Elixir2010
- 1. Stepping Stones • Ashish Kumar • Kshitiz Swaroop • Mahesh Kumar • Mahesh Yadav • Rohit Nijhawan
- 2. Reading and Learning levels are a cause of serious concern. More than half of all Std. 5 children are at least 3 grade levels behind where they should be; also lacking basic arithmetic and English skills Pressing Issues Data suggests that students of minority and some special social categories are dropping out of the schools (ST 34.37%, SC 31.04%) at a higher rate than the national average which is 9.11% for year 2008/09 • Learning Levels 0 20 40 %Dropouts Category Dropout Rates National Average ST SC National primary level dropout trends, by year National primary level dropout trends, by grade Only 61 out of 100 students admitted into class 1 reach 6th standard • School Dropouts • Social Stigma Source: http://schooldropoutprevention.com; http://www.asercentre.org/; www.nird.org.in
- 3. Possible Causes • Absence of accountability and monitoring • Infrastructural Issues • Unavailability of requisite drinking water and toilet facilities, classrooms and libraries seems to be affecting the average student performance. • Current system does not allow fast availability of teaching-assisting material like globes, chart, maps etc. • Teacher- student ratio in most schools stands in direct violation of RTE Norms On the ground level of implementation, current primary education system is not much accountable towards its stakeholders. Teachers, which are the driving elements of the system are observed to be absent from classrooms and their performance is not monitored. Current system also does not involve parents of students into it. • Deteriorating quality of govt. education system • Percentage of children going to private institutions is observed to be increasing • Children in government schools who go to private tutors is18.8% in 2012, while it is only 6% for children going to private schools “The percentage of 6 to14 year olds enrolled in private schools rose from 18.7% in 2006 to 25.6% in 2011. This year this number has further increased to 28.3%”- ASER Report 2012 Source: http://www.asercentre.org/education/India/status/p/143.html Source: http://www.asercentre.org/education/India/status/ p/143.html
- 4. Outline of Proposed Solution We are proposing a two-tier solution which includes: • Introduction of a District level School Monitoring Body (DSMB) • Introduction of a School Magazine ‘PAHAL (पहल)‘ o A new body constituting Elected representative from District Council (Zila Parishad), retired education officials/teachers and people from registered NGO’s will be formed o It will be a monitoring body working at district. Its task will include monitoring the performance of teachers and schools, regulating implementation of RTE indicators and other norms at schools o This body will also act on complains from public domains about administration and working of primary education system o A new magazine for primary school students having two modules (one for class I,II and III and other for class IV,V) o The material will be published in local language which requires low readiness levels so that everyone having it can read it o It will also serve as a medium of communication between school administration and children guardians and will try to make system accountable toward its stakeholders o It also includes material for children guardians, to make them aware about issues of national importance and about the importance of education of their children
- 5. School Magazine “Pahal (पहल) “ Data suggests that every I out of 3 students attending government schools find their class textbooks difficult to understand and unavailability of alternative printed material further decreases their scope to learn. Source: http://www.asercentre.org/p/79.html • It will be a magazine having very low readiness levels and printed in home language with the aim that everyone having it should be able to read the content • Serve the purpose of communication between teachers and parents • Serve as a medium to transfer student performance report to parents A monthly magazine can also serve the purpose of communication between the teachers and literate parents Salient Features of ‘Pahal’ Main focus of the magazine is to develop readiness level, basic arithmetic and reasoning skills of students and preventing the sense of alienation in the students who can not read their standard's textbooks W H Y
- 6. Implementation Details For ‘PAHAL’ Modules Module I - for students of class I,II and III (10-15 Pages) Module II - for class IV and V (10-15 Pages) Note: Care will be taken to ensure that the material is politically correct. Content Content in the magazine will be added at two different levels through a 2-tier editorial team. • Common material will be prepared by state education department of corresponding states for both modules • Specific material like students performance parameters for particular students and other school level issues will be added locally at school level (1-2 Pages) Content readiness level distribution: Module I - 90% material of Std. 1 and 10% material of Std. II Module II- 80% material of Std. II and 20% material of Std. III Content Detail Module I - Std 1: Nursery and kindergarten contents, introduction to basic mathematics, letter (अक्षर) reading and writing Std II: word making, counting, small stories poems Module II- Std II: short stories and poems, Number and word games, introductory content to basic arithmetic Std III: numerical puzzles, writings about national issues and national leaders, application oriented math's and English content Common: It will also have some common content targeted to guardians of students, viz. articles on issues of national or local importance, relevance of education (2-3 Pages) Repeatability Monthly
- 7. District School Monitoring Body (DSMB) The current system lacks accountability towards its stakeholders and is also not monitored properly. Elements of current system do not have much to loose or gain of their personal interest from their performance W H YSalient Features of DSMB: • It will bring effective decentralization and efficient administration into the current system. • Facilitate quick fulfilment of minor infrastructural needs • Maintain online and offline complaint system and work as a fast action team for complaints about teachers and school administration in district Hiring Assignment Supervision Promotion Dismissal Existing Done by State Done by State Little on None in records _______________ Almost Never Proposed Done by state on recommenda tion from DSMB and ZP Done by DSMG on recommendation from ZP Recommendations from ZP to DSMB, Direct complain mechanism to DSMB After 2 year s, on recommendation of School Headmaster and DSMB At will when stage I, At cause on Stage II on recommendation from ZP and DSMB Proposed Teacher Recruitment and Training Scheme DSMB advocates decentralized recruitment of teachers on III levels: GP: Gram Panchayat, ZP: Zila Parisad APPRENTICE ASSOCIATE TEACHER TEACHER After 2 years, performance-based Performance-based
- 8. Implementation Details For DSMB Composition 11 Core Team ZP(1)+District education officer (1)+ Retired teachers /current education officials(9) 10 from NGO’s+ BDO’s Recruitment ZP member nominated by ZP chairmen District education officer by State 3 members by previous year officials Application's for these posts will be accepted, final appointment by core team Regulation 9 Retired teachers /current education officer will have 3 year tenure 3 Members retire from team after every 3 years, team composition- (6+3) 2 Years Responsibilities Monitor teachers attendance (Biometric) and performance, school administration in District, assuring the fulfilment of small infrastructural needs which can be done on district level, Act on complains from public domain Monitor Effective Working of Core Team, Helping core team in decision making and monitoring admiration DSMB will constitute of 11(2+9) core team members and 10 non core(NGO) members. Initial team recruitment will be done by State Education Departments and Zila Parishad DSMB will also invite a private consultant (recommended by state)on yearly basis to monitor DSMB’s performance and find scope of development in performance of District education system
- 9. Impact PAHAL • Develop readiness level, basic arithmetic , application oriented mathematics , English and reasoning skills of students • Save students with low readiness levels from being alienated by providing them additional printed material with basic readiness levels and local language • Make guardians and parents of students, aware about issues of national or local importance and importance of education • Serve as a medium of communication between education bodies, teachers and parents District School Monitoring Body (DSMB) • Work as a Monitoring body including local administration in education system • Expected increase in attendance of teachers in schools • Effective administration by introduction of a fast complaint system • Fast fulfillment of small infrastructural needs • Expected increase in performance of teachers in schools because of 2 tier recruitment system and local involvement
- 10. • http://www.asercentre.org/education/India/status/p/143.html • http://schooldropoutprevention.com • http://www.asercentre.org/p/79.html • www.nird.org.in • planningcommission.nic.in/reports/peoreport/peoevalu/peo_ssa2106.pdf • www.ssa.nic.in • www.asercentre.org/p/62.html References