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