Examination led reforms
i)
Learning Guarantee Program: This program began with
the objective of identifying schools that met the enrolment,
attendance and learning outcome criteria as defined by
the program. With experience, it moved to a hypothesis
that reforms in examinations would give the right signal
to teacher to move from rote learning to developing understanding
and application of competencies among children. Currently,
LGP is being implemented across 4 states, after running
its course of 3 years in Karnataka. The Karnataka government
has adopted this model for the entire state and set up
the Karnataka School Quality Assessment Organization (KSQAO)
for the purpose. In the other states where LGP has been
on for some time, the State Governments have replaced
their traditional examinations with that of the competency
based examination designed under the Learning Guarantee
Program.
ii)
Teacher Preparation and Support
Developing
a comprehensive syllabus for Teacher Preparation and Support:
A couple of years back, the National Curriculum Framework
2005 was taken forward to design a curriculum framework
for teacher education called the - National Curriculum
Framework for Teacher Education 2006. This framework,
however, needs to be adapted to prepare a comprehensive
syllabus for teacher training institutions and on-going
academic support for teacher to fully utilize it. A group
within the Foundation is engaged in this task of developing
a comprehensive syllabus from the NCFTE 2006 for pre-service
and in-service teachers. This group will also trial this
syllabus in partnership with state governments.
iii) Education Management
We
are today working closely with Karnataka government to
understand and professionalize the education management
system of the state to develop an environment for teachers
and education administrators that is motivating and accountable
for learning outcomes. Currently, we are working in the
following areas:
Helping
Government of Karnataka to re-organize the education system
based on the organisation study by PriceWaterhouse Coopers
of the Karnataka education system
Understanding the role and effectiveness of community
in education – a pilot has been rolled out in 4
clusters across 6 regions of the state.
Developing a culture of using facts, data, Information
Technology and analysis to make decisions within the Government.
More than 2000 education functionaries haven been trained
with more than 15,000 person days of training, possibly
largest such effort in the Government.
Contributing to the development of education administrator
– over the next 18 months, 53,000 education functionaries,
up to head teacher level, will be taken through an intensive
management and leadership capacity development effort.
iv)
Technology as Enhancer and Enabler
Computer
Aided Learning: The program was launched with the
aim of making use of availbale computers in many schools
to improve learning in children. Many government schools
that had computers, however, were not using them as there
was very little educational content available in local
languages. We began developing education content that
was child centric and based on the difficult to teach
topics in the curriculum. The education software that
we have developed over the last few years has been accepted
by several states who had already invested in hardware.
Currently, we have 119 titles in 18 languages, including
3 tribal languages, that are being provided to more than
16,000 schools across 13 states - reaching out to about
2.5 million children.
Technology for Education: This is an effort that
to explore, test and experiment with new technology for
use by the education system in India. The idea is to explore
existing and new technology that will enable and enhance
learning, teacher development and education management
systems.
Education Management Information System (EMIS):
We are piloting with the Karnataka Education Department
a custom designed Education Management Information System
(EMIS) for the whole state that will help to collect and
analyse education data for decision making.
Other interventions
Workbook
for Std.1-8:
The Government of Rajasthan recently invited us to develop
workbooks in the core subjects to supplement the text
books which are already in place. This project was undertaken
in partnership with Digantar and Vidya Bhawan, two non-governmental
organizations in Rajasthan with many years of experience
in school education. This project is to support the teachers
to improve the teaching learning process in schools across
Rajasthan.
Migrant Labour Children’s Education:
Bangalore – to develop and understand what it takes
to meet the education requirements of deprived children
of migrant labour – a group that is multi grade,
multi-level, multi cultural, multi-lingual etc. - in a
relatively short period of time.
Systemic
Change Interventions
Assessment
reform led change:
The Learning Guarantee Program has given us the entry
point to work closely with state governments through assessment
reforms. Using the assessment results, we plan to actively
work with the system towards educational change.
Child Friendly School, Shorapur: The project aims
at a systemic and comprehensive change at the block level
by working closely with each individual school and it's
community to take ownership of its own development. Over
the last few years, each school in the Shorapur block
in Gulbarga, Karnataka has developed an individual 'School
Improvement Plan'. Today, more than 50% of the schools
in Shorapur project are on target to achieving the agreed
quality improvement norms.
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