annual report - centre for learning resources · a kodak engineer invented the world's first...

Annual Report2016-17

CONTENTS

1. Director's Message

3. About CLR

4. Early Childhood Care and Education

16. Working with other NGOs

17. Elementary Education

20. Other Professional Activities

22. Funding / Acknowledgments

CONTENTS

1. Director's Message

4. About CLR

5. Early Childhood Care and Education

17. Elementary Education

20. Working with other NGOs

21. Other Professional Activities

24. Funding / Acknowledgments

A senior IT industry official, while speaking recently to a group of university students, laid

out a vision of how banks would look ten years from now. Most of the jobs that we currently

see in the industry would be gone, replaced by a new set which he described in considerable

detail.

I thought he was absolutely correct about the kind of jobs that would be gone. And mistaken

in even attempting to predict what the replacement jobs would look like in ten years.

We just don't know.

Toys R Us, the storied toy store, beloved of generations of parents, just filed for bankruptcy.

People still buy toys – they just don't need the skills Toys R Us employees have. They order

from Amazon instead.

A generation ago, we would hear of the demise of a particular business model once in several

decades. Today, it happens in a few years.

A Kodak engineer invented the world's first digital camera in 1975. Kodak commissioned a

study of the impact of filmless photography in 1981 and chose to do nothing to move away

from film. As late as 2007, they had fallen far enough in public perception that they released a

marketing video claiming they, too, were on the digital bandwagon. In 2012, they filed for

bankruptcy. From 1975 to 2012, it took 37 years for the reckoning to come for being stuck in

the past.

Engineers at Xerox invented the world's first computer with a window-based graphical user

interface in 1973, a full decade before Apple would do so. But Xerox was so blinded by what it

was already doing that it could see little potential in the new invention. Devastated by the

oversight, it went to the edge of bankruptcy in 2000 and has flirted with it ever since, breaking

up into two in 2016. It took four decades for the lack of insight to come home to roost.

M Pesa, a money transfer service, was launched by a mobile phone service provider in Kenya

in 2007, and by 2011 had already demonstrated that traditional banks were not needed for

efficient payments. In 2015, Reserve Bank of India issued eleven licences for “Payment

Banks” to entities not one of which was a traditional bank. In 2017, a bare ten years since the

M Pesa revolution in Kenya, it is universally agreed that banks' profitable payments business

is dead.

Uber was founded in 2009. In eight short years, it has upended traditional taxi services in 633

cities around the world, caused consternation among regulators and survived thousands of

efforts to shut it down. When City of London announced a few days ago that Uber's licence

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE

Annual Report2016-17 1

would not be renewed, more than 500,000 people signed a petition protesting the decision.

Even if Uber fails to keep its service alive, it will not be replaced by traditional taxis, just other

more culturally-attuned app-based operators.

And when Elon Musk, who has given the venerable Toyota a run for its money by using

disruptive technology in automobiles, implores governments around the world to set up task

forces to pay attention to what Artificial Intelligence may do to our society, it is time to sit up

and pay attention.

Not just business models, social models are shifting at increasingly rapid speeds.

Relationships are being mediated through digital channels, opinions are being formed and

un-formed with completely new types of inputs, and cultural values have far shorter lives

than we have been used to.

It is in this world that our politicians, bureaucrats and the occasional educationist are seeking

to define what our children should learn. They have been quarrelling over which centuries

should get space in our children's minds. Depending upon the prejudice, the bias, the th thpreference, it could be anywhere from 10 century BC to 20 century AD.

stBut not the 21 century AD.

st21 century AD is the century of not-knowing, the century of shifting sands, the century of

uncertainty and ambiguity. This is the century of creating knowledge, not receiving

knowledge. It asks for fluidity, movement, understanding and dialogue.

What kind of knowledge will prepare our children for this century? The honest truth is that,

like much else, we do not know. But it may actually be easier to answer the related question:

What kind of education will prepare them for it?

It seems to me that this question will require educators to think about two seemingly

contradictory impulses.

On the one hand, there is the urgent need to develop skills to engage with change. The

importance of the faculties of critical reflection, creative inquiry, presence and rejection of

dogma has long been talked about among educators but, perhaps because the pace of change

was so glacial, its need has never before been so acute. Today, however, we are at a point

where every child who grows up without these skills will be at grave danger of being, at best,

irrelevant to the world around him and, at worst, fodder for increasingly sophisticated

schemes for subjugation of the mind. The need today is to create a new education based on

the science of attention, inquiry and presence.


On the other hand, in a world that provides so little by way of moorings, there is a deep

psychological and social need for meaningful anchors. An education that cannot provide

insights into morally validating and emotionally satisfying bases for living is not just

incomplete, but dangerous for coherence and well-being of our communities. Education

today requires the fostering of a sense of dialogue, of interdependence, of dedication to

others. While, traditionally, organised religions were tasked with this responsibility, they have

clearly failed to create a more just and coherent society. The need today is to create a new

education based on the religion of togetherness, respect and larger purpose.

While the first tends to valorise the abilities that reside in the individual, the second requires

careful, loving attention to our context and surroundings. Tensions between them have

played out throughout our history, but never before has there been a greater need to do both

together.

The stark challenges before humanity may provide the perfect opportunity for us to move

beyond this long-standing debate. It can be done, but it requires of us impulses more worthy

than colonisation of young minds.

Chittaranjan Kaul


ABOUT CLR

BACKGROUND

The Centre for Learning Resources (CLR) was established in Pune in 1984. It is a unit of The Society for Educational Improvement and Innovation (SEII), a non profit educational institution which is registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860, the Bombay Public Trust Act of 1950 and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act of 1976.

GOALS

The expansion of elementary education and early childhood education in India has often not been matched by a similar concern for the quality of teaching and learning. Our primary goal is to support large scale government (and non-government) organizations working in early childhood development and primary education to achieve sustainable improvement in teaching and learning. Towards this, we aim to enhance the capacity-building facility within the government system in areas of pedagogy, strategy and critical management and leadership skills. We specifically target large scale projects in government organizations across urban and rural areas. This is because the concern towards quality of implementation and outcomes in such systems is severely inadequate. This adversely impacts the largest sections of the underprivileged communities and results in millions of very young children being deprived of care and education, school dropouts and dismal learning levels in school going children.

Our core approach involves a decentralized multi-layer, multi-cycle capacity building process that seeks to achieve greater performance at each level of the system's cascade in areas of teaching, training, supportive supervision and coaching, planning and reflection and problem-solving.

MAIN ACTIVITIES

Our key activities include,

1. Systemic capacity building aimed at improving quality of early childhood education in Anganwadi Centres

2. Systemic capacity building aimed at improving quality of English language teaching in elementary schools

3. Systemic capacity building aimed at improving quality of home and centre-based caregiving practises for children between birth and three years

4. Ongoing research to support systematic iterative improvements in programs and build an evidence base for advocacy efforts

5. Consultancy in curriculum development, educational project design, academic and other research inputs to schools, NGO's and government agencies, funding organizations, and international bodies


EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION

SAJAG LONGITUDINAL STUDY

A 5 year study to understand the long term impact of good parenting practices in

Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh

Sajag Longitudinal Study was initiated

in the year 2014 after completion of

Sajag, a parent education programme

that had covered nearly 12,000 families

across 168 villages in Rajnandgaon.

Soon after the completion of Sajag, the

Sajag Longitudinal Study was initiated

to (i) track the long term impact of

continuing CLR intervention on the

quality of the home environment for

children and the actual development of

children along key domains and (ii) to

develop a scalable package for delivery

of the home- based psycho-social stimulation messages for children up to six years, based on

the themes of touch, talk and play. A total of 200 families from Rajnandgaon that had earlier

participated in Sajag were selected for the program.

In the first year of the study, the first drafts of

the home visit modules were developed and

regular home visits were conducted by the two

CLR members in all 200 families. Apart from

this numerous toy making sessions were also

held with caregivers. In the year 2016-17, along

with home visits, focus group discussions with

the caregivers in each of the villages were

introduced and very well received. During these

focus group discussions, caregivers were

encouraged to speak on their experiences of

engaging in activities with their children. This not only informed and inspired other

caregivers but also helped in initiating more discussions around this topic.

CLR members discussing the home visit module during Parabhaitak

Caregiver engaged in play with the child


Focus groups were also used as a

platform to reiterate the benefits of

psychosocial stimulation messages

through picture discussions.

After 14 months of intervention, a

formative assessment of the program

was conducted in Sep-Oct 2016 to

assess the improvement in the quality

o f h o m e e n v i r o n m e n t . Po s t

assessment, the module for 3-6 years

was revised. Emphasis was laid on

school readiness activities that the

parents can practice with children with

resources available at home. The home visiting process underwent some revision as well. The

initial home visiting process involved picture discussion on psychosocial stimulation

messages, revis ion and solving

problems, if any. In the new home

visiting process, along with picture

d i s c u s s i o n s , C L R m e m b e r s

demonstrate the activities parents can

do with their child. The parents are also

encouraged to try the activities in the

presence of the CLR members.

Caregiver going through home visit module during parabhaitak

Focus group discussion during parabhaitak


FULWARIS (COMMUNITY-RUN DAY CARE CENTRES)

Strengthening Integrated Care of Children Below Three )

CLR undertook this project with the aim of designing a scalable and contextually suitable

model for a day-care centre (Fulwari) managed by tribal mothers, which provides integrated

care (health, nutrition and psychosocial

development) to children up to three years.

SHRC, Chhattisgarh, introduced the Fulwari

programme as a pilot in the tribal district of

Sarguja in northern Chhattisgarh with the

objective of serving as a nutrition-center for

children under three years and providing

psychosocial care as a part of the Fulwari

routine. The development and capacity

building for scale-up of the psychosocial

routine is designed by CLR in partnership

with SHRC, and supported by UNICEF.

During the current year, CLR collaborated with a consultant architect to design training

manuals for various improvements in fulwari infrastructure and making the place more child-

friendly. These included construction of a

smokeless chulha to ensure the play-space was

smoke free, a light-ingress mechanism for the

fulwaris so that the play area was better lit, a sand

pit for children to play in, and construction of a

tricycle for children. These manuals were printed

and distributed across all the 3000 fulwaris across

the state and will be distributed to new fulwaris as

they come up. Fulwari coordinators of all districts

were trained for these interventions in the

monthly meetings conducted by SHRC.

Hand made toys in phulwari using old cloth bits

Fulwari Manuals


Apart from this, the MTs (Master trainers) were supported on an on-going basis in their

efforts to encourage usage of Play posters that were introduced in the fulwaris earlier.

Along with this toy making has received a lot of interest by mothers, master trainers and

block coordinators. Toys are being made using locally available materials. Since the

fulwaris look more attractive and have more toys, more children have been attending and

children stay for longer hours.

Toys made using locally available resources

Children playing with a hand made tricycle

A child playing with hand made toys


Children playing with a hand made tricycle

CARING FOR SEVERE ACUTE MALNOURISHED (SAM) CHILDREN

Nutrition Rehabilitation Centers (NRC), a scheme under the Department of Health, is a unit

in a health facility where children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) are admitted for

ensuring medical and nutritional therapeutic care. Special focus is given on timely, adequate

and appropriate feeding of children and on improving the skills of mothers and caregivers on

complete age-appropriate caring and feeding

practices. In addition, efforts are made to build the

capacity of mothers and caregivers through

counselling and support, to identify the nutrition and

health problems in their children.

In 2015-16, CLR designed the package for introducing psychosocial stimulation in the

routine of the NRC. A training workshop was also conducted for feeding demonstrators on

the same. Monthly supportive supervision visits were made to implement various strategies

of touch, talk and play in the NRC routine.

Based on an assessment of our earlier interventions in

six pilot NRC's, CLR designed a final package for

capacity-building of Feeding Demonstrators, cooks,

senior NRC officers and caregivers. The package

includes video clips for training on feeding practices

and play activities at the NRC and a training manual for

the staff of NRC.

Monitoring visits have

continued to strengthen

implementation across the six NRCs in Raipur, Durg, Dhamtari,

Tilda, Jagdalpur and Ambikapur. Along with an improvement in

the atmosphere of the NRC, it has also been noted that the

relationship between mothers and

the staff of the NRC has become

more cordial. This has directly

impac ted the r egu l a r i t y and

effectiveness of the 4 follow-up visits

that a mother is expected to make to

the NRC after the child has been

discharged. This significantly

“ I like making toys for children. Some

mothers are very creative, they give

me new ideas”

- Cook- Tilda NRC

NRC training manual

NRC

training DVDs


increases the likelihood that the

improvement in the nutritional status

of the child during his NRC stay will be

sustained. Toy making is being regularly

practiced. Mothers with the help of the

NRC staff make a variety of toys with

easily available materials. This has added

to the play environment in the NRCs. Apart from making the children much happier, it has

also resulted in better appetite among children, a key objective for the NRC.

Based on some of these positive outcomes, CLR also designed and delivered a training

workshop for the staff of three NRCs in Narayanpur district, one of the most sensitive

districts in Chhattisgarh. These NRCs are run by Ramakrishna Mission and supported by

UNICEF in collaboration with Chhattisgarh government.

Going forward, an end-line study will be

undertaken in the six NRCs to assess the

overall impact after a year of

implementation. Also, UNICEF,

Government of Chhattisgarh and CLR are

discussing a plan to scale up this program

across all the NRCs of the state. The state

government has already included the scale-up in its plans for next year and budgetary

approvals are awaited.

“Earlier mothers would think I am a doctor and

always be scared of me, but now that we

interact with them as friends, they are not

threatened. In fact some of them don't feel like

going back home.”

- Feeding Demonstrator- Jagdalpur NRC

“I am coming for the second time. Earlier when I

came with my older child, things were not like this.

Now for this younger one, I nd it easier to feed him

since he plays more and also does not complain

while taking feed.”

- Mother- Dhamtari NRC


LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FOR EFFECTIVE ECCE

IMPLEMENTATION IN ICDS

ICDS Leadership Programme

CLR's ICDS Leadership Programme

was designed in response to the dearth

o f i n s t i t u t i o n a l c a p a c i t y i n

implementing good quality ECCE. The

ICDS Leadership Development

program aims to enhance leadership

capacities of DPOs, DWCDOs,

CDPOs and Supervisors to support

Anganwadi Workers in delivering

effective ECCE in Anganwadis. The

p r o g r a m m e d e s i g n w h i c h i s

participative, sustainable and low cost,

presents a framework that can be replicated in any large scale capacity building programme.

The ICDS capacity building process covers three broad areas-

Ÿ Pedagogical Leadership (technical cognitive sciences and ECCE-related concepts

and practices)

Ÿ I n s t i t u t i o n a l L e a d e r s h i p

(understanding implementation

sciences, monitoring, coaching,

assessment, motivation, etc.)

Ÿ Community Leadership (engaging

t h e c o m mu n i t y a n d e l e c t e d

representatives in ECCE, creating a

two-way flow of engagement)

These areas of Leadership are covered in 8-9

incremental training cycles over the project life cycle. CLR conducts the State Level training

for district and project level officers (District project Officers (DPO's), District Women and

Child Development Officers (DWCDO's) and Child Development Project Officers

(CDPO's)) and provides them on-going support at the District or Project level.

A Supervisor to AWW training session in progress

Cycle 3 CDPO training session in progress


The DPOs and CDPOs in turn, train, monitor and mentor the next level of officers,

who in turn extend the same support to their direct reports. This implementation

strategy is based on four core principles

Ÿ Triple hat Leadership Development

Process (each level accepts responsibility

as trainer, monitor and mentor)

Ÿ Mindful Cascade ( incorporates

experiential training, feedback loops,

reflective practice and peer-coaching into

capacity-building)

Ÿ Sp i r a l Deve lopmen t (mu l t i p l e

incremental cycles, recurrent review of

implementation and building upon

previously learnt material)

Ÿ Intra-cycle and Inter-cycle feedback

The following figure represents the activities in a typical cycle.

This program is currently in progress in Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.

ICDS Cycle

Training Implementa�on and coaching

CLR

DPO

CDPO

Supervisor

AWW

CLR

DPO

CDPO

Supervisor

AWW

DWCDO Mr. Raj Kumar Jambulkar conducting story telling session with AWC children


ICDS Leadership Programme, Chhattisgarh

The ICDS Leadership programme in Chhattisgarh covers the 5 districts of Surajpur,

Mungeli, Durg, Dhamtari, and Bastar. In

a d d i t i o n , t h e p r o g r a m m e i s b e i n g

implemented, on their own initiative, in the

districts of Sukma, Ambikapur and Balod by

officers who were earlier in one of these five

districts but were transferred. CLR conducts

the State level training for the DPOs,

DWCO's and CDPOs. CDPOs train their

respective supervisors and the supervisors

train their anganwadi workers. Each level also

provides monitoring and mentoring support

to their direct reports to ensure that the ECCE programme is effectively delivered at the

anganwadi level. In total the programme involves 5 DPOs and 5 DWCDOs, 25 CDPOs,

nearly 300 Supervisors and around 7,000 Anganwadis.

This year CLR completed the third cycle of ICDS Leadership training in the month of

January 2017 for the DPOs and CDPOs. The main pedagogical area covered in the training

was language development through story telling. The areas covered

under ins t i tu t iona l

l e a d e r s h i p w e r e

training, coaching,

m o n i t o r i n g a n d

assessment. At present

the third cycle of

t r a in ings i s be ing

implemented in the

programme districts.

The successful completion of implementation will be followed by the

fourth cycle of implementation.

Supervisors have become more time bound and

are in no hurry to leave during ILP training

sessions. They are now involved in the process

and can understand things better. Supervisors

shed their inhibitions and tried out story telling

better expressions and voice modulation. This

will help in improving the quality of ECCE in

AWCs.

CDPO Dhamtari

Children engaged in " Pirona Activity" during freeplay

Child making shapes out of mud during creative activity


On the rst day of training, as a trainer when

I asked questions, all AWWs would speak

together. They would keep quiet when asked to

reply one by one. Today everyone spoke in their

turn. Maybe all were not coherent but at least

they tried opening up.

Supervisor Dhamtari

It was my rst ECCE training experience. At the

Department Level, I am in the role of a leader. I was

hesitant at rst but I had a lot of support and could

overcome my hesitation. I felt very excited and felt the

need to do this training well. Even though I have

trained AWWs on various other Departmental

programs it was my rst time training Supervisors.

Therefore I was denitely hesitant but at the same time

felt excited. I do feel that as a trainer I have gained

more condence.

CDPO Jamgaon, Durg

The programme has brought about a change in

the values, mindsets and capacities of the ICDS

functionaries. The changing landscape in the

AWCs bears testimony to this. As further

evidence of the effectiveness of the

programme, it was very encouraging to see

officials from different States and organizations

undertake exposure visits in the ILP Districts.

Officials from UNICEF Orissa and Bihar,

WCD Orissa and Bihar and partner agency Pratham visited the District AWCS in

Chhattisgarh. It helped them gain an

understanding about ECCE

implementation through the ICDS

Leadership Programme. We are hopeful

that such exposure visits should pave the

way for initiation of similar

interventions in other States too.

Based on the success of ICDS Leadership

Programme in enhancing the quality of ECCE in anganwadis, the Women and Child

Development Department of Chhattisgarh invited CLR to support their launch of a state-

w i d e p r o g r a m m e f o r E C C E

implementation, named “Sanskar

Abhiyan”. CLR played an active role

during the planning of Sanskar

Abhiyan and participated in module

d e s i g n , t r a i n i n g p l a n a n d

handholding of the SLMTs (State

Level Master Trainers).

Children walking on the rope during physical activity


DPO Leadership Programme, Uttar Pradesh

DPO Leadership Program in Uttar Pradesh is being implemented in collaboration with

UNICEF, Uttar Pradesh and ICDS, Government of Uttar Pradesh across 15 districts. CLR

conducts the State level training for the DPO's and one CDPO from each district. DPO's

then train their respective CDPO's, the

CDPOs train their respective supervisors

and the supervisors train their anganwadi

workers. Each level also provides

monitoring and mentoring support to

their direct reports to ensure that the

ECCE programme is effectively delivered

at the anganwadi level. In total the

programme involves 15 DPOs, nearly 150

CDPO's, over 2,000 Supervisors and

around 42,000 Anganwadis.

Of the 15 districts, CLR provides post-training monitoring and coaching support through its

resource persons (Program Officers) deployed in 5 districts, viz. Benares, Badaun, Lucknow,

Moradabad and Unnao.

This year, the first 5-day residential DPO training cycle was completed in June' 2016. While

the election cycle in UP during the year disrupted the originally planned schedule of

implementation, most of the participants remained enthusiastic and found a new meaning in

their work beyond the nutrition-related

responsibilities that they have been

shouldering so far.

The program review after the first

round, especially across the 5 intensively

supported districts focused on the

implementation challenges faced in

Round 1. Based on these inputs the

Round 2 and Round 3 implementation

was planned. As a result the trainings

and implementation quality improved

d u r i n g r o u n d 2 a n d r o u n d 3

implementation.

CDPO Chandravati and Supervisor Dheeraj conducting creative activity with children

CDPO Poonam Tiwari conducting cognitive activity with children


Supported by UNICEF, CLR also

conducted an orientation workshop for all

75 DPO's of Uttar Pradesh to bring home

the importance of ECCE and the

implementation challenges related to the

National ECCE Policy. This workshop was

very well-received and included the DPO's

from the 15 districts sharing their

experiences of running the programme.

Discussions are on-going about ways in

which the successes of the current 15-district

model can be extended to the entire state.

The Regional Centre of NIPCCD, located in

Lucknow, also invited CLR trainers to anchor

various ECCE sessions for the state's State

level Master Trainer (SLMT) training process.

A total of 75 DPO's and CDPO's were trained

as master trainers across 4 batches.

DPO Govind Yadav conducting physical activity with children

DPO Govind Yadav conducting cognitive activity with children


ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

WE LEARN ENGLISH

Implementation of “Aamhi Ingrazi Shikto/ We Learn English ” Radio

Programme in Jalgaon District

In 2016, CLR in partnership with

Jalgaon Zilla Parishad Education

Department undertook a 3 year long

i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f t h e r a d i o

programme “Aamhi Ingraji Shikto / We

Learn English”. The plan is to implement

the WLE Programme in Classes 3, 4 and 5

in all Jalgaon Zilla Parishad (ZP)

primary/upper primary schools, Private

schools and Municipal corporation

schools. This year Level 1 of the WLE programme was implemented in Class 3.The lessons

are broadcast using the All India Radio

(AIR) facilities in Jalgaon.

The programme has built in facility for

regular feedback and monitoring. The

“Phone in” Feature, enables Block

education officers, Cluster coordinators,

teachers and students to freely share

their opinion, feedback and queries.

There is also a provision for mentoring of

teachers, wherein a CLR mentor provides

guidance to the teachers over a phone call.

It is for the very first time that the WLE

programme has been implemented in Class Three.

The results were encouraging in spite of a short

implementation period of three months. The

programme has led to an increase in the usage of

English in the schools.

Students look forward to this programme they are

very happy when they are listening to the

programme. Their listening skills have improved

which has resulted in better speaking skills too.

This programme has helped in teaching English

in the class. Now my students try to talk with me in

English too."

Manisha S. Bhoir, Teacher – Z.P. School Lone

Children from ZP Primary School, listening to WLE lessons on radio

Children from ZP Primary School, Urdu medium listening to WLE lessons on radio


It has improved the English listening and

speaking skills of the students. Parents have

echoed similar views during the feedback

sessions and said that their children are now

attempting to speak in English even at home.

The Block Education officers, Cluster

coordinator and teachers have found the

programme useful and relevant to their existing

curriculum. The teachers also felt the program

helps them improve their English Language

skills. It is notable that, all the education

department officials are involved in the

program and often observe the

conduct of WLE lessons in schools.

Even since we have started conducting the WLE

programme in our schools, we have noticed a

marked improvement in the level of English among

the students. Besides this they have overcome the

fear of this language. The standard of the standard

assembly has also gone up. I attribute changes to

the implementation of 'WLE.

-N. F. Chaudhary, Block Education Ofcer, Erandol

Children practising conversation in English after radio lessons


LET'S READ AND WRITE ENGLISH (LRWE)

The need to develop Let's Read and Write

English into an e-learning programme was

felt as more and more schools are now

joining the digital revolution. Besides this, it

also helped reduce the cost of distributing

LRWE textbooks in schools. This year the

digital version of Let's Read And Write

English was implemented in 15 schools of

the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

These schools were termed as 'model

schools' under the Pune City Connect

(PCC) program. Apart from this, the

programme was conducted in 4

schools of the Pune Zilla Parishad and

11 schools in Bhusaval of the Jalgaon

district.

“We have implemented this programme in 11

schools of our Bhusaval taluka. The animation

and pictures of this programme our very effective.

The language used is very simple and appropriate

to the age group. The fear of English in the

students has diminished considerably”

Mr Vijay Pawar, BEO of Bhusaval taluka of

Jalgaon District

“The students looked forward to this

programme. Since this programme is

designed in keeping with the Bal

Bharati, we found it even more useful

and effective.”

- Ms Aruna Chapte, Teacher, Bantar

School Hadapsar

Launching ceremony on LRWE in PMC


We Learn English – CHIRAG UTTARAKHAND

The Central Himalayan Rural Action Group (CHIRAG) with training and monitoring

support from CLR completed one year of implementation of the WLE programme in select

Government Primary Schools. Level 1

of the WLE programme was being

implemented in 45 Schools of the

Kumaon region in Uttarakhand..

In the month of April 2017, CLR

conducted a Level 2 workshop and a

one year implementation review with

the teachers and the team of CHIRAG.

This helped in identifying the issues in

implementation and charting out the

strategy for the year 2017-2018.

A midline study was carried out by CHIRAG in the month of March – April 2017 to assess

the improvement in speaking and comprehension abilities of the students. The results were

encouraging and clearly showed an improvement in their understanding of basic questions

and ability to answer in English.

In the coming year Level 2 of the WLE

programme will be provided to Class 5

students who have received Level 1 in

Class 4. Besides this Level 1 of the

programme will be provided to the new

batch of Class 4 students.

WLE block level training session in progress

WLE block level training session in progress

WORKING WITH OTHER NGOS


OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Dr. John Kurrien continued to maintain his independent blog on the New Education

Policy (NEP) –www.neweducationpolicyblog.org. It includes his comments and critique

on the process of policy formulation and the two official Draft NEP reports, as well as

discussions initiated by him. It also includes links to official documents and contributions

and articles of others on the NEP.

He was invited to participate in the following:

- Discussion and Consultation on the NEP organised by the RTE Maharashtra

Forum and Indian Institute of Education respectively

- Consultation on RTE organized by NCAS at Gokhale Institute

- Consultation on Secondary Education in Maharashtra convened by UNICEF

/CORD

- Consultation on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) organised by Council

For Social Development, New Delhi

- Consultation on Research and Advocacy in Education convened by Council For

Social Development

Dr. Kurrien continued to be a member of the following:

- Advisory Committee of the Dept. of Education Policy Studies, National

University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi

- Pune City Connect (PCC) Education Track, and its Technical Committee

- Action for the Rights of the Child (ARC), Pune

- RTE Forum and RTE Forum Maharashtra

He authored the following articles:

- Op-ed page article in the Times of India entitled: “Revoke this Life Sentence: To

give the urban poor a leg up, arrest the catastrophe unfolding in municipal

schools” (May 2016)

- Article (in Marathi translation) on the PCC-Pune Municipal School Board's

School Improvement Project in Maharashtra Times (May 2016)


Ms. Zakiya Kurrien authored the chapter entitled 'Effective Teaching and Learning through

Radio' in the volume published by SAGE entitled 'Teaching-Learning Resources for

School Education'. While making a case for choosing radio, the chapter delineates the

development and use of CLR's highly interactive and bilingual pedagogy for teaching

Spoken English through radio to students in government regional medium schools. It

documents our journey of creating the lively radio/audio programme 'We Learn English',

broadcasting it over several years, and getting evidence of its positive impact on students'

English speaking skills.

Ms. Kurrien, as a member of the Alliance for the Right to Early Childhood Development,

has been participating in the Alliance's ongoing effort in framing legislation for the rights

of our youngest children. This year, she assisted in formulating a set of Non-Negotiable

Entitlements for the under-threes age group, as part of a consolidated document covering

children below six years of age.

At a meeting to discuss the Institutional Framework required for the delivery of ECD

rights, she chaired the session related to the under-threes age group.

She continues to serve as a member of the following:

- Advisory Committee, Centre For Early Childhood Education and Development

(CECED), Ambedkar University, New Delhi

- Technical Committee of the Education Track of Pune City Connect, a PPP

initiative working towards reform in Pune municipal schools

- Governing Board, Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra, Pune

- Alliance for the Right to Early Childhood Development

- Advisory Committee, Early Literacy Project, a joint initiative of Tata Institute of

Social Sciences, Azim Premji University and Ambedkar University

Dr. and Ms. Kurrien were invited to participate in the following:

- Stakeholders' Consultation for context analysis of women and children in

Maharashtra, towards the development of UNICEF's new Country Programme

- Consultation convened by Council for Social Development and Tata Trusts to

discuss the Subramanian Committee Report and the subsequent MHRD Report

on the Draft National Education Policy (NEP). An outcome of this meeting was

a set of key recommendations which were submitted to MHRD to inform the

NEP.


- Consultation on Tata Trusts' engagement in Madrasa Education in West Bengal

and Uttar Pradesh. This included a discussion on evolving research questions and

methodology for the evaluation of interventions.

Chittaranjan Kaul

· Invited to the membership of State ECCE Councils in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.

· Panellist at “Grow with Governance”, a discussion during CAP Compliance Conference, 2016, organised by Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy on governance approaches in non-profit organisations.

( )https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcouX0P73Ks

· Speaker at NCERT National Consultation on ECCE

· Panellist at consultation on implementation on National ECCE Policy organised by government of W Bengal and UNICEF.

Harini Raval

· Speaker at NCERT National Consultation on ECCE.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcouX0P73Ks

FUNDING

We gratefully acknowledge the funding support we have received from our several

partners:

UNICEF, Chhattisgarh

UNICEF, UP

State Health Resource Centre, Chhattisgarh

Pune District Administration

Jalgaon District Administration

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge the guidance and cooperation of the following members of

our Governing Council:

Ms. Zakiya Kurrien

Dr. Statira Wadia

Ms. Rati Forbes

Mr. Milon Nag

Dr. John Kurrien�

Ms. Ingrid Mendonca

Dr. Farrokh Wadia�

Ms. Farida Lambay

Mr. Denzil Saldanha

Mr. Daljit Mirchandani

Mr. Chittaranjan Kaul

Mr. Ardeshir Dubash

Mr. Dubash resigned from the Governing Council during the year. We gratefully

acknowledge the support and guidance we received over several decades from

Mr. Dubash.

FUNDING / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT


Centre For Learning Resources

8 Deccan College Road, Yerawada, Pune - 411006

E-mail : [email protected] Website : www.clrindia.org

annual report - centre for learning resources · a kodak engineer invented the world's first...

Documents