Stepping Stones
Enhancing the quality of primary education in India
Team Swadesh
IIM Calcutta
Quality primary education is still a dream - India
Is education for all a possibility?
Children do not complete primary education in India
58%
Rural children in standard five can fluently read a standard two text book
Only 50%
2
Just drafting RTE act will make a difference?
Children in India are two or more years below their
grade level
10 crore
7.95 lakh teachers who appeared who appeared for
Central teacher ability test failed
Over 99%
Owing to the family pressure to
earn and children low interest
causes low enrolment rate
Students Enrollment
Quantity v/s Quality
Our every education initiative is
based on numbers rather than
imparting quality education
Teachers Motivation
India is lacking quality teachers
who are motivated to teach
especially in rural areas
Infrastructure
Lack of Infrastructure and high
students - school ratio is a main
reason for low enrolment
Problem
Identification
Though India is facing multiple challenges but we can’t afford to miss out on primary education Team Swadesh
The problem increases manifolds for girl education
3 Special focus is required to change the mindset towards girl’s education
Reluctance
of parents Parents in rural
areas are always over
cautious in sending their
girl child to school
School Mother Take home relation Cycles • Poor families can not spare money for commute, or are reluctant to let girls travel to
neighbouring villages • Cycle can go a long way in reducing drop out rates for
girls
School feeding and take home food rations have proven effective in some
countries in improving enrolment and
productivity of girls
• They will support girls, provide advice to parents, and become a voice for advocacy and support
• They would guide girl students on issues of health and sanitation
Team Swadesh
Develop
Infrastructure
to
aid teaching &
learning
• Hold a “Teacher Eligibility Test” for motivated individuals without degrees to teach in schools subject to continual evaluation
• Change the salary structure from current seniority based to performance based system
• Provide additional remuneration for other responsibilities undertaken apart from teaching
• Bring avenues of additional sources of income to interested teachers through e-tutoring, content creation, app creation, creating multimedia content, assessment creation etc.
• Make computer-aided learning an integral part of teachers' pedagogy and classroom process
• Ensure all-time availability of the prescribed infrastructure and hardware through tie ups with ITC’s kiosks in rural India
• Develop devices operating on solar power to combat the electricity problem in rural India
• Engage students through games which make them learn with fun & also provide good quality digital learning material
• Continuously train the teachers through use of best in class technology to upgrade their skills
• Use ‘Hub & Spoke’ Model for training of teachers & utilize contents from ‘MOOC’
• Have a transparent system for transfers and promotions
• Reduce administrative responsibilities of teachers to the minimal
• Ensure that they don’t need to double up as survey collectors and Government campaign administrators
• Recognize and reward commitment to service, punctuality and discipline
Motivate and
train existing
teachers of
primary school
Attract
appropriate
talent
to teaching
profession
What can be done to improve education level
4 Problem resolution: The way forward Team Swadesh
Design the compensation with 30% fixed (decided on seniority basis) and 70% variable(linked to performance)
The variable pay shall be linked to the timesheet entry and shall be remunerated on the basis of number of hours entered
The teaching hours would be recorded in the timesheet through finger swipe in and swipe out of the teacher. Without it entry wouldn’t be created
Promotion shall only be granted on the basis of performance history of the teacher
Identify all kinds of administrative functions within the school
Design a daily timesheet entry system at the school accessible through fingerprint
Classify teaching hours & non-teaching hours based on the above tasks and remunerate accordingly with better remuneration for teaching hours
Additional Income Avenues
Identify activities related to the teaching learning process which shall enhance effectiveness of the process
Some of the activities could be e-tutoring, content creation, app creation, creating multimedia content, assessment creation etc.
Identify individuals who are capable and interested in the above activities and provide them an opportunity to earn more
Train them appropriately to carry out the identified activities efficiently
Remunerate for each of the additional activities in an appropriate manner
Teacher Eligibility Test
Hold an All India level teaching aptitude test followed by a probationary period and later if found suitable induct him/her to mainstream teaching subject to performance appraisals
Provide certification and appropriate postings to candidates who clear the test
Change Salary & Promotion Structure
Ways to Implement
Remunerate Function Wise
Talent Development in Practice
5 Develop Talent Motivate Talent Aid Talent through IT Team
Swadesh
6 Develop Talent Motivate Talent Aid Talent through IT
Development of Intrinsic Motivation in Teaching Staff
Recognition and Reward System
• A reward system could be started wherein teachers would be awarded for their contribution in different fields or for trying out new ways of teaching which helped improve results and reduce dropout rates
• The rewards should be standardized and promoted across the country so that the awarded teachers could benefit in terms of better opportunities apart from being recognized
Clearly defined and limited responsibilities
• Identify the areas of expertise of various teachers and their willingness to take up the responsibilities
• Assign them clearly defined responsibilities
• Incentives those who are ready to perform extra task but make sure their already assigned responsibilities are not hampered
• Proper monitoring mechanism should be implemented to make it a success
Transparent system for transfers and promotions
• Clearly defined standard guidelines should be in place regarding transfers and promotions
• A transparent system should be implemented so that nobody feels cheated
• Grievances, if any, should be addressed properly. A grievance redress cell could be formed at district level to make this possible
Technology as skill enhancer
• Using IT develop, share and rank teaching material
• Enhance accessibility of teaching material by providing internet and portable devices
• Update curriculum timely with collaboration among teachers, students, academicians etc.
Way
s to
Imp
lem
ent
Team Swadesh
Talent Aid System (TAS)
Developing relevant
curriculum
Developing educational and training
material
Distributing educational and training
material
Developing Infrastructure
• Tie up with experts and a central board (CBSE) to develop curriculum for pan country government schools • The curriculum to be developed should cater to the students who cant buy expensive books and research materials
A system which encourages the mass participation of experts and teachers in developing curriculum for the schools participating in it
The TAS to have efficient educational and training material (digital/paper based) to aid teachers to teach the class
• Teachers can use this materials to get information/ lecture notes of expert teachers • The teachers can write/request to edit the material if they find some errors • Teachers can act as discussant or facilitator
Distribution of material through a central repository platform which can be accessed by teachers and students
• Distribution of material through internet to ensure availability at all times • The number of times a teacher accesses/ requests for questions/edit can be used to determine the teachers performance
Developing the desired infrastructure by the use of multinationals and support of local people
• Rope in companies like ITC which have rural penetration for resource sharing • Convince companies to install solar panels in the villages to tackle power problem • Convince companies to invest as CSR activities
7 Develop Talent Motivate Talent Aid Talent through IT
IT Enabled Talent Management
Team Swadesh
8
Post IT Implementation Scenario
Facilities With Dedicated IT set up Facilities With Shared IT set up
Enhanced teaching learning process with IT enabled system
A teacher wants to revise a topic for a class next week but the school has no
computer
The teacher goes to a community center in his village which has been integrated
with TAS to get the information
Finds a list of relevant materials which is sorted based on the their review
ratings from past users
Also finds some videos ,teaching notes, question papers etc. from other
teachers
Teacher prints the required material and his feedback is taken to improve
content ranking
A teacher wants to revise a topic for a class next week. There’s a computer in faculty room along with a TV and CD player in every class
The teacher uses internet to access TAS and searches for the required information
Finds a list of relevant materials which is sorted based on the their review ratings from
past users
The teacher burns a CD of the videos and plays them in class to augment regular
teaching
The teacher based on the classroom experience adds feedback to the videos and rates them accordingly for future references
Team Swadesh
9
Implementation Timeline & Required Policy Interventions & strategic alliances for Proposal Success
Change in policy framework post implementation of the proposals critical to its success
Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov
Recruit new teachers through teachers eligibility test and appoint helpers for infrastructure maintenance
Make changes in the reward structure of teachers along with promotion & transfer guidelines & effectively communicate it to them
Install/hire computers and other teaching aids for rural and urban schools as required. Minimum 1 computer in each village
Start the training program of students and teachers through ‘MOOC’ using a ‘Hub & Spoke model’
Implement the Talent aid system across schools and train the users regarding its usage and advantage
Make the requisite policy interventions & strategic alliances as outlined below to support the change initiative
Policy Interventions – Make Learning outcome explicit goal
of education policy and focus on accurate measurement measures
– Launch a campaign for supplemental instructions targeted to minimum absolute standard of learning for all children
– Pay urgent attention to teacher governance for better monitoring and supervision as well as teacher performance measurement and management
Strategic Alliances – Build alliance with like minded
NGO’s with similar vision for eg. Teach for India for additional qualified manpower, technology and study material
– Alliance with companies like ITC with good rural presence to leverage on their infrastructure
– Alliance with IT & telecom vendors to develop robust IT systems & properly maintain IT infrastructure to facilitate the teaching learning process
Team Swadesh
10
Financial Viability of our Proposed Solutions
This would impact approximately 25 lakh primary school teachers and help 7.5 crore primary school students in exercising their Right To Education (RTE)
Tota
l Fu
nd
ing
Req
uir
ed
Technology Cost
Creating platform
Server Costs
Communication
Organizational Cost
Logistics & Infra Cost
Rural penetration
Solar panels
Additional Teachers & Experts
Rewards & Recognitions
Salary & Remuneration
A well planned cost analysis will reduce the load of government as well as a common man
Hiring 300 teachers and assistants ~7.5 crores
Yearly rewards to be given region wise ~0.32 crores
~nearly equal (since only structure is changed)
Introduce competitions in big colleges ~ 10 lac
Tie up with BSNL to provide network ~1 crore
~7.82 crore
Use cloud computing on Google /use channels on YouTube ~ 50 lac
25 supervisors ~50 lakh
Reaching 300 villages without electricity ~ 1.5 crore
~2.00 crore
~1.60crore
Team Swadesh
11
Concept & Implementation Risks with Mitigation Measures
Concept Risks & Mitigation Measures Implementation Risks & Mitigation
Measures
Successful identification of risks and mitigation of them almost ensures success of the proposal Team Swadesh
Social
Political
Technological
Economic
PEST Analysis
Social
Political
Technological
Economic
PEST Analysis
States with different political affiliation than the centre may oppose the idea
States have to be brought onboard by clearly communicating to them the benefits their respective states would incur
Government may not find the model viable to fund it
Government has to made aware of how the benefits of the program clearly outweigh the costs in the long term
Existing teaching staff might resist the proposal
They need to be clearly communicated that it would allow them to focus on their core competency and the system would aid them in it
Unavailability of adequate technology & lack of its impact assessment might prevent the proposal to take off
The right IT vendor has to be selected and partnered with and made to understand the entire proposal before implementation phase
Certain states might agree to the proposal in concept but due to adverse conditions prevalent currently in the state might want to delay implementation
The implementation should be done phase wise in states & right time for each should be determined before embarking the process
The current economic state of a state might prevent it from implementing the proposal
Centre shall identify such states in advance and allocate its budget for this program accordingly and help such states implement the system
Old teaching staff might stall the implementation of the program in the fear of reduction of power & authority
They need to be made aware that they would have assistance in carrying out their duties & have an opportunity to earn more & do less of administrative jobs
Lack of basic infrastructure in rural areas may hinder successful functioning of IT systems
Appropriate backup measures have to be kept in place to offset the disruptions due to lack in infrastructure like systems running on solar power/batteries
References
12
1.) India’s Education Crisis - http://www.teachforindia.org/about-us/india-education-crisis 2.) Annual Status of Education Report, 2012 3.) India demographics profile 4.) Primary Education in India needs a fix. Forbes India -http://forbesindia.com/article/briefing/primary-education-in-india-needs-a-fix/35287/1 5.) Education’s primary problems - http://www.financialexpress.com/news/education-s-primary-problems/948273/1 6.) Using evidence for better policy: The case of primary education in India- http://www.ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=119
Team Swadesh
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