.
Findings of post public assessment show a spurt of 68% (aggregate for five
districts – Kutch, Rajkot, Surat, Baroda and Banaskantha) in the number of
children who were able to read after the L2R classes. In Kutch district, there is an
increase of 74% children who learnt to read in the post assessment period.37
6.
At present, approximately 30,000 children across the state are benefiting
from learn to read (L2R) classes being run by 1600 volunteers. The quality of
learning amongst these children will need a separate analysis but the most critical
part of these L2R classes is that these children are able to `read’ – an achievement
still elusive to majority of students in government primary schools in the country.
7.
For a variety of reasons earlier (most prominent of them being illiteracy
amongst parents), families felt incapable of questioning a teacher’s capability or
influencing the schooling in any other way. Today, with the post-public assessment
results, they can go to the teacher and table their demand for `good’ education for
their children.
Managing the Change: Program Structure and Management System
In terms of a six-monthly program cycle, the RCA is in the 7th program cycle.
Activities to be undertaken in each program cycle are decided at a state level meeting
wherein all the district teams participate actively.
Table 16: Programme Cycles
Program Cycle
Cycle I
Jan 2002 to March 2003
Cycle II
April 2003 to Sept. 2003
Cycle III
Oct. 2003 to March 2004
Cycle IV
April 2004 to Sept. 2004
Cycle V
Oct. 2004 to March 2005
Key Activities
Initial Experimentation Phase. Sub-models under the RCA
being experimented in different parts of Gujarat, including
Kutch where Pratham started working on VEC activation
Team of five members started efforts to get the rural
community in Kutch to participate in Pratham programs,
including classes. Apathy and lack of initiative amongst the
villagers to change the education scenario characterized this
period.
Scope of this intervention expanded to 100 villages in Kutch.
With a team of 20, initial experiments to activate VECs were
started. Lack of a functional VEC emerged as a constraint to
engaging communities in dialogue over educational issues.
VEC activation efforts expanded to 922 villages, including
Surat and Rajkot districts. The 6-step VEC activation model
was designed and implemented in these villages. During this
period, Pratham facilitated VEC meetings, Shikshan Gram
Sabhas and preparation of action plans to solve infrastructure
and attendance issues of the village.
Pratham facilitated the VECs across the villages to conduct
public assessments of learning levels of children during
Shikshan Gram Sabhas (SGS). 935 volunteers (approx. 75% in
37 Ref : Reading Level Survey Conducted By 8000 Volunteers Across 22 Talukas, Pratham Gujarat
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Cycle VI
April 2005 to Sept. 2005
Cycle VII
Oct. 2005 to March 2006
the Kutch region), identified by the VEC and community were
attached to schools for improving learning levels of children.
Increased momentum in community participation and
ownership of education agenda. VECs started the process of
drawing up education plans for their respective villages. The
Village Education Plan would be designed to assess the
education profile of the village on 3 parameters: (1) School
Functioning (2) Learning levels and (3) Govt. Schemes (quality
of functioning of ICDS and MDM would be assessed). All
villages carried out baseline assessments of the village on the
scale developed for assessing reading and math levels.
Phased assessments of current status of the village on the
indicators developed for school functioning, ICDS & MDM
schemes, reading and math levels, has been initiated in 3000
villages. This cycle faced some delay in activities as this also
the spin-off stage, the block teams are in the process of
federating as separate NGOs, are envisaged to carry on the
RCA work along with their own interventions.
Decentralized planning, administration and monitoring are central to the Rural
Community Approach - not only for effective implementation of interventions but also
within the program support systems. Karyakartas are required to plan independently,
depending on the local needs of the community. This autonomy in a small, but
effective, way makes them self-reliant and accountable. Regular planning and
monitoring mechanisms are inbuilt in the program through meetings and reviews
where updates are shared and planning done for the future.
Capacity building and leadership skill development measures are the cornerstone of the
program. Hands-on training and teaching at L2R classes is a pre-requisite for the
facilitators and trainers, which lead to a proper transfer of methodologies from one
level to another.
The plan of action for the next phase focuses on:
Scalable modules for libraries, ICDS, MDM being developed – Active community
members and groups to take responsibility for effective monitoring of services;
children to take responsibility for running and managing libraries; mothers’ groups will
help in improving quality of anganwadi services; senior community members e.g.
Dadaji to verify MDM, Dadiji to teach children at home. Activity-based learning to
involve local artisans and skilled workers. Formation of District Resource Groups as a
district level unit for planning and strategy-formulation and collaborate with block and
local-level interventions. This would include the District Education Officer,
representatives from industries, local NGOs & Pratham.
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Case Study XI
1I.
Active Schools – Latur
BINAY PATTANAYAK
GENERALLY children come to ‘schools’ to learn and practise. They sit in rows,
listen, read, write, think… and undergo many such mechanical processes directed,
essentially, by the teacher. Active Schools is an initiative that breaks away from
teacher-centric learning and looks at classroom processes, indeed the process of
education, from the point of view of the child. It is an intervention that seeks to
sharpen the different inherent skills of children through a variety of group or individual
activities, sometimes even independent of the teacher.
The idea of Active Schools started taking shape with the DPEP in Maharashtra. Under
the program, teachers and administrative officers visited some select good schools and
also perused documents on innovative strategies for school improvement. This
exposure enthused some teachers of Latur district. Led by Shankar Eknath Sadakare to
initiate a similar school improvement program in their own district, the teachers
developed a good number of activity-oriented TLMs for multi-grade situations and
experimented in their own school. The success of this school attracted the attention of
the district authorities who scaled up the experiment to 15 schools in five blocks
followed by its expansion to 117 schools in each cluster.
Today, the actual number of schools may be greater because many neighbourhood
schools have informally started following similar practices. Combined tests conducted
for children of Active Schools, established private schools, government and other
recognized schools have revealed that children of Active Schools performed better than
the children of all other school categories, except in the sphere of copying! The
program is now being expanded across the district.
Active Schools – A Timeline
1996-97 –
Experiment in one school,
1997-98 –
Latur),
Expansion to 15 schools (3 in each block; 5 blocks of
1998-99 –
Expanded to 117 schools (one in each cluster; all 102
clusters of the district).
The Active Schools Program was started as a small pilot in Latur district in
Maharashtra in 1998. The unique aspect about the program was that it was entirely a
district-level initiative. Apart from a changed pedagogy, the Active Schools also
attempted to design a new evaluation system in keeping with the former. To
understand how things started changing in the evaluation mechanism of active schools
of Maharashtra, we need to look at the genesis of the project. Initially, a district team,
including teachers, visited different educational experiments across the country, such
as Digantar and Bodh (Rajasthan), Nali Kali (Karnataka), Gram Mangal, Casp Plan,
Sandipanee (Maharashtra), Loreto School (Kolkata), Eklavya (Madhya Pradesh) etc. to
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understand the curriculum, materials and pedagogy of these innovative efforts. Since
several of the team members were a part of the state team for textbook development
and teachers’ training, they had a clear understanding of the state approach. This
exposure gave them new ideas and also helped them realize the limitations of their own
approach. On return, they again analyzed their own curriculum, materials, pedagogy
and evaluation strategy. They conceptualized a new system of pedagogy for their
schools in the form of a pilot project that centred on improvised learning ladders. The
student evaluation system also evolved as part of the new pedagogy. This project was,
then, implemented in 15 schools of Latur.
After a year of experimenting in these schools, the project was expanded to one wellperforming school in each cluster of Latur district, covering a total of 117 schools.
Table 17: Adapting from innovations, the Latur effort.
Activity
Classroom management (Varg vyavastha)
Peer grouping: small, large, pair, individual
Pace learning: Learning guides/ course books
Self-learning: with self learning cards
Frame work period
Learning boards (Adhyayan Phalak)
Prerna phalak
Theme board
Creativity board
Katran phalak
Learning corners (Adhyayan Kopre)
Reading corner
Mathematics corner
Nature/science corner
Exhibition (weekly) corner
Special Activities (Vishesh Upakram)
Assembly
What did I learn today?
Daily diary (students)
Nyay mandal
Supported boards (Purak Phalak)
Display boards
Activity boards
Today’s content/study
Running blackboards
Supported activities (Purak upakram)
Today’s calendar
Today’s weather
Student’s attendance cards
Scrap books
Supported materials (Purak sahitya)
Subject symbols
Bags for cards
Waste basket
Hanging pictures
Materials for teachers (Shikshakache sahitya)
Learning ladder
Daily work sheet
Achievement record
Comprehensive card
Charts (Takte)
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Reference
Esculae Neuva, Columbia
Digantar, Bodh, Casp-plan
Gram mangal
Loretto, Calcutta,
Own innovation
Esculae Nueva, Colombia
Digantar, Gram mangal
Jan Kalyan
Digantar
Gram mangal
Esculae Nueva
Nali Kali (Karnataka)
Gram mangal. Loretto
Gram Mangal, own innovation
Activity
Reference
Ministry (Varga Mantrimandal)
Individual responsibilities (Karya Vibhagani)
Daily time tables (Dainandin velepatrak)
Maps (Nakasha)
Wall paper (Bhittipatrak)
Year Planners (Varshik Niyojan)
Other materials
Ropes and Clips (Do-ya va chimte)
Colouring crayons (Rangkandya)
Slates/notebook (Patya Vahya)
White Papers (Pandhare kagaj)
Own innovation
Pencils, eraser (Pencili rubber)
Education toys (Shaikshanik khelni)
Chalks, dusters, pointer (Khadu duster darshak)
Source: Binay Pattanayak, Field notes, Case Study X, Annexure I
A Good Systemic Practice
The Active School culture is marked by respect for the good practices of different
schools not only in the home state, but outside as well. The teachers give due credit to
all the sources from where they have learnt something to implement in their own
schools. Apart from formulating their own activities and making their own learning
materials, Active Schools have borrowed from interventions and organizations such as
Nali Kali, Digantar, Esculae Nueva (Columbia), Loretto, Bodh and Gram Mangal. The
target audiences of the intervention, in this case, were both students and teachers.
a)
Objectives with respect to students
 To encourage cooperative learning through peer group.
 To encourage self-learning among children.
 To encourage self-learning through worksheets and other self-learning
materials.
 To design different activities for enhancing competencies of children.
 To sensitize observation, imagination and critical thinking skills of
children.
 To provide freedom to children to learn as per own pace and interest.
 To provide remedial education to low achievers.
 To develop skills in children for using textbooks as self-learning materials.
 To facilitate children’s learning as per their achievement levels and
through multi-level teaching.
 To boost the confidence of the learners.
b)
Objectives with respect to teachers
 To improve the skills of teachers for attending to children in a full class, in
small groups and individually.
 To introduce child-centred activity based on joyful teaching.
 To encourage development of life skills and master learning.
 To attend to hard spots in teaching-learning by identifying simple activities
and exercises.
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 To try out the activities and exercises and identify their utilities.
 To introduce ways of utilization non-text books for activities in the school.
 To facilitate peer tutoring.
c)
Objectives with respect to others
 To project Active Schools as model schools in teacher training programs.
Table 18: Daily routine in Active Schools, Latur
Techniques
Grouping
Teacher’s
role
As an
assistant
Activity
Outcome
Assembly, song/story
discussion
Assessment with the
help of self-learning
cards
To orient children
towards learning
To prepare
learners/for
contents
To clarify the
doubts of children
better way
To understand the
status of the
children’s learning
To compensate the
gaps in learning
through peer
cooperation
Awareness for
learning
Class as a
whole
Co-operative
learning
Small groups
As a
consultant
Teacher
guided
learning
Large groups
As a tutor
Demonstration by the
teacher
Pace-learning
Individual
As a
facilitator
Supervised study
Peer-tutoring
Pairs
As a
supervisor
Remedial work
As per the student’s
choice, drawing,
craftwork, playing
with toys, reading
books
To open ways for
creative
expressions and
mastery.
Project work,
activities/games
To encourage the
exploring nature of
children
Free-work
Independent
As a
manager
Field-work
Small groups
As a guide
Classroom Practices
Active Schools revamped their teaching learning process by following these classroom
practices:
Preparation – This enables the children to recall and revise their own experience
regarding the concept, rules or knowledge before experiencing a new subject/concept.
This is like a warm-up exercise that builds a bridge between their existing knowledge
and new knowledge.
Brief Introduction – The new concept is introduced to children through a
paper/presentation/diagram. For starters, children in groups try to interpret and make
some meaning of the concept.
Understanding – Then, they are encouraged to undertake some simple exercises, or
activities to get familiar with the different dimensions of the concept.
Application – This is followed by more complex and challenging examples and
exercises to help them acquire a far deeper comprehension of the concept.
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Evaluation – How much has each child understood the concept? Some related
exercises are carried out to test the level of every child’s understanding. This indicates
broadly the position of each child in the learning process. Teachers and peers are
always at hand for those who need further help and attention to help improve their
understanding of the subject.
Box XIII: A Day in an Active School
Right from cleaning the campus, keeping the garden green and organizing the classroom to
attending a very eclectic morning assembly that includes prayer and pledge, songs and
stories and also the day’s news, children in Active Schools are never short of joyous activity.
There are boards to be updated, self-attendance sheets to be filled, weekly exhibitions to be
held and self-grooming to attend to! Card-based activity happens in small groups where each
child gets a chance for creative expression. The teacher becomes a facilitator, clarifying
doubts, helping with the hard spots and providing direct and indirect inputs. Children
develop scrap books from locally available material, engage in self-learning and learn also
from toys, their environment and from books other than their school books. There are games
– educational and also for pure fun, question-answer sessions, feedback and suggestion
time… and the day ends with another assembly, with introspection and retrospection.
On the whole this turns out to be an interesting combination of various components for
children’s better learning. In programs like Nali Kali, self-learning cards are used in small
groups without any further use of textbooks. But Active Schools go for group-work using
self-learning cards, textbooks, direct teaching by the teacher, self-understanding etc. This is
a series of attempts for enabling each child to understand the subjects in the best way
possible. It is true that the lead teachers of Active Schools are not fully satisfied with their
textbooks and are trying to improvise the on the content through the supplementary booklets.
But their use of existing materials in an effective way has turned out to be more productive.
They have also strung the periods in such a way that the children do not feel overburdened.
Table 19: Active Schools vs General Schools
S.No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
General Schools
School timings as per state government
norms
No group activities
State curriculum and evaluation
strategies followed
No self-learning cards; only textbooks
are used
Minimum interaction between children
and teachers
School routine as per state norms
7.
No special arrangement for irregular
students
8.
Has strong limitation in multi-grade
situations as materials and pedagogy
are designed for mono-grade situations
Active Schools
School timings as per state
government norms
Well-planned group activities
State curriculum and evaluation
strategies followed
Well-organized self-learning
materials along with textbooks
Continuous interaction of learners
materials and teachers
School routine reworked to
accommodate a wide range of
activities
The materials are so graded to allow
irregular students to make up their
learning continuity
Is highly useful in multi-grade
situations
Program Implementation
For an initiative such as this, the district authorities would have done well to set up a
technical support group for the smooth expansion and quality assurance of the
program. But, surprisingly, there was no organized academic support structure for the
initiative. The Latur district DPEP office, like the other districts of Maharashtra, had a
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district team consisting of the DPC, ADPC and five persons for program
implementation (teacher training in-charge, MLL in-charge, TL methodology incharge, media in-charge and mahila sanchalika) other than the non-academic staff. But
these five program people were to look after planning and implementation of the DPEP
and SSA activities and had no specific responsibility for Active Schools. But the small
team of teachers managed to explore ways to manage the program in collaboration
with the BRC and CRCs at the school level.
Each month the core team met with the BRCs and CRCs separately to discuss the
issues and problems related to Active Schools and the implementation of the program.
Other than these meetings, the in-service training of teachers also enabled the core
team to share its concerns, ideas and expertise with the teachers of the concerned
schools from time to time.
Apart from the TLM grants of Rs. 500 per teacher annually, there was no other
financial support for the schools to improve quality of the program. Only self-learning
materials were provided by the district authorities. But teachers remained enthusiastic
about adopting the program in their schools. There were finances earmarked for the
monitoring of the schools. The core team kept on looking for opportunities like
teachers’ training, monthly cluster-level meetings and visits to monitor the progress of
the schools and extend the best possible motivation and academic support.
The core team also detailed out the concept paper for Active Schools, strategies for
classroom layout, teaching learning materials and processes, role and functions of
BRCs/ CRCs, formats for learners’ evaluation, students’ self attendance, progress cards
and year planner. Formats were made to record school visits, for review of monthly
cluster-level meetings, chain trainings, chintan shivir or evaluation camps, action plan
for teachers and several other procedures. Such detailed outlines reflect the level of
concern and involvement of teachers in the program.
Monitoring and Assessment
The DRCs and BRCs were expected to visit the schools regularly and extend academic
support to the schools. Several monitoring formats were developed by the core team
for the purpose.
The data collected from teachers (during cluster-level meetings) and Cluster Heads was
sent to the core team at district offices and further action plans were designed by them
after consolidating and analyzing the information. Chain trainings and the pilot
evaluation project were suitably revised to accommodate emerging issues from the
monitoring formats.
A significant initiative of the Active Schools for maintaining quality in learning and
school management is the Pilot Evaluation Program.
Pilot Evaluation Project of Active Schools
Teachers in the Active Schools have moved forward by rejecting the initially designed
Prashna Pedhi (question bank) and improvising on the state-wide prevalent SCERT
approach to continuous and comprehensive evaluation. They have designed a 'Pilot
Evaluation Project' for their new curriculum in the form of ‘Learning Ladders’ and the
new pedagogy to make the CCE an inherent part of the teaching-learning process.
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The learning ladder serves as the base for all pedagogical transactions and the CCE
process indicates the true status of each child’s level of learning on a regular basis. Let
us have a look at their present evaluation approach over a year.
a)
Year planning: An annual year planner, designed by the lead teachers of
the project, is supplied by the district office to all the schools in June. It functions
as the evaluation strategy guide for each school.
Teacher empowerment: One experienced teacher from each cluster, along with the
BRC coordinators, is trained by the district level core teachers in the chain or cascade
trainings to help teachers understand better the teaching-learning approach, and
evaluation and remedial mechanisms. Four such chain trainings are organized in a
year, their frequency being one before each competency test (four competency tests a
year). Then these teachers go back to their own clusters to orient the other teachers of
the cluster in the monthly gat sammelan (monthly meeting).
Planning for tests: Dates for competency tests and setting of time table, dates and
venues for development of question papers, their editing, printing and distribution
mechanism are finalized at the monthly meeting.
Question papers for tests: Test papers based on learning ladders for all classes are
developed at the same venue by expert teachers at the BRC and DRC level.
Editing of question papers: This workshop is conducted in a primary school for trying
out questions on the spot. Selected participants, including teachers of this school,
external teachers, cluster heads and BRC personnel read, discuss and edit every
question meticulously. Some times, they try out similar questions with the children of
the host school to measure their appropriateness for the tests. Samples of these edited
test papers are passed on to the block authorities for verification and finalization.
Printing and distribution of test papers: Each block has a block level examination
board. Six experts in the block finalize the edited test papers, get them printed and
circulate in all clusters or schools.
Schedule of the tests: Children are intimated well in advance about the dates of the
competency tests. They are allowed to complete their work without the ‘3-hour only’
sword hanging on their head. They can ask the teacher to clarify doubts about a
question. The children take one subject every day: written in the morning and oral in
the afternoon.
Achievement record: All the answer sheets are assessed and their results recorded in
the respective comprehensive cards and school achievement records within a week.
They indicate the learning achievement of each child in different areas of each subject.
The cards are signed by the class teacher and headmaster and sent to the parents. The
latter check the status of their children and return the signed copy to the school. They
also go to school to discuss their wards’ achievements.
Preparation of achievement report: All the cards then go to the cluster head to record
the rate of progress of children in that cluster. This helps in further preparation,
planning and action. This exercise is completed within two weeks after the competency
tests. The final results reach BRC and district offices.
Assessment of achievement level: A trained team makes surprise visits to several
schools with same or similar test papers. They test some randomly selected children
and compare this performance with what they have done in the competency tests.
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Analysis and remedial work: The test papers and the achievement records in each class
are compared to see where most children have failed to do well (qualifying marks 60%). Remedial programs are conducted in the classes for each of these children and
the progress following these classes is recorded in the school registers and children’s
comprehensive cards.
Need assessment for training: The experience and results of the competency tests of
different schools are discussed at the following monthly cluster-level teachers’
meetings and district-level chain trainings. The problems and possibilities identified in
the school process act as the main issues for planning and orientation in the Active
School program. These issues are identified from some of the key areas of school
learning development initiatives. Some of these key areas are: achievement reports,
school visit reports, discussion with teachers, monthly meeting at the CRC, BRC and
district levels and assessment reports. These important issues are focused and
discussed in the training programs.
Impact
It wasn’t smooth sailing for the program, whether within the school or government at
various levels. The polarization of teachers was evident with regard to the Active
School approach, particularly when a clutch of teachers were unable to respond to the
new system. They would quickly switch to the old system even as they continued to
vocalize their doubts about the new one. This proved counter productive for the
children and also for the enthusiastic group of teachers who wanted to try out the
Active School strategies.
The poor academic resourcefulness of CRCs and BRCs was another hurdle for many
teachers. Problems related to learning and school management was a regular feature. If
the resource teachers of BRCs and CRCs were experienced and enthusiastic, they
could address the issues and this encouraged the teachers concerned to try and solve
the problems. But if the academic support structure was weak, the problems continued
to pile up and learning achievement in such schools was affected.
The concept of chain training was aimed at solving the problems arising out of a weak
support structure. This meant engaging a resourceful and interested teacher of a cluster
to visit the teachers once in a month and help them in solving emergent issues through
discussions and strategizing. This approach was found to be a successful move. The
teachers, on their part, would wait eagerly for these monthly interactions.
The objectives of the training were:

To provide continuous training opportunity to teachers.

To catalyze the learning attitudes of teachers.

To identify and address the problems and limitations of teachers.

To create opportunities for teachers to share their experiences with each
other.
Interaction with Children
In our visits to the classrooms, we found the level of participation of children in each
classroom to be very high, as were the confidence levels, their interest in activity-based
and experimental learning. Every child in each classroom wanted to exhibit and share
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his or her skills, creations and experience. This is a significant achievement of Active
Schools. Even teachers and members of the community were seen to be enthusiastic
about sharing their experience with the children and school as a whole.
Various types of classroom activities encouraged peer interactions, collaborations,
analytical approach, peer evaluation etc. that sustained children’s interactions beyond
classrooms and created a better rapport with the teachers and community.
Some of their specific achievements were:

Creation of a better learning environment

No fear of asking questions and of group debates and discussions

Peer interaction helped in better understanding

Peer guidance more effective than teachers’ guidance on many occasions

More space for creative expression

Day-long activities for experimental learning

Learning was fun

Interaction enabled children to put their heads and hearts into effective
learning

Thinking and searching process honed

Children were proud to ‘teach’ fellow students

Multi-grade and multi-level grouping patterns helped slow achievers to
learn from seniors and peers through more friendly interactions.
Interaction with administrators
On the whole, the Active School program is unlike the other school improvement
initiatives where some experts design the conceptual strategy and orient teachers to
implement it. Here teachers have conceptualized the intervention on their own based
on a variety of stimulants- teacher training, other innovations under DPEP, and
exposure to a wide range of exciting innovative practices in India and abroad. They
demonstrated their dream pedagogy by practicing it and proving that it was much more
successful than the traditional pedagogy.
This, obviously, inspired the administrators of the area and also the other teachers to
use similar practices in the schools of other blocks and clusters of the district. Thus,
one successful school activated a whole new pedagogy in 117 schools.
It is good to note that this locally generated school improvement strategy could impress
the administrators and managed to reach selected schools across the district. The
administrators did not oppose the move and, in fact, promoted the initiative. As long
as the DPEP was officially functional, the administration kept on projecting Active
Schools as a success story and did not create any hurdles. At the same time, it is
important to remember that the administration did not extend the required financial
support for strengthening the academic support and monitoring systems. Concern and
support on its part could have enhanced the quality of the schools as also the interest of
the teachers.
Unfortunately, Active Schools was interpreted as an experiment under DPEP. Its
future under SSA is unclear at this stage. The Active Schools, however, is a good
example of the capability of teachers to conceptualize, design, implement and nurture
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an effective teaching learning process. The challenges of institutionalizing such a
process, however, remain.
The program has had a wide-ranging impact over the years.
The level of confidence and learning achievements of students has gone up
substantially and have impressed the community members.
The schools have become attractive. There is no dearth of TLM and child-friendly
learning activities. The learning environment looks much better than before.
However, the increase in the number periods from eight to 14 detailed activity
schedules hasn’t gone down well with the schools. This has affected the quality of
classroom practices in some schools. While preparing for the day’s activities, teachers
found it difficult to write lesson notes for 14 periods. Obviously, they had
misinterpreted each activity to be a period!
The faith on the whole concept of self-learning was low among most teachers and head
masters in the initial days of the program. But once the group activities using newly
developed self-learning materials started in the classrooms, they gradually realized that
the facilitative role of teachers could lead to better learning in the groups.
As against just a handful of children who could do well in the earlier regime, all
children could learn better through this program.
The opposition from disciplinarian teachers to a ‘noisy’ classroom also faded away
when they saw that children enjoyed learning through group activity and exchange and
also liked to change sitting patterns. It dawned upon them that disturbance from such
interaction was more an adult problem!
Monitoring was another sore spot. The monitoring personnel were expected to look at
the types of classrooms transactions, group activities, use of materials, learning process
etc. But most of them did not look at these issues seriously and minutely. This
resulted in inadequate information for the core team to assess the real situation and
problems of classrooms.
Lack of their own knowledge and inability to answer children’s questions during group
activities bothered many teachers. This put them on the offensive.
Adding to their woes was the constant pressure from the administrators to prepare
lesson notes even though the program did not require them to do so. The teachers,
obviously, did not take very kindly to it.
Consequently, administrators construed teachers’ reactions to the new pedagogical
regime as a challenge to their positional hierarchy and classroom discipline. The core
team tried to encourage the teachers to experiment with the new methods and see the
overall outcomes of such practices.
Over time, when the confidence of the students, both in rural and urban situations,
improved, the community members also got more interested in school activities and
appreciated the efforts of teachers.
The combined satisfactory responses of the teachers, community and children
impressed the administrators who started projecting Active Schools as a success story.
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Case Study XII
12.
Integrated Learning Improvement Programme – West Bengal
SHAKTIBRATA SEN and SHRUTI NAG
“Na aami dal neta” (No, I am the group leader). Seven-year-old Chayan Das makes
this point to me as I start quizzing the boy sitting next to him. I look up to him and he
tells me that borora (adults) are supposed to talk to him before talking to any of “our
group members”! I wait. Quietly he finishes his worksheet and, then, helps others
“Aagoner kache jaba bhalo na kharab” (Is it good to be near fire?) Chayan tells his
neighbour. The boy nods and corrects the answer. Finally, I get talking to the group
leader.
The above described scene is from a class in a government school of South 24
Parganas in West Bengal where peer learning and group learning, terms that feature
regularly in the list of good classroom practices, exist in reality. But incorporating such
practices into regular classroom activity on a large scale, as is the aim of the West
Bengal government, needs considerable skill and attitudinal change on the part of the
teacher. As Indrani Sen, one of the members of the state resource group, told our
visiting team, “Initially, it was like a war to tell people to change their style and allow
the children to be among themselves. It was important for classroom transaction to be
based on learning tasks rather than teaching tasks.” And the change has come about
incrementally, with careful persuasion and demonstration of goals, and from children
who learnt amongst themselves.
This is the story about how the idea was spread across the state, as children learnt
among themselves and the teachers learnt with them about the possibility of such a
system.
Introduction
Several efforts to improve the quality of teaching learning in Indian schools have been
made in last few years. While many of these efforts have been initiated, or at least,
supported outside the system, the Integrated Learning Improvement Program (ILIP)
has been initiated by the Government of West Bengal within its existing system.
Looking at universalizing elementary education and aiming to improve access,
enrolment and retention in the primary education system, ILIP was started in 2002. It
succeeded the successful School Learning Improvement Program (SLIP) which ran
during the academic year 2001-2002.
In the first year, the program was implemented in standard 1 to ensure that through
improved learning practices and teaching material all children achieve the desired
competencies and no child lags behind. Also, in the initial stage the schools covered
were the ones which had the basic infrastructure of four rooms and four teachers.(See
Table 1 for more details) The program was extended in the next year to other schools
and in the existing schools where the teachers had been trained classes 2 upwards to
support the same cohort of children. Some officials informed us that the program grew
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organically in many schools as many teachers started using the new methods in their
classes on their own initiative. At the time of the study, the ILIP program was covering
students in classes 1 to 4 and active in 5004 schools.
Academic Year
Name of Program
No. of Districts covered
No. of CLRCs covered
No. of Schools covered
Grades involved
No. of teachers training
No. of students
No. of VRPS
Source: SSA West Bengal
Table 20: Coverage and Expansion
2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04
FLIP
SLIP
ILIP
ILIP
1
6
13
16
2
57
423
434
25
435
3044
3852
rd
th
nd
3 &4
1
1&2
1,2,3
25
435
3479
7331
1250
26000
215329
301107
0
435
1211
1446
2004-05
ILIP
20
487
4671
1-4
11994
1058399
2302
2005-06
ILIP
20
499
5004
1-4
19515
1240201
2388
Program Strategy
The ILIP program aims to bring quality and equity in a child’s learning from the
foundational stage of class 1.This is the outcome of several innovations within the
classroom and also within the system under operation.
The core strategy for this program is empowerment and capacity building of the
teachers to move away from the monologue style of imparting education prevalent in
most government schools and make them realize that all children can progress within a
stipulated time, that children learn among themselves and the role of a teacher has to
be that of a facilitator.
As part of the program, attempts were made to introduce a number of changes to the
classroom atmosphere and use. These included:

Creation of joyful learning situations

Using graded competency-based learning tasks

Focus on group learning and peer learning

Self-learning and self-assessment of children

Focus on child-centric learning tasks

Judicious time and task management

Inculcation of socio-centric ideas
A new set of workbooks based on the existing textbooks and the curriculum of the
West Bengal Board of Primary Education were developed to help teachers in changing
their classroom practices. Based on the competencies to be achieved by the children as
per the textbooks, these learning tasks, as they were called, allowed the teacher the
flexibility to match the current learning level and learning speed of the child with the
final objectives of the textbook. Scope for innovation and improvisation by the teacher
as well as by the student are in built these workbooks and is one of their unique
features. According to Moushami, a school teacher, “Using these worksheets impacts
the processes in the class.” The worksheets were also used to help develop a working
approach of proper time management for the child and the teacher. To achieve this, it
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was decided at the developing stage that no worksheet should take more than 20
minutes for an average child to complete.
The worksheets were seen as methods of building self-confidence in the child and it
was ensured that 30% of the worksheets should be so easy that 80% of the children in
class could deal with them.
Another change at the classroom level introduced by the ILIP program was the
engagement of voluntary resource persons from the community to help the teacher and
attend to the children who needed extra support.
In addition, the project also envisaged an increased awareness in the community so it
would make a demand for quality education. To this end, the Voluntary Resource
Persons made regular visits to the child’s house and apprised the parents about their
child’s progress in school. According to the teachers we met, the response of the
parents was quite encouraging. The attendance of the children did not fall and in some
cases, it actually improved. There were also incidences of parents withdrawing their
children from tuition classes once they were told about separate remedial education in
schools.
Another key strategy of the program is that a systematic and continuous profile of each
child is maintained. Both the behavioural and academic achievements of the child are
noted which helps the teachers in planning remedial education.
TLM of ILIP
One teacher and 50 plus children, where the relationship between a teacher and the
child is mostly didactic, is a reality in many of the classrooms. To overcome this
difficulty and allow all children to participate in the class, a set of workbooks aligned
to the textbooks were created for the program. The broad framework in which they
were made were 
Different children learn in different ways and at different speeds.

Build up knowledge of new things while consolidating her existing
knowledge.
The role of teacher has to evolve from merely transacting a set curriculum to one of a
planner who can decide how to optimally enhance a child’s capacity to learn. For this,
a teacher should be free to use the classroom materials in a variety of ways - oral
discussion, practical and written.
The workbook - A list of main topics and the content area of the textbooks was listed
to create worksheets. Then, the topics were divided into smaller and simpler learning
tasks depending on the levels of the children. For example, children cannot participate
in the classroom activities when they enter school in class 1. These books have a lot of
poems and simple word games for this stage. More structured learning activities
through discussions and worksheets were introduced as they got into the learning
mode.
The workbooks allow the teacher the flexibility to match the current learning level and
speed of the child with the objectives of the textbook. The teacher can also use them to
assess what a child has learned in class.
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Assessment and Evaluation
A number of timely assessment systems are built into the ILIP program. These include:

Instantaneous evaluation, at the end of each task

Day-to-day recapitulation, at the end of the lesson every day

Weekly/periodic evaluation, at the end of each competency

Terminal evaluation, at the end of a few lessons

Final evaluation, at the end of the academic year
Conducting instantaneous/day-to-day recapitulation is the teacher’s discretion.
Academic content in weekly/periodic evaluation is planned uniformly throughout all
the ILIP schools. Terminal evaluations are designed and planned by District Research
Fellows (DRFs) under the guidance of district officials.
Behavioural success, in addition to academic achievement, is also
evaluated through this system. Spontaneity, disciplined activity, cooperative gestures,
responsive attitude, responsible working habit etc. are used as measurable parameters
for behavioural assessment.
System and Structure
A decentralized support system is functioning under the aegis of the Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan, West Bengal (PBRPSUS), to make this micro-level intervention successful.
State Research Fellows (SRFs), apart from state-level official and educational experts,
are working exclusively for the program at the State Project Office.
At the district project office, Districts Research Fellows (at least two for districts) are
part of the program apart from the district official. In addition, District Quality
Management Team (DQMT), comprising 12 members has been engaged. Each
member is supposed to provide need-based academic support at Circle Level Resource
Centres (CLRCs) and at the school level.
Resource teams, including a circle-level resource team, have also been trained in ILIP
at the CLRC level to provide academic support to the school.
Voluntary Resource Persons (VRPs) have been engaged at the school level to:

Facilitate teachers in engaging the student meaningfully in learning tasks

Help to reduce absenteeism

Identify and attend to slow learners

Interact with the community
Finally, Village Education Committees (VEC) and Mother Teacher Associations
(MTA) have also been activated and encouraged to take part in improving the schools.
Monitoring System
The aim of monitoring is to provide support to functionaries at every level.
Occasionally, SRFs conduct workshops to elicit feedback from the district personnel
on the basis of which future action can be modified.
Monthly meetings at the district level take place in the presence of SRFs, DRFs and
DQMT who are responsible for ILIP schools in one or more CLRCs. Feedback from
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these meetings is used to get a clear picture of the project at the grassroots.
Fortnightly CLRC workshops are another monitoring mechanism of the program,
while the VEC and the MTA get inputs from the community.
Problems and Solutions
The ILIP program wanted to adapt a constructivist, quality perspective of learning
within classrooms that was replicable and scalable. In a typical ILIP classroom,
learners must actively construct their own knowledge by connecting new ideas to the
existing ones on the basis of their classroom experience. This they do so while
interacting with their peers, the teacher-facilitator and their immediate environment.
To augment this process, the teacher must assume a more facilitative role in a learning
environment. Allowing children to ask questions and enabling them to relate the
newly-constructed knowledge to a larger framework rather than rote learning are
important tools that help build a child’s understanding. It is in this zone between what
a child knows and what she almost knows that new knowledge is constructed. Such
knowledge, often, takes the form of skills that develop eventually. A sensitive teacher
is aware of this and is able to engage children through well-chosen class processes.
Therefore in a classroom, any topic or concept is, often, introduced in a big group
comprising all the students of a class. Soon, children are encouraged to sit in small
groups of five or six each, each of whom get the teacher’s attention. Each group will
have group leader. The group members should sit in a circle facing each other as this
kind of a seating arrangement is optimal for the learning process.
The teacher chooses a group leader on the following criteria:
A child - girl or boy - who has the ability to work in a group involving the other
members.
Group leaders are to be changed every seven or 10 days according to class
performance.
Mr Salaam, Deputy SPD, SSA believes “What the child can do in cooperation today,
he can do alone tomorrow.” Therefore, he says, “Teachers need to understand their
roles as facilitators and not as teachers.”
The evaluation system also has to be in sync with the processes of an ILIP classroom.
The age-old examination system does not hold good when the teacher is a facilitator.
To build a strong child-friendly system that ensures quality on a large scale, then, is a
challenge. According to Mr Salaam, “The immediate worry is how to get every teacher
used to this system on a large scale – and keep her/him motivated.” Functionaries at all
levels feel that teachers are the final delivery mechanisms of an education quality
improvement program and training them is the only way to ensure quality.
The education department plans to scale up the ILIP intervention this year (2006-07).
And to make a success of the program, it is busy making training plans on the basis of
its past experiences. These include:
Develop district resource persons, (DRPs) specially trained in the ILIP mode, who can,
in turn, train the teachers in every district. State Research Fellows are all set to train the
first lot of special DRPs within the next couple of months.
Create another team of resource teachers from among the retired staff. The question,
however, is how far would these people be able to carry the ILIP principle forward.
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Broadly, the problems that challenge the ILIP program are:

New teachers have to be trained every time there is an effort to scale up. It
is always difficult for a teacher in the middle or end of her career to completely
change her earlier style and get into the ILIP mode of doing things.

Monitoring is also part of the problem. District representatives have been
included in monitoring teams to make sure nobody feels being imposed upon. But
there have been instances where the ILIP monitoring team had to step back while
on duty.

With over a thousand schools, a sound strategy to monitor them must be in
place before the scaling up process begins.

Non-DPEP districts are far more prone to the above problems than DPEP
districts. In fact, non-DPEP districts also face non-academic problems a lot more.

Private tuitions are another nuisance to the ILIP program in all districts,
irrespective of whether they are formerly DPEP or not.
The solutions have also come from within the system:

Certain senior officials believe that the need, perhaps, is to build a support
system rather than a monitoring system. “It’s the ‘human touch’ rather than being
didactic, that works wonders.”

To ensure that ‘transmission losses’ are minimized during large-scale
training, the SRFs believe that certain basic minimum class processes must be
made identical so that they can be replicated in all schools.

Need assessment, prior to training at all locations, can also be immensely
useful for customized training. Thanks to this strategy, districts like South 24
Parganas now have a team of motivated teachers who proactively appealed for
professional development. They know exactly where they need help.

The education department has, in certain districts, activated the
VECs/PTAs/MTAs to tackle such problems. All the above stated bodies have been
activated as a result of ILIP's policies to encourage community participation. Mr
Tapas Ghosh, a member of the State Research Fellows, says, “People would only
talk of school infrastructure, or fund flows in these meetings. ILIP schools ensure
that learning issues form the lion’s share of the discussions.”
In the schools we visited, both the good and the problematic, we found parents
involved - helping out during midday meals or supervising a construction of a room or
in any other way.
Teachers and ILIP Method
The teachers spoke about ILIP with enthusiasm. “It has given us an opportunity to be
students once again,” says Supriti Roy Choudhury, in a school in South 24. “My work
pressure has certainly increased in the ILIP mode but I enjoy my classes… I decide my
class activities every morning. Earlier it was not so easy to change from what I had
decided initially if the children so wanted. Now I have learnt to tackle such situations
with ease… Actually, it took me five years to accept the idea of this change…”
Shiela Ghosh in a school in Kolkata feels that ILIP trainings have helped her develop
professionally over the years. “It has improved my class transaction skills. Initially I
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had doubts about the system. But when I saw my students faring well enough, I
willingly accepted ILIP.”
Bishnupada Ghosh, a teacher in Nadia district, says, “I have learnt here what my B.Ed
classes could not teach me. I know now for sure that a friendly interaction with
children not only ensures learning for them but also for me.”
All these teachers know about the replication plans for this year. They feel “training
provides a good support system and ensures we are on track. We all know about the
initial reactions that a system like this elicits. But visible success in class and a good
support system help transcend mental barriers.”
Some teachers feel that the community mobilization efforts under ILIP have also been
of considerable help. “If parents start sharing our concerns - like competency
development, ensuring group work, we are relieved to a large extent. It feels so
reassuring to have the parents with us.”
Teachers in the Taherpur School in Nadia knew every child’s learning status. More
than one teacher was ready to share the details with us. “We know the progress of each
child even if we do not take all the classes, because at the end of the day, we all sit and
discuss the progress of each child.”
Children and ILIP
If anybody enjoys being a part of ILIP without having to worry or plan for anything,
it’s the children!
All the children we interviewed were unanimous in saying, “We all like coming to
school every day.”
“I like being a ‘dala neta’. I have to look after everybody… everybody has to listen to
what I say,” says six-year-old Arunima Halder.
That’s quite a teacher-like role isn’t it?
“No, our teacher does not do anything that makes us feel bad. She says to the class
every day, ‘We are all friends helping each other.’ So I, too, think we must help each
other.”
In every school we visited, we gave the children new texts to read, word problems to
do and asked thought-provoking questions on EVS studies. We are happy to say
children were keen and animated everywhere, and proud to show off their newly
acquired skills.
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Box XIV: Children energised: the ILIP Classroom in session
In Kolkata, we went to a class that was doing a multiplication problem. There are number
cards and cards with the operation signs. The whole small group has to decide which number
will be in the tens place and which in the units place. And what operation sign will the sum
require. Then the sum is done in a perfect team effort.
“Look we can do it, we have learnt it…give us any sum and see”. They probably could make
out that I was quite interested in what they learn and how they learn. So immediately there
are anecdotes flowing from all directions on how difficult sums have been tackled earlier.
What one should look for in order to decide upon what operation would the sum need, so on.
In a few more minutes I find a lot of worksheets coming onto my lap. The answer portions
neatly rubbed clean. “You can try them and if you can do them on your own, you will also
learn like us”.
My turn to ask more questions. I just comment, “I am sure playing cricket is more interesting
than multiplication”.
“But, ple...e...ease try and understand you need to know your sums well there also. Otherwise
Bulu’s group (some group that bothers a lot of children) cheats with runs”.
I must admit maths has applications beyond the classroom.
Source: Shaktibrata Sen and Shruthi Nag, Field notes, March, 2006
Way Forward
When thinking about quality in an education program, it is helpful to view both
learning outcomes and learning processes as distinct domains although not different in
the strictest term. Learning out comes are comparatively easy to measure. The test
results chart each competency to be developed and place the child according to her
level. They are quite visible for ILIP classrooms. Even so, our own findings clearly
show that children have come up to the expected competency levels or very nearly
there in schools that have implemented the ILIP method well.
Having said that, teachers still need to fine-tune their notions of scaffolding - a process
whereby the perceptions, experiences and needs of those at the receiving end are given
their due recognition. Such child-centric orientation, within a learning process,
determines its quality. ILIP needs to think, along with its replication plans, ways to
transmit the very philosophy it is based upon. Mere replication of a few steps will not
help it achieve the notch of quality it had envisaged for itself.
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Case Study XIII
13.
Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI): The case of Karnataka
S U C H I T H R A V E D A N T H 38
The Education Development Centre (EDC) is an international NGO and the implementing agency of
the dot-EDU T4 project being funded by the USAID in India. The T4 project covers three states in
India - Karnataka, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand. This paper is based on the Karnataka experience
Introduction
A few minutes before 12 noon and a bumpy jeep ride later, we arrived at the two-room
school at Girigondanadoddi, off Kanakapura road outside Bangalore. The classroom
for children of classes 1, 2 and 3 was brightly decorated with charts, flash cards on
numbers, alphabets, animals hung in several rows above the children seated on the
floor. The handful of children in grey uniforms seemed happy and interacted with us
without inhibition.
The teacher quickly gathered the children and hurried them to the adjoining room
which was for classes 4 and 5. In all there were 20 children in a 15' x 20' room. The
radio was switched on and the class fell silent. The voice on the radio announced the
broadcast of the next programme 'Chukki Chinna' which was produced by the
Education Development Centre and developed by Madhyam. The next minute all the
children burst into song along with the radio, drowning completely the original score.
The entire room reverberated with the sound of the children singing the title song of
the Chukki Chinna programme.
The broadcast was on malaria that day - part of the series on contagious/epidemic
diseases. In the 30-minute episode, 'Akka' the central character, spoke of the types of
mosquitoes, how the disease spreads and the precautionary measures to be taken to
prevent the spread etc.
Each of the messages was given through a relevant activity. Akka, the radio teacher,
instructed the classroom teachers on grouping the children and the role play included in
the episode. Important facts and specific points were repeated and reiterated through
out the broadcast. Children were, then, asked questions by Akka and were encouraged
to answer, by reinforcing that they need not worry if they gave wrong answers. This
was followed by a song on contagious diseases which the children repeated after Akka.
At the end of the episode, there was an action plan, follow-up activities, homework and
project work.
From the title song which was set to a folk tune and use of a local language to prepare
the teachers’ handbook that included the pre and post broadcast activities - the care
taken to put together these episodes was evident. The meticulous planning reflected in
the detailed instructions to teachers and students, the calculated pauses given to allow
38 The assistance provided by D.L.Kavita and Sarita Deshpande during the field visits have been very valuable.
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time for following the instructions and completing the activity, the matching of activity
to the subject being discussed, the songs, and the pre and post broadcast activities.
We were told that the teachers were given the handbook in advance so that they were
well prepared for the broadcast. The actual dates of the broadcast for each episode
were predetermined and printed in the handbook. In case of sudden changes, due to a
cricket match or child census for example, the broadcast dates were changed and
schools informed of the new schedule.
The language used was simple and easy to understand. The choice of characters Akka, Appu, Putti, and Babu – are common names used across the state and children
easily identify with them.
Objectives of dot-EDU T4 project
The three-year dot-EDU T4 project aims at
1.
providing access and enhancing equity for girls and the rural poor through
carefully planned applications of digital and broadcasting technologies
2.
introducing
environments
high-quality,
activity-based
instruction
into
learning
3.
providing teachers with in-service training to improve content and
methods, using media - interactive radio, mobile video et al
4.
making the classroom environment more attractive to students and,
consequently, increase enrolment, attendance and retention of children in schools
5.
enhancing learning levels by improving the classroom environment
through innovative teaching methods
6.
developing innovative pedagogy and technology-based tools to be used in
the classroom
7.
getting teachers to use tools that have been developed locally
What is IRI?
The IRI program is a distance education program for students of classes 1 to 5
consisting of instruction in Math, Science and Social Studies that are delivered at
government primary schools via radio instruction.
Why Radio?
Radio is an affordable medium for mass instruction that can reach both students and
teachers. Designed thoughtfully, it can cater to local area-specific needs and involve
them in selecting problem areas for discussion. The disadvantaged groups who may not
have access to face-to-face training (in case of teachers) and learning (in case of
students) sessions can be reached by interactive radio instruction. Besides, radio has
easy and extensive reach and can also contribute towards the government’s aim of
universalizing primary education.
Radio Instruction in Karnataka
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Radio as a medium of instruction was first used in Karnataka in 1964 in two programs
called Parimala and Nandana Vana for primary and secondary schools. In 1995, the
Bandani program for high school students and in 2000 the Keli Kali programs for
primary school students were aired (Vandita Sharma, Strides, Jan 2006, No. 1).
Chukki Chinna, the IRI program under the T4 project, began broadcast during the
academic year 2004-05, in collaboration with the SSA and the DSERT. The IRI
program had the advantage of learning from some of its early precursors, especially
from Keli Kali.
The audience for a radio learning program in Karnataka had been already created by
these earlier interventions. The difference, however, between the IRI and the earlier
programs is the level of interactivity. The IRI has been designed to engage students and
teachers completely during the 30-minute episode. As the name suggests, the IRI
promotes interactive activity-based learning within the classroom. It aims at creating
an environment for interaction between the teachers and the students and also among
the students. It endeavours also at attacking the hard spots in teaching and learning. Its
chief goal is to enhance teachers’ skills through innovative and interactive methods,
and proper utilization of TLM.
The strategy
The strategy to achieve the program objectives consists of implementing and
coordinating a combination of technological tools, media, pedagogy and human
resources - all of which reinforce and support each another.
T4 has been developing tools to produce, deliver and measure educational quality on a
large scale.
The strategy, essentially, comprises:

Bringing together the different stakeholders and partners, engaging them in
ongoing dialogue and building the network of resources.

Developing learning and teaching technology for mass delivery to
classrooms across the state. A needs’ assessment was done through audience
research to identify specific requirements and critical areas of work and hard spots.

Training of teachers in pedagogical methods to improve classroom
interaction.

Applying interactive, child-centred, activity-based, learning methodologies
through the IRI.

Implementing scientifically designed curricula based on research and hard
spots.

Community involvement to ensure better enrolment, attendance and
retention, and also support for school education for children.

Monitoring and evaluation at regular intervals to get feedback and make
the necessary changes in project planning and implementation.
The project staff draws the master plans, local teachers write the scripts and local
organizations (on contract) produce the programs.
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Relationship with the Government
The state government has been EDC’s most significant partner in the planning,
development and implementation of IRI. As the delivery infrastructure is critical to the
ability of the program to reach hard-to-reach groups, the project has worked closely
with the government to build delivery mechanisms throughout the state. Education
department officials at the levels of state, district, block and school have been actively
engaged in the program, right from its inception to implementation.
The EDC has provided and installed one digital video recording studio and one digital
audio recording studio at the DSERT premises which will be managed by the centre
during the project period. All the programs are developed and produced at this facility,
through technical assistance from and collaboration with local NGOs. The facility
would be handed over to the Department of Primary and Secondary Education, GoK, at
the end of the project period.
It was decided that the programs would be aired by the FM and AM stations of All
India Radio; and the SSA would bear the broadcast fee. The project has provided radio
sets to the pilot schools. The running cost, including the provision of batteries, would
be covered by the schools and through support from community wherever available.
The DSERT has played an active and supportive role by providing resource persons,
training facilities and taking up the monitoring of the program. Teachers’ guide and
handbook printed by the EDC was disseminated through the DSERT.
Teachers and Training
The IRI program targets two sets of audiences - teachers and students. As already
mentioned, the intervention was envisaged as a training tool for teachers so that they
could add zing to the classroom environment with better teaching methods – and draw
children towards school and learning.
Clearly, the teacher remains central to the success of the success of the program. Even
though the IRI is means of interactive instruction, the interaction is not live- between
the radio instructor and the students. These are pre recorded programmes with the
teacher as the bridge between the radio lesson and the child - and the intervention
requires his/her full participation and management skills. The teacher must have read
the handbook and have the necessary materials ready before the broadcast. Similarly,
he/she must follow up with post-broadcast activities to reinforce learning from and
derive the maximum benefit of the program.
Teachers have been involved in the project from the initial stages of audience
research, identification of hard spots, script writing, development of teachers’
handbook/guide, implementation, and also monitoring. They were trained to perform
each of these tasks. The cascade mode was adopted for training in which a few
teachers were selected for training as master trainers who would, in turn, train the other
teachers.
Community Participation
Community participation remains the weakest link in the project. The involvement of
the community has been minimal, except for the first-round orientation to the project
concept. In the existing scheme of things School Development and Management
Committees, parents and the community are expected to be involved in the
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management and running of the schools. Therefore, the IRI also envisaged their
involvement and identified community outreach volunteers called Sikshana Sahayogis,
who would be the link between the school and the community. Post-broadcast
activities are designed so that the learning is also adopted by the children’s families.
But there is, yet, no clear evidence of any systematic involvement of the community in
these activities. However, monitoring by the BRC/CRC indicates that there is scope for
involving the community in the future.
Coverage
During the pilot phase, the IRI program targeted 300 primary schools in four districts
in Karnataka. These were spread across Deodurg in Raichur, Sedam in Gulbarga,
Chamarajanagar, and Bangalore urban district. By the end of the first year, findings
from a mid-term review (Jeanne Moulton, Jan 2005) led the Department of Education
to scale and cover all the government primary schools in the state – 50,000 in all. As a
result, the IRI reached all the schools during the academic year 2005-06.
Why Can IRI Be Called a ‘Good Practice’
The intervention has certain characteristics that make it one of the good practices
adopted for primary school education.
Extensive reach: covers all government primary schools across the state.
Easy, affordable access to well-researched standardized teaching and learning material
across all schools and teachers. The programs are designed in a way that promotes
scientific attitude among children and teachers.
Advance provision of a handbook, with time table, for all teachers to aid preparation
and optimization of the radio lesson; handbook serves as guide during the radio lesson.
Single module addresses the dual audience of teachers and students to serve as training
program for the former and learning program for the latter. Has achieved multidirectional gains – enhancement of teachers’ skills, learning levels of students and
student participation. IRI practices carried to non-IRI teaching time with positive
results. The methodologies can be used for other classes as well.
Attractive format. All activities such as songs, exercises, role plays and other project
work directly linked to the lesson taught, thus, supplementing the teacher’s knowledge
and skills.
Takes into account multi-grade teaching requirements in the Indian school system; is
based on local knowledge and needs; is child and teacher-centric.
Involvement of the state government and education department from inception to
implementation. Participatory and inclusive. Knowledge base and capacities created
within the education department for long-term benefit
Builds on (a) existing skills, knowledge and training of teachers; (b) existing use of
mass media (radio) as medium of instruction ( Keli Kali already well accepted in state)
Radio teacher serves as a model for teachers setting standards for classroom
interaction, student-teacher relationship, attitude towards girls, approach to teaching
and learning etc.
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Encourages and supports the inclusion of girls and marginalized groups. Attempts to
bridge the gender gap and address gender stereotypes through increased participation
of girls in classroom activity and portrayal of girls as assertive, intelligent, etc
Impact
The impact of the IRI program has been well documented during the three rounds of
external evaluation carried out in the first and second years. The mid-term review
(Moulton), evaluation report (Royer), and The Teacher Foundation report (2005)
broadly show the following:

Increased student participation, utilization of the IRI methods during nonIRI teaching time enhanced learning among IRI students, increased attendance and
better levels of teachers’ knowledge.

Adaptation of activities, songs, and exercises to the match curricular
needs.

Evidence of a large uncounted shadow audience among both schools and
individuals. This created a demand among non-IRI schools for the intervention.

Encouraging response from the teachers who say students’ learning levels
have improved.

Definite improvement in teachers' classroom practice in all categories of
pedagogy.

Transfer of good practices demonstrated in IRI schools.
Monitoring
Program monitoring is always a problem. Internal monitoring is rarely unbiased and
external monitoring is not easily accepted.
Challenges
Classes with a very large number of children are difficult to handle. All students
cannot participate in the activities. On the other hand, a very small class is not a good
idea either. The optimum number for an IRI class is 25-40.
Space is a limitation in many schools. All activities required during pre and post
broadcast cannot be performed in limited classroom space.
Children miss the radio lesson when the teacher is absent. Some times, the lesson is
handled by a teacher who may not be sufficiently prepared.
It is difficult to ensure that all teachers use the intervention to the optimum.
Monitoring and maintaining quality of implementation on such a large scale remains a
challenge.
Post-broadcast activities are difficult to follow up.
The teacher has to closely follow the instructions of the radio teacher and implement
the instructions during the 30 minutes of the radio lesson. She/he does not have the
freedom to handle the class at her pace.
Teacher motivation is difficult to ensure. Those interested and motivated will utilize
the program optimally. However, maintaining high levels of motivation on a daily
basis is the biggest challenge.
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As of now, at least three programs are on air every day - Keli Kali, EDUSAT and
IRI. The teacher could be weighed down by the effort to carry out all of these
programs effectively as the state is investing large sums of money in them. It is
important, then, that the IRI serves to lessen this burden by enabling them to
effectively and efficiently handle classroom teaching.
How does one ensure listening and learning in the classroom?
How does one ensure community participation and its future implementation,
particularly after the project period is over? Ownership by the community is crucial.
Conclusion
The case study demonstrates the effectiveness of IRI as an instructional tool. Used
optimally, it can contribute to creating a better learning environment and attendance
rates, higher learning gains and improved teacher skills – as it has done in Karnataka.
It has also built collaborative relationships with the state government to ensure the
sustainability of the initiative beyond the project period. Capacities have been built
within the education department to carry forward the program with suitable adaptations
as and when required. The pilot phase of the program was periodically evaluated and
monitored, which needs to be continued to ensure optimum utilization.
The community support component needs strengthening. Capacity building of the staff
needs to be continued for the program to evolve continuously and retain its novelty.
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Case Study XIV
14.
Strengthening Science Education: Agastya International Foundation
RASHMI SHARMA
Introduction
The Agastya Foundation, headquartered in Bangalore, was set up as a charitable trust
in 1999. It works in the area of science education for middle and high school children,
and fosters creative thinking and problem-solving skills among vulnerable and
disadvantaged children. The strategy, as articulated by the organization, focuses on
making education:
Fun, engaging and interesting
Creative and hands on
Accessible to children from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities
Useful and relevant for their current and future context
Visible to parents and community members
The aim is to shift from rote-based learning to practical learning. Scientific concepts
are broken into simple, doable experiments, and low-cost models and materials are
developed with the help of which children are encouraged to make experiments on
their own. The Agastya model rests on the belief that children learn better and faster by
doing and experimenting rather than listening to lectures or simply reading from
textbooks etc. The central goal is to create an education dissemination model that is
cost effective, scalable and replicable so that creative thinking and problem solving
become strategies in the education of the poorest children in government schools, and
not a prerogative only of the well off.
The organization started off by establishing a Science Centre at Kuppam (Gudivanka
Science Centre) in Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh. Over time, it developed other
strategies such as mobile laboratories, science fairs and teacher-training programs.
These programs, executed in collaboration with the government, now encompass two
districts in AP and four in Karnataka. The intensity of the interventions varies,
depending on the availability of resources and agreements with the district
administrations. As per the Annual Report of the organization, the Foundation has
reached it various programs to 500,000 children and 30,000 teachers in 2004-05.
The Organization
The management committee of Agastya comprises scientists, management experts and
people who have worked in the government. It is backed by well-qualified and
experienced people. It has also established linkages with scientists from the Homi
Bhabha Centre and the Indian Institute of Science. Twelve highly-qualified scientists
act as resource persons for the program. Instructors are recruited with care and trained
by well-known scientists even though the salaries are small (instructors are paid Rs.
5000 per month).
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Funding comes from corporate donors in India and abroad, the government as well as
international funding agencies. Besides, Agastya is able to tap a great deal of free
resource support. For instance, a former Indian Forest Service Officer and
Environment Secretary in the Karnataka government, with his extensive knowledge of
the flora of the region, have helped Agastya develop an environmental park around the
science centre at Kuppam.
Besides, the organization has innovative management capacities because of which it is
able to negotiate with government on the one hand and raise funds from the corporate
sector and other agencies on the other. It is on a fairly steep growth path where it
constantly tries out new strategies and new projects.
But, a surprising limitation of the organization is its lack of awareness about past
experiences in improving elementary education i.e. what has been attempted, what has
or has not worked etc. Though individuals in Agastya have experience with a wide set
of other organizations, systematic linkages with other organizations working in
education are not visible. Consequently, past experience is not readily accessible for
future planning.
The main interventions of the organization are described briefly below.
Interventions
1.Gudivanka Science Centre, The science centre is strategically located at the junction
of three states i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. There are four
buildings on the campus that have low-cost laboratories. On display here are simple,
but interesting, models and experiments that enable students to understand the basic
principles of astronomy, optics, electricity, magnetism etc., conduct simple
experiments in chemistry and explore models that represent various parts of the body.
The centre has its own mini-bus that fetches children of the neighbouring schools of
one taluk for the day to conduct experiments at the laboratory.
The biggest laboratory is housed in a hall of around 2000 square feet. Right at the
entrance, there is a complete model of the solar system, around 5 feet by 5 feet, in
which all the planets and their satellites have been created in proportion to the real
distances, angles etc, -through which children can understand the solar system, various
planets and their moons and satellites. They can also move the model to see how day
and night and seasons are created. The model makes a powerful impression, and is not
easily forgotten.
Around the laboratory there are tables on which low cost equipment i.e. various models
and experiments are kept. These enable students to understand the basic principles of
astronomy, optics, electricity, magnetism etc., conduct simple experiments in
chemistry and explore models that represent various parts of the body.
The science laboratory has three instructors (science teachers) and an assistant who
guide the visiting students. The lab has its own mini-bus that is used to fetch children
of the neighbouring schools of one taluk for the day to conduct experiments at the
laboratory. At the time of the researcher’s visit, students of class five had come from a
school situated 3 kilometres away, and were engaged in an exercise of making a simple
paper game that showed the food cycle in nature. After finishing this game, they
clustered around the model of the solar system, naming various planets, explaining
how seasons change and so on.
The estimated expenditure of creating such a laboratory is Rs.10-12 lakh. This does not
take into account however, the enormous expertise that has gone into creating the
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equipment. There is also an annual wear and tear approximating 10-15 % of the cost of
the equipment.
The rest of the campus has been developed as an ecological park. The area has been
protected using several water conservation techniques. When the project was started,
the land was totally bare, but now there it has grass as well as several trees and bushes.
Two hundred new species of plants have begun to grow in this park. A hundred species
have regenerated on their own simply because the area has been protected from
animals by digging trenches. Another hundred have been planted. In earlier years, as
there is usually no grass during the summer, villagers were allowed to cut the grass
growing on the campus to feed their cattle. They have also seen how planting trees,
new water conservation methods etc. have long-term beneficial consequences.
Several local medicinal plants that were used earlier, but are being replaced by modern
medicines, have been planted. The attempt is to make people aware of the value of
these local medicinal plants, so that traditional knowledge is not lost. The Siddha
system of medicine i.e. the traditional south Indian system of medicine is sought to be
preserved. Children who come to the campus are helped to understand the health
effects of various plants. Since these are local plants. Children have some idea about
them and can use the knowledge that they gain effectively. On top of a hillock, three
huge figures of a man, woman and child have been installed. The plan is to sketch out
the internal organs and on each organ plant various medicinal plants that are beneficial
to different organs on the body.
The entire area is being developed as a kind of biological park from which the people
may buy plants and also educate themselves about the ecology as well as health. The
maintenance expenditure of this park is between Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 50,000 per year.
There are several plans for the future, such as a hostel for teachers and students from
all across the world. This is an activity through which funds will be raised. Individuals
outside the country are already showing interest in the science centre. Sale of plants to
villagers is also envisaged. Another plan is to train young women to grow addition
plants like aloe and asparagus that are in high demand abroad and help them add to the
family income.
2. Mobile lab
A very popular concept, Agastya’s mobile lab program works in collaboration with the
local authorities. The district authorities in Cuddapah and Chittoor, for example, have
signed a MoU with Agastya under which the Foundation incurs the fixed costs of the
program while the former meet the running costs from the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
funds. The cost borne by the government comes to Rs. 3.10 lakh per annum per van, of
which Rs. 2.60 lakh is the running cost and 0.50 lakh is paid towards salaries of
instructors.
There are 14 mobile laboratories, each of which is housed in a van fitted with tables
and boxes. The low-cost equipment consists of models that can be manipulated by the
children to conduct various experiments. Some vans also have two computers for
children to learn. . The self-sufficient mobile laboratory conducts interactive science
lessons in schools that it visits as per a pre-designed program. The experiments are
related to the course content of the class, so that teachers of the particular schools find
these helpful in their teaching. The MEO prepares and gives a schedule and route map
of the mobile van to Agastya. There are 686 upper primary schools and 522 high
schools i.e. a total of nearly 1200 schools to be covered by four mobile laboratories in
Chittoor. This means that one school can be covered barely once during the year.
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3. Science fairs
Agastya organizes science fairs where children of the host school, called young
instructors, explain experiments to the visiting audience that comprises children and
teachers from neighbouring schools. Typically, two instructors from the Foundation
arrive a day in advance at the host school and train teachers as well as children to
demonstrate and explain various experiments. The teachers who had participated in
these fairs came across as very enthusiastic about the latter. They are filled with pride
to see children of their schools explaining experiments. Students had been able to
conduct several experiments at the fairs that they could not in the classrooms.
4. Teacher training
Agastya also holds teacher-training camps to train teachers in the experimental science
teaching that it seeks to foster. Thirty such programs have been held in the last two
years. Well-known scientists are often invited to these two-day camps where they
introduce teachers to new concepts. Travel money to teachers comes from the SSA
funds, and the Foundation incurs the remaining expenditure. Notwithstanding the fact
that Agastya’s work with teachers has not been as successful as the activities they have
conducted directly with children, some teachers have written letters of appreciation
saying how much the programs enriched them.
Relationship with the Government
The Agastya Foundation attempts to complement the existing school system and
collaborate with the government/local administration. For instance, Agastya set the ball
rolling in Chittoor district when it requested the district collector to issue an order to
enable school children to visit the science centre in Kuppam. Similarly with the mobile
lab program which works closely with the district administration. Mutual appreciation
and understanding underscore the program. In Chittoor, the DC as well as the
Additional Project Coordinator, SSA, has appreciated the presence of a creative,
committed organization as Agastya, and viewed it as a resource for taking up those
programs for quality improvement as these were difficult to design and implement
within government.
Relationship with Teachers
Unlike some organizations that seek to improve the quality of education in government
schools mainly by working with teachers, Agastya reaches out directly to children
through the science centre, mobile laboratories and science fairs. This follows from its
understanding that unlike younger people who are far more receptive, it is tough to
convert older people. Teachers may appreciate some activities, but have not actively
participated in them. There have been instances when teachers have merely sat and
watched or, at best, took notes during a mobile van classes instead of participating in
the exercise.
Impact
The impact of the interventions of the Agastya Foundation needs to be understood at
two levels: (a) the impact on children with whom these activities are conducted, and
(b) the overall impact on the education system.
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Visits to schools where some interventions had taken place revealed that the strategies were
effective in the classroom. Children learnt and enjoyed the experience. Even a single visit of
children to the science centre or of the mobile van to a school has considerable effect on the
learners. This validates the basic strategy of learning by doing and affirms that the Foundation has
evolved creative and workable ways of teaching and learning science.
Agastya has also begun a systematic study of the impact of the mobile lab. Two
schools have been identified for this study - one, is a ‘control’, non-intervention school
and the other is the experimental school, where the mobile van visits twice a week. The
study attempts to identify changes in children’s excitement, curiosity and aspirations as
a consequence of the intervention.
A visit of the mobile lab to a school or even children’s visit to the science centre, which forms the
experience of an average school, remains a ‘sporadic’ event rather than a substantial shift in science
education. While some argue that one mobile lab visit that lasts six to seven hours is actually
equivalent to as many visits, interviewee teachers stressed the need for better frequency for a
substantial change. They felt that bi-monthly visits were a must to integrate lab learning with the
entire process of curriculum transaction. The thinness of the interventions arises from the fact that
Agastya has limited resources (especially human resources), and district authorities are keen on
maximum coverage, and the organization also sees the need for large coverage for maximum
impact.
The impact of the interventions also needs to be viewed in the overall context of government
schools, where the standards of science teaching can be problematic. Sometimes, even teachers are
conceptually unclear. A mobile lab instructor admitted that while children could understand basic
things such as the difference between domestic and wild animals, they found it difficult to
comprehend principles of science, in spite of the very high quality of instruction in the mobile lab.
Better standards of science teaching in government school would lead to substantial benefits even
from brief interventions, but this is not the case in most government schools. Therefore,
interventions, too, have limited impact.
So, instead of engaging fully with the government system, Agastya has chosen to reach out to a
large number of children through its own interventions (mobile laboratory etc) where its own
instructors do the training, teaching etc. This enables the Foundation to retain control over the
quality of its inputs which would be difficult if it attempted to work through the government
system.
On the other hand, this model limits the impact of the organizations’ activities. Building capacities
of government teachers and resource persons would mean much larger, more sustainable impact,
albeit of lesser quality.
Even so, Agastya’s interventions have led to slow, small changes:

While many teachers may remain passive in the training programs or
during mobile lab lessons etc, there are others who use these opportunities to learn.

Several teachers said they wanted to have similar equipment in their
schools so that they could use it to explain things to students.

Interestingly, though the Agastya Foundation did not have very close links
with DIET at Karvettinagar in Chittoor district, the latter has recently published a
book of experiments for classes 6 and 7. This may have been inspired by a manual
of experiments of the Foundation.
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
Ideas about low-cost buildings are being picked up in the district from the
science centre in Kuppam and the district authorities are thinking about the idea of
creating a learning centre on similar, if smaller, lines in each taluk.
Challenges
The Agastya Foundation has created some very effective strategies for science teaching
that resonate well with children and create a good learning environment. These
strategies are worth replicating, and could go a long way towards improving science
education in government schools. However, if such replication is attempted, there are
several issues that would need to be thought through with care and, in fact, replication
on a larger scale would involve new types of initiatives. Three broad areas of work are
identified below:
1.
The problem of spreading out interventions too thinly would need to be
addressed. At present, the frequency of interventions depends upon the availability
of resources and what the district administration considers appropriate coverage.
However, the question of frequency would have to be worked out as per pedagogic
needs and impact, so that it is a regular aspect of the teaching learning process.
2.
Strategies and initiatives need to be embedded more firmly within the
government to magnify the impact and also to sustain it in the long run. This would
necessarily involve a far more rigorous strategy for capacity building of teachers as
well as resource persons. Working out the nature of such capacity-building
exercises would be a substantial task.
3.
In terms of costs, there would not be too many financial difficulties, as
keeping costs low is a part of the organizations’ strategy, and as per the
calculations made by the organization the per child cost is less than 50 cents i.e.
less than Rs. 25. It is also not difficult to envisage the creation of science centres at
district and, even, block levels, provision of mobile laboratories, organization of
science fairs etc. However, it would be difficult to replicate the very high quality of
human resources tapped by the organization. While difficult, this is not impossible.
Past experience has shown that fairly complex and innovative programs can be
carried out in the government by identifying the right people from within the
system and allowing them autonomy to work. However, creating appropriate
structures and selecting the right people would be quintessential.
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Case Study XV
15.
Skill based Education, Chandigarh
Binay Pattanayak
Chandigarh with a heterogeneous metropolitan population has a number of migratory
groups consisting of daily wagers and labourers settled in slum areas and colonies located along its
periphery. Household surveys showed that a significant percentage of out of school children are
from these habitations. For the parents of these children education is the last priority as making an
earning for living is their main focus. Therefore, bringing these children to school and providing
them relevant education was a big challenge and necessitated diversified approaches and strategies.
Objectives of the skill based education initiatives:
Keeping this ground situation in view, the Education Department in Chandigarh UT
designed a plan of action to attract the students towards school, give them some skill based
education for their empowerment and in the process enhance their learning achievement as well.
After studying the socio-economic patterns, which emerged in the survey report and feedback from
the heads of the institutions from the schools located in rural and slum areas, it was decided to
introduce modified Vocational Education in specifically identified schools where there is a large
concentration of out of school children. Thus, skill courses were introduced in slum and rural
areas as an alternative and innovative education in the UT under SSA with the following
objectives:
1. To address the core need of daily wage earners by offering Work Education and to bring
working children to school.
2. To explore and adopt the popular skill areas leading to economic empowerment of
children.
3. To retain these children in school by maintaining sustainability of the interest of the
students through various skill courses.
Target Group:
The target group for skill courses includes out of school children enrolled in the alternative and
innovative education (AIE) centres, yet to be enrolled out of school children and regular school
children. Till date 400 such students are getting benefited from the skill courses.
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Planning for introduction of skill courses:
Identification of skills to be taught

Skill Courses have been identified in consultation with the concerned parents, PTA
members, Principals/ Heads of these schools and also on the basis of observation and knowledge of
the area. Meetings were held with the parents of these children, who are primarily daily wagers, to
seek the demand of skill courses from them. A variety of skills such as tailoring, machine
embroidery, knitting, mehendi, pottery, hairdressing, candle making, book binding, plumbing,
cycle repair, brick laying, pickle and jam making etc were introduced in 7 Government High
schools.
These skill courses have been designed by the Department and schools carefully, through a series
of consultations at different levels. Every year the UT authorities explore the colonies where more
and more children of the vulnerable groups study and they encourage the concerned school
authorities to design plans for skill based education and identify suitable skills, which can be
promoted in the school. Once the school finalises its proposal the UT authorities built their capacity
by exposing them to the good practices and provide them the resources to initiate the work.
The Government also runs 21 vocational courses at +2 level in 21 Sr. Secondary schools. The UT
authorities facilitate interaction and mutual learning between the teachers of these schools with the
teachers in the schools running the skill courses. This enables the teachers on both sides to learn
from each other’s experience and innovations.
Designing the Curriculum
For each Skill Course a curriculum for 100 hours of teaching has been worked out with a
detailed month wise plan to be followed through out the academic year. This makes it easy for the
instructor to follow the steps of each activity methodically with some clear picture of the final
outcome. A wide range of teaching learning materials have been developed by the UT
authorities to build the capacity of the teachers and students. They are using the course
materials used for +2 level vocational courses for building the capacity building of teachers
in the schools. For the school level activities the schools in consultation with the UT
authorities have developed curriculum and syllabi for each skill course.
Box XV
a.
Glimpses from the syllabi for different courses
Fine arts includes…… What is Art, Types of Art, Types of Medium, Water, Crayons, Oil Colours, Pencil
Shading, etc., Oil painting, Pot painting, Papier Mache, Making of Greeting Cards,…..
b.
Candle making includes….. Different types of Moulds, Detaching and Attaching of Moulds, Making of
Big and Small Candles, Making of Floating Candles, Making of Gel Candles,……
c.
Plumbing includes…..Sewage, Drainage, & Water Supply, System Information, Different types of fittings
such as elbow use, plug use, nipples, U type fitting, L type fitting, …….
d.
Pottery includes….Pot making, Diya making, making of colourful and painted diyas, making of textured
pots,….
e.
Stitching includes….Simple stitching, Cross stitching, how to apply buttons, zips, kaza etc,. sewing of
clothes of different types such as apron, frocks, ladies suits, gents pyjama, pillow cover etc.
f.
Knitting includes….What is knitting, Making of sweaters by hand, machine weaved sweaters, making of
baby suits,….
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g.
Hair cutting includes….Cutting of hair, shaving beard, massaging of face, body and head, plucking and
threading, …..
h.
Mehendi art includes…..Preparation of Mehendi, Application of Mehendi on head, feet, Types of designs
like simple, Arabic etc.
i.
Paper bag making includes…..Material required for paper bag making, Making of small paper bags,
Making of gift bags, Making of hanging bags,…..
j.
Soft Toy making includes….Cutting of clothes for soft toy making, sewing of pieces of clothes, Making of
different animals like teddy bear, dog, cat, duck, fish, etc.
k.
Peecko includes….Peecko of sarees, Peecko of Duppattas…
l.
Embroidery includes …..What is embroidery, Types of Embroidery, Embroidery on suits and duppattas,
m.
Flower making includes….Making of paper duplex flowers, Making of ribbon flowers, Making of Arcandi
flowers, Making of net flowers .
n.
Tie & Dye includes….Tie & Dye of duppattas, tie & dye of suits, different steps of tie & dye.
o.
Book binding includes….Materials to be used in book binding, Steps involved in book binding, binding of
books, registers, copies etc.
p.
Mukaish includes…..Simple Mukaish of duppattas, and suits, Designed Mukaish…
Flexibility in selection of Skill Course
Children are free to choose any skill course of their own interest and are allowed to switch
over to the other course after he/she has attained perfection in one area. For example, in candle
making and hair cutting many children, mostly boys keep on changing their practice. Similarly girls
keep on changing their practice in the area of tie & dye, painting, flower making, etc. They feel that
they can gain from such learning if their learning domain is multi pronged and professionally
enriching. They see big potential in such practices from the economic point of view. But the school
ensures that they do not jump from one skill to another without acquiring the skills well. Hence on
the whole children do not go into more than two skills learning over the year. This is important as
the school tries to maintain quality in the learning process.
Flexibility in coming to school:
School timings for working children have been made flexible and are fixed as per the convenience
of children.
Funding Norms for Skill Courses:
Funds are made available to the school heads offering skill courses under AIE component.
The salary for the instructor is Rs.4, 500. In addition the school is given a grant for the
purchase of raw material and equipment. For service-oriented courses such as mehendi
application, hair cutting, cycle repair, etc. the requirement of raw material is minimal.
However, a one time grant of Rs. 30, 000 is given to courses needing heavy equipment
such as sewing machines, plumbing appliances, welding sets, etc.
Enhancing interest and facilitating Socio economic empowerment:
This strategy of providing skill-based education in schools is a new concept in elementary
education. Very soon it bore fruits and the message spread as the children now started looking
forward to coming to school. Children were even allowed to take back few small products such as
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artificial flowers, candles, paper bags, etc. as an example to show their creations to their parents,
which gave the children a sense of achievement and feeling of utility for the parents.
The products made by these children are sold and some share of money thus earned is distributed to
these students as an incentive. Various modalities such as exhibitions, melas are used for sale of
products including sales from the homes of those students confident of taking up the vocation
independently. On the whole, the response of the schools and their children has been very
satisfying and the quality of products has impressed people from all circles. The number of schools
under this scheme is increasing each year as new schools struggling to address the needs of the
children of vulnerable groups are finding it as a highly successful mode of extending quality
elementary education to such students. In the Chandigarh UT more than 20 schools are now
promoting such skill-based activities.
While learning such activities in the school, children get free food or refreshment. Also they are
provided with some of the materials that they develop. But once they acquire the skills they
contribute to the school fund. Whatever money is generated through such exhibition cum sale is
used for furthering the resources and activities in the school in the coming days.
However it may also be noted that children never stop with this. Many of them sit in the markets on
their own to earn along with their studies at school. One child through such activities contributed to
his father’s operation and sister’s marriage. On this point the school authorities agree that someway
or other it contributes to child labour. At the same time they feel constrained when children on their
own initiate such activities beyond the school hours to help their family.
This is a critical question and needs to further to be explored and socio-educationally balanced so
that children are not over stretched in the name of skill based incomes. School authorities say that
the number of such children is very less and should not be encouraged. At the same time they have
the fear that, if such activities of children of the vulnerable groups are forcefully stopped, then it
may naturally lead to socially unproductive activities like stealing and may be counter productive.
Hence they keep on counseling the children to acquire the skills to perfection along with their
academic achievements so that they remain more focused.
Also it has been proved that such activities have contributed to the enhancement of learning
achievement of all these children. The school authorities feel that such activities creates in them
interest in education and they like to study their books along with their acquisition of professional
skills.
Monitoring and assessment system
In this system the students are taught by the teachers and the outside professionals regarding the
procedure and the techniques involved in the specified courses. Regular monitoring is done by the
teachers- how children are handling the material, what method they are utilising, what precautions
they are taking, etc. In this way, the learning progress is monitored and the students are trained.
One important aspect of this activity is that during each activity students and their teachers work
together. This enables each child to learn from the teacher and peers and a good learning
environment is maintained. Another important side of the practice is that here monitoring is not
done just to find faults, but it works to keep track of the overall quality. Unlike the examinations in
schools here everybody assesses each other’s progress and helps her or him in the process. This is
the true spirit of learning. And it does not end here. The real test of learning comes when the
learners including the teacher face the market where their quality is assessed by the society. Hence
they feel challenged to improve the quality of product at par or better than market products.
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The teacher assesses the student’s progress in the oral as well as in practical aspects. The students
are given oral tests on the method of making the specified trade. Then each student has to
demonstrate practically what he/she has learnt.
Looking at the programme through the experience of a Government Girls High School,
Chandigarh

Starting the programme
The skill based education programme started in the Government Girls High school in 2004. The
school campus includes nursery room, music room, computer room, yoga room, science lab,
library, etc. having about 30 rooms including staff room. The school runs in two shifts. In the first
shift children of nursery classes and classes V to X take part in the school activities. In the second
shift students of classes I to IV and the students under the EGS and AIE scheme attend the classes.
There are about 75 teachers in the school. Under the SSA there are 21 teachers (JBT and TGT) and
9 contract teachers. The rest 45 teachers are regular teachers in the school.
Inspired by the call of the President of India to “create employment and not seek it”, the HM of the
school decided to take up the challenge of reaching out to out of school children in the
neighbourhood of her school and decided to approach SSA for support and also to get ideas on how
to go about it.
The profile of the children the school tried to reach out to and retain in school included sweepers,
rag pickers, children attached to small shop owners, etc. Many of these children and their families
have been picked up by the police on suspicion of petty theft. Most of the children are reported to
be totally illiterate and first generation learners.
The major objectives of the innovation in this school include the following.

To enhance the attendance of students in the school

Promote the call of the President “Create employment; don’t seek it”

Reduce the stealing habits and drug addiction habits of students in the slums through
regular hands on activities and confidence building

Build confidence among parents for quality education and their empowerment

Enhance the learning achievement of students through regular support

Give a direction to education through skill based activities in school and society (earn
while you learn)
Operationalising the skill based learning programme

Getting teachers on board
The first task was to get the support of the teachers. Teachers interested in helping with the
programme were identified. The issue of skill courses was discussed and the interested teachers,
who were ready to teach, were identified. The contract teachers under SSA found this as a good
chance to learn skills through the regular activities in the school and sustain them in future as a
source of income. They are not afraid now regarding the job security. They feel that even if they
lose their teaching job tomorrow, then they can still live with dignity through such type of
activities as a way of their sustenance.
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A Junior school teacher who is also the Candle making guide in the school says,” I am here to
teach. When the skill courses started I thought I can do some good thing for the poor children and
for the betterment of society. And I learnt the art of candle making from an expert who came to our
school to teach us. Now the interest of the students in candle making has increased so much after
we started teaching various techniques related to the work. During each Diwali, we organise a
stall on behalf of the school in which the products of the school are displayed and sold. This time
during Diwali we could sell nearly 3 quintals of candles”.
One problem that seems to be bothering the programme is the transfer of skilled teachers from time
to time. If this can be systemically stabilised by not disturbing professionally rich and committed
teachers for sometime, it may contribute to the strengthening of the resource base in the school. It
is heard that when a skilled teacher is transferred in the middle of the year, it turns out to be very
challenging to find a replacement for her or him. The system needs to think about this and should
strive to strengthen the resource pool through long term planning.

Enlisting the support of the Community
A series of meetings were held with the parents and in the community to inform them about the
introduction of the skill based coursed. Parental consent was taken for every child who enrolled for
the skill courses. The School reports that, parents who earlier were highly critical of the school are
now supportive and keen to send their children to school. Parents now feel that education would
enable their children to stand on their legs and they can live happily with dignity in the society.
Some of the community members also have come forward to help teachers in their children’s
learning in the area of pottery, and hair dressing.
Moreover, skilled trainers from the local Engineering College were brought in to train teachers in
the area of book binding, paper bag making, etc. free of cost. One NGO came forward to train
teachers and children in soft toy making. This is a continuous process and the school is in the
search of such skilled persons and the new skills, which can be nurtured in the school. Every month
community members sit with the School HM and other staff to discuss about the problems and
possibilities related to skill based education.

Energising the Children
The announcement of the courses was enthusiastically responded to. Once children came to the
school the school authorities initiated a series of hands on activities in the school using locally
available low cost materials. These new children found these hands on activities interesting and
related to them because of their previous experience in the slums and markets. Previously, they had
no opportunity to learn the different skills from the professionals as no professional generally is
willing to share her/ his professional expertise with others with out any financial gain.
It is also important that their school learning did not end here. After producing good amount of
creative materials they went ahead to sell them in the local markets under the guidance of their
teachers. This motivated them to maintain quality, find appreciation for their good work and
acquire the marketing skills as well. There are ample examples in the school where almost all
children found appreciation for their creative skills and this motivated their parents and other
community members to value education as a way of dignified living. Children have gained the
maximum from this process as they are able to earn through the socially productive activities like
hair dressing, flower making, mehendi, book binding, candle making, knitting, etc. One child was
able to support the health treatment of his father by using the money he had earned through his
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socially productive activities. Some of the amount was also used during the marriage of his sister
when the school also helped him in a good way. People were very much impressed by this
initiative. Such activities have motivated other children in the school along with their parents and
community members.
Along with this the school created opportunities for their education related to basic literacy and
numeracy as a part of the general school curriculum. It is good to note that these children who had
experienced success through the skill based education developed interest in common reading,
writing and numeracy related activities in the school and performed well. This was enabled through
the trust and rapport the teachers had built with the children. The children also found these literacy
and numeracy skills as additional benefits to their skill development process. They gradually felt
that reading and writing contributed to their skill learning and marketing strategies very
significantly. They could refer several resource materials related to the different skills and
undertake calculations in the school and market sometimes independent of their teachers.
For the children the skill based education has gone beyond gaining an economically useful
education, it has added to their own self esteem in their own eyes as well in the eyes of their peers.
As one child states, “I study in class VII. In the initial days I came to school only for reading and
writing. Those days everybody doubted me and did not like me. My friends used to tease me saying
that I was a thief! But it changed dramatically when Vijay Sir started teaching us candle making. I
enjoyed the activities in this class. We melted candle, moulded it in number of shapes and prepared
candles, which could rally burn like candles available in the market. This fascinated me in a big
way. I concentrated on this interesting activity to the best of my ability and Vijay Sir encouraged
me regularly by saying that “you are a skilled candle maker”. This encouraged me very much and
prepared good quality candles. Yes those days I was stealing. But with candle making I gave it up
completely. Everybody including my friends in the school praised my candle making. Even at home
my mother and father praised me. The school has given me a big thing. Now I am telling all my
friends to learn candle making and enjoy the work, They also can earn money through this
activity.”
For another child this was an opportunity to explore his expressive interests. “I was very fond of
arts. But I never knew that it could be practiced in school regularly and seriously. I never had the
courage to tell it to my teachers. Not even at home. Generally one does not find time in a school for
arts. I am very happy since the skill courses started. Now I am able to work with our art teacher to
learn and improve my quality in arts. I am able to draw nicely. I have won several prizes for my
good work. Like my teacher and other professional artist I have a dream to draw more and more.
One day I will start exhibiting my paintings in big halls. More people can see my work and
appreciate my creative efforts. In our school we have a specific room for learning arts where 15
students like me work with our teacher and draw many types of pictures. Now our pictures are also
sold in the market”.
A budding professional hair stylist says, “I learned hair cutting in this school. In the initial days I
practiced in the school by cutting hair of my friends. Then I started applying the skills in my colony
and market after the school hours. This has helped me to earn and support my family to an extent.
At the same time I am studying sincerely in the school. I have installed a table and chair in the
Sector 15 market. After the school hours and in the holidays I am earning well. It goes up to Rs.
120/- per day”.
In just 2 years time a dynamically socially constructive process has started in the slum area school.
The rapport between school and society was strengthened in an area where prior to this there was a
large gap due to mistrust, wrong attitude and lack of community interest in education.
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Financial implications:
For the year 2006-07 the school had received Rs. 69,000/- from the SSA authorities for carrying
out the activities. This is for about 20 skill based activities in the school that involves 50 students
per group. On the whole, about 800 students benefit from this exercise. In the initial years the
money was used for getting the equipment and orienting the teachers for the cause. Over the years
their have been changes in the approach. Now the school is not forced to purchase the equipments
again. Now the money is used mostly for getting the resources for use in the different activities.
Along with this the school is also gaining from the income from the various activities.
The future of this initiative
Discussions with the UT and school authorities have revealed that except the challenges of the
initial days there has not been any major problem in the school either in the area of resources,
management, or quality of the activities. They say that this has been a very rewarding process
where they have been able to win the confidence of the community members in the slums, which at
a stage seemed to be very difficult.
Under SSA, education of slum children in the Chandigarh had remained a big challenge from the
beginning as they UT authorities were not able to know how many children were there in slums
and they did not have any effective strategy to create their interest in education. This was affecting
the overall performance of the UT in implementing SSA. This initiative and its success have given
them ample systemic confidence to strive for successful universalisation of elementary education.
With the programme gaining appreciation and social support now the time has come for the system
to think of its sustenance by institutionalising it through proper planning. It should have a longterm vision and implementation strategy to maintain the ethos and quality.
The community support for such creative and socially productive activities is very high as most of
the community members are illiterate and poor. The community now feels that their children are
learning something that is truly meaningful to their life and future. Hence they are visiting the
school regularly other than the times of the monthly meeting with parents to see what their children
are learning in the school and how they are applying those skills in their community.
A happy mother reports, “I was very happy when these courses were started in the school.
Previously our children were into bad practices. They were not taking any interest in education.
They had bad habits like stealing, roaming here and there, playing, etc. None of them were
studying at home or school. Now they are very keen to come to school and work with the teachers.
They are even working after the school hours. We are very happy with the teachers. They are
giving so much time for them”. And another parent shares his views,” My two children were
coming to school to study. But they were not taking any interest. When the skill courses started
many changes took place in their habit. Now they are learning candle making, flower making,
mehendi work. They are also studying at home which had never happened before. This is a big
change in them. They are also learning stitching and painting from their friends after the school”
The Government is very clear that they do not want to promote vocational education at a very
young age. The emphasis is on ensuring that these children acquire the basic reading, writing skills
by the time they complete their elementary schooling at par with other students. Only skill based
education can not give them a dignified future. Hence the focus of the schools is on quality
elementary education which contains elements of skill courses and not the vice versa.
With the SSA in operation the UT authorities do not face any problem in sustaining this innovative
activity in the schools. Along with this marketing of the products is emerging as a source of
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financial stability for such activity. The school is able to make substantial profit by selling the
products in different areas. Along with this they are thinking of purchasing new resources and
equipments for reducing the workload and improve the quality of their school skill based activities.
School authorities now feel that such activities can be continued in the school even after SSA like
programmes.
One problem that may rise in future is the sustenance of the leadership in such successful schools.
Presently the School Heads are playing a crucial role in motivating their staff and students and also
in maintaining the quality in the activities and products. The system needs to plan for sustenance
of such leadership by building capacity and interest in number of such leaders who can maintain
the rhythm and improve the quality further in such activities. Other wise, after a while such
activities may face problems when the leadership in the schools is challenged either by retirement
of such good HMs or by their transfer. Hence to sustain the quality on a long term basis the system
needs to think of advance preparations at different levels.
What the Chandigarh example offers is a possible strategy for reaching out to the hard core of
working children especially in urban slums, whereby through a skill up-gradation programme basic
education could also be ensured.
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Case Study XVI
16.
School Complexes of Goa
K.M. SHESHAGIRI
Background
The quantitative expansion and gradual strengthening of the school education system
in India has been accompanied by setting up structures to provide grassroots support
for better school functioning and teacher performance. DIETs in the eighties and the
BRC/CRCs in the nineties were set up with the very objective of providing
decentralized academic support to elementary schools.
Started in the late 1970s to end the isolation of teachers, the Goa School Complex
program was a unique precursor to these institutions. The scheme provided for
communication, resource sharing and joint problem solving among teachers and
schools right from the primary to the higher secondary levels. This document presents
a brief case study of the program. It discusses the rationale, structure, composition and
functioning of the program, presents examples of the experiences gained, and raises
questions about its future directions.
Rationale for the School Complexes
The motivation behind the Goa School Complex program was the Kothari Education
Commission Report of the sixties. The panel’s recommendations on the need to
establish a common, egalitarian system of schooling cutting across caste, class, religion
and gender served as the underpinnings of the initiative: why not share and redistribute
human and material resources in our educational system, work collectively, and
improve the quality of education for all children, irrespective of caste, religion etc?
The idea of school complexes (SC) is based on the assumption that high and higher
secondary schools, often, have better facilities and trained teachers, which can be
utilized by the primary and middle schools. Five or six primary and upper primary
schools, as per convenience, may form a complex and get their academic and
administrative support from the nodal secondary/senior secondary school. The attached
schools in the complex may arrange co-curricular activities and give better exposure to
their students within the school complex itself rather than taking up the matter at the
block or district level. In case of temporary absence of a teacher due to illness, the
school complex head can provide a substitute from a neighbouring school. A large
number of academic issues and problems can be discussed at the school complex level
by arranging a meeting of some or all the teachers. Goa, along with Maharashtra, took
this idea forward through its School Complex Scheme in the late seventies.
In other words, the SC program attempts to implement the Common Schooling System
envisaged in the Kothari Commission report. All schools39 – those in the government
39 A unique feature of the schooling system in Goa is the participation of the non-government/private sector in school
education. The history of this participation is captured in the book School Education in Goa – Status, Issues and Future
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schooling system, government-aided schools, and private, unaided schools are
envisioned to come together to share their technical and intellectual resources with the
other, less privileged, schools in their vicinity. This apart, the SC program is motivated
by the need to integrate and synergize the functioning of different levels of schooling –
primary, middle, high school and the higher secondary levels, so that the responsibility
of the child’s education and development is taken over equally by all the levels. In
practice, this happens through a ‘schools adoption’ program, where the teachers of the
‘lead school’ (usually, a high school or higher secondary school) reach out to a selected
number of schools in their vicinity. The lead schools are supposed to build a close
rapport with the teachers of the adopted school to provide them with guidance and
support. The program works completely in a mission mode, and is not driven by any
monetary incentives. It depends completely on the teacher’s inner drive/motivation and
the leadership of school leaders like headmasters and principals.
Definition, Aims and Objectives of School Complex
The education department of Goa defines the term ‘School Complex’ as a ‘demarked
cluster of primary and middle schools led by a secondary or middle school (called the
‘lead’ school), as decided by the Director of School Education’. Similarly, a ‘Super
School Complex’ is a ‘demarked cluster of secondary schools led by a higher
secondary school (called the ‘lead’ school), as decided by the Director of Education’.
We will examine this structure and its functioning in some detail in subsequent
sections.
Box XVI: Aims and objectives of the school complex scheme
 To break the isolation of schools and establish close linkages, horizontal as well as
vertical, within the education system and outside, with other development agencies.
 To decentralize the process of planning, administration, implementation and
monitoring of educational programs.
 To promote mutual reinforcement of institutions within the school complex by
facilitating exchange and sharing of resources, human as well as material.
 To help schools to function in small, face-to-face cooperative groups.
 To introduce a closer supervision and guidance system for raising the quality of
instruction at all stages.
 To encourage professionalism and missionary zeal among the teaching fraternity and
attempt a collective, concerted effort for raising the standard, quantitative as well as
qualitative, of school education, with due freedom for schools and teachers to innovate
/experiment, within the broad framework.
 To identify and utilize to the optimum level and project individuals and institutions
with their novel experiments and success stories in the field of education and pull their
efforts towards the collective benefit of all.
Source: Government of Goa, Directorate of Education. Guidelines for School Complex and
Super School Complex Scheme (2001)
As we have mentioned earlier, the underlying belief that drives the School Complex
initiative is that collective efforts and sharing of resources (human and material) will
result in overcoming the isolation of schools and teachers. This, in turn, will go a long
way in strengthening the school education system and improve its quality.
Perspectives (NCERT 2004). Under the ‘grant-in-aids’ scheme, the Government of Goa supports private schools. In most
cases, this support involves teacher salaries, maintenance and rent. This contributes significantly as a reason for the
participation of the private schools in government initiatives like the School Complex scheme.
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School Complexes: A Timeline
Before we study the structure, composition and functions of the school complex
scheme, let us locate its chronology. This will help in understanding the evolution of
the idea. A broad chronology is presented below:
1978-86:
School Complexes launched; selected government schools
identified to take part; scheme operates mostly through event-based activities
(functions, sports, prize distribution ceremonies, independence/ republic day
celebrations…)
1986:
SC gained momentum – numbers increased to cover more schools
all over the state; state/zone/taluka-level committees formed
1991/92:
Super School Complex was launched, bringing the higher
secondary school under the purview of the program
1993-98:
Lull in the program, loss of momentum; many vacancies in key
positions in the education administration of state
1998-2000:
Most posts filled, attempts by the directorate of education to
revive the school complex scheme
2000-01 onwards: Realization that scheme cannot run effectively unless government
officers assume ex-officio roles, and leave day-to-day functioning to selected teachers,
headmasters etc (need to decentralize) – this resulted in the teachers assuming
important roles in the scheme; 32 teacher fairs were held to orient teachers to this
scheme; for the first time, teachers at all levels came together in these fairs (some
boundaries were broken…); state-level guidelines were formulated in a
comprehensive, clear manner; ‘Eleven Point’ agenda came into existence; ‘Seven
Cells’ (state-level think tanks) were created in 2003. The program gained momentum
due to these efforts.
2005-2006:
(Present) Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan enters the state; BRCs and CRCs
being recruited; implications for school complex scheme…
Structure of the School Complex Program: Overview
The SC program has been designed in such a manner as to ensure a decentralized
mode of functioning with broad participation and contribution of teachers at all levels
within the educational system, starting from the school, right up to the state level. The
structure of this program consists of various committees, each of which has distinct
functions even as it is linked to other committees horizontally and vertically. The SC
structure and functioning will be better understood if we locate it in relation to the
structure of the educational administration in the state as it operates in this context.
Each level is connected or linked closely to a corresponding body above or below it.
The organizational structure is designed in such a way as to facilitate convergence of
resources for greater impact at the school level.
The school education administration of Goa comprises the Directorate of Education
(DoE) at the state level. The DoE is assisted by Assistant Directors and Deputy
Directors. At the next level, the state is divided into three education zones (North,
Central and South) that are administered by the Deputy Education Officer (DEO).
Further, each zone is divided into talukas (blocks). Goa has 11 blocks in all; each zone
has three-four talukas in its jurisdiction. The person in charge at the taluka level is the
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Assistant District Educational Inspector (ADEI). All the schools in the taluka come
under his/her purview.
In relation to this structure, the SC program consists of interlinked committees, from
the state to the school complex level. These committees include the State-level School
Complex Committee (SLSCC), Zonal-level School Complex Committee (ZLSCC), and
Taluka-level School Complex Committee (TLSCC). For the purposes of
operationalisation at the ground level, each taluka is demarcated into Super School
Complexes (SSC), which function as ‘lead schools’ to support School Complexes (SC).
The School Complexes, in turn, become the lead schools to support a group of primary
schools.
As we shall see later, at the heart of quality improvement efforts as enshrined in the
School Complex initiative is the ‘11-Point Program’ (sometimes known as the
Minimum Common Program). The program committees (or functional units) at the
SSC and SC levels are directly responsible for this program. The 11-point program is
seen as meeting the most basic, most fundamental needs of each school. It is the
reference point or framework for quality for all the schools which are part of the
School complex initiative.
Lastly, as part of this brief description of the overall structure of the SC initiative, we
must mention the ‘Seven Cells’ that were constituted at the state level in 2003. These
cells, responsible for quality improvement, resource development, career guidance etc,
are seen as ‘think tanks’ whose function it is to develop perspectives and strengthen the
functioning of the school education system through innovations, experimentation,
research etc. The seven cells act as a ‘State Resource Group’ represented by teachers,
headmasters etc from different institutions all over the state. We will describe the 11point program and the functioning of the seven cells in some detail in a later section.
The SC structure is the vehicle for the 11-point program as well as the initiatives of the
seven cells.
School Complex Structure: Composition and Functions
On the whole, the School Complex Scheme is envisaged to implement the Minimum
Common Program devised by the SLSCC (this includes the minimum levels of
learning -- MLLs). The school complex structure is expected to undertake educational
mapping on the basis of which the different elements of the 11-point agenda can be
implemented. However, not all schools have the same capacities, or function in the
same manner. Hence, as part of the scheme, it is envisaged that each school will be
graded to ascertain its interests, strengths and limitations – this will be used to
strengthen its management. Academic planning and supervision will be undertaken
regularly as part of this process.
The initiative is also expected to establish and promote linkages between schools to
share facilities like libraries, laboratories, teacher expertise/resources etc. and organize
for frequent interactions between schools for sharing of experiences and learning. Such
an approach, it is hoped, will motivate teachers to adapt innovative methods to enhance
teaching-learning. It will also create space for educational leadership to develop in the
system. The school complex structure is also expected to work closely with the District
Institute of Education and Training (DIET) and the State Institute of Education (SIE) to
organize seminars, workshops and meetings of interest and relevance for the teaching
community.
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Another important function of the school complex initiative is to reach out to parents
and the local community to enable the development of a healthy relationship between
the school, teachers and community and local government departments. This interface
is necessary to ensure that all children come into the fold of school education.
In the coming sections, we describe the composition and function of different elements
in the school complex structure, beginning with the ground level, where the school
complex is located.
School Complex Level
As already mentioned, the ‘School Complex’ is defined as a ‘demarked cluster of
primary and middle schools led by a secondary or middle school (called the ‘lead’
school), as decided by the Director of School Education’. The School Complex
generally consists of 2-10 primary schools in the vicinity of the lead school. Physical
proximity is considered an important criterion for inclusion of a primary or middle
school in the school complex. Normally, each School Complex is headed by the
Headmaster of the secondary (or lead) school.
Box XVII: Functions of the school complex: One
 To help teachers in proper planning and preparing for annual subject portions and
daily teaching/other school work
 To formulate the institutional plan of development and improvement for each school
within the school complex, and for the school complex as a whole in the first meeting
 To facilitate self assessment and plan for self development of each teacher
 To support the development of teaching-learning aids/materials
 To arrange for demonstration lessons by experienced teachers, minimum two, per
year
 To arrange for and conduct activities for children and their teachers at the
elementary level, in the school complex premises
 To help develop healthy habits among children
 To ensure implementation of the minimum (11-point) program at the school level,
with support from the concerned ADEI at the taluka level
 To extend cooperation to neighbouring school complexes and school complex
committees
The School Complex is mandated to further organize itself into four broad, interrelated
functional units in order to perform the above functions. These are the Central
Committee, Program Committee, Associate team or Link Teachers and Minimum
Program In-charge Teachers.
Super School Complex Level
Like the School Complex, the Super School Complex (SSC) forms the next level in the
structure and is defined as a ‘demarked cluster of secondary schools led by a higher
secondary school (which is the ‘lead’ school in this case), as decided by the Director of
Education’. It consists of 2-10 high schools in the vicinity. The Principal of the higher
secondary school heads the SSC.
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Box XVIII: Functions of the school complex - Two
 To organize need-based programs to perform given functions for the students and
teachers at secondary and higher secondary level for qualitative improvement with the
program committee and academic subject committees constituted for this purpose.
 To provide guidance to school complexes within the locality
 To participate in the activities, meetings and workshops organized at the taluka,
zonal and state levels as and when necessary
 To extend cooperation to neighbouring schools, super school complexes and
committees at state, zonal and taluka levels
 Head of SSC is responsible for monitoring and follow up of all activities
Similar to the School Complex, the SSC has a well-defined structure of interlinked
committees (Central Committee, Program Committee, Link Teachers, Resource
Development Cell and Subject Panels) to carry out the above functions. The additional
function in the case of the SSC is the need to interface with the structures and activities
at the block, zone and state levels. These could be related to training, material
development, documentation, surveys and data collection, etc.
Taluka Level School Complex Committee (TLSCC)
Each of the 11 talukas has a TLSCC whose responsibility it is to ensure that a common
program/agenda is followed by all the SSCs, SCs and primary/middle schools in the
taluka. Monitoring of expenses made by the SSCs and SCs is also part of its mandate.
The TLSCC also has the responsibility to bring, from time to time, all educational
institutions on a common platform for sharing of ideas, experiences and promoting
innovations. This apart, the committee plays a critical role in creating an effective
interface between the state administration and school complex structures on the one
hand, with the schools, on the other. The ADEI and DEO assist/support the TLSCC in
performing this function.
Zone Level School Complex Committee (ZLSCC)
Each of the three zones (north, central and south) has a ZLSCC. Like the TLSCC, the
zonal committee must ensure a commonality of approach among TLSCCs, SSCs, SCs
etc, and agreement on priorities to undertake the same. Monitoring/supervision of
activities and expenses, thus, form the important responsibilities of the ZLSCC. The
committee is also responsible for bringing, from time to time, all educational
institutions in the zone on a common platform for sharing of ideas, experiences and
promoting innovations. This apart, the committee creates an effective interface
between the state administrative and school complex structures on the one hand, with
the taluka committees and schools, on the other. The ADEIs and DEOs assist/support
the ZLSCC in carrying out this function.
State Level School Complex Committee (SLSCC)
The state-level committee has the overall control over the SC program in Goa. It
frames policies, guidelines, and criteria for functioning, strengthening and up gradation
of the various structures in the SC system. Apart from creating platforms for projection
and sharing of innovative approaches in education through seminars and workshops
etc, the SLSCC is expected to link up with institutions like DIET (there is one in Goa),
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the SIE, and other external resource persons and agencies for design, development and
provision of technical and managerial inputs. The SLSCC also has to ensure timely
disbursement of funds to SSCs, SCs and the Taluka and zonal committees in time.
We have mentioned earlier about the seven cells that exist at the state level. This unit
with its interlinked cells is a sub-set of the SLSCC, and is expected to be the think tank
of this committee. Its academic mandate extends to the entire school education system
in Goa. This unit was formed in 2002-03. It has, at least, three-four representatives at
the zone and taluka levels. There is a convener at the state level. Conveners are usually
headmasters or principals of educational institutions, either government or private.
Box XIX: Functions of the seven cells
Minimum Program Cell – The main purpose of this cell is to promote/support effective
implementation of the entire package of the 11-point program in every school, right from the
primary to the higher secondary level.
Career Guidance and Counselling Cell – This cell trains teachers on emotional counselling
besides conducting aptitude tests for children to provide career guidance.
Resource Development Cell – This cells attempts to undertake activities to raise the quality of
instruction, at all stages. Teachers are encouraged to try innovations and experiment with
methods that would interest children. In other words, the goal is to make teaching-learning
child centred.
Quality Monitoring Cell – This cell is expected to perform an integrative role between all the
other cells and evolve a method of defining quality, measuring it and monitoring the same in
all the educational institutions.
Institutional Development Cell – This cell is expected to look at the academic, administrative
and infrastructure requirements of educational institutions at all levels. It mainly engages in
surveys and data gathering to make plans to meet the above requirements.
Databank and Bulletin Cell – Over a period of time, this cell envisages the development of a
sound databank on various aspects like infrastructure, enrolment, retention and dropout rates,
teacher appointments and transfers, databank of human resources available in the state as well
as external agencies, etc. Each SSC will be the centre for this information collection. This
apart, the cell has started publishing an annual bulletin called ‘Parivar’ (family)
Parental Awareness Cell – This cell is meant to strengthen the interface between the parents
and the school through a number of activities at different levels.
Apart from the state convener, each cell has three representatives from the zone, and
up to 11 representatives from the taluka. In all, there are 105 persons who belong to the
seven cells. These cells function as the state-level resource group for education. All the
representatives are selected teachers who are interested in and committed to
educational change. They work on a voluntary basis, with the state taking care of their
transport, board and lodging needs.
The 11-Point Program
The 11-point program is the very core of the School Complex initiative which aims to
essentially build and improve quality in teaching-learning. The program committees at
the SSC and SC levels are directly responsible for executing this program. This
program is seen as meeting the most basic, most fundamental needs of each school. It
is considered to be the ‘non-negotiable element’ for any educational institution in the
government or non-government system.
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Through this program, each school is expected to aim for the ‘all round and integrated
development of each child’. The components are designed to meet these goals.
Briefly40, they are:
Subject Activities – These are meant to make subject transactions interesting. The effort
is to move beyond textbook-based instruction and promote ‘experiential learning’.
Minimum Level Attainment Test – This aims to put in place a flexible testing system
that enables the teacher to understand the learning achievement of each child. Testing
through routine conduct of exams is not enough.
Exposure of School Equipment – This aims at providing access to learning materials
(books, teaching aids supplied etc) already available in school. With the accent mostly
on and talk methods, these supplementary materials are not really used. This
component makes it mandatory for all schools to regularly create access to, and use,
these materials.
Vachan Sadhna – This aims to strengthen the school library and make it the centre of
reading activity in all schools. There is a realization that reading is crucial for
sustaining early learning. Hence, the focus.
Health Education – This is to promote healthy habits in children, and also create
awareness on basic health issues during the process of growing up.
Environmental Education – Rather than giving theoretical knowledge, this component
aims to foster sensitivity in children regarding their natural and physical environment
through experiential activities.
Student Orientation – This goes beyond subject instruction, and attempts to help
children develop leadership skills, self confidence and democratic values etc leading to
enhanced development of personality.
Innovative Novelty Function – The idea here is to turn boring and conventional school
functions and socializing into interesting events for children, with their involvement.
Each school must be able to organize at least one function that is ‘innovative’ or
‘novel’.
Talent Search Campaign – Mere subject instruction gives the teacher very little scope
to understand his/her children better. A sensitive teacher needs to understand children
and their abilities/talents, in many different ways. This component, therefore, promotes
a ‘mapping’ of the same in every school.
Effective Parent-Teacher Association – This is to strengthen the parent-school
interface and also sensitize parents to the need for scientific childcare covering aspects
like nutrition etc.
Interaction with the Community – This component aims at promoting a seamless
interaction between the children and their local community. The idea is that school
should not become isolated from the community.
40 A detailed explanation is to be found in the document State Level School Complex Scheme, Goa – Eleven Point
Program (not dated)
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School Complexes – Triumphs…
1.
Uniqueness of the Idea – Given that a serious discussion on decentralized
onsite support to teachers to help overcome their isolation came only with the
advent of the DPEP, the School Complex initiative has been far ahead of its time.
It is a serious effort to create an equitable system of education for children all over
the state, across caste, class, religion and gender barriers by sharing the available
human and material resources – an egalitarian approach that aims to solve
collective problems. Followed in letter and spirit, it could be a potential tool for
meeting the goal of the ‘Common Schooling System’.
2.
Elaborate Articulation – The program guidelines are well thought out. This
has resulted in a compact and integrated structure all over the state, encompassing
all schools, government or private, across all levels of the educational spectrum up
to the higher secondary level.
3.
Creation of Platforms and Mapping of Resources – Given the nearly 30year-old history of this program, there has been periods of both activity and
inactivity. On the whole, however, the initiative has resulted in the continuous
projection and promotion of the serious, committed and talented teacher – through
various forums and activities such as theatre, sports, career counselling etc. This
needs to be strengthened. However, the limitations of DIET and the SIE seem to be
hampering efforts.
Teachers who have been involved in their capacity as resource persons and those who
have attempted to reach out to other schools, report important gains as regards their
capacities and confidence levels are concerned. They are unanimous in observing that
the scheme has great potential for transforming schools. The constant refrain, however,
is that the pace of change is slow.
…and Tribulations
1. Have We Achieved Critical Mass?
There appears to be only a small number of teachers who have the inclination to make
a difference. This group would like to see a frequent intermingling of functionaries,
teachers and others at different levels. The challenge for the program is to bring in
more and more people in its fold.
“How can critical mass be achieved if there are questionable decisions? This year, the
state decided not to continue its financial support to the functioning of the seven cells.
How can we move forward? The seven cells have, in the past few years, undertaken
many activities that have resulted in the churning of the school education system. This
should continue.”
– A senior official of the state government
2. Resistance and ‘Class’ Perceptions
There is a certain ‘class’ perception in the minds of the teachers and headmasters of the
primary, high and higher secondary schools. They are not ready to work together on a
common platform, and resist learning from one another. For instance, high school
teachers and headmasters are quite uncomfortable learning from their higher secondary
counterparts, who, they feel, does not have adequate understanding of their (high
school teachers) issues. Primary school teachers also feel that the high school teacher is
often ill equipped to provide support. Willing and consistent engagement by teachers at
all levels is an issue.
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3. Another Government Scheme?
Institution-based assessment shows that non-government institutions have shown more
interest; most government schools see it as ‘another government scheme’. There is no
mechanism for enforcing accountability, with the result that the really needy children
are left out all the time. This apart, irregularity in attendance in workshops and
meetings, sporadic and limited reporting lack of action on non-compliance reports etc,
has hampered the program.
4. Are Teachers Prepared Adequately?
Often, teachers at different levels tend to interpret the scheme as one that has brought
in more rigid school inspection instead of support. Their constant refrain is: why
should we be ‘cross checked’ by teachers and others who are working in different
institutions? This observation perhaps stems from the nature of interaction between
different levels. On the whole, it points at the inadequate mental, intellectual and
emotional preparation that is needed for collective work, leading to increased
accountability. This is very critical for horizontal and vertical expansion and
integration in the SC approach. In this connection, it may be worthwhile to note that
the SC guidelines by themselves do not mean much – one has to take forward the
initiatives to realize them on the ground to make a difference in every school. The
perception that it is all extra work does not help.
5. Where is the Time?
Most schools, particularly in urban Goa, operate in two (morning and afternoon) shifts.
Teachers are often not willing to extend their working hours beyond their shifts. This
prevents dialogue from taking root, particularly because there are more children per
class in both government and other schools and also because of space constraints in the
school. Often, teachers at the SSC and SC levels do not have find the time required for
a continuous engagement with their adopted schools. Monthly visits are often replaced
by quarterly visits, some times, just one in four months!
6. Role of the Education Official
The role of the Assistant District Education Officer (ADEI) is critical to the effective
functioning of the School Complex idea. There has been no training or orientation for
these functionaries regarding their roles and responsibilities vis-à-vis the program.
Very often, their lack of understanding of the actual needs of teachers and children
comes in the way of their support to, for instance, pedagogical initiatives that are
required to make a qualitative change in the way schools function, and in the way
children learn. They are often sceptical about trying different ideas, and use their
administrative clout/power to frustrate the attempts of interested teachers/headmasters.
7. Are Children’s Learning Levels Really Improving?
Despite elaborate guidelines, including the articulation of the 11-point program, a
major effort over the years seems to have been on conducting school functions,
training and co-curricular activities etc. This limits the setting up of mechanisms for
sustained engagement with teachers and children as regards the pedagogical issues.
Through informal interactions, one gathers the worry in certain quarters about the
extremely low schooling attainments among children. The program needs rethinking in
this regard, especially with respect to the time actually spent on school/classroombased interactions for problem solving by teachers from different institutions.
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There are, of course, some loopholes in the program and it is difficult to assess its
impact on school quality and children’s learning. But as an initiative, it holds promise
– something that is validated by the changes that have occurred over a period of time.
The other major challenge facing the programme is its location within the SSA
framework and relation with other decentralized support structures such as the BRCs
and CRCs being considered under SSA.
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Case Study XVII
17.
Upscaling an Innovation: the Rishi Valley experience
P. PRASANTHI and PADMA
‘Don’t ask me how you can change the world. Do it!’
– J. Krishnamurthi
The Rishi Valley Institute for Educational Resources (RIVER), a part of the Rishi
Valley Education Centre, is located in the rural interior of Andhra Pradesh, India, a
severely drought-prone area. The local population is engaged, largely, in marginal
farming, sheep rearing, seasonal labor and stone cutting. The region suffered the same
ills which mark the state of primary education in most of the developing world – high
drop-out rates, low levels of learning, teacher absenteeism, dreary and joyless schools;
and the larger social context of growing child labour, subsistence farming and
increasing level of destitution. RIVER approach has been designed with this as the
backdrop and the rich educational experience that flows from J Krishnamurthi’s
philosophy.
The Beginning
The RIVER program was initiated in 1986 to cater to the educational needs of the
children from the surrounding villages. The realization that the rich oral traditions were
endangered and centralized educational systems cut off the underprivileged from their
own culture as well as meaningful education resulted in a critical survey of the monograde classroom in existing schools. This study-cum-evaluation program revealed
some crucial concerns:
 Needs of the children were multi-grade and multi-level whereas the textbooks were
prepared to cater only to a mono-grade system
 Learning was entirely teacher directed with little scope for cooperative or peer
learning
 Focus was on “teaching” students rather than them learning
 Content had little relevance to the local needs and contexts
A school was opened on the campus of the Rishi Valley to address these issues and
experiment with a new model that would create an environment where ‘learning’ took
place. After a while, the first satellite school was established in Eguvaboyapalli village
of the predominantly Boya tribal community, who trace their descent to the epic poet,
Valmiki. It was aptly called Valmikivan. The experiment soon expanded - creating a
unique network of schools in 17 neighbourhood villages most of which did not have a
government school. The communities in these villages were involved - right from
identifying the location for the school to actively participate in running it. These
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schools were specifically designed to locally orient first-generation learners and enable
them to work at their own pace in mixed age groups.
Philosopher and founder of the Rishi Valley School J. Krishnamurthi sowed the seed
for RIVER. His inspiring conversations with students in 1984 about changing the
world, and the enormous needs of poor children in the countryside were effected by a
young couple, Y.A. Padmanabha Rao and Rama Rao. The initial intent behind starting
the Rural Education Centre (REC) was to provide a school for the children of Rishi
Valley workers from nearby villages. The subsequent efforts and experiments by
adopting oral traditions and focusing less on idealistic models resulted in ‘School in a
Box’ – a multi-grade, multi-level learning kit.
The First School – Problems and Solutions
Involving the community at Eguvaboyapalli in establishing the school was challenging
to begin with. Socio-economic and cultural factors stood in the way of education.
Children were engaged in wage-earning activities rather than attending school.
Addiction to liquor was another impediment. But continued interaction with the
community, intensive discussions with mothers, children and the youth led to some
answers. And sure enough, the community donated land for starting a one-room school
and even volunteered construction. Thus, Valmikivanam was launched with 30
students. The once-barren land soon turned into a literal vanam, a garden full of fruit
trees and flowering plants.
The school structure provided an encouraging learning environment with perfect
ventilation. A large hall lit up by lots of natural light, charming art pieces from local
artisans, joint efforts of the people, teachers and students and lots more contributed to
making this an attractive place to serve and stimulate the educational needs of the
community. Taking a cue from here, the RIVER team initiated an adult education
program. Soon, the school premises began to double up as an adult education centre in
the evening, equipped with a small library!
The village, that was virtually illiterate a few years ago, now has 75% literacy rate and
cent per cent enrolment.
Evolution of Curriculum
Driven by the need for a learner-appropriate curriculum, the RIVER team created a
pool of primary-level teaching learning materials. It adopted the best practices used
across the country and abroad for preparing adaptable materials and methods relevant
for multi-grade and multi-level environments. It was a challenging task to not lose
sight of the National Curriculum Framework, ensure Minimum Learning Levels
(MLL) of every child as prescribed by the NCERT and also develop locallyappropriate teaching-learning strategies. Learner participation, and not competition and
comparison, was the focus of the curriculum, and the relationship between the teacher,
students and the community its driving force.
The teacher – who would be more of a facilitator – was to take charge of building
quality and learning infrastructure - while the child would have more freedom to reflect
on her learning. The teacher was an adult from the same locality and required a
minimum qualification of being a matriculate or intermediate. There were, and are, no
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other pre-designated qualifications. The teacher has to undergo a simple training to
deal with multi-grade and multi-level children.
The next challenge was to develop material complimenting this curriculum and enable
effective transaction. At the same time the material had to be cost effective and learner
friendly. This was done by employing locally available low-cost, and many a time, no
cost, material. Short stories and rhymes were developed using themes from the
textbooks and given an indigenous flavour. Logos of local animals and birds and, later,
colours were used to code learning cards for different grades. These codified cards
formed the famous ‘school in a box’ kit. In the process of evolution and usage of the
kit, a ladder was developed to identify the pace of learning and for self-reflection.
Material preparation was and is still on as a continuous process - of developing,
transacting, practicing and reflecting - enriching the teacher as well as the student. This
churning has always resulted in new and creative learning materials and methodology.
The Community… and the School…
Each community has a sense of ownership in its (satellite) school as they have actively
participated at every stage of building it - right from donating land to contributing
material and labour for constructing the school. They are proud of their school. It was
necessary to translate this pride in to action, so that the community could eventually
take on the responsibility of running its school. This led to the formation of mothers’
committees in each of the villages where satellite schools have been initiated.
Metric Mela: A Math Fair
Arimedhavanam, the satellite school in Thummachetlapalle village bore a festive
atmosphere with decorative flags and children brightly dressed up for Metric Mela.
They had put up stalls for measuring height, weight, length, foot size, quantity and
counting, apart from some food stalls.
Preparations for the mela began a week earlier in the village. Teachers, students,
mothers and old students met and discussed the plan and logistics. The school and the
community shared the responsibilities of organizing the events.
There were about 70 children from the surrounding four satellite schools and about 250
visitors, including school teachers from Nizamabad district and members of the
community.
Enthusiasm in the children was evident as they engaged their visitors for about two and
a half hours, with checking weight, height, length of the nose or encouraging them to
test their ability to count money in a minute and noting the results in their sheets as
well as on the cards given to every participant.
Mothers, fathers and grannies were equally enthused in assisting their children in the
food stalls. Some cultural performances had also been organized. The whole event
marked the involvement of the community, students and the teachers and fulfilled joint
learning as the most important objectives of the mela.
Aims and objectives:
 Involve the community in school activities
 Help members to recognize the value of school and education
 Organize such an attractive, educational fair to reduce dropout rate
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 Relate mathematical concepts learnt in the classroom with real life
 Build awareness among members of the community regarding health and hygiene
 Make the children aware of the importance of the main aspects of communication:
speaking, understanding what is explained, reading without mistakes etc
 Make them aware of mathematical concepts such as: addition, subtraction, place
value, fractions and measurements that are useful in our day-to-day life
 Recognize and demonstrate the hidden talents of children
 Bring about an awareness of cultural programs and folk art
 Encourage scientific and logical thinking in children
The Child
Coming to school is a joyful daily activity for the children. They begin their learning
activities as soon as they are in the classroom. They know where and how they have to
sit - in a pentagon, convenient for the teacher to circulate freely in the class.
The small and wide wooden tables allow the children to sit down around the table and
work with a set of cards. Each table represents a group of children at a particular level.
As they finish one set, they ask the teacher to give the evaluation card to test their
learning. Children know easily where they are on the learning ladder that is displayed
in the classroom for ready reference. They also use the blackboard for practicing what
they have learnt.
Students who complete one set and move on to the next solve the puzzles and are given
a ‘crown’ for a day. That is a great day for the child. He/she can lead the class, guide
the younger ones or the peers and move around every table in the classroom. This
serves as inspiration for others, thus initiating quick learning.
Children are curious, enthusiastic and work at their own pace, even in mixed groups.
There are also whole class and small group interactions for several of the
activities connected different subjects and especially with language expression
through oral and written exercises. Regularly they get together for collective
infotainment activities like singing, dancing playing and gardening. These are
supplemented by community festivals. This kind of learning induces independent and
objective thinking in the children. They learn to respect their culture, environment and
understand the need for their conservation. This is a major point of emphasis in the
RIVER model.
Textbooks are introduced only when the child comes to class 5 so that she can begin to
get familiar with the regular mode of learning in schools. Once they have cleared class
5, most REC children write their entrance exam for admission to schools run by the
government. Interestingly, many of the successful students who opt for higher
education return to work in their own communities and these satellite schools.
Learning Levels
The process of learning is graded in the RIVER model. Each child has to go through
five levels in order to pass from one milestone to the other or from one lesson to the
next. They are:
 introduction
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 practice
 evaluation
 remedial
 enrichment
Each of these stages is denoted by a set of colour codes and symbols. For example,
rabbit cards are introductory cards whereas elephant cards are for practice. The seating
arrangement and grouping of children in the classroom emphasizes peer learning and
self motivation. The children are grouped according to their learning levels into:
 teacher supported
 partially teacher supported
 peer supported
 partially peer supported
 self /individual learning
The pentagon style of seating children allows a lot of flexibility and mobility both to
the child and the teacher. It enables optimizing teacher-directed time for a
needy/deserving child in a multi-level and multi-graded environment.
RIVER spreads out: New areas new challenges
The unique experiences at the RIVER enthused and inspired the team to experiment
further and come out with more innovative methods. The classroom became a social
laboratory for educational research. Outcomes and challenges were shared at the
monthly review meetings with the other members (teachers and resource group
members) who could strengthen the ideas with their inputs.
The RIVER experience attracted many organizations, both inter and intra state,
working on education, towards Rishi Valley to learn from it.
The first step of taking this approach outside the Rishi Valley domain took place in
1993. A network of different NGOs, in Andhra Pradesh was keen to adopt the model in
Mahabubnagar district. VIP, YFA, DIET, government school teachers partnered the
project, along with UNICEF (which also funded it), and the first experiment outside
the RIVER began in 1993 across 11 mandals of the district. It started out as an
intensive summer camp in government primary schools, with focus on girl child
dropouts. The success rate was an amazing 98.6%, both in terms of MLLs as well as
retention rate of girls.
The experiment proved that the model was replicable. But there was also the challenge
that such models work only in non-formal educational interventions.
Two years later, in 1995, the UNICEF-supported Nali Kali program that was started in
36 government primary schools with a clutch of enthusiastic teachers of H. D. Kote
district, Karnataka, proved that this model was adoptable even in the formal school
system. The whole process has had many twists and turns. Initially an enthusiastic
group of fifteen teachers visited Rishi Valley satellite schools as part of searching ways
to revitalize primary schools. Realizing the strengths of the joyful and participatory
teaching learning methods followed in these schools they came forward to try in their
schools in Karnataka. Lot of processes had gone in to making the kit suitable to the
local context. During this phase the practical involvement of the teachers and the
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continuous interactions between the teachers and the RIVER resource team helped in
developing relevant material for effective transaction. These processes of capacity
building and regular follow-ups brought in the expected outcomes. But when it came to
applying at a larger scale, there was resistance from many teachers. At this stage,
RIVER intervened by presenting flexibility of the model and suggesting incorporation
of local culture in to the content of the kit. This cleared the apprehensions amongst
them. The teachers could then felt comfortable to take it forward, thereby making the
strategy successful. It clearly proved that accepting a model designed by others is
difficult, but taking the framework and revitalizing it with localness gives ownership
both to the teachers and the learners. Seeing the effectiveness of this approach in HD
Kote, the Karnataka government scaled up the program in other selected districts of the
state.
Witnessing the results, the need for expansion of RIVER philosophy of education was
felt by many across the country and outside. This demand created the need for
incorporating core group training as a component. As the number of non-Telugu
speaking states approached RIVER for adoption of its methodology, the process of
trans-creation of the learning material was adopted to keep the warmth and vibrancy of
the methodology. This has been the strength and uniqueness of the RIVER project
allowing the original framework to retain and develop TLM incorporating the local
traditions and culture. This rule bound flexibility is the core element of the programme
which enabled its wider reach.
Taking the learning’s from diverse experiences and interactions with the Partners
RIVER was also continuously experimenting for more and more vibrant methods to
retain the vigour in child centred joyful learning. In many a case the teachers are more
conditioned towards teaching rather than learning where there is no scope for exploring
innovative methods. This is another area where RIVER made its impact by bringing in
the self-reflection processes. RIVER method always stressed on the facilitative role of
the teacher in brining joyful learning in to reality.
The novel approach of Rishi Valley tries to bridge gaps between the theory and
research findings. Researches to improve the methods and methodologies in education
are an ongoing process across the world. Many-a-times there is an artificial pressure to
adopt the so called best methods everywhere not taking into consideration the crucial
element of relevance to the local context there by the expectations remain idealistic.
This is where RIVER strongly brings in its concept of valuing the rich regional oral
traditions and knowledge synergizing with the theory. This enables the replicability of
the model anywhere in any context.
Paderu region, though located in Andhra Pradesh state, where Rishi Valley is also
located, has tribal population who speak a very different dialect of Telugu. When
ITDA, Paderu and RIVER came together for collaborative efforts the ‘school in a box’
kit was trans-created and developed as Aanandalahari kit.
In Andhra Pradesh, the districts of Krishna, Guntur, East Godavari, Visakhapatnam
and Chittoor districts initially adapted the RIVER model in identified mandals. The
school teachers from these districts have undergone training in trans-creation of the kit
bringing localness. Each of the districts gave different local famous names to their kits.
Presently the teachers from Chittoor district are going ahead with production of
worksheets and graded early readers for class I and II.
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Similarly DPEP, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh states developed the kit in Malayalam and
Hindi languages respectively. RIVER resource group helped them in adding the
dimensions of socio, cultural and linguistic milieu. May it be corporation schools in
Chennai, Nonformal schools in U.P, formal schools in M.P. and Karnataka or the tribal
schools in Kerala, the experiences become fresh every time and leading to production
of new materials and methodology with a new name.
The whole process is leading to cross-fertilization of the ideas with enriched
experiences. Working in different states with different cultures and languages widened
the knowledge base of the RIVER team which in turn makes its way into the future
partnerships.
The successes of RIVER project not limited just to the country but reached the
international arena. It is evident by the Ethiopian primary school teachers approaching
RIVER team for support in strengthening their rural education programmes. Support
was sought for building capacities of educators in designing self learning materials for
grade 1 & 2. It is a package of three major components, viz., building schools in
remote areas, convergence of women and youth programmes and integrating issues of
Ecology and HIV&AIDS into education.
Later, teams from Metz University, France and Regensburge University, Germany
approached for collaboration in teacher education and post graduate programmes. The
six months practical learning at satellite schools forms part of their course validated for
certification. Some such students are working on developing an interactive computer
course by digitalizing the school in a box kit. The RIVER and the Regensburge
University, Germany entered into a long term collaborative action. It is now taking a
shape of teacher student exchange programme.
The efforts of the RIVER resource team were recognized by many State Governments
in India. The state SSA projects in collaboration with UNICEF entered into a joint
action with RIVER for adapting the MGML methodology in the formal schools. The
state teams visited Rishi Valley project area to study the processes of MGML
methodology. They have undergone ten days intensive training at Rishi Valley on the
development and transaction of the TLM, with local context. Subsequently, the
collaborative action has been taken up by 12 states - Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Jharkand, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman Nicobar,
Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa.
The Strategy for Replication
The strategy of RIVER programme is to help the partners at class 1 and 2 for a period
of two years in four focal areas:
 community participation,
 designing curriculum,
 class room processes,
 monitoring and evaluation.
Another strategy followed is to work with a core group from a cross section of people
from different fields (local artists in puppet making, story telling, stage artists, artisans,
teachers, DIET team, etc.) which gets continuous inputs from RIVER. Their role is to
take the organic process forward. The RIVER initiative would be started in a
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maximum of 50 schools continued for two years and gradually phase-out by
identifying a model school. This model school serves as a nodal school for reflection,
experimentation and interaction to help in further up-scaling of the process.
Organizing annual national workshops with all the partner organizations and
academicians for cross-fertilization and enriching the learning experiences forms
another strategy.
According to Mr. Padmanabha Rao, the Director of RIVER project, the training on
MGML methodology to small bunches of teachers and adapting it across the state
would dilute the spirit of transaction and is a big challenge. A solution to this,
according to him, is synergizing the methodology with the content of regular teacher
training course. SSA also responded positively and efforts or on in this direction.
How it happened…?
Partnership Strategies
1. One of the strategies of the RIVER program is to help the partners for two years
(classes 1 and 2) in four focal areas:
 Community participation
 Designing curriculum
 Classroom processes
 Monitoring and evaluation
2. RIVER also provides inputs to a core group comprising people from different
fields (local artists in puppet making, story telling, stage artists, artisans, teachers,
DIET teams etc.) Their role is to take the organic processes forward. The RIVER
initiative is started in a maximum of 50 schools and continues for two years before
it is gradually phased out by identifying a model school. This model school serves
as a nodal school for reflection, experimentation and interaction to help in further
up-scaling of the process.
3. The centre also organizes annual national workshops with all the partner
organizations and academicians to discuss new ideas and enhance learning.
4. During this phase, the practical involvement of the teachers and their continuous
interactions with the RIVER team helped develop relevant material for effective
transaction. These processes of capacity building and regular follow-ups brought in
expected outcomes. But many teachers resisted the idea of applying the model on a
larger scale.
5. The RIVER, then, suggested that the local culture be incorporated in the content of
the kit. So, while the framework and principles would remain constant, the model
would be designed to suit local contexts. This cleared the air and teachers took the
program forward. What started as a quiet revolution in 36 schools of Karnataka
had transformed into a regular part of the curriculum in 600 schools.
6. The magic of the RIVER philosophy touched many across the country and outside.
The Ethiopian educationists, for example, have approached the centre for support
in strengthening their rural education programs. Following similar demands, the
model incorporated core group training as a program component.
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7. A number of non-Telugu speaking states sought the adoption of RIVER
methodology. Learning material was trans-created to keep the warmth and
vibrancy of the methodology.
8. The model stressed the facilitative role of the teacher in translating joyful learning
into reality. It demonstrated how teachers could move away from teaching and
focus on learning, innovating methods and self-reflection.
9. The USP of the model lies in its adaptability of new methods and models and its
firm belief in the strength of local traditions and knowledge which it incorporates
in a given scenario. This enables the model to be replicated anywhere, any time,
and in any context.
The Flow of RIVER – A Timeline
Late 1970s – Setting up of the Rural Education Centre for the children of school
employees
1986 – One small single-teacher school called Valmikivanam was started at
Eguvaboyapalli, a hamlet 4 km away from Rishi Valley.
1987-88 – Grant by the Department of Education, Ministry of HRD, GoI, for evolving
an alternative model of education that could address the formal primary school
problems.
1988-92 – RIVER Satellite schools in and around Rishi Valley to study local needs and
address local problems
Close study and analysis of elementary schools and the text books to understand the
limitations of the formal schooling system and its teacher-centred teaching. Analysis of
the curriculum and assess the minimum learning levels.
Developed a framework for redesigning the whole outlook towards curriculum of the
village schools. Preparation of the initial package for MGML situations without
textbooks.
1993 – Published School in a Box, first edition, in Telugu. A Language package for
Class I to V, and a Math Kit for Class I to III, with teaching aids and a Ladder of
Learning. Designed and developed by the RIVER team. Field-tested for five years in
the Rishi Valley Satellite schools – First successful experiment - Reduced dropout rate,
progressive learning, increased interest in academics and increased enrolment in class
6. The results were further substantiated when children passed the class 6 examination
in the regular school method with high percentages.
Expansion to 17 single-teacher Satellite schools within a radius of 15 km from the
RIVER. The centre established a network with these schools and served as the resource
base for them. The satellite schools further grouped into a cluster for hands-on capacity
building, easy planning and organizing community festivals.
1993 – First outreach through Bhagavatula Charitable Trust, Vishakapatnam – ILOsupported child labour education project.
Replicability successfully tested and established through adoption in an intensive 75day summer school program in 200 centres across 10 mandals supported by UNICEF
in Mahabubnagar and AP State Education Department
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1994 – Adoption of the RIVER model in HD Kote district of Karnataka and, later, in
different blocks of the state – core group formed for trans-creation of the material and
the training methodology keeping intact the linguistic and cultural ethos.
1994 – Developed North Arcot Tamil Education Kit for Classes I to III. Adapted from
School in a Box, and jointly designed by the Arivoli Ayakkam resource group and the
RIVER team for use in the North Arcot District, Tamil Nadu.
1995 – ITDA, Paderu and Rampachodavaram –capacity building and hands-on support
to the core group. Developed Anandalahari Education package (local dialect) and
trainer’s modules adapted from RIVER. Designed by the resource team from the
Integrated Tribal Development Agency, in collaboration with the RIVER team.
Evaluation of RIVER materials and methodology and its outreach programmes by the
MHRD and one-time grant in 1995 to develop infrastructure for conducting training
programs. Infrastructure at RIVER- library, kitchen, dining hall, dormitories for 30
teachers, two seminar halls, two model schools on the RIVER campus
1995 – Other states approaching the RIVER – UP, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and
Maharashtra.
1996 – Development of DPEP Malayalam Education package and trainers modules
adapted from RIVER. Designed by teachers, state resource group and Diet faculty
from Kerala in collaboration with the RIVER team.
1997 – Apna path pitara (Math and Environmental Studies). Hindi version of Math and
Ev.S. components of School in a Box, translated by the RIVER resource team.
1998-’99 – Prototype for School in a Box, 2nd edition. Designed by the RIVER team
in 1998. Includes Telugu materials for Language, Math and Eves. S. Classes I to IV.
Refined in 1999 after field-testing in the Rishi Valley Satellite Schools and Samskar
Plan Schools, Nizamabad, AP.
1999– DPEP Telugu Education package and trainers modules. Adapted from School in
a Box for AP Alternative Schools by the Andhra Pradesh Resource Team including
resource persons from SCERT, DPEP, several DIETS, ITDA Paderu and
Rampachodavaram, in collaboration with the RIVER team.
1998-2000– DPEP Hindi Education package and trainers modules. Adapted from
School in a Box 2nd edition into a local-specific form for alternative schools in
Lakhimpur kheri and Sonbadra Districts, UP. Designed by Resource persons from
DPEP Uttar Pradesh in collaboration with the RIVER team.
1999-2001– Apna path pitara, Rishi Valley Hindi version of School in a Box 2nd
edition (Classes
I & II). Designed by the RIVER team, with original contributions from specially
commissioned children’s writers from north.
1999-2001– Organized several national workshops with partner organizations to
address deeper issues in the planning and implementation of multi-grade programmes
on a larger scale and to evolve strategies for training and networking among user
groups.
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2001– Tamil Education package and trainers modules designed by State Resource
Persons of the Joyful learning programme, DIET faculty and resource Persons from
Salem, Chennai Corporation schools, Pondicherry and Auroville in collaboration with
RIVER.
2002– DPEP Andhra Pradesh multigrade materials and trainer’s modules adapted from
School in a Box for formal Schools by resource persons from SPO DPEP, SCERT,
Krishna, and Godavari & Chittoor districts, several DIETS, Dr Reddy’s Foundation,
ITDA Paderu and Rampachodavaram, in collaboration with the RIVER team.
2003-06 – The Government of India – UNICEF Quality Package Project. This project
is part of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a programme for universalisation of Quality
Elementary education, and involves the use of RIVER methodology on a very large
scale (totalling 12000 schools) across 12 states of the country.
2003-06 – Programmes for educational groups in Ethiopia, Peru, Germany, the Sierra
Leone and Pakistan, are currently being worked out. During last few years RIVER has
been approached by agencies in Thailand, Nepal, Spain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Maldives,
Columbia and Cambodia, to study its materials and methodology for its potential
applications in their countries. Collaborative Education Projects modelled on the
RIVER approach have already been initiated for primary school children in southern
Ethiopia.
2003-06 –University of Regensburg in Germany and University of Metz in France
have initiated long-term exchange programmes and collaborative projects with RIVER
including placement of students from their universities in RIVER projects.
2005 – Multigrade Trainer’s Resource Pack published with a grant from
Sir Ratan Tata Trust, to serve both as an important tool for mass expansion at the
macro-level and as a constant support for grass-root trainers in conducting RIVER
trainings, monitoring, orientation and material development programmes at the microlevel.
2005 – RIVER awarded a price for the “Most Innovative Development Project” 41 by
the Global Development Network (www.gdnet.org) for its work towards developing a
community based educational model of self-sustainable school, as an instrument of
lifting the community out of the continuously and increasingly degraded intellectual
and environmental scenario.
Triumphs…
Acceptance by the teaching faculty to take the task ahead, openness to adopt the
methods and a quest for ever refining them
41
This Award is given to the institution that holds the greatest degree of innovation and the potential for
broad application of the project in other countries.
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Sustained interest of both the teachers and the children in creating new and innovative
methods (This has been the biggest success of the RIVER program so far)
Winning continuous community support has been a major contributing factor for the
success of the project.
… And Challenges
Need for committed, oriented and trained teachers in large numbers
Ensuring a constantly optimum teacher-student ratio for the success of the model
Need to document these strategies and replicate them everywhere
Strengthen mechanisms for making the teacher and the community accountable to each
other.
Need to reduce the resource crunch, human and financial, for mainstreaming further
initiatives in educational research.
Need for long-term support for the resource agency so that it becomes self-sufficient.
One-time or short term grants make the RIVER further dependent on various agencies
for taking its initiatives forward. RIVER used to be supported by a continuous
grant from the Ministry of Human Resources of the Government of India. The
funding ended in March 2005. Presently, the centre is supported by grants from state
government, Catholic Relief Services, Rishi Valley Education Centre and through
donations and goodwill of the Rishi Valley School alumni.
Efforts must be made to include these MGML methods in the training curriculum at
the DIET/SCERT level for a truly large-scale mainstreaming of the intervention.
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Section 3
Emerging Lessons from 17 Case Studies
In the decade of the 1990s the one of the main objectives that the government set for
itself was enhancing enrolment and access. It was believed that once the access issue
had been tackled the government could then move on to issues of learning. But even
when the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was at its peak, the ground
evidence prompted a realisation that issues of access and quality are only intertwined.
As DPEP gave way to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan – the old tension between access and
quality resurfaced. The first goal of SSA and indeed the MDGs is universal enrolment
and bridging gender and social gaps in enrolment. As a result the first two years of
SSA once again focused on enhancing access. It was during this period that individuals
and organisations working with children raised the issue of learning. For example the
Pratham sponsored Read India programme and the Annual Survey of Education Report
(ASER 2005) highlighted the dismal state of learning in schools. Organisations like
MV Foundation – who were instrumental in getting children out of work and into
school, raised an alarm about high drop out rates among mainstreamed children. Some
state governments took the initiative to start quality improvement programmes,
international agencies working in collaboration with the government also underscored
the importance of improving quality of education.
Increasingly educationists and administrators have begun to acknowledge that given
persistent difficulties in motivation and accountability of teachers, the impressive
enrolment figures and improved transition and retention rates notwithstanding, most
children leave government primary schools without basic skills of reading, writing and
arithmetic. The recent IMRB survey42 also corroborates that while the number of out of
school children may have come down considerably the drop out rates especially of
children after the age of 10, continues to be very high. Another disturbing trend
highlighted in a range of sample surveys and small qualitative studies is that formal
enrolment in school does not always translate into regular attendance. Long spells of
absence from school can not only be attributed to poverty and work burden of children,
undoubtedly important, but also to the schooling experience.
Access and quality are two sides of the same coin – when we speak of access it means
that children are going to school and learning. It may, therefore, be more appropriate to
use the term ‘meaningful access’ – which encompasses the continuum from enrolment,
regular attendance of children and teachers, availability of books and other learning
materials, a learning environment in a functioning school and finally a place where
children learn. This section attempts to synthesize the experience based on the 17 case
studies and the ways in which access and issues of learning in the government school
system have been addressed.
42 SRI, IMRB International: Survey on assessing the number of out of school children in the 6-13 years age group,
commissioned by Department of Education, MHRD, GOI; unpublished report, November 2005
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Ensuring meaningful access for children at risk:
Reviews of the experience of government initiatives including large scale programmes
like DPEP and SSA indicate that almost all EFA initiatives gave primacy to expanding
access, teacher training and logistical issues thereby bringing many more children into
the school system. Teacher pupil ratios have improved considerably in most states. A
range of pedagogic renewal processes have also been initiated viz., joyful learning and
child centred approaches. Text book supply, mid-day meal and other incentives were
also streamlined. Alongside, local committees were created to ensure closer linkages
between parents and the schools. Both state governments and non-governmental
players agree that government school teachers possess the requisite educational
qualifications and further, have also undergone repeated training43. Recent NIEPA data
compiled on parateachers suggest that the educational qualifications of parateachers
are quite comparable to regular teachers44. Nevertheless after almost 9 years of DPEP
and close to 5 years of SSA, learning levels continue to be poor and drop out rates are
high.
Discussions among stakeholders within the government and outside, have raised new
generation issues, viz. do the factors that inhibit effective learning in schools have
more to do with broader systemic and governance issues like teacher absenteeism,
actual teaching time (time on task), assessment processes and overall monitoring
mechanisms45. Equally important is the focus on the inability of schools to give
attention to every child. The discourse on quality education has become far more
nuanced and the larger system now recognises that learning is as much an individual
struggle / process for every child and the ability of teachers (and the administrative
system governing schools) to recognise this and reach out to every single child could
make a big difference.
A perusal of promising interventions from different parts of the country reveals that
most of the interventions to improve quality of education have worked around the
following principles:
 Coming to terms with reality on the ground through a realistic assessment of
the situation with respect to learning;
 Addressing equity in planning through differential financial allocation and
reaching out to disadvantaged groups in an empathetic and supportive manner;
 Forging closer community, school and system linkages through real devolution
of powers (not just responsibility) and enabling empowered local action;
 Creating open communication channels between the education administrators /
implementers and local officials, teachers, parents and children;
 Energising the school system through improved classroom practice and
assessment processes; strengthening science education through labs, centres
and related activities and use of communication technology like the radio to
reach out;
 Building a nurturing system for assessment and developing monitoring
systems that create a continuous link between the school and the academic and
administrative support structures; and
43 This may not be the case across the country and recent learning outcome studies point out that teacher skills in
mathematics and science remains a problem area. Dr Govinda of NIEPA argues that teachers who themselves went to
poor quality schools may not be able to cope with the demands of higher classes in primary and upper primary.
44 Arun Mehta, Elementary Education in India: Where do we stand, NIEPA, 2005
45 Rashmi Sharma and Vimala Ramachandran: The system and its shadow – an investigation into systemic factors
framing quality and equity in elementary education, Draft report, May 2006, Educational Resource Unit; Azim Premji
Foundation: Report of the First Learning Conference – 2004, Bangalore
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 Providing academic resource support to teachers and teacher educators in a
manner that fosters creativity and respects teacher experience, skills and
knowledge.
Confronting reality: Going beyond numbers
The gap between what official statistics claim and the ground reality had been an area
of debate for many years now. This often becomes a contentious issue when people or
organisations outside the education system collect data independently. However in
some cases this has impelled educational planners to innovate. When the Jan Shikshan
Abhiyan of 1996 recorded a much higher number of out of school children than
officially admitted, instead of getting into a defensive mode the Government of
Madhya Pradesh decided to introduce the Education Guarantee Scheme. This
experience was soon emulated by other states, notably Andhra Pradesh. Household
survey data became an integral part of educational planning in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
– which introduced it as a mandatory input into planning. The quality of household
data is a matter of concern and DISE data that is compiled by NIEPA has yet to figure
out a way of weaving in household data with DISE.
Another issue besides the quality of data is the veracity of the data reported that may
not fully capture the ground reality. One has encounterd senior officials more than
willing to come to grips with the actual ground scenario while lower officials are wary
of communicating the real picture as this may raise questions on overall progress they
rputinely report and in making them accountable. This situation is changing. There
have been some effective efforts in the recent past to look at the actual ground
situation even if the findings are uncomfortable. Acknowledging the problem in all its
complexity and with all its imperfections represents a cognitive break with the past.
We came across three approaches to confronting reality:
One, once the Chennai Corporation began to look at the issue of learning levels in
Corporation schools, it started with a participatory exercise where the ‘maladies' in the
educational system identified by the education administrators46. This exercise revealed
that a child’s learning of basic academic skills is not ensured, the teacher dominates the
classroom all the time, with little allowance for children to learn or develop on their
own, it is assumed that all children will learn the same thing at the same time and in the
same manner leading to a failure to address the multi-grade and multi-level nature of a
classroom. The exercise also revealed that the teacher depends purely on conventional
modes of teaching, teaching-learning material is rarely used as a normal practice, most
of the materials used do not facilitate self-learning and the syllabus is ‘covered’ by the
teacher but not necessarily by the child. The teachers acknowledged that there is no
opportunity for the child to learn the lessons missed, if s/he is absent and that the
evaluation methods are not scientific and neither the process nor results feed into
classroom transactions. Similarly in Karnataka assessing learning levels of children by
teachers was followed by testing by an independent agency. The results of the
independent assessment were discussed with teachers, administrators and the
community (as represented by the VEC or SEC). The Learning Guarantee Programme
initiated by the Azim Premji Foundation in collaboration with the Government of
Karnataka started with a clear picture of the scale of the challenge ahead.
Two, enabling the supervisory mechanism – meaning the block / cluster / mandal level
academic resource persons – to directly test children and assess schools for themselves.
46
ABL Programme in the Schools of the Corporation of Chennai, Amukta Mahapatra (2006) in this volume.
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Sharing this information at different levels highlighted both the scale of the problem as
well the need for a collective engagement with reality. The Andhra Pradesh Quality
Improvement Programme and Child Language Improvement Programme enabled both
the teachers and administrators to move away from impersonal numbers, grapple with
the learning levels of children in schools and honestly share lessons with each other,
including the VEC / parents47.
Three, encouraging teachers and administrators (district and block levels) to assess the
quality of school infrastructure and facilities on the one hand and learning levels of
children on the other. Based on these profiles schools are graded on a five point scale
to identify the extent of support required by each category of school. Again like in AP,
the effort in the School Monitoring Profile Programme of Uttaranchal was to enable
local level officials and the teachers to confront the .situation on the ground and use
that as a point of departure in the planning process and also to inform monitoring48.
The results were mapped visually and used as an effective communication tool.
These approaches stem from a recognition that the malaise in the school system could
(among other factors) be attributed to the separation of “hard data” on matters like
enrolment, number of training programmes, number of teachers and so on from the
“outcomes” as seen in the learning of children. Second, statistics are often compiled to
provide a macro picture of the state or district while what the above practices show is
the need to look at not only each and every school but focus equally was on children
themselves.
Planning for equity
An emphasis on equity has been central to educational planning in India since the mid
1950s. It is enshrined in the Constitution and all official documents foreground the
notion of equity. Yet, it continues to be elusive. Usually, this is attributed to lack of
political will to make sure that every single child has access to a functioning school
and insufficient allocation of financial resources.
At the formal level it could indeed be claimed that we have moved forward on both
these counts. With the 83rd Constitutional Amendment making education a
fundamental right, one could argue that political will is at last evident. Equally, the
introduction of a 2 per cent education cess and enhanced allocations for elementary
education has brought us closer to the goal of 6% of GDP for education.
Nevertheless as the recent debate on the Right to Education Bill highlights, three major
problem areas remain, namely:
(a) The school system is highly differentiated and the poorest of the poor – especially
in rural and tribal areas, in peripheral urban settlements and in sparsely populated
regions – get far less resources than the better endowed areas. Equally, the continuation
and proliferation of different forms of alternative schools also challenges the notion of
equality. One set of interlocutors wants the bill to provide equal schooling for all
children by introducing a common school system – wherein all schools are declared
neighbourhood schools. Others argue that this may not be possible – given the
political reality – and instead advocate reserving at least 25 to 30 per cent of seats in all
private schools for children from disadvantaged communities. This latter aspect has to
some extent been debated in some parts of the country, for example through an interim
order of the Supreme Court of India private schools in New Delhi were asked to admit
children from disadvantaged communities because they were provided land at
47
From QIP to CLIP – the case of AP, Bharat Patni (2006) in this volume
48
School Monitoring Profile, Uttaranchal, Nishi Mehrotra (2006) in this volume
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subsidised rates. The debate also focuses on the issue of parateachers – with most
experts arguing against the practice of appointing parateachers who are paid far less
than regular teachers for doing the same work. They are also critical about dilution of
teacher qualifications – especially in a situation where parateachers cater to more
disadvantaged children.
(b) The second challenge has to do with the Muslim minority community. There is
considerable evidence that poor Muslim children – especially girls – are not accessing
elementary education. Many of them are sent to Madarsas. The equity debate centres
on the responsibility of the formal system to create an environment where religious
schools could also provide secular education thereby enabling children, especially
girls, to access modern education in addition to religious instruction.
(c) The third concern relates to tribal areas and the role of dialects and languages in
the pedagogic process. Despite efforts by state governments, good quality education
for tribal children continues to remain a challenge – especially in view of the fact that
tribal areas are not well connected and people speak their own language – posing a
huge problem for young children forced to learn in the majority language of the region.
The Assam DPEP/SSA initiative points to how commitment to affirmative action
needs to be backed up by affirmative oriented planning and resource allocation49.
Evidence based planning is what marks out the Assam effort. The planning process
started with identification of areas and groups that needed urgent attention such as
physically isolated regions, char & riverine areas, forest areas, flood-prone areas, tea
gardens, areas of conflict (relief camps), girls, Muslims, urban deprived children and
migrant children. At the same time an attempt was made to not only identify social
groups that need special attention but also areas that because of location or agroclimatic conditions suffered disadvantage. A detailed list of underprivileged areas and
groups was drawn up: tea gardens, educationally disadvantaged areas remote,
inaccessible areas and other pockets subject to insurgency / ethnic conflict areas,
urban slums and pockets of high incidence of child labour. The next stage in planning
and budget preparation involved doing away broad unit costs and universal normative
allocations, ensuring flexibility in norms and designing special packages to meet the
specific requirements of these pockets of disadvantage.
The Assam effort underscores that for equity to be meaningfully addressed there is a
need to back up policy and programmatic commitments to equity with flexibility in
norms and preferential and increased allocation of resources to disadvantaged groups
and area.
The Indus project in Virudhnagar is an initiative that addresses the very thorny issue of
child labour working in hazardous industries. The current tendency to define all
children out of school as child labour has tended to reduce attention to children
working in hazardous industries. The Virudhnagar initiiave offers some interesting
insights on how to address this group. The project has adopted an integrated approach
of providing alternative leaning routes such as the transitional education centres for
mainstreaming of children, providing cash incentives to children, launching an
intensive social campaign reaching out to communities as well as employers and above
all addressing the livelihood concerns of the families concerned through convergent
support from related departments. Here too the agency of key officials such as the
District Collector has been instrumental in the project being very effective and children
actually being withdrawn from work.
49
Planning for equitable education – the experience of Assam, Dr. Deepa Das (2006) in this volume
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Success however often brings new challenges in its wake. One outcome of this project
has been that child labour in the project area has in a sense gone underground, out of
the public domain into a private space. For example in Sivakasi, children have been
withdrawn from match factories and now do the same work within homes of
employers. This underscores the need for being alert as well as getting a deeper
understanding of the varied and new forms that child labour has taken to be able to
tackle the problem. The more significant learning is the need to move away from
generic definitions of child labour to a more nuanced understanding of the problem
The efforts made under DPEP in some states to reach out to Muslim children through
working with Maktabs, in particular the Government of Madhya Pradesh, are
noteworthy50. The MP Government recognised the critical role of the Madarsa Board
in reaching out to Muslim children and set out to evolve a partnership of mutual trust
and respect with the existing Madarsa Board. The mutually agreed upon strategy was
to add the formal mainstream curriculum to the Deeni Talim (religious instruction) of
the madarsas. While there is so far little authentic information on the learning levels of
Muslim children as a result of this initiative, the efforts to reach out to Madarsas across
the state, does represent a positive .move.
For long now it was taken as axiomatic that the government is the prime agency to
ensure equal access and equal quality and affirmative action policies are the key
instrumentalities to neutralise historically determined discrimination. While the role of
the state is certainly important in terms of affirmative policies and resource allocations,
low teacher motivation, negative teacher attitudes and prejudices and the insensitivity
of key players in the education field often end up diluting if not distorting wellintentioned policies and programmes. It is here that the agency of the individual comes
into play; macro strategies to ensure equal access and quality fall between the cracks
when teachers look the other way.
The MV Foundation initiative to create an association of teachers (Bala Karmika
Vimochana Vedika – BKVV Teachers Forum for elimination of child labour) is
noteworthy in this regard51. Reminiscent of the Adhyapika Manch (a forum for women
teachers) under the Lok Jumbish, this programme motivates teachers to make them
more empathetic to the specific needs and situations of child labour.
Enabling empowered action
The role of a community-based forum in the form of a village education committee or
a parent-teachers association in ensuring accountability has been long acknowledged.
Particularly post National Policy on Education 1986, this was made a sine qua non of a
good education system. School committees were as essential components of all the
EFA projects (Bihar Education Project, APPEP, Lok Jumbish, UP Basic Education
Project etc..), the District Primary Education Project and now Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
Several states have made statutory provisions for such committees. The 73rd
Constitutional Amendment, whereby powers have been devolved to Panchayati Raj
Institutions, also provide for education committees.
Though all these committees exist on the ground a review of the nature of community
involvement in primary education reveals that even as responsibilities are devolved,
the committees rarely have any real power to ensure school/ teacher accountability or
Combining Deeni Talim and Duniyavi Taleem – Madrasa Education in MP, Dr. Shobhita Rajagopal (2006) in this
volume
51 Transforming APs government school teachers – an MVF intervention, Bharat Patni (2006) in this volume
50
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better performance.52 It must have to be admitted that under some of the projects and
definitely under SSA these committees have played a key role in infrastructure
development. The moot point is that if the schools have to be made accountable for the
learning of the children then these local committees need to have responsibilities
backed up with real power to ensure and demand accountability of the school system.
The National Curriculum Framework 2005, however, pointed out the possibility of
tensions and conflicts arising between panchayats and their school committees as well
as between the local committees / local bodies and the education administration.
The steps taken by the Nagaland Government for devolving powers to local bodies
serves as an excellent example of how to empower local committees and bodies. The
Nagaland Communitisation Programme was initiated with the objective of promoting
government-community partnership for education at the grassroots level53. The
objective was to give teeth to the goal of empowered community involvement.
For the first time the concept of community participation went beyond the devolving of
responsibilities to actual transfer of power to local bodies. Under this programme the
community was empowered through delegation of powers to the VEC to manage and
supervise government schools, and ensure the accountability of government employees
as VECS now disburse teacher salaries. Under the Communitisation Act, the VEC can
invoke the “no work, no pay” principle and take appropriate disciplinary action against
erring teachers. The deductions from the salary are used by the committee to fund any
other school based activities.
The composition of the VEC was also expanded to a wider group of stakeholders. In a
communitised village, the Village Council constitutes a Village Education Committee
(VEC). The VEC comprises a VEC chairman selected by the Council and the
following members – Village Development Board (VDB) Secretary, head teacher of
the communitised school, three representatives from among parents (which includes at
least one woman), two representatives of teachers, a member from the Village Council,
a representative each from different church denominations in the village, two members
from the village community which includes, at least, one woman, sub inspector of
school (SIS) of the area and the head teacher of the Government Middle School (GMS)
as member secretary.
In one stroke the Government of Nagaland not only devolved responsibilities but also
transferred powers to local committees. It is important to note that this radical step was
not confined to devolution of powers in the education sector alone but also included
public utilities, water supply, roads, forests, power, sanitation, health and other welfare
/developmental schemes. This is the key – efforts in one sector are unlikely to
succeed unless the larger environment is made more conducive to the programme.
The Pratham programme is an NGO led initiative in Kutch, Gujarat to work towards
empowering existing Village Education Committees54. The Rural Community
Approach Programme was initiated after the 2000 earthquake left the school system
devastated. The Pratham effort covers 500 schools in rural Kutch. It operates on the
premise that creating a committee such as a VEC is insufficient unless these
committees become proactive and therefore the VECs are provided sustained inputs to
enable them to play this role
52 R. Govinda (ed), Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2003.
53 Communitisation of elementary education in Nagaland, Parismita Singh and Matum Ashok (2006) in this volume
54 The Prathamintervention in Kutch, Gujarat, Niti Saxena (2006) in this volume
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Recognising the importance of the role of the elected PRI bodies and to overcome any
potential conflict with the panchayat, an interface was created between the VEC,
panchayats and the larger community through the Shikshan Gram Sabhas. The gram
sabhas are the forums where educated older children are invited to volunteer to work
with younger ones to improve their reading and writing skills. Equally, the
performance of the children in school is presented in the gram sabha in the form of a
child-wise Dhan Patrak (educational profile of each child).
Facilitating two way communications
Experience of working the Right to Information Act clearly demonstrates that
transparency and communication are intertwined. Equally, if we (meaning the
government and all other stake holders) truly believe that UEE is possible only with
the active support and involvement of parents and the larger community – improving
information flow and communication becomes a priority. There is a public perception t
that governments and large NGOs are not transparent about their intentions, plans and
also the action that they have decided to take. Free flow of information upwards,
downwards and laterally and the freedom to communicate with decision-makers
therefore becomes an important dimension. Under the Right to Information Act the
government is required in law to provide information but the onus of “demanding” is
on the civil society.
In recent times public debates on transparency and communication have tended to
focus on civil society’s access to information. However, issues of communication
within the government system – between high-level policymakers and the
implementers, between supervisors and teachers and between the academic wing and
administrative wings are only now receiving some attention.
The Nagaland Communitisation programme was successful in creating a broad base of
support by systematically communicating the programme and linking it to traditional
systems of local governance. Between evolving the concept in January 2001 and the
promulgation of an Ordinance in March 2002, the government made efforts to
systematically communicate the main objectives and the working mechanisms to the
administrative system and local government institutions. It appears that the “broader”
consensus building was instrumental in blunting any opposition from teachers unions
or the administration.
Assessment has always been a contentious issue feared by both teachers and
administrators given its potential to “expose” the real picture. At the same time
assessment of learning outcomes is integral to monitoring quality. It is in this context
that the LGP strategy of communication provides useful lessons55. Well before the
programme was rolled out, the Azim Premji Foundation had already evolved
communication strategy with the help of professionals. From the beginning it was
recognized that communication was essential to build trust, especially when working in
partnership with government on the one hand and local communities on the other. At
the same time it was essential to reassure all stakeholders that participation in the LGP
was purely voluntary.
Like in the case of the LGP programme, the strength of the Pratham initiative in Kutch
lies in ensuring accountability to the community through sustained dissemination of
school data and the learning of children. The Dhan Patrak (the educational profile of
individual children) works as a powerful tool that enables the parents to track the
progress of their children. It is interesting that child profiles are now developed by
55
LGP Programme. Karnataka, Vimala Ramachandran (2006) in this volume
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many programmes and computerised child tracking mechanisms are much sought after.
What the Pratham experience shows is that information on every child can become a
powerful tool in the hands of the parents and the larger community as represented by
the Shiksha Gram Sabha.
The CLIP programme in Andhra Pradesh too is noteworthy in this regard, though this
programme does not do “anything new”; it effectively gears up the system to do what it is
supposed to in the normal course, i.e., monitor the academic functioning of schools56. The
officials are expected to spend the entire day in the school and stay back to share their
experience with the school committee and the panchayat. The SPD publicised his mobile
phone numbers to all the schools – including the children. Anyone from any part of the
state can call him to share an experience or to draw attention to a problem.
Energising the school
Primary schools have received unprecedented attention in the last fifteen years. Most
UEE programmes have paid attention to teacher training, TLM, child-centred
pedagogy, improved infrastructure and so on. The effort at making attending school a
joyful experience include pedagogic renewal programmes, making the classroom child
friendly; and developing activity based learning material and teacher support materials.
The DPEP programme made special efforts to en-gender the teaching-learning process
by addressing the concern in textbooks, teacher training and in the overall school
environment and facilities. Therefore, the notion of energising the school is not new
and has long been a key focus area in elementary education.
An important criticism of initiatives like the DPEP is that these strategies were
implemented in a modular fashion – for example teacher training are not always linked
to textbook development. The various dimensions of quality are rarely woven together
viz. the ability of a teacher to teach creatively and make the classroom child friendly is
not about teaching-learning materials and textbooks alone. It is inextricably linked to
how the teacher is treated in the system, the autonomy he/she enjoys and the sense of
accountability to children and parents. Treating each “input” as a unit and not seeing
the entire education process as an organic whole is a big handicap.
The innovative programmes reviewed provide useful insights in this area. The Activity
Based Learning programme in Chennai, the Rishi Valley Education Programme,
Active Schools Latur, the QIP and CLIP programme of Andhra Pradesh, the Pratham
Initiative in Gujarat and ILIP in West Bengal all foreground the agency of the teacher
in bringing about change. Working with the teacher as the lynchpin in the process of
change demands going beyond formal training and material production – it starts with
efforts to kindle the self motivation and enthusiasm of the teachers by appealing to
their creativity and desire for satisfaction in their work.
In the Active Schools programme in Latur, Maharashtra the district authorities exposed
selected teachers to good practices in different parts of the country and then
encouraged them to conceptualize they own strategy57. After a successful experiment
in one school the district authorities expanded it to one school each in 15 clusters. This
was expanded to 117 schools and is now being considered for expansion throughout
the entire district. As a first step the teachers mobilised parents and other community
members to participate in school improvement. Self learning materials were developed
for group activities and time table was reorganised. They also introduced Chawdi
Vachan (reading skill demonstration before community), sharing of report cards and
56
57
From QIP to CLIP – the case of AP, Bharat Patni (2006) in this volume
Active Schools – Latur, Binay Pattanayak (2006) in this volume
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discussion with parents on regular basis. This was followed by “gat sammelan” cluster
level meetings to review progress and share experiences thereby providing an
opportunity to use locally available material. Since the teachers played a key role in
designing this intervention, there is a high degree of ownership and the outcomes of
this process are just beginning to become apparent. Learning outcomes are reported to
be comparatively higher in the Active Schools as compared to other schools. There
have also been reports of children from private schools moving to government schools.
The Quality Improvement Programme, a precursor to the CLIP programme (Children
Language Improvement Programme) in Andhra Pradesh, used the accelerated learning
method similar to the “Learning to Read” programme of Pratham Education Initiative,
whereby a time-bound 45 day programme was introduced to enable children to learn to
read and acquire basic numeracy and arithmetic competencies58. The drawbacks of this
approach were soon evident. As the SPD, SSA explained , “There was no visible
change in the mindset of the teachers after the 45-day period of intervention. Further,
it was also back to normal business for everyone in the system as soon as the 46 th day
dawned! What was required was a seamless and continuous intervention during the
academic session”.
Essentially the CLIP programme moved away from a time-bound mode to one where
the teachers were expected to use the techniques they had learnt in QIP round the year.
Further, it was decided to focus on developing the language skills of children in classes
1 to 3. This was backed up by a rigorous monitoring system wherein all supervisory
and academic support institutions were expected to visit schools continuously to
monitor what was happening inside the classroom. The important lesson from this
initiative is that pedagogic creativity does not lead to appreciable change unless it is
backed up by systemic efforts to monitor learning rather than merely generating data
on enrolment and transition. The message from CLIP is clear – it is only the extent of
sustained interest shown and personal involvement of DEOs, Dy DEOs, and DIET
Principals which will make the difference in the field.
The Integrated Learning Improvement Programme (ILIP) of West Bengal tries to
combine efforts to improve classroom pedagogy with empowerment and capacity
building of teachers59. The core strategy for this program is empowerment and capacity
building of the teachers to move away from the monologue style of imparting
education prevalent in most government schools and make them realize that all
children can progress within a stipulated time, children learn among themselves and
the role of a teacher has to be that of a facilitator.
Workbooks on existing textbooks were developed, spelling out the competencies
required through a set of learning tasks. Teachers and children are given the freedom to
improvise. Evidently, teachers have responded positively as Moushami, a school
teacher put it “using these worksheets impacts the processes in the class”.
The purpose of the worksheet is much more than building academic competency. It is
an exercise in building the self confidence of the average learner that she too can
demonstrate achievement! 30% of the worksheets were so designed to ensure that 80%
of children could complete the task easily. A sense of achievement obviously is a key
denominator in keeping a child interested in being in school
58
59
From QIP to CLIP – the case of AP, Bharat Patni (2006) in this volume
ILIP - West Bengal, Shaktibrata Sen and Shruthi Nag (2006) in this volume
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Reaching children and schools in remote areas has been a major challenge. In recent
years the efforts to use the broadcast media such as radio as a tool for teacher training
as well as classroom instruction merit attention. The Karnataka state government, for
instance, has developed radio programmes named ‘Keli Kali’ and these are being aired
since the year 2000. The Chukki Chinna programmes of EDC have replaced the Keli
Kali programmes from classes 1 – 5, and the Keli Kali programmes for classes 6 – 8
are continuing. CLR, Pune too has developed strategies for English language
instruction using the radio. In Jharkhand too, the radio has been used to strengthen
aural comprehension through a storytelling programme.
The Interactive Radio Initiative in Karnataka (part of the dot-EDU T4 project of the
Education Development Centre Inc India (EDC)) is a distance education programme
targeting students in classes I to V and focuses on Maths, Science and Social Studies
instruction. Started as a pilot project for classes IV and V, in 2005 the programme
expanded to include Classes I to III and today reaches 50,000 primary schools in the
State60.
Both teachers and students are engaged everyday for about half an hour in a series of
radio instructed activities that encourage interaction between students and teachers and
between the teachers themselves. The radio lesson then becomes the point of departure
to enliven a classroom experience which could otherwise be quite dry.
It is also significant that the radio programmes have been shaped as to strengthen and
support the teacher in her role as a facilitator and the pivotal guide to learning in the
classroom. Although the content ensures higher learning gains among the children, the
activity-based format of the programmes are a regular source of teacher training.
Hence the programmes have a ‘dual audience’ approach – targeting both the children
as well as the teacher.
However it is important to remember that the teacher cannot be substituted by the
radio. For every radio programme to translate into an effective learning process, the
preparedness of the teacher for transacting the lesson being broadcast becomes critical.
While it maybe too early to assess the impact of this initiative, preliminary indications
are that student attendance and attention during the radio lesson has improved
significantly. Further a shadow audience of parents, shop keepers, SDMC members
and generally all radio users is in the making!!
Once again like all good ideas, the overall drawbacks in the system could undermine
the best of innovations--lack of space and crowded classrooms, teacher absenteeism,
lack of sustained monitoring especially in remote areas.
Generally quality improvement interventions tend to limit themselves to improving
basic language and arithmetic skills of children at the elementary level. It is in this
context that Agastya Foundation’s work in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka provides
valuable insights into how schools can be energised from the outside using science
education as a platform61. It is widely acknowledged that learning science in a creative
and fun way can dramatically stimulate children. It addresses the child’s desire for
exploration and to unlock the mysteries that surround her.
It is noteworthy that the Agastya Foundation decided to concentrate on government
schools because they wanted to make education more interesting for poor children /
60
61
IRI – the case of Karnataka, Dr. Suchitra Vedant (2006) in this volume
Strengthening science education – Agastya International Foundation, Rashmi Sharma (2006) in this volume
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disadvantaged groups. To this end, they turned their attention to children – working to
wean them away from rote learning and discover the joy of creativity. They did this by
addressing curricular issues outside the classroom through science centres, mobile labs,
science fairs, library and activities. The Foundation drew upon a resource pool of
renowned scientists who were involved in planning the intervention and at the local
level encourages retired science teachers and others interested in science to help the
initiative.
The impact of the Agastya Foundation interventions needs to be viewed in the overall
context of government schools, where the standards of science teaching are often low,
and even teachers are rarely clear about all the concepts (in fact at the upper primary
level, sometimes teachers who have not studied science themselves at the high school
level often end up teaching science). The capacity of students to benefit from the
intervention depends upon their understanding of basic concepts. One mobile lab
instructor admitted that while children could understand basic things such as the
difference between domestic and wild animals, they found it difficult to understand the
several principles of science, despite the very high quality of instruction in the mobile
lab. Such a programme, therefore, needs to be dovetailed with improving science
teaching inside the classroom, as has been ably demonstrated through the Hoshangabad
Science Teaching Programme of Eklavya in Madhya Pradesh.
Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge the value of such interventions in
energising the school system. The ability of the Agastya Foundation to involve eminent
scientists in the teaching of science in school underscores the importance of taking a
hard look at the content of science as well as the way it is taught in schools. This is
also an interesting example of how the government can forge partnerships with
institutions of higher learning and the science research establishments. In today’s India
where many new industries are knowledge based this issue acquires a sense of
urgency.
While under SSA, education of children in urban areas is receiving attention, there are
not many examples of successful efforts that have managed to overcome the complex
realities of urban poor children. Sharp class divisions, the perception of the irrelevance
of formal education in the life of a poor working child, and the uncertainty of life in
general, all make the school the last choice for a poor family and often push chidren
not only into work but also into petty thieving and drug abuse. Taking this harsh reality
head-on, the government initiative of offering skill based education at the elementary
level in urban Chandigarh schools is indeed a bold one. In a sense this goes against
conventional wisdom of not introducing vocational education at the elementary level.
The Chandigarh initiative shows how through the introduction of skills that a
community perceives as relevant and identified through community consultations, the
schools have managed to score on several levels--never enrolled and school drop outs
have been brought into the school, the skill training has led students not only to learn a
skill and competently apply it in practice, but also created the environment where basic
learning skills of reading, writing and numeracy have been enthusiastically acquired by
the children. Through the variety of skills offered, children and teachers have also been
able to explore their more expressive interests and inadvertently this initiative has
contributed to a more holistic education for the children as well as making the teaching
learning experience more meaningful for the teachers themselves There are no doubt
several challenges--ensuring that all the children in this programme gain the basic
competencies of the elementary level, and ensuring that families do not compel the
child to work. The best advocates for education seem to be the children themselves. In
a rapidly urbanising situation where the numbers of urban out of school are large,
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strategies of mainstreaming children need to be varied and the Chandigarh initiative
offers an example of how a conventional formal school can adapt itself to meet the
learning and skill development needs of urban poor children. The key elements here
seem to be willingness to experiment and centring the intiative on the lived realities of
the urban poor.
In an effort to provide regular academic support to teachers several types of
institutional mechanisms have been put in place. The DIETs that were set up in the
80’s and the Block and Cluster level Resource Centres that came up in 90’s are part of
this endeavour. A precursor to these was the Goa School Complexes programme set up
in the 1970’s to provide sustained academic support to schools and teachers to enhance
both teaching and school performance62. While the core of the school complex
initiative is to establish an organic support system between different levels of schools,
the in-built hierarchy in the education system seems to have taken over, with lead
schools seeking to guide rather than support, and often guiding with no or little
understanding of the needs of the primary school. Further teachers at different levels
tend to interpret the school complex scheme as one that has brought in more rigid
school inspection instead of support. Their constant refrain is: why should we be
‘cross-checked’ by teachers and others who are working in different institutions? This
observation perhaps stems from the nature of interactions between different levels so
far – on the whole, it points out the inadequate mental, intellectual and emotional
preparation that is needed for collective work, problem solving, sharing of ideas,
leading to increased accountability. While there is no disagreement that schools require
sustained academic support, the experience of the Goa School Complex shows how the
form can overtake the spirit of an initiative. Structures cannot enable goals attainment
unless a shared vision of the long term objectives is built among the different players,
and processes that allow for democratic sharing of knowledge are put in place.
Monitoring and assessment
The sheer scale of the Indian elementary school system with 7.67 primary schools and
2.75 lakh upper primary schools is mind-boggling! Monitoring such a vast system can
prove to be a nightmare for any government. Even so, in the last twenty years the
government has introduced national (DISE) as well as state specific data gathering
mechanisms. Notwithstanding these commendable efforts the data gathering
mechanisms have been gradually divorced from monitoring and assessment. The
numbers collected and collated – at best – give us a glimpse of scale of the initiatives
rather than quality. This realisation has led some state governments to move towards a
decentralised system that not only captures numbers of schools and children in school
but attempts to introduce parameters that could help them assess quality.
 The Uttaranchal School Monitoring system is an interesting initiative (albeit fairly
new and still evolving)63. This was developed to categorise schools according to
physical facilities as well as learning outcomes. An additional innovation in
Uttaranchal is the generation of school performance maps at state, district and taluka
levels. This visualisation works as an effective communication tool, as it “has great
value in creating an immediate impact on any audience – because it gives a clear
picture of the educational scenario within any geographic boundary.”64 It is, however,
important to note that the government has just begun to use the data for strategic
62
School Complexes of Goa, K M Sheshagiri (2006) in this volume
63 The Uttaranchal SM programmes dates back to the UP DPEP effort to grade schools according to physical facilities
and teacher availability at the cluster level. This was modified by Uttaranchal in 2003
64 Deepa Das, Implementation and functioning of the School Monitoring System in Uttaranchal, (unpubl monograph)
September 2004
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planning and it is too early to .comment on the outcomes. The school grading system is
also being showcased by Government of India as a possible model to weave in some
quality parameters. One positive fallout is that officials at all levels of the bureaucracy
talk about this and - “Koti karan” (meaning grading) – has become a buzz word.
ILIP of West Bengal has tried to give substance to the idea of continuous and timely
assessment. Since teaching and competency building have been broken down into a set
of teaching and learning tasks, evaluation follows a similar logic-- instantaneous
evaluation at the end of each task, day to day recapitulation at the end of every days
lesson, weekly/periodic evaluation, terminal evaluation at the end of a specified
module to be capped by a final evaluation at the end of the academic year.
Local specific innovation going to scale
How does a local specific innovation go to scale? The RIVER programme of
Krishnamurti Foundation of India is an interesting example of how an innovation that
started by responding to local specific needs developed into a “model” that is being
emulated in different parts of the country and even spread to other countries. The
experience of working in 13 schools in Rishi Valley helped in developing a mechanism
for multi-grade and multi-level learning. Way back in 1992 the Rishi Valley
experience inspired the Nali Kali programme in Mysore District of Karnataka.
Subsequently the generic lessons from the RIVER programme have been adapted in
different parts of the country65.
The RV Education centre was clear that what were being scaled up was not their
“model” but the broad framework and generic principles. The principle characteristic
of this process is the flexibility and the freedom to transcreate to suit different contexts.
This approach lent itself to enable local ownership in the contexts in which it was
adopted.
The process of scaling up created challenges of acceptability and ownership. The
problems surfaced when considering scaling up. There was resistance to the idea of
adopting a model. Here it was REC’s firm commitment to showcasing the flexibility in
the model and its ability to incorporate local cultures that won the day. Apprehensions
were allayed to some extent and teachers were willing to experiment and try out the
approach. It clearly showed that it is difficult to accept a model designed by others,
but taking the framework and revitalizing it with a local flavour gives ownership both
to the teachers and the learners.”66
Upscaling an innovation – the Rishi Valley experience, P Prashanti and Padma, 2006 in this volume
66 ABL programme in schools of the Corporation of Chennai, Amukta Mahapatra, 2006 in this volume
65
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Conclusion: when do promising innovations become best practices?
Even as we are correct in being excited with innovations, in themselves uncommon,
not all promising innovations mutate into becoming best practices. For a start, they
take time. New initiatives driven by committed individuals with a vision provide
valuable lessons but they cannot be called best practices. Sustainable change becomes
possible only when the practices are embedded into the system and become a part and
parcel of implementation and monitoring processes. While programme or project
specific systems and structures are necessary conditions for success they are not
sufficient to ensure that it is sustained over a period of time. Particularly in government
it is equally important to create statutory and legal mechanisms and nurture a different
work culture.
Innovation and discipline go together – a certain degree of discipline is essential for
innovation to move from a one-off activity to a process. A particular activity may
inject energy into the system thus tipping the entire system to perform differently for a
short period of time. For example, the Nali kali programme in Karnataka was triggered
off by a study tour to Rishi Valley followed by efforts to adapt the model to suit the
ground realities of H D Kote in Mysore district. This released a lot of energy and the
pilot programme worked remarkably well for a few years and till such time as the
leadership driving the change was involved. As time went by and as the government
tried to up scale it upto many more areas – the magic was lost. People involved in the
programme during the start-up days recall events and outcomes with a sense of
nostalgia. While some processes and some techniques have survived in bits and pieces
in various parts of Karnataka, excitement and pride are now referred to in the past
tense67.
Similar experiences can be narrated in the case of the Total Literacy Campaign (early
phase 1988-1993), Lok Jumbish of Rajasthan, Jan Shala programme in several states,
Shiksha Samakhya of Madhya Pradesh and some interesting initiatives within the
DPEP programme. Discussions with individuals who were involved in such initiatives
reveals that a long term perspective was often missing. Most of them seemed to be
working in a three to five year time-frame and were unable to engage with sustaining
the enthusiasm and the programme over a long time frame, even though they admit that
it was a wonderful experience and felt really good while it lasted. It is not uncommon
to hear programme leaders say that continued success depends on “committed
leadership”. These innovations were dependent on the quality of leadership. When new
processes are not embedded in the system an insensitive official can destroy many
years of hard work. Supportive leadership is, therefore, equally essential to create a
core that can carry the process forward within the organisation. External facilitation
may be necessary up to a point. However, beyond a particular stage, the impetus must
come from within the system.
Creating structures and systems necessary to sustain and make the “innovation” an
integral part of the system is critical. Working through administrative and financial
procedures and negotiating each element of the change process within the system is
vital. Often this is the most routine and painstaking part of the process and most
innovators do not always have the aptitude or the staying power to go through with it
step-by-step. Failure to take on board the finance and administrative requirements can
67 For a detailed discussion on the early phase of the programme see Vimala Ramachandran (ed): Getting Children Back
to School: case studies in primary education, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2003.
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undermine the programme. Often the programme leaders do not include their finance
and administrative staff in programmes training. As a result they do not appreciate
programme issues and go by standard interpretation of rules and financial procedures.
In most cases, programme staff does not see their colleagues in finance and
administration as partners. Consequently, the attitude of the latter is not very
favourable to the former, leading to innumerable bottlenecks. Similarly, creating a
sense of ownership among the larger education community, parents and the
administration is essential if the innovation is to be sustained beyond the tenure of the
pioneer68.
In the late-1980s the Government of Rajasthan initiated a campaign to enrol girls in
school. At the end of the campaign, officials in the women's programme were alarmed
to note that many school teachers sent the girls back home citing space and number
constraints. Here was a doable task, i.e., mobilising communities to send the girls to
school. But since they were not trained to analyse the situation, anticipate problems
and evolve strategies to overcome bottlenecks, unexpected reactions affected
motivation. Equally, the inability of the education system to prepare the schools and
orient the teachers for a sudden influx of children – that too first generation school
goers – led to enormous disappointment and wastage. No wonder that almost ten years
down the line people working in the women’s programme remained apprehensive
about participating in similar enrolment campaigns. Such experiences invariably
dampen the spirit, making every new task more difficult. Anticipating bottlenecks,
discussing them frankly and working out strategies to overcome them, is an integral
part of any successful innovation.
Creating a nurturing environment, giving positive strokes at the right time, reinforcing
the objective of the effort to mainstream quality concerns, reiterating its critical role in
achieving organisational goals of universal elementary education, affirmation and
friendly and constructive criticism – all these go into sustaining the process long
enough for it to leave a lasting impact. Changing attitudes, work-styles and redefining
priorities cannot be achieved overnight. Therefore, reinforcement and affirmation
needs to be seen as an integral part of the process.
At the root of most successful innovations is a recognition of the dynamics of change
and learning. The relationship between ideas and change is dynamic i.e., living through
change is a learning process and this, in turn, provides new insights and new ideas for
action. Action in turn propels change. How people learn, internalise what they learn
and finally apply that knowledge to propel change is a fascinating process. Most
innovative programmes are products of such insights.
It is important to acknowledge that this process is not a purely cerebral exercise.
Knowing something is qualitatively different from internalising that knowledge. Many
of us believe that knowledge and consciousness precedes action. In conventional
development jargon we talk of training and sensitisation. Mechanical transfer of
information does not automatically result in conviction, confidence to act on that
conviction and motivation for action. Innovation is a creative process and which
involves both the mind and the heart. Take any interesting or effective learning
68 Discussing the resistance faced from parents to joyful learning processes in Nalikali Ms Anita Kaul said that the
failure of the programme leadership to take parents into confidence and explain the new teaching learning system could
be attributed to poor communication and negotiation with all the stakeholders. (Presentation made in the Learning
Conference organized by Azim Premji Foundation, Bangalore, July 2004).
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programme – there will certainly be a group of people who feel passionately about the
right of every child to good quality education. It is equally important to recognise that
individuals can trigger change and inject energy – but we need systems to sustain them.
The journey from a successful innovation to a best practice is fraught with challenges.
The fifteen programmes / projects that we have documented have promise. But they
cannot be called “best practices” – as yet. Notwithstanding this caveat, it is possible to
draw important lessons from them, as discussed above.
The overarching message from this exercise is that there are a number of interlocking
elements that go to make the education system. Each one is organically linked to the
other and sustainability hinges on the ability of the pioneers to systematically weave in
practices and processes into the very fabric of the system. Teacher training alone
cannot improve teaching and learning processes nor increase the time spent on the
main task. Addressing administrative, personnel and other issues alongside
accountability systems could help us turn the corner. A systemic, not a piecemeal
approach, is needed even though we may start from one point. A virtuous process
needs to be set in motion where an innovation – even if limited – demonstrates tangible
outcomes. As a result the input processes improve in the next round and the initiative
gathers greater support within the system. The second round could take the practice to
a higher level, further improving outcomes and gaining more champions in the system.
This could – if managed right – set in motion a virtuous spiral of change.
Sustaining innovations or going to scale is not just a techno-managerial exercise. It is
inherently political. Negotiating with people who have entrenched vested interest in
maintaining statusquo cannot be underestimated. The education community watched
with dismay when so many “innovations” are dismantled or allowed to fade away. It is
now fairly well known that the inability of the pioneers to negotiate with the larger
system and build in a sense of ownership is partly responsible for the demise of
promising practices. Equally, excessive dependence on the agency of one individual as
the driving spirit also erodes credibility. We have a lot to learn from failures,
something that requires a lot of courage to interrogate. Unfortunately the trajectory of
failure is rarely documented. May be the time has come to seriously analyse why
innovations with promise are not sustained and what happens when programmes are
taken to scale without adequate preparation. Such an exercise may give us greater
insights and help the government and the non-governmental players to take promising
practices to scale and ensure sustainability.
The futures lie in moving from individual excellence to institutional excellence –
where the government (centre and state) takes pride in turning the education system
around and gear it to deliver good quality education for all.
If we look at the country as a whole a large number of vulnerable children have been
provided access in different ways – from bridge courses to alternative schools, EGS
schools and residential learning centres. However the government also agrees that
small pockets continue to remain problematic and among them are children in very
difficult circumstances – like children of sex workers, migrant labour, nomadic
communities and children with special needs. It is important to reiterate that almost all
vulnerable children and those from very poor households enrol in government schools.
Therefore improving the quality of education in government schools will bring us
closer to the realisation of the equity and quality goals of UEE.
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