Gyan Shala

 Project Update (May '2003)

Introduction

 Under the six-moth period under review, Gyan Shala entered the last lap of its first phase. While the Gyan Shala team targeted to meet all the project objectives as outlined in the project document, and demonstrate the capacity to undertake and implement the next phase, concerted efforts were also made to finalize the strategy and plan for the second phase that shall commence by mid-2003. During the first phase, the focus was to develop and demonstrate 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, country wise, 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 development 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 experiences of the last six months have convincingly demonstrated that growth and learning trajectory of Gyan Shala is well ahead of what was proposed in the original proposal. As reported, Gyan Shala classes continued to function in selected villages that were started with financial support from VIDE. The diversity among the children, community and teachers in both slums and villages was managed satisfactorily, showing both the sturdiness of Gyan Shala design and the capacity of current team to perform at the planned and projected levels.

Completion of the first phase of development of learning material for all the 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. The learning schedule and material for grade I & II were revised and developed first time for grade III. The pace of learning of various tasks and concepts in all three subject streams of math, gujarathi and project work was adjusted in the light of what appeared feasible on the ground while meeting the terminal competency targets. The plans and initiatives reported in the forth six monthly reports were taken up with good results. The project now has worksheets ready for each day of three years of studies in Gyan Shala for all three streams, and a list and description of group activities that children undertakes under teacher supervision. This means that we have around (230*3*3=) 2070 worksheets ready, having tested these in the classrooms. Almost an equal number of lesson plans have been thought of and communicated to teachers. Around 1350 group activities too have been finalized for the language and math streams. Teacher support material, both in the form of monthly teacher training and daily teacher guide too are in place for each lesson, worksheet and group activity. More than 25 text-story books have been prepared for use in grades I and II while the Government Text book for grade III has been adapted for Gyan Shala needs. From mid-April, 2003, Gyan Shala team would undertake a comprehensive review and redesign of the full set of learning material. The second phase would thus start with a test-proven learning schedule and material which holds promise to make children independent readers and writers with three years of education input on Gyan Shala pattern. To facilitate the transition of children from Gyan Shala to government schools, the state prescribed text book for grade III was used in Gyan Shala grade III, while the second half of the third year saw newspaper as the core text book. From January onward, local language newspaper is being used as the core text in the language component of 3^rd grade class.

Key highlight of Program Implementation and Management

The last six month were characterized by relatively smooth implementation which is indicative of maturity of team and also of 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 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 focused 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. It is clear that the system is under great stress and the cadre of senior supervisors need to be inducted soon to ease work pressure on the core team.  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. The typical family role of teachers in Ahmedabad puts a lot of strain on our lady teachers. The experience reinforced the results of task analysis reported in the last six months that to keep the system in fine fettle, the intermediate hierarchical level of senior supervisors, in between the school supervisor and core team, need to be introduced as early as feasible.

Teacher and staff training

Regular monthly training of both the teachers and field staff continued as planned. In addition, a one week training was organized during Diwali vacation. Gyan Shala team now recognizes that the initial two-week training is insufficient to cover certain academic and pedagogical issues for which the mid-year training during Diwali is the better vehicle. From the next year, the two training modules would be rationalized and strengthened.

With growing training load, more of core team members and some experienced 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. These are critical aspects for maintaining program quality that are not being accorded adequate attention due to paucity of time with the core team.

The period under the report saw a major initiative to upgrade staff competence and skills. A two member team, comprising Prof. Ramakant of Delhi University and Dr. Hriday Kant Dewan of Vidya Bhawan, Udaipur, were invited to conduct a five days workshop to cover the issues in pedagogy, design of learning process, and learning material. All eighteen of senior staff attended this training. The lessons from this are going to feed into the design of training programs that Gyan Shala team conducts.

Children’s performance

In October, 2002, Gyan Shala conducted mid-year assessment of learning achievements for children in all classes. The sample test papers and the comparative performance of children in Ahmedabad, mainly in SRTT supported classes, and in rural areas is given in Annex I. It shows that Gyan Shala is on course to keep the proportion of children scoring upwards of 70% marks above one half. The lower end of the proportion scoring less than 40 per cent is yet to stabilize at less than 10%. We believe that as Gyan Shala succeeds in ensuring regular attendance of children in the class, and streamline the admission process, the academic targets would be fully met.

In April the year end test were administered to children in all grades. The score for Children in Dhragandhra and Patdi are exceptionally good, which makes our team doubt that the result probably reflects some copying by children, which is not difficult in an objective type question paper in a crowded class. We are reconfirming the results and would report shortly.

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

The last six months saw a major forward movement in Gyan Shala’s capacity to ensure smooth transition of children from Gyan Shala to main stream schools. Gyan Shala established regular contact with the Ahmedabad Municipal Authority about the conduct of test for children from Gyan Shala that would enable them to seek admission in grade IV. Two senior officer of Municipal Education Department have visited the project and the necessary arrangements are being finalized. The State Government too is expected to issue a circular that would ensure that children from Gyan Shala classes get admission in mainstream primary schools. 

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 functions 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/ energize parent’s committees.

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-II

Fee Collection

The fee collection as per the approved fee collection policy is continuing though the fee collection is still less than 80%. The assessment by our staff indicated that at least 20% households did have major problem in paying our fee and Gyan Shala has to either forgo fee collection from them or find some other source to compensate for that. The fee collection during the period under review was Rs. 97,231/-. The same for the entire year 2000-2001 was Rs. 150622/-

Financial Report

Table 1 provides the break up of project spending under various heads.

Gyan Shala had received a grant from SRTT under its Small Grants Programme of Rs. 86000/- for commissioning the review of Gyan Shala. The utilization of Rs. 73,048 was reported from that in the last six monthly report. The utilization of remaining amount from this grant is reported in table 2.    

Gyan Shala Project, Phase I

Financial Report (March 1, 2002- April 30, 2003)

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