every child in school and … learning well?

Every child in school and …

learning well?

Evidence and

experience from India

Lahore April 4 2012

Recent evidence

Schooling & learning : How much do we know about the “what” and the “why”?

ASER 2005 – 2011

(Annual Status of Education Report)

All rural districts (575)

Every year since 2005

ASER is household survey

Basic assessment of :

Type of school

Reading

Arithmetic

~ 600,000 to 700,000

children each year

~ 300,000 households

~ 15,000 schools

INSIDE PRIMARY SCHOOLS 2011

Study by ASER Centre, India

Followed a cohort of the same children (Std 2 & Std 4) in sample of govt. schools for 18 months

5 states

15 districts

2009-2010

900 schools1700 classrooms2200 teachers

24000 children

Assumption: High enrollment means children are in schoolReality: Attendance varies a lot across the country

Assumptions and reality - 1

Nationally, child attendance in primary schools has dropped from 73.4% in 2007 to 70.9% in 2011. This figure varies by state.

Children’s attendance in

school : ASER 2011

States

90% or above Himachal, Mah, Kar, Ker, TN

80 to 89% J&K, Punjab, Uttkhnd, Guj, Nagaland, Mizoram

70 to 79% Har, Raj, Chh, Assam, Andhra, Odisha, Meghalaya

60 to 69% West Bengal, Tripura

Below 60% UP, MP, Bihar, JH, Manipur

Assumption: Children start school at age 6 (RTE law in India)Reality: Many children are in school much before 6


RTE guarantees education for the age group 6 to 14.

But ASER 2011 shows that in rural India, 57.8% of all five year olds are enrolled in school.

These figures vary by state. But very high proportion of 5 year olds in school in Punjab (77%), UP (65%), Rajasthan (76%).

Source : ASER 2011

Assumption: Children in each class/grade are homogenousReality: Class composition is complex… Std 4 class in Bihar


AGE

51% children in

Std 4 are 9 or 10

(“right age”)

Rest of the children are younger or

older

MULTIGRADE

67% of

Std 4 classes sit with at least one

other grade if not more

LANGUAGE

53% of children sampled

in ASER 2011 in Bihar speak a

different language at home from the

medium of instruction in

school.

(This data not aggregated by grade)

Source : ASER 2011

Assumption: Children in each class/grade are homogenousReality: Diversity in learning levels in every grade …. Std 5


48% can read at Std 2 level

24% can read at Std 1 level

15% can only read simple words

13% can read letters or less

Source: ASER 2011

This is the status of basic reading in 2011 in rural India. Huge implications for instruction & equity.

Assumption: Every year the country’s capability to deliver education is improving ….

Reality: India is in a “big stuck” & may be “declining” …


Std 3 Std 4 Std 50

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

200620072008200920102011

%Children who can read at Std 2 level

Actual level

“Desired” level

What are we doing year on year to

move children from the

actual level towards the “desired” level of basic

reading? Source: ASER 2006-2011

Assumption: Child in any grade/class has mastered content and skills expected in previous grade/class . Reality: Most children are at least two grades

behind…


Add 2 digits (word prob)

Add 2 digits (numeric)

Read a Std 1 level text

Read a 2 letter word

0 20 40 60 80 100Baseline (Std 2)Endline (Std 3)

Expected in Std

1/2

% Std 2 students who can:

Subtract 3 digits w/borrow

Add 3 digits (word prob)

Read a Std 3 level text

0 20 40 60 80 100Baseline (Std 4)Endline (Std 5)

Expected in Std

3/4

% Std 4 students who can:

Source : Inside Primary Schools (2011). 24,000 students tracked - 18 months.

Assumption: Textbooks are at appropriate age/grade levelReality: Textbook level for a specific grade is too

difficult for most children


AP AS HP JH RJ0

20

40

60

80

100Baseline (Std 2)Endline (Std 3)

% S

td 2

stu

de

nts

% Std 2 students who could only read two letter words and not more

Extract from the Std 1 language textbook in Rajasthan

Source : Inside Primary Schools (2011).900 schools visited 3 times in 2 years.

Assumption: Anyone can teach primary classes, its easy.This study explored teacher capability to teach in new

ways


Teachers’ capacity to teach assessed using following domains

Identifying mistakes made by children & helping to correct them

Explaining content in simple and systematic ways

Summarizing/explaining text

Generating your own problems using local context (maths)

Example from teacher survey :

Source : Inside Primary Schools (2011)

Assumption: Anyone can teach primary classes, its easy.Reality: No, it isn’t… Here is an example from

arithmetic


Teachers were asked to do these questions (Std 4/5 level)


Assumption: Anyone can teach primary classes, its easy.Reality: No, it isn’t… Here is an example


Teachers were given a section from a Std 4 text book chapter and asked to summarize the main points in simple language that children could grasp.


Assumption: Knowing theory is enough to change practice.Reality: Teachers understand the importance of child

friendly practices. But classrooms are not friendly at all.


0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

%

Std 2

/Std 4

cla

ssroom

s

None of 6 ‘child friendly’ indicators observed in 40% of all classrooms

>3 ‘child friendly’ indicators observed in 9% of all classrooms

Assumption: Teaching by grade level is the best thing to doReality: Re-grouping children by level accelerated

learning

What works – Case 1 : Punjab

% Children in govt schools in Std 5 who can do division

Std 5 ASER 2008

ASER 2009

ASER 2010

Punjab 39.7 48.6 70.8

All India

34.4 36.1 33.5

Kerala 38.3 36.4 43.1

For 2 hours a day, primary school was reorganized – from grade wise grouping to level wise grouping. Each group was called “mahal”. All training, materials, monitoring aligned to support the achievement of basic learning goals.

Example : Purrho Punjab : Clear set of basic learning goals

Assumption: Teachers cannot bring about the change neededReality: Teachers could make a big change

What works – Case 2: Bihar

Example : Bihar 2008 Summer Camps

All across Bihar in every school there was a summer camp in June 2008 for one month. This camp was for children in Std 3-4-5 who were not yet at Std 2 level. School teachers taught in these camps.

JPAL-MIT did a randomized evaluation. Findings : Significant improvement in basic reading and arithmetic for the target children. This increase gave the children an advantage for more than 2 years. Non-target children did not benefit as much .

Concluding thoughts

On goals : Clear achievable learning goals need to be articulated by government and understood by parents & teachers.

On the teaching side, specifying minimum qualifications is necessary but not sufficient to ensure good teaching. Serious thought needs to be given to developing ongoing systems to provide teachers with the abilities and skills they need in order to teach well.

On the learning side, each school’s resources (people, time and space) need to be organized using children’s current abilities as the starting point. In particular, textbooks need to be realistic, designed with clear learning goals and sequenced in developmentally appropriate ways. Special focus on and care for the first two grades in school.

Almost every child is in school. Urgent thinking and action is needed in order to guarantee eight years of quality education to every child and adequate learning outcomes.

Future directions What do we want our children to learn?We need to set standards. Goals should be achievable.

Raise basic reading, writing and arithmetic levels. Lower the curricular expectations. All activities related to teaching and learning need to be aligned to achieving these learning standards in our schools and within the system. This includes teacher training, on-going monitoring in schools, curriculum, assessment and review.

Large scale immediate corrective action is needed in primary schools to strengthen basic skills and then to move children towards grade level learning.

For more information :[email protected]@[email protected]

ASER Centre

B 4/54 Safdarjung EnclaveNew Delhi 110 029+91 11 2671 [email protected]

ASER Centre is an

autonomous unit of

Pratham

mailto:[email protected]



every child in school and … learning well?

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