Gyan Shala

 Project Update (Sept '2003)

Gyan Shala- Phase I

Sixth Six monthly Narrative Report (April, 2003 – September, 2003)

            Topic                                                                                      

I.                    Introduction

II.         Comprehensive Revision of the curriculum and the learning material for reparation for material for grade III and revision of material for all Gyan Shala classes grade I and II

III        Teacher and Staff training

IV.              Children’s performance

V.                 Children’s movement to mainstream at the end of Gyan Shala module

VI.              Highlights of program implementation and management

VII.            Financial Report                                                                      

Annex I: The performance score of children in year-end exam.

Annex II: Resolution and agenda notes for the Governing Board

Introduction

The six-moth period under review signaled the conclusion of phase-I of Gyan Shala. The core objective of phase-I was to develop and demonstrate core curriculum, pedagogy and organization design elements of Gyan Shala model, and demonstrate the potential of this approach in delivering the quality basic education to children from poor rural and urban families, on a mass scale. The first phase was also meant to establish a capable program organization that has a potential to effectively handle the design and delivery of basic education program at scale. The independent review of Gyan Shala, conducted by Dr. Hriday Kant Dewan and Dr. Sanjiv Phansalkar in April 2002 was a major landmark in Gyan Shala evolution. Dr. Dewan is a highly regarded expert in basic education in India who was among the founder members of Eklavya’s Hoshangabad Science Teaching Program (HSTP).  Dr. Sanjiv Phansalkar is a specialist in the management of NGOs and development programs. That review provided early indication that Gyan Shala was on track to achieve all its strategic and operational objectives set out for phase I, and capable of implementing the proposal for phase II, proposed for the period 2003-2007. The last six months saw another review of by Dr. Maxine  Berntsen. Taking the proactive stance, while she endorsed the observation of earlier review about the effective learning attainments by the children in Gyan Shala, she also highlighted the remaining tasks to be accomplished to meet the terminal goal that a fully developed Gyan Shala model would be expected to achieve by the end of concluding phase-II. During the first phase, the focus was on developing and demonstrating selected core aspects of Gyan Shala methodology, second phase will complete the development phase and prepare Gyan Shala to become a significant and strategically important player in the transformation of primary education sector, in the next decade when the country’s attention will shift from universal enrolment to the provision of good quality education. The first phase has seen the development and  credible demonstration of (i) learning methodology and material, (ii) teacher training and support/ supervision, (iii) pilot implementation with the target number of children/ locations, (iv) development of design and implementation capability, and (v) staff/ organizational development.  Gyan Shala was on/ ahead of targets on almost all counts, though there still remain a couple of areas where consolidation of work will show result only in the beginning of enrolment in the new academic year. By the end of phase II, Gyan Shala would have demonstrated a complete package/ approach that provides good quality basic education to children from poor rural and urban families, which can be adapted on a mass scale at a unit cost of education of less than 1/3^rd of current government spending on this count in Gujarat and many other states.

The last six months, in a way, involved moving on to phase –II due to the nature of academic year that starts from mid-June. Gyan Shala therefore started more classes than were visualized in phase-I in June, that would continue into the first year of phase-II. In anticipation of funding approval from SRTT for phase II, and on the basis of existing firm commitments from other partners, a total of 127 Gyan Shala classes were started in June 2003. This number was a little less than the formal proposals under phase-I, as Gyan Shala did not want to stretch the boundaries of its anticipation of approval from SRTT for phase-II. This period also saw the children from the first batch in Gyan Shala completing the Gyan Shala cycle of three years and moving into mainstream government and government accredited private schools in grade IV classes. This provided much needed assurance that Gyan Shala could complement the mainstream primary system, by taking up the responsibility of conducting early primary education and sending children to mainstream public primary schools with strong foundation.

Comprehensive revision of the full range of curriculum and learning material for all Gyan Shala grades I - III

Gyan Shala core team continued its central task of developing and refining/ revising the learning approach and material for all the three grades and the three subject streams. First time, the team had the design of complete set in all subject streams, and also the results of children’s performance in all grades. During the completion of the first round of three years itself, the team had recognized some of its early mistakes, particularly in the language and project modules. Over years, the curriculum and design of material for earlier grades was going through revision and rationalization, but the last six months saw a comprehensive assessment of the entire module and rationalization of its various components, which led to significant changes and improvements in each year’s plans that were evolved in an incremental and piecemeal fashion in the past. In case of the math stream, two major changes were made in the curriculum schedule. In the past, the practice was to first teach children counting and then later take up relationship among numbers. After review, it has been decided to integrate counting and properties of numbers whenever a number is introduced to children.  Second, the addition was taught in the first year only for two numbers, each less than 10. This did not allow children to understand the carry over operation properly. After review, addition of two numbers, each up to 20, is taken up. This necessitates the use of carry over and proper understanding of place value. The curriculum of grade II was earlier limited to numbers up to 100, which has been extended to include all numbers up to 1000. Teaching practices have changed to train children in making rough estimate of an operation by seeing the pattern of numbers involved, and also crosscheck the answer. In grade II, greater emphasis has been placed on mental computations involving place values. Multiplication and division operations are likely to be made more complex in the third grade. After revising the language curriculum, greater time is now allocated in the first year to the learning of alphabets and sounds, while earlier, the emphasis was on site vocabulary and comprehension. More varied text type, including rhymes, are now given to children in each year. The worksheet design was modified to deepen the understanding of  how `matras’ and punctuation marks are used. Greater emphasis is also now placed on listening and speaking while earlier tasks focused mainly on reading and writing.  Teaching methods were modified to teach children how to read with comprehension so that the text-based questions could be answered easily. In the project module, a 15-minute module has been introduced for children to undertake specified activities that promote creative oral expression, competitive inter-play, detailed observations, information seeking, and creative-purposive play. In the second and third grades, time has been allocated for the daily formal teaching of project activities. The worksheet design was changed to obtain a better match between children’s capacity and the complexity of learning tasks. Attempts have been made to revise teaching methods to incorporate more group discussion and play activities, wherever feasible. As in the last year, the amount of learning material development was very large for a five-member team that was responsible for teacher training and field operations as well. Two senior supervisors were inducted in June 2003 to support the core team share workload, from next year onwards.

The team continued the practice of obtaining feedback from the classes while preparing and revising the material. A special focus of material development was to improve teacher guides and the material used in teacher training, both annual and monthly.  The material development team feels that with one more round of revision, the core learning material up to grade II should reach a satisfactory level while another two years would be needed to acquire a similar level of confidence regarding the teacher guides, training materials and grade III materials.

Teacher and staff training

The period under report saw the start of a new academic year and start of Gyan Shala classes in a new rural region in Panch Mahal district with financial support from a new partner. The year end training ofexisting teachers and the initial training of new teachers was undertaken. A total of around 120 new teachers were trained and another 100 odd existing teacher were provided refresher training.  Regular monthly training of both the teachers and field staff too continued as planned. A two day training program was arranged for the supervisors. The design of training program was itself reviewed and modified. The core team decided to strengthen the mid-year training during Diwali as a vehicle for providing conceptual and acdemic input. Therefore, the induction training module was rationalized to focus on operational practices. . From the next year, the two training modules would be rationalized and strengthened.

With growing training load, more of core team members and some senior supervisors are now involved in the training programs. The core team continued to experience acute need of the induction of senior supervisor cadre so that the core team gets the required space and time for class level testing of the material and on-the-spot support to teachers. The induction of three senior supervisor has been made during the period but their contribution would rise only slowly.

Children’s performance

We conducted the year end examination for all children in all grades. The exam results are shown in table 1. The test results were well under par and expectations, in grade III. This partly reflected the weaknesses in the Gyan Shala design and performance of the initial year that could not be overcome even at the end of 3-year cycle. Another reason was the high standard that Gyan Shala expected. Gyan Shala team concluded from the result that the design and grassroots performance had to undergo significant improvement if it s to realize its professed objective fully. The test results for grade I and II also revealed that although the performance at the top end is very satisfactory, the number of children who fail to obtain at least 40 per cent, qualifying marks, in all subjects remains disturbingly high at 10-15 per cent. What this means is that while the Gyan Shala design and performance suits an average child very well, it does not quite respond to the extra needs of some children who may need special help. This implies that Gyan Shala has to evolve new strategy to respond to problem cases in terms of both designing learning material and providing class support. An encouraging aspect of the test results was that children's performance in rural areas matched the performance in urban locations. An inverse normal distribution of results could also be because the test was too tough. The Gyan Shala team will investigate this aspect further and also look at the pattern of internationally recognized standard tests. If resources are available, Gyan Shala might collaborate with a testing organization to conduct detailed and diagnostic study that separates the test design from other factors such as age and regularity in attendance.

Children’s movement to mainstream at the end of Gyan Shala module

In 2003, the first batch of children who joined Gyan Shala completed the three-year module. This batch had to go through the experimental and institutional building phase of Gyan Shala when many ideas had to be revised and tested for suitability. Gyan Shala also had to overcome the credibility gap that a new organization faces. The team however did not relax the learning goals that it has set for children and assessed them for those. As a result, the first batch had a high attrition rate and even failure by children to attain specified levels of learning.

Gyan Shala follows the national and state curriculum framework, but does not use state prescribed textbooks or class processes. It, therefore, can not claim automatic recognition of its internal examination processes. Gyan Shala has worked out arrangements with the concerned local education authorities, the Ahmedabad Municipal Education Board, and the District Primary Education Officers, where Gyan Shala classes are located. Under these, the children are tested by the concerned authority and then enrolled in the higher-grade class on clearing the test. A total of 168 children in Ahmedabad were enrolled in grade III in 2002-2003, who could be tested for admission to grade IV. Out of these, only 146 registered to appear for the formal entrance test. Of the 22 children who did not register, four had gone out of station, four were under-age and hence ineligible to sit, and one was busy in family functions. Seven children had been very irregular in attendance over the last 2-6 months, while one child had felt himself ill prepared. Five of the children had sought admission to other schools, three in grade III, Hindi medium, and two in grade II. Out of the 146 children registered for the entrance test, seventeen did not pass. Four of these did not write the full two days test, not appearing for the test on the second day. As such, these results corresponded to Gyan Shala's internal tests where too around 25 per cent children had below par performance. Out of the 129 children that passed the entrance test, ninety took admission in government primary schools while thirty-eight preferred admissions in private recognized schools. Gyan Shala team had to spend considerable time to organize the logistics of children taking the qualifying entrance test and obtaining birth or age certificate. The team needs to find more efficient ways to handle these tasks in future. An attempt will be made next year that children take the test at the end of year, and not in the beginning of next academic year, along with the children in government primary schools. 

Key highlight of Program Implementation and Management

During the period under review, Gyan Shala entered into a new partnership with Jan Vikas, an Ahmedabad based NGO that is focusing on inter-communal harmony, particularly in the wake of Godhra and post Godhra riots. As an important part of its program package, Jan Vikas wanted to start primary education classes where children from all communities would come together, and where the community’s involvement in the management of this issue of common interest could become a major plank for all sections to work together. Jan Vikas chose Gyan Shala as its partner to set up and mange the classes that are expected to grow to a total number of around 60 over three years. After three years, Gyan Shala would transfer the management of these classes to the community.

The last six month saw the annual stock taking of existing and starting of new Gyan Shala classes. Based upon the analysis of past drop out and irregular attendance studies, the team streamlined the process of starting a new class. The field staff undertook a more organized assessment of community need and worked to energize community involvement in starting the classes. A new set of supplier of furniture was found that brought down the cost of furniture. Other than these changes, the period was, otherwise, characterized by relatively smooth implementation which is indicative of maturity of team and also routinization of both work schedules and problem solving processes. The rural and urban spread of Gyan Shala continued to propel Gyan Shala team to systematize more of operating procedures related to task allocation, operational review of performance and monitoring, though the absence of a tier in proposed organization structure, namely senior supervisors, continued to remain an obstacle for rational work allocation and systematic monitoring. The fee collection, material distribution and attendance analysis were further streamlined. The attempt now is to collect fee in two or three main installments so less time is spent in follow up. The role of supervisors continued to evolve as both the staff became more capable and confident and greater clarity about the importance of different tasks emerged. In effect, this evolution had three key facets. One relates to the allocation of supervisors’ time between in-class support to teacher and community contact. Second relates to the allocation of time between help to weak children and teaching support. The third facet related to supervisors’ competence as teacher trainer. Progress was made in striking better balance on all these aspects, though the process of evolution would continue for some more time, particularly as supervisor training improves and the cadre of senior supervisors is inducted. The period saw a major effort by the team to strengthen supervisor training. The monthly meeting of all supervisors was institutionalized that became an instrument of monthly training input.

The team continued to be troubled by the complexity in ensuring children’s regular attendance and the intensity of efforts needed to ensure that. A large part of team attention remained devoted to this where the progress remains unsatisfactory. Our last six monthly report had considerable discussion of this, and we have not been able to report significant progress on this score. As the external review of children’s absence and drop out had shown, the corrective actions on this score have to be initiated at the time of new admissions. The team has commissioned a field study to better understand/ investigate parents’ attitude to children’s education through focus group discussions. The results of this investigation would feed in the formulation of corrective strategy.

The six months under review further outlined and reinforced our recognition of sheer quantum of work entailed in Gyan Shala pattern. The core team was under continuous pressure to meet the delivery date targets while keeping up the quality parameters. The degree and intensity of the involvement of supervisors and teachers in Gyan Shala classes has led us to think of ways to keep them healthy and functional.

Community Involvement in Gyan Shala

During the last six month, a concerted attempt had been made to activate and strengthen parents’ involvement in both the rural and urban classes. Over March, annual function were held at each location in which around 100-150 parents participated. These functions showcased children’s capacity on a variety of fronts, both curricular and extra-curricular. Apparently, these events were highly appreciated and have generated a positive feeling about Gyan Shala. In the coming months, this would be used to streamline and strengthen the admissions process, and to regularize parent’s committes.

Governance

The Governing Board was reconstituted at the end of last three year term. Shri Deep Joshi, CEO, Pradan, and Shri Arvind Sharma, Chairman-Leo Burnett, and Prof. MS Sriram of IIMA came on the Board while Prof. Jagdeep Chhokar and Prof. Rajesh Agrawal sought withdrawal from Board membership, at the end of two consecutive terms.  The Board met on January 13, 2003. A copy of the agenda notes and minutes of meeting are attached as Annex-III

Annex II 

Education Support Organization

Minutes of the meeting of the Governing Board held at the Core House,

on July 21, 2003 at 2.30-4.00 p.m.

1.      The minutes of the Board meeting held on January 13, 2033 were approved.

2.      The Board too note that 122 of 133 students, that were in grade III and appeared in  the test for admission into grade IV, could be admitted into various mainstream schools with Ahmedabad municipal limits and in the area of Ahmedabad district school board. The Board suggested that we need to appraise senior people, such as Secretary (Education), or even Minister (Education) about the operational bottlenecks in the administrative procedures/ machinery involved in testing and admission process so the problems encountered in our first attempt are not repeated again. It was also suggested that efforts should be made to communicate the exact nature and performance of Gyan Shala to the larger constituency of decision makers and opinion leaders through various means, including public media. This would be help in securing necssary support for various aspects of Gyan Shala. Shri Arvind Sharma and Shri BM Vyas offered to provide support for this.

It was also pointed out that Gyan Shala team needs to review and improve its internal operations so the children’s performance is further raised so no child fails the external examination.

The phenomenon of significant drop-out of children was noted and it was resolved that asides from existing initiatives to understand the parent’s perspective through focussed group discussion, the possibility of IIMA/IRMA students doing relevant assignments related to this problem would be explored. Shri Arvind Sharma agreed to support/guide such studies.

3.      It was decided that the Chairman may constitute a suitable committee to review and assess the performance of core team members so they could be considered for promotion to normal scale of core-team.

4.      A number of  alternatives were considered for the training of core team members, that included the training provided by Brahma Kumari Ashram, IRMA and IIMA. This issue will be further considered by the program committee to decide an appropriate mix of training for various core-team members.

5.      Gyan Shala team is not ready to explore the best way to handle mid-day meal scheme and at present, the focus must be to perfect and standardize the core model for basic education delivery.

6.      As far as the emerging proposal for setting up Gyan Shala classes for minorities is considered, ESO should presently maintain its core character to address the education needs of all sections that live in any chosen neighborhood. Within this all inclusivew focus, Gyan shala classes may well be set up in neighborhood with preponderance of minority population but the core curriculum of Gyan Shala will have to adhered. Once Gyan Shala model is recognized as an appropriate mainstream approach, ESO will be in a better position to address special needs of any particular community or section of population.  

7.      As a conscious policy, Gyan Shala has so far kept a low profile with the premises that we should present it to outside constituencies only when the model is adequately tested, demonstrated and mature. It was however pointed out in the meeting the modeal development and evolution is an ongoing process and now that considerable evidence is available of the utility and effectiveness of Gyan Shala design, it might be useful to join broader efforts of policy evolutions/ advocacy.     

8.      The Board considered the possibility of inviting someone on the Board with existing or past linkages with the government/ administrative set up. The approach of Sadguru trust of setting up advisory committee in this regard too could be examined.

9.      The formal decision of funding of the second phase of Gyan Shala is still awaited. Chairman would continue to follow this up.

10.  The meeting was attended by Shri BM Vyas, Prof. Veena Mistry, Shri Deep Joshi, Prof. Pankaj Chandra, Prof. MS Sriram, and Pankaj Jain. Prof. Tushaar Shah and Shri Ajay Mehta could not attend.

Consolidated Statement of Expenses on VIDE supported classes

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