Karnataka Learning Partnership

Akshara Foundation gifts libraries to Government schools in Bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 10:48:00 +0000

This Christmas of 2011 was special to many children. Children studying in 565 government primary schools in Bangalore were gifted with libraries equipped with multi-lingual books and computers by Akshara Foundation.

In 2006, Akshara started setting up libraries in government primary schools across the city after studies conducted by it showed that most children in these schools were reading much below their age-appropriate levels. Soon, libraries were set up to cater all the 1420 government primary schools in the city. The libraries were created to function in a hub-and-spoke fashion: each physical library served not just the students in the school in which it was housed, it would also serve other schools in the neighborhood. Librarians were appointed to not just "manage books" but also to meaningfully engage the children to inculcate reading habits. The libraries are stocked with close to 6.5 lakh books in various languages which cater to children from grades 2 to 7. On an average, 15,000 books are borrowed each day by the children.

After creating and running the program for over five years, Akshara is now handling over libraries to schools and the education department through a memorandum. As per the MoU, these libraries will be run and maintained by the department. Akshara is ensuring the smooth transition by also training the teachers, so that they can take over as librarians.

You can read more on this story in:

The Times of India : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Creating-a-reading-culture-and-love-for-knowledge/articleshow/11248533.cms

The Hindu : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2743510.ece

Express Buzz : http://expressbuzz.com/cities/bangalore/sustainable-libraries-in-government-schools-soon/346532.html

Govt schools shut, children forced to work

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:38:00 +0000

The Government of Karnataka's decision to shut down schools that have an enrollment of less than five students is highly condemned. As many as 590 primary and 27 higher primary schools in Karnataka have less than five children this year. Government schools with less than 10 children enrolled in them numbered 2,557 in 2010-11.

The students and the teachers from the shut down schools are said to be shifted to near-by schools, but for many of the children who belong to these closed down schools, their education just ends there. Children like Satish Dharmaiah and Sophiya of Mariyamma Temple Lower Primary school in Tilaknagar are just some examples. Satish now works in a Mutton stall close to the school and Sophiya has not yet enrolled into any school as yet. Most of the parents of the children who used to study in this school do construction work in the slums. Most of them did not know that the school was to shut down. Some of the parents are making ends meet to send their children to the so called "low-cost" private schools in the locality. These schools are relative farther, and the parents have a difficulty to afford transportation to the new schools.

The authorities paint a different picture. According to the DPI (Department of Public Instruction) rules, teachers from the shut-down schools have to ensure that all the children are enrolled in other schools, but in reality, there is no such mechanism to ensure it. Mr. M Munireddy , BEO (Block Education Officer) of the South-3 block said that there were no children atall this year in the Mariayamma Temple school, but the attendance registers indicate that this year alone, there were 9 new admissions. Over all this, there is a dispute between the department and the temple authorities where the school was being run. The temple authorities have taken over the school building, while Mr. Munireddy denies it and says that he is unaware of any such activities.

The story is no different with other schools like Jayanagar 4th T block HP (Higher Primary) School, Ragigudda LPS and Ashoknagar LPS. These schools were shut down last year citing infrastructure and poor attendance reasons.

On December 3rd, litterateurs Dr G S Shivarudrappa, Prof. U R Ananthamurthy, Dr Girish Karnad and Dr Chandrashekar Kambar filed a PIL in High Court challenging closure of schools and requesting them to be reopened and strengthened.

The PIL says that closing schools violates children's right to free and compulsory education under Right To Education (RTE) Act, and specifically affects disadvantaged communities. Under RTE Act local government bodies have to maintain neighborhood schools, not state government.

Due to the shut down of the schools, one thing is certain - The future education of many a children from these schools are at stake as many of them will drop out of education forever !!

Source : Navya P.K. 's article in Citizen Matters

Celebrating Children's Day in Dharwad

noreply@blogger.com (Gautam John) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:42:00 +0000

Akshara decided to celebrate ‘Children’s day’ at Siddeshwarnagar Higher Primary School.

We reached the school around 8.30 am, teachers and children were just entering into school campus. We had declared the celebration as “My colour My day”. We tied 20 meters white cloth on the wall of the school. The natural colours like red, yellow, green, dark pink, beetroot colour, black, blue were kept in the plates. The children were interested to know what they were supposed to do. We announced that every child has to choose the colour they like and dip their tiny palm into it and print on the tied white cloth. They were so happy by listening this and as they were sitting on the ground after their daily prayer, we could see that some children started wiping their hand to keep themselves a clean hand to dip. This act was really wonderful to see that they had a good conscious of cleanliness. These children are from a cult called “Sudagadu siddaru”. These are actually nomadic people and speak ‘Telegu’. They earn their livelihood by telling fortunes and selling calendars. Around 250 houses are situated in this area and located on a hill surrounded by many small hills around. There is a small pond which welcomes people with lotus flowers in it. Basically many children are first generation learners here. Akshara had previously supported to these children in setting up of community libraries, preschool centers and reading programme in schools.

The ‘Palm print’ started with the class 1 children who went upto the colours kept and were early looking at all colours and couldn’t decide which to choose, but finally they chose their favourite colour and dipped their palm and started looking their palms instead of printing, their eyes were sparkling to see their hand full in their favourite colour. Finally when we called the child to print they happily came forward and printed their tiny hands. Their names were written by our field coordinators which made them very happy. It went on class wise as directed by their teachers, all the children were so happy to see their hand printing printed together. Even the teachers and SDMC president were happy to be a part of this event by printing their palms and engraving their names.

As a part of the programme, drawing competition was held for the children from class 2 to 7. Twenty three children participated in the drawing competition. They were given topic, “A favourite scene they remember”. All most all drew the ‘Rising sun, birds and houses’ which is very beautifully, commonly seen from their area. This shows that they appreciated the nature.

Finally, all the children were gifted with a pencil and a drawing book. They were very happy to take back with them. The SDMC and teachers thanked Akshara foundation for the opportunity created for the children of their school.

Economist: The Great Schools Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Gautam John) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:49:00 +0000

The Economist has an extensive piece on lessons learned from the education reform agenda.

From Toronto to Wroclaw, London to Rome, pupils and teachers have been returning to the classroom after their summer break. But this September schools themselves are caught up in a global battle of ideas. In many countries education is at the forefront of political debate, and reformers desperate to improve their national performance are drawing examples of good practice from all over the world.

Why now? One answer is the sheer amount of data available on performance, not just within countries but between them. In 2000 the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) at the OECD, a rich-country club, began tracking academic attainment by the age of 15 in 32 countries. Many were shocked by where they came in the rankings. Other outfits, too, have been measuring how good or bad schools are. McKinsey, a consultancy, has monitored which education systems have improved most in recent years.

Read the full piece here.

Freedom of Expression on Independence Day

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:53:00 +0000

Kids from our Community Library in Periyar Nagar and Rajendra Nagar spent the Independence Day in a unique way. They painted the rear-wall of the Deccan Herald office in an event organized by Manasi Kirloskar, an ardent supporter of Akshara Foundation.

You can read the blog post on this event here : Kids express themselves on Independence Day

We have received a new bunch of pictures of the event. You can see them at : Wall Painting

Don't forget to post a comment on these pictures and write to us if you find an interesting shot !!

Target India inculcates reading habits on International Literacy Day

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:42:00 +0000

Target India, an extension of the US-based retail company, Target is working towards the cause of improving education by celebrating and supporting literacy. This year, to commemorate the International Literacy Day which was celebrated on 8th of September , Target India has worked towards raising the awareness on the importance of their employees being part of literacy campaigns. With the help of local NGOs, they distributed 5,000 books in slums in Bangalore to inculcate reading habits amongst children between class 3 and class 8.

The employees of Target have been dedicatedly working towards this book donation drive. They had formed three groups in three different parts of the city - RT Nagar, Bannerghatta Road and Hennur to collect and sort books according to age-groups for distribution.

On 8th of September, many volunteers from Target India, with the help of NGOs like United Way visited slums across the city to distribute books to the children and organized various games for the children which helped them to open up.

Efforts like this from the community are commendable and will surely go a long way in improving the status of literacy and education around the world.

Only 17 p.c. of Urdu-speaking children in Bangalore Urban go to Urdu schools

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 07:36:00 +0000

Akshara Foundation recently released a report on a study conducted on the Government Urdu primary Schools in Bangalore. A survey was conducted on all the 171 Urdu-medium government primary schools in the city and 25 HMs and 35 teachers from these schools were interviewed. Few of the highlights of the results are:

Out of the 1,94,346 speaking children in the city, only 32,823 goto Urdu schools, constituting just about 17%.
Around 20% of children are not enrolled in any schools. The remaining children are either enrolled in English/Kannada medium schools or Madrasas.
11% of the total Urdu medium schools have a student strength of 25 and below.
There are only 4 Urdu medium high-schools and hence due to the low availability of secondary schools, the children are either forced to drop out after 8th grade or enroll into English/Kannada medium schools.

The team also conducted a parallel study on the economic background of the parents who send their children to Urdu-medium government schools.

You can read the complete report by clicking on this link : A study of Urdu Primary Schools in Bengaluru

The Hindu has analyzed this report and published the key findings. Please check the link to view the observations - http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2390922.ece

Kids express themselves on Independence Day

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:15:00 +0000

Manasi Kirloskar, an Arts and Crafts student in USA has been continously engaged with Akshara Foundation. As a part of her volunteering activity, she had organized a Community Awareness event on 15th August 2011, at Church Street, off Brigade Road.

It was a Wall Painting event where in 25 children from two of Akshara's Community Libraries (Periyar Nagar and Rajendra Nagar) painted their imaginations on the rear-wall of Deccan Herald office. Thanks to some volunteers, the wall was white-washed the previous day and kept ready for the children to mirror their ideas. Asian Paints sponsored wall-paint while Ismail Paints provided the paint brushes.

The kids arrived on the Independence Day afternoon. They were let loose on the theme and were instructed to paint anything they wished to on the wall. The event attracted many passing-by pedestrains. They all gathered to find out what was happening. Manasi addressed the group and about this community initiative and Akshara's Library program. many volunteers were impressed by the service offered by Akshara, and eagerly showed interest interest in rendering support to Akshara Foundation's libraries set up in Government schools and in the community.

One of the volunteers was so impressed with Akshara Foundation's work that he immediately committed to donate computers, tables and chairs and also help in setting up the networking of computers. The crowd was fascinated by the enthusiasm of the children and encouraged them. The event also gathered some media attention and was covered by NDTV, News-9 and Deccan Herald.

A well spent Independence Day for the children with the freedom to express themselves !!

Read the article in Deccan Herald : http://www.deccanherald.com/content/184069/they-coloured-wall-their-ideas.html

Nirupama G,
Library Team,
Akshara Foundation

Creating Reports for MPs and MLAs

noreply@blogger.com (Gautam) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:39:00 +0000

Over the last few weeks, we have been working to create reports for MPs and MLAs that give them an overview on the demographic, financial and educational overview of their constituencies. An early draft of a template for one such report is below.

Rahul Gonsalves, who runs an excellent design firm called Pixelogue, has since taken these reports and redesigned them and they look wonderful!

He has also documented the idea behind the re-design and the method over at his blog. Thank you Rahul!

If you are interested in information design and data visualisations, maybe we should speak. And if you are looking for someone to help, maybe you should contact Rahul.

Karnataka to implement RTE Act from 5th July

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 06:30:00 +0000

After a lot of reviews of the draft version of the RTE Act, Karnataka will finally put the Act into force from tomorrow, i.e. the 5th of July. With the 2011-12 academic year already begun, it is not sure if the Act will be helpful this year. The government claims to have already implemented half the provisions mentioned in the act and will implement the rest once the Act comes into force.

We will have to wait and watch government's efficiency in successfully implementing this important Act. For now, eagerly waiting for tomorrow..

Read Article : http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_right-to-education-act-to-come-into-force-on-july-5-in-karnataka_1553822

Put pre-school under RTE: NAC

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 04:13:00 +0000

The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has asked HRD ministry to examine bringing pre-school learning under the purview of Right to Education Act to "ensure continuity in the child's education".

In real terms, bringing pre-school learning into RTE would mean decreasing the age limit from six years to four years. Government would have to amend the RTE Act and change the norms of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the flagship programme, that is the main vehicle to implement RTE. Sources said it can be done without amending the Constitution. "Article 21A provides for free and compulsory education to children in the age group of six to 14. But it does not prohibit government from changing the school entry age to four," a source said.

HRD is already looking into the proposal to extend the RTE Act till class 10 from the current provision of class 8. However, in case of decreasing the school entry age to four the opinion varies. Many experts point out that right to education relates to formal schooling alone and not pre-school learning. It could also lead to a turf war between the ministry of women and child development and HRD.

NAC said ministries of women and child development and HRD should evolve a comprehensive national policy for early childhood and pre-school education. It said the policy must identify and propose appropriate curricular modules, promote age-appropriate learning and develop pre-school teacher-training modules and mechanisms.

The advisory body's recommendation has come as part of its report on the reform of Integrated Child Development Scheme. It has argued that children denied any pre-school education are severely disadvantaged when they enter class one at the age of six. "In the absence of a comprehensive national policy and regulatory framework on pre-school education, children between three and six years remain neglected," NAC said.

It said absence of accurate data on the provision of pre-school services, a proper assessment of needs, lack of clarity on the appropriate number of years of pre-schooling as well as the absence of a regulatory framework, policy guidelines, and designated pre-school services have led to confusion about the appropriate age of entry into class one, which in some states has dropped to five instead of six as envisaged by the RTE. The NAC said pre-primary schooling is already being contemplated by many states like Puducherry, Punjab and Kerala.

Source : Times of India

Educating 64 Million Students

noreply@blogger.com (Gautam) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:32:00 +0000

Sridhar Rajagopalan on the challenges the Indian education system faces:

Picture courtesy Teach for India

What kind of educational system will permit India to have the people skills needed to compete globally?

The goal would be to have an educational system that allows people to reach their full academic potential. This will enable India to compete globally and to have a domestic society where people are engaging meaningfully and are able to solve the problems faced by their society. The system would need to focus on academic excellence and research, and also on developing compassionate and caring individuals.

Read the full piece over at the Huffington Post.

IBM ISLers Day Out with kids !!

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:59:00 +0000

As a part of IBM's 100th year celebrations, 2 group of volunteers from IBM visited Kodihalli and Beneganahalli schools in Bangalore. Lalitha from IBM ISL sums up her wonderful experience with the children of the Kodihalli school:

"A bunch of these ISLers, 18 of them to be precise, took a different route that morning. They all headed to the small yellow building in Kodihalli, which housed the Govt. Kannada medium Primary School instead of heading to their IBM offices at EGL/FTP/Manyata/SA. They were all there by 9.30am in the morning, fresh and bright, eager for a new experience. They had pledged their time to volunteer for the cause of education of the under-privileged students at this Govt School. They were there to teach the kids about the computer and internet technology and its uses. Little did they know what a learning experience it is going to be for themselves!

As and when the professional looking ISLers streamed into the school , the kids came running to them and greeted them with a big smile, salute and a hearty , "Good Morning, Madam", "Good Morning , Sir". We loved the warm welcome and started getting nostalgic about our own younger days at School...that nostalgic journey continued from then on till next three hours.

The day started off with a prayer time for the kids, complete with an offering to God, Newspaper headlines reading and ended with National Anthem. We , volunteers watched all this silently admiring the kids and their discipline. After the prayer, the kids went back into their classes and we met Prarthana, Pavithra from the iVolunteer Organization , who were facilitating this event for us.We also met the Asha from Akshara foundation, who works very closely with this Govt school, in setting up the computer labs, library.

Prarthana gave us all an orientation session on Volunteering, what it is all about. She put it simply , that volunteering is all about "caring", "sharing" and "daring"...daring to do a positive difference. She briefed us about the various causes one could choose to volunteer for , viz., Education, environment, Disabled people, Old people...and so on. After few interesting energizers and grouping us into 5 groups, she huddled us all into a big airy classroom, where the class 6 and 7 students were waiting for us.

Kalpana from IBM interacting with children

In the classroom, we were offered seats next to the students, so there we sat ,perched cozily next to the young kids, with knees almost touching our chin.In the class room Prarthana introduced Kalpana, and all the rest of the volunteers, perked us all up with some very good energizer games and then gave the stage to Kalpana. Kalpana 's address to the kids was so inspiring , we had pin drop silence for the next 10-15 mins, She shared anecdotes from her school days, how she was...how she got motivated to do engineering and how after doing her Masters in Engineering, she joined work and have had a successful career since last 29 years. While she stressed on the importance of studying well for a successful life, she mentioned that it is equally important to have fun...After giving a rapt attention to her speech, then the kids poured out their questions to her, one bright eyed girl wanted to know what all she had to do to become an Engineer and so on...similar questions came from other kids , who wanted to know, how to become a doctor, how to become a police ..etc. Overall it was a very interactive inspiring session by Kalpana.

After the kickoff speech, the students were divided into 5 groups and assigned to the 5 groups of ISL volunteers. Each group had a technical topic, which was to be taught to the kids and the kids had to come out with presentation/skit on that topic. In addition to this there was a product given , for which the kids had to come out with a mad-ad, so it was an exercise combined with learning and fun.The examples of the technical topics were: Parts of the computer, Internet, Uses of Computer...etc. Each group of volunteers had a mix of kannada speaking and non-kannada speaking folks, who worked together as a team and taught the kids. The kids enjoyed doing the chart work, mad ads and were gaping in awe when some of the volunteers showed them the laptop to describe a topic.

IBM Volunteers and children presenting their group activity

The event ended with the presentation of the technical topic and the mad -ads by the whole group, (each named such as Bangalore champions, Gulabi..!) including the kids and the volunteers. Each group came one by one and presented their topic and mad-ad, which was educating and entertaining for the rest of the class. Some of the charts and mad-ads were hilarious and got the kids roaring in laughter. After so much fun it was time for some snacks, IBMers gave all the kids juice, cake , water bottle and a water sipper bottle with IBM logo on it. The teachers around were happy to see the water sipper bottles and said that it was a very appropriate and useful gift for the kids. Then we ISLers were all in for a surprise, when one of the students (the tallest one to be precise) walked up to us and gave us all a Thank you card! Handmade specially for all the volunteers... it was very touching to get that card! By then it was lunch break for all kids and we all came out to the ground, after shaking hands with so many students, who rushed to each of the volunteer to say Thank You and shake hands.

We wound up the day clicking some group photos and giving feedback to Organizers . We all left the place feeling very energized after the whole experience. All in all it was a very memorable day filled with satisfaction and fun, which made us all realize what kind of a difference we can make by dedicating few hours of our time."

Lalitha J.S.

Government to start more English medium schools in Karnataka

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 06:51:00 +0000

As a strategic step to retain children in Government school, the Karnataka government has decided to start English medium sections in the existing Government Higher Primary schools.

Few of the reasons for this decision are:

1. Drop in enrollment from 6th to 8th grades in Kannada medium schools as more parents prefer low-cost English medium schools.
2. To provide English education free education to the children of the lower economic sections of the society so that they don't have to pay huge fees in the private English medium schools.
3. This decision will help migration of families from rural to urban areas in a search of schools imparting education in English.

It is very clear now that more and more parents have realized the importance of English language and the Government is trying to satisfy this section by institutionalizing English sections in Government schools.

Read more about it in : http://www.deccanherald.com/content/170130/govt-schools-pander-english-craze.html

WSJ on The Right to Education

noreply@blogger.com (Gautam) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:07:00 +0000

Geeta Anand in thw WSJ:

Instead of playing cricket with the kids in the alleyway outside, four-year-old Sumit Jha sweats in his family's one-room apartment. A power cut has stilled the overhead fan. In the stifling heat, he traces and retraces the image of a goat.

In April, he enrolled in the nursery class of Shri Ram School, the most coveted private educational institution in India's capital. Its students include the grandchildren of India's most powerful figures—Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress party President Sonia Gandhi.

Sumit, on the other hand, lives in a slum.

His admission to Shri Ram is part of a grand Indian experiment to narrow the gulf between rich and poor that is widening as India's economy expands. The Right to Education Act, passed in 2009, mandates that private schools set aside 25% of admissions for low-income, underprivileged and disabled students. In Delhi, families earning less than 100,000 rupees (about $2,500 a year) qualify.

Yet the most notable results so far are frustration and disappointment as the separations that define Indian society—between rich and poor, employer and servant, English-speaker and Hindi-speaker—are upended. This has led even some supporters of the experiment to conclude that the chasm between the top and bottom of Indian society is too great to overcome.

Shri Ram itself is challenging the law in the Supreme Court, arguing in part that the government exceeded its authority in imposing the quotas.

Read the full piece here.

And while writing this piece, "we posed a series of questions to Anshu Vaish, secretary for school education and literacy at the Department of Human Resource Development. Ms. Vaish’s comments were insightful and articulate in laying out the government’s vision for what it is seeking to achieve through its focus on education — something much broader than simply educating kids."

You can read Ms. Vaish's comments here.

The civic hacker's here

noreply@blogger.com (Gautam) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 05:33:00 +0000

Writing in The Hindu, Deepa Kurup says:

Civic hackers, also called ‘hacktivists' – activists in this information age – are simply citizens who possess the technical skills to navigate the internet, sift through information and devise different tech applications to present the data in the form of a story. What technology does here is to provide a variety of interesting and interactive platforms/formats that can be tinkered with to present a cohesive picture that lends well to analysis and understanding.

Another interesting example of civic hacking is the Karnataka Learning Project's interactive maps on www.klp.org.in. An interesting map that provides multiple data sets on government primary and pre-schools in Bangalore – for instance, location of schools, addresses, medium of instruction and programmes run, are all plotted on a map

Read the full piece here.

The Anganwadi Worker, A Profile..

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Wed, 18 May 2011 08:34:00 +0000

The work an anganwadi worker does goes largely unknown, unnoticed and unrecognized. She packs an extraordinary sweep of activities into a day – from preschool education to community service, from mentoring parents to census operations. Akshara’s preschool team spends a day with one such anganwadi worker, Ganga Bhyramma, who has been at the Byadarahalli anganwadi in Bangalore for the last eighteen years. She is a storehouse of information on anganwadis in general, on how they function. She provides context to anganwadis and explains their relevance in the community. She herself is a pillar in her community, a rallying figure for people. Her work is multi-dimensional. Her main focus is preschool education. But Ganga Bhyramma handles myriad responsibilities and her day quickly gets fragmented and she sometimes has no time to devote to the children in her anganwadi. She would like to put them in the forefront of her activities and that is not always possible. But the Akshara team never once heard her complain.

To read the complete article visit - http://www.slideshare.net/aksharadotorg/a-profile-of-an-anganwadi-worker

Author: Ms. Lakshmi Mohan, Akshara Foundation.

India's Promise and Peril

noreply@blogger.com (Maya) — Mon, 09 May 2011 06:51:00 +0000

Via Hindustan Times

Last month, Rajbala was the first girl ever to appear for Class 10 exams in modern-day Rajasthan's block of Kishangarh Bas, where the female literacy rate ranges from 6% to 25% (nationally, it is 65%). Rajbala is a Dalit. She, her parents, both agricultural workers, and five siblings live in a two-room house.

"My parents never wanted me to go to school," said Rajbala. "They needed me for house and farm work. But I persisted. I convinced them."

Rajbala's achievements showcase the determination that drives the world's youngest nation, which has raised its literacy rate by 9 points to 74% in the last decade.

India now has the world's largest demographic dividend, or share of working-age people — about 781 million between 15 to 64 years old.

Rajbala's story also represents why India is in danger of forfeiting that dividend.

The demographic dividend of the world's youngest country is in danger of becoming a democratic liability because its public-education system is failing.

As the demand for a better tomorrow through education becomes one of the biggest expectations changing Indian politics, delivering it to what is now the world's youngest country is a formidable challenge.

By 2020, the median age in India will be 28, in China 37, in the US 38 and in western Europe 45. But this demographic dividend could turn into a deficit if these young people — more than 500 million are under 25 — remain under-educated, unskilled, unemployed or unemployable.

By next year, India could be short of 5 million with the right skills, says a report from the Boston Consulting Group, at a time when there already are 1.3 million unskilled and unqualified school dropouts and illiterates.

There is little time to lose if young people like Rajbala are to make the transition from school to the job market.

Now take India's primary school enrollment figures — at 93%, these are impressive.

But the quality of such education for children between six and 14, the base for all future learning, shows a consistent decline.

Nationally, there has also been a decline in the ability to do things such as basic math and recognise numbers.

It doesn't matter if you fail in a government primary school. You will be promoted anyway until Class 8.

The mundane task of setting learning targets is vital to reversing India's quality slide. "There's a need to clearly outline the learning outcomes that must be achieved at the end of Class 2, Class 5 and Class 8 in order to give substance to Right To Education Act," says Madhav Chavan, head of Pratham.

Read the entire article to find out how three states tried to improve the education system in their regions.

Image Source : Dell's Official Flickr Page

Outstanding Annual Report Award for 2010-11

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:03:00 +0000

Akshara Foundation has been declared the runner-up for the CSO Partner's 'Outstanding Annual Report Award' for 2010-11 in the Medium Organizations category. The award function was held on 9th April 2011 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Shri. Jagdananda, State Information Commissioner, Government of Odisha was the Chief Guest for the evening and Shri Subrata Mukherji, President, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth was the Guest of Honour.

As an effort to promote transparency and accountability within the NGO sector and promote better standards in financial reporting as well as preparation and presentation of annual report, CSO Partners award for “Outstanding Annual Reporting Award” has been instituted by Financial Management Service Foundation (FMSF) & Credibility Alliance (CA).

The Awards seek to:

Recognize and promote the good standards & practices in the non profit organizations in the area of resource management, public distribution, accountability and transparency in annual reporting to their stakeholders.
Promote the overall credibility of the non-profit sector for long term sustainability.
Encourage healthy debate in the areas of better reporting practices.
Recognize and celebrate excellence in the non-profit sector.
Create examples and inspire for other non-profit organisations to follow higher standards as well as to promote cross-regional learning.

Stonehill Volunteers in Akshara Libraries

noreply@blogger.com (Gautam) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 05:47:00 +0000

(This is a guest post by Klara Moussay, Activity Supervisor at Stonehill International School. Every Tuesday, a group of Stonehill students meets with Doddajala students in their school library.)

The library of the Doddajala Public School is a modest low building where the only sources of light are two narrow windows. Before entering the library we remove our shoes. Once our eyes get used to the shade, we notice that the inner space is almost empty with only a few cushions and wooden planks on the floor. The books add colour to this place and we spot them immediately, although they are not displayed in a usual way. They are above our heads like birds with their wings unfolded.

While we read a book to the Doddajala students, they sit quietly under the colourful flock of paper birds and listen attentively to the story.

The first one we chose was called “The Picnic”. “There were five friends who lived in a forest – Monkey, Mouse, Rabbit, Squirrel and Bear. One day, they all went for a picnic…”

First of all, we explained the vocabulary with help of flash cards and we made sure that the students could pronounce the words correctly. After that, we read out the story several times encouraging the students to read with us. Once the task was completed, we had a surprise for our Indian friends. They were asked to join us for a small picnic in front of the library.

We tried to remain faithful to the initial story as much as we could. “Rabbit brought carrots. Monkey got apples. Squirrel got tomatoes. They cut the fruits and vegetables and mixed well…”

The following session we decided to read a story called “The Roti Roll”. The short narrative about an incredible adventure of a roti, which was fed to a dog, stolen by a monkey before the dog could take a bite, then taken by a crow who got frightened by a peacock and let the roti fall to the ground, which rolled back to the dog.

In the beginning, we introduced ourselves as the main characters wearing the images of the animals we represented on our foreheads. The story was read and performed simultaneously. After we finished, we asked the children to act the story for us. Through their faultless performance we could see that we reached our goal – the students were familiar with the vocabulary and showed a good understanding of the story.

However, the most rewarding moment is when the children ask to take the books home to re-read on their own, or perhaps with their siblings.

We are looking forward the visits we are going to organize throughout the second semester. It is a pleasant and enriching activity providing us with further insight into our host country culture and giving us the most valued opportunity to interact and laugh with the local children.

Fifty-five paise per child per day in Tamil Nadu Anganwadis

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 06:13:00 +0000

Surprising but true.. Tamil Nadu, which ranks first in the ICDS implementation in our country allocates only fifty-five paise per child, on a daily basis, studying in an Anganwadi.

Of this , 25 paise is for vegetables, 19 paise is for fuel and 11 paise for condiments! An anganwadi having 25 children is given only Rs.6.25 for vegetables. Even on the days when 40 children come to the centre, the rations are not increased.

The government cites inflation as the reason. In the 2010-11 budget, Rs.924 crore was provided in Tamil Nadu for nutrition programmes. But the ICDS has alone has around 11,26,536 beneficiaries. In addition to this number, lakhs of children benefiting from the mid-day meal scheme and many pregnant mothers get nutrition from the same funds. Hence the per child cost has been kept very meagre.

Supply-demand problem is not only seen in food but also seen in the Anganwadi resources. There is an acute shortage of play-kits and mats for children to sleep on.

Read more on this : http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/mobile.aspx?article=yes&pageid=9&edlabel=TOIBG&mydateHid=21-03-2011&pubname=&edname=&articleid=Ar00901&format=&publabel=TOI

Source : The Times of India

Public Records of Operations and Finance - Now a Best Practice

noreply@blogger.com (Gautam) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 06:50:00 +0000

"In 2002, a coalition of community service organisations, led by Janaagraha, campaigned for the quarterly public disclosure of Bangalore city corporation’s financial records. This campaign, otherwise known as PROOF (Public Records of Operations and Finance), aimed to enhance accountability to the citizens through transparency. Within six months of its launch, PROOF succeeded in convincing the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) to adhere to the demands of public disclosure.

Today, PROOF is encompassed at the policy level in the disclosure law of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Its second major accomplishment has been the generation of standarised service level benchmarks. This benchmarking framework has been recommended by the Thirteenth Finance Commission to municipal corporations across the country."

Visit to Gopinatham

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 04:40:00 +0000

Nestled in the foothills of M.M. Hills, with the meandering Kavery on one side, Gopinatham looked like an idyllic setting for a village school. The drive to the village from Mettur took us thro’ isolated road stretches, with hardly any signs of habitation. The appearance of the school, situated at the periphery of the village, with the verdant paddy fields stretching in the front, was a welcome change.

As I stepped out of the car, I could sense the excitement of the place. I just hoped that the same excitement would carry me thro’ my school visit. Entering the school premises, I was witness to the playfulness of groups of kids, who probably had their “game period” on. Wandering around, we spotted a few teachers -some had gone on leave, some supposedly on census duty. After a little briefing by the teachers, I decided to interact with the class III/IV kids directly.

They all greeted me with the usual chorus of “Good morning miss”. I am always a little amused by this well orchestrated welcome. I began my interaction by asking them about what they do in the class, what they learnt and what they enjoyed. A few children appeared very enthusiastic, some a little bewildered and apprehensive about what was in store. I could also notice some shying away from me completely. In general I could sense the sparkle, tinged with a little apprehension in the eyes of most of the kids. As my interaction continued, my initial excitement started waning. To my dismay, the learning level of the kids was not too much to talk about. In fact it was pretty dismal both in language and in Maths.

Finishing the interaction, I sat down with the teachers to find the reasons for the poor showing. The culprit seemed to be the language. The teachers were vocal about it. Gopinatham, being a border town, had a predominantly Tamil population. So, as per the language policy, the kids were taught in Tamil till class four. They suddenly switched to Kannada in class five. This sudden change made their learning difficult. The teachers were of the opinion that it would be better if the kids were taught till high school in one language, Kannada or Tamil. I could not help but agree with their observations. As I was having this conversation, I could notice the children being used for doing simple chores like serving tea, fetching water from across the street and even occasionally cleaning the utensils.

Well, it was lunch time. As it usually happens, the kids rushed out on hearing the school bell and stood in the queue to get the hot midday meal being served. All the missing excitement of their class rooms seemed to have been replaced by a happy glow that the much wanted food always brings. The whole school premises turned out to be one large bustling dining area. I was invited for the meal as well. I happily tasted some. The food was nutritious and tasteful.

It was time to leave. Before stepping out, I asked for the direction to the toilet, just to make sure they had one. Surprisingly, found that they had quite a few, but most of them were locked up. It looks like it is their way of keeping them clean, by not allowing free access to kids!

Through out the visit, I felt some sort of a familiarity with the name of the place. I knew, all along, it was Veerappan’s territory. Little did I know that Gopinatham was his home town, until our driver learnt at the village coffee shop! Talking about the remoteness of the place, I was told that the few other schools in the area were so remote that they can be reached only by walk. No wonder it was an ideal hunting ground for Veerappan.

As I took the road back to Bengaluru, I crossed a primary school building, setup in a dilapidated forest shed (A poor apology for a school building.) near the border check post. Crossing Mettur, I entered the four laned NH-7 (part of North-South Corridor) with eateries like A2B, Kamath and others every few kilometers. The contrast between what I experienced through out the day and the new landscape was glaring. I drove back with the lingering thought of the vast urban-rural divide we witnessed during this short visit.

By K.Vaijayanti

Vaijayanti is the head of Research and Evaluation in Akshara Foundation. She has extensive Policy Research experience in Elementary education from conceptualization to implementation.

Answering the Question: How Good is This School?

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 02:31:00 +0000

The Right to Education Act purports to put in place several infrastructural and process parameters that are supposed to ensure quality of education for all children – quality of access, quality of school and class room processes and finally learning outcomes.

If the Act, which came into force last year, is to have any meaning for the 200 million children of India studying in our government schools, then these schools must be able to demonstrate that all children are learning.

In the last 10 years leading to the RTE, the focus has been on improving access and gunning for universal enrollment. Learning outcomes have remained elusive because this has not received the same kind of attention.

The RTE is in danger of going the same way unless there is explicit commitment to learning outcomes. If the rules for the RTE do not commit to measurement and improvement of children’s learning outcomes, the Act might end up merely guaranteeing years of schooling and not education.

I make my case on the basis of significant evidence from our work at Azim Premji Foundation over the past eight years. This includes quantitative and qualitative research findings as well as follow- up studies.

Data from the independent evaluation of over 16,000 government primary schools by Azim Premji Foundation between 2003 and 2008 shows that from Yadgir in northeast Karnataka to Banaskantha and Sabarkantha in Gujarat, Vidisha and Datia in Madhya Pradesh, Tonk and Sirohi in Rajasthan and Uttarkashi and Udhamsinghnagar in Uttarakhand the story is the same.

While universal enrollment is being met by over 90% of our schools and the average attendance of children in most schools is over 70%, the killer is that less than 10% of schools can demonstrate adequate learning outcomes for most of their children.

What this indicates is that in over 90% of our rural government schools, a majority of our children are simply spending years in school and have very little to show for it in terms of learning.

In this prevailing situation, it is essential that measurement of learning outcomes find a place in the rules for RTE.

The objective, tools and methods for this must be clear: It is to get an evaluation of schools. Therefore this must involve low stakes tests for children. Judicious sampling will be adequate in the rules that the states set. Nobody needs to visualize a vast all-consuming census (for example, Karnataka is considering a sample of 5% of schools in their rules.)

The tests of learning outcomes will not be a test of rote learning but conceptual understanding and the ability of children to apply their learning. These assessments must at all times have credibility.

One of the practical ways to ensure this is for the states to appoint independent institutions to conduct these assessments.

Once learning outcomes are on the front burner and in the public domain, the state education system will find the will and wherewithal to focus strategies to improve learning outcomes. The RTE will then begin to have meaning for our children.

Of course, school quality is more than just the learning outcomes of the children. One can answer the question, “How good is this school?” only with a holistic understanding of inputs, processes and outputs: infrastructure facilities; school environment; class room processes; community participation; children’s school completion rates etc.

But it also would be useful to look at whether those schools that have fared well in learning outcomes also fared well in terms of these other characteristics.

With this in mind, let me go back to the assessment of over 16,000 schools by our foundation and the 10% of schools which were successful in demonstrating that most of their children were learning.

When we conducted research over consecutive years to understand the factors that differentiate these “good” schools from the other 90% of India’s schools, we found many of them displayed the characteristics and attributes that meet a holistic school quality definition.

Here is what our research showed:

Effective school leadership and a team of committed and motivated teachers are the key differentiators. These qualities are a striking feature of successful schools and, in stark contrast, are missing in the other schools.

There is the efficiency of a well- oiled unit about the successful schools. These schools are better in terms of cleanliness, neatness and orderliness. Even in the most water-starved areas, the school ensures clean drinking water. School uniforms, stationery and text books are supplied to all students at the beginning of the academic year without delay. The midday meal is organized and executed without fuss.

Teachers meet regularly to discuss and review the day’s plans. Teachers in these successful schools make visible extra efforts to provide additional inputs to children and provided special attention to the relatively “weaker” children.

Cooperation of local community: As a result of commitment from the leadership and teachers, these schools are able to secure cooperation from the local community and parents.

School environment: The qualitative study reinforces the quantitative data. A majority of successful schools demonstrate an enabling and favorable environment as compared to the other schools, of which the most heartwarming are these two nuggets: there are very few fights among the children who resolve their arguments through dialogue; there is no corporal punishment in most of these successful schools.

No infrastructural advantages: The “successful” schools have no infrastructural advantage over the other schools; they have simply overcome all the constraints that bedevil India’s government schools.

Almost three years later, we went back once again to a sample of these “good” schools and other schools in Karnataka to examine aspects such as student aspirations, school completion rates and equity in learning outcomes and the critical findings were:

Aspirations and dreams: The children from the successful schools have a long and varied list of aspirations. There are aspiring singers, scientists and mathematicians; some want to join the military while others want to become professionals in medicine, engineering or law. However, more than anything else the children want to become teachers and one assumes that they want to emulate their teachers.

Very high elementary school completion: Less than 10% of children in the successful schools drop out before reaching class 9; this is far superior when compared to the 40% drop-out rate observed in other schools.

Equity in learning: The average scores across various castes and categories of children are closely bunched together; remember that these are already high-scoring schools. This kind of evidence suggests that if a school ensures learning outcomes for most of the children, in all likelihood it must also be ensuring that other essential good processes and practices critical to overall quality are also in place.

So can well designed and properly conducted measurement of children’s learning outcomes – not rote learning but their conceptual understanding and ability to apply their learning – serve as a reliable measure of school quality?

Given the scale, magnitude and diversity of our 1.3 million schools and from an implementation and operational point of view, could this be a surrogate indicator of school quality?

It might, if a system of credible and periodic assessment of learning outcomes is instituted.

- By: S. Giridhar .

Article Courtesy : The Wall Street Journal

S. Giridhar is head of the University Resource Center at the Azim Premji Foundation

Karnataka ranked 16th in the Education Development Index

noreply@blogger.com (Asha Sharath) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 04:30:00 +0000

The Education Development Index (EDI) shows a clear picture of the condition of primary education in the state. Karnataka has slipped four positions to be ranked 16th in the annual rating of 35 states based on the EDI. The main reason for our dismal rating is poor performance in tackling infrastructure at primary and upper primary schools in 2009. Infrastructure index is one of the most important parameters and is calculated based on the number of schools having common toilets,toilets for girls, drinking water facility and school-classroom ratio below 40. Karnataka ranks 23 and 24 in the infrastructure index for primary schools and upper primary schools respectively.

EDI is prepared by the National University for Educational Planning and Administration. EDI is calculated taking into account four component - infrastructure, access, teachers and outcomes. Incase of access, availability of schools per 1,000 child population and ratio of primary to upper primary schools are the two important factors which are considered.

Let's have a look at the EDI of other states. Its very heart-warming to see that smaller states have performed much better. For the second year in a row, Puducherry is the number 1 state, followed by Lakshadweep and Kerala. Kerala has to be applauded for the wonderful job done in the primary education, which helped them to move up from the ninth to the third position this year. The Andaman and Nicobar islands have jumped up three slots, to be ranked fourth and Tamil Nadu continues to hold the fifth position. Chandigarh, Punjab and Delhi stand at sixth, seventh and eighth position respectively.

Some bad news for the Hindi speaking states. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Prades, Rajasthan and West Bengal are at the bottom of the heap. Bihar has been making massive investment for the improvement of elementary education. In the next few years, we will surely see Bihar racing much ahead of many performing states.

Access-wise, north-eastern states are at top with Arunachal Pradesh holding number one position for Primary level and Mizoram topping the Upper Primary level. Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat score second at Primary and Upper Primary levels respectively.

Infrastructure-wise, Punjab is the best followed by Puducherry and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands in the Primary Level, while the Andaman & Nicobar Islands top the Upper Primary level followed by Punjab and Sikkim.

Looking at all the states, Karnataka surely has a lesson or two to learn !

Article Courtesy : The Times of India