Manthan Stepping Stones PDF

Manthan Topic: Stepping Stones: Enhancing Quality of Primary Education NAV PARIVARTAN
Team Details:
ISB, Mohali Campus
Laina Emmanuel Komal Vasudev Guneet Singh Manvendra Singh Raghav Harkabir Singh Jandu
Stepping Stones:Enhancing Quality of Primary Education ISB: Laina Emmanuel, Komal Vasudev, Guneet Singh, Manvendra Singh Raghav,Harkabir Singh Jandu
Indias Most Pressing Problem: Crisis of Learning at the Primary Education Level
Quality of Primary Education at Government schools has been declining at an alarming rate in recent years which can hurt Indi as competitiveness and productivity and damage quality of life in rural and semi-urban India in the long run.
INCREASE IN RESOURCES
Indias elementary education budget has increased more than two fold since 2007-08, from Rs. 68,853 crores to Rs. 147,059 crores in 2012-13. Allocations for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the primary vehicle for delivering the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), have increased three-fold.
DECLINE IN LEARNING OUTCOMES

ASER 2012 and PISA 209show that fewer and fewer children in successive batches reaching 3rd and 5th standard are learning basics of reading , math and science
BUT
Substantial Improvements in inputs to Education over the decades
POSSIBLE CAUSES FOR THE CRISIS IN LEARNING What does the research say? Weak Pedagogy Weak School Governance Most striking symptom of weak governance is the high rate of teacher absence in governmentrun schools, which has not reduced substantially since 2003. Rigorous evaluations of carefully designed systems of teacher performance pay show substantial improvements in student learning in response to even very modest amounts of performance-linked pay for teachers.
-Improved access to primary schools - Better infrastructure - Better pupil-teacher ratios - Increased student enrolment
However, this is not enough to reverse the crisis in learning
Several randomised evaluations find large positive impacts of supplemental remedial instruction in early grades that are targeted to the child's current level of learning (as opposed to simply following the text book) (references in appendix)
The Importance of SMCs in The Solution
School Based Management Evidence from Across the World

Since the early 1990s School Based Management (SBM) has gained increasing popularity as a strategy for improving responsiveness and accountability in the delivery of education services. In several countries, including Brazil, Nepal, Mexico, and Czech Republic, authority is devolved to school based committees who are given varying levels of financial autonomy for 1) determining school needs 2) preparing budgets and plans 3) procuring items and incurring expenditure for meeting such needs. Research has shown us that Nicaraguas Autonomous School Program and Mexicos compensatory education program have contributed to better test scores.
School Management Committees in India

In India, under the RTE, SMCs have complete financial power over three annual grants Teaching Learning Material (TLM) School Development Grant (SDG) School Maintenance Grant (SMG) However, the condition of SMCs across the country is quite pathetic. In a lot of places SMCs have not been instituted, while they are dysfunctional in a number of places.
Snapshot of solution proposed

We propose a technology-enabled, volunteer driven approach to empowerment of School Management Committees (SMCs) to help them effectively monitor schools and adapt pedagogy to suit the needs of children in their community
The World Development Report on Making Services work for the poor recognizes that for education to truly deliver on its promises, schools need to be accountable to their local communities through bodies like School Management Committees (SMC) The Indian Government also recognizes the importance of SMCs by empowering them with legal rights and duties under the Right to Education Act
Empowering School Management Committees
Implementation Model Volunteer-driven, Technology-enabled
Volunteers drawn from two distinct pools local citizens and professionals from varied different professions. Involving the former raises the capacity of local citizens to monitor their schools, thus helping in scaling our ideas at low costs. Technology enabled Through strategic use of Information Technology, such as Massive Online Open courses, adapted to Indian conditions, we can further lower costs and reach a wide audience
Details of the Solution
Training Of Volunteers
Recruitment Of Volunteers in the 2 Channel Volunteer Model
Cascading model of training volunteers: Each set of 2 volunteers in a district train 80000 volunteers over the course of a year, thus reaching out to ~1.12 million across all districts in India Refresher training: To be provided through online courses, facilitated by volunteer trainers.
Empowering SMCs
Volunteer trainers:
Based out districts Involved in training and empowering the SMCs. Start with training 2 people per district (~1400 volunteers across the country).
Skills imparted: Skills imparted across three domains Domain Knowledge Public finances, with special reference to the district Financial literacy
Volunteer resource people:

Diverse set of non-state actors who bring in requisite skillsets, funding and ideas. They help empowered SMCs achieve their goals.
Procedural Knowledge Procurement in a local government environment Assessment of learning outcomes through the use of survey-toolkits Soft-skills Group dynamics with special relation to social dynamics in the district Decision-making in a group Team-building Technology enablement Basic computer literacy and knowledge of internet Interaction in forums meant specifically for governance
Initial training of SMCs held in partnership with Block Development Officers and District Officers, to achieve scale. Refresher trainings held by volunteer trainers, as government capacity not enough to conduct regular trainings
These technology enabled SMCs would be networked onto the main GYAN platform, and can ask for specific ideas, funding and skill-sets they require for achieving their ideas.
Architecture of the Online Portal

Inform and Engage Volunteer Resource Persons and Empowered SMCs
Communicate
Collectively Generate New Ideas & Training Materials to solve school-specific problems
Help people submit Accept and group training material
Select new ideas and artifacts and implement the best solutions
Help people search and rate best solutions
Mentors, Sponsors support the portal

Community + Marketplace for ideas Key Features
Moderation by experts to prevent lower-quality inputs Evolving portal to match to user expectations
Resource people review ideas and materials Group by topics Add user ratings Add insights
Online chat with education experts More search keywords for knowledge documents Discussion Forums (District specific)
Key implementation challenges and mitigation

Risk
Disinterested SMCs
Cause
SMCs usually have low expectations from government schools, translating into disinterest in tracking the learning outcomes of their children
Mitigation
Controlled experiments in Medak district in Andhra Pradesh by Accountability Initiative has shown that using local methods of dissemination can help ignite interest Khemani et al have found that Information and advocacy campaigns can lead to better participation in SMCs
Lack of buy-in from district officials
Building a good SMC culture requires buy-in from the local government, both for purposes of infrastructure for training and rules
We have seen that sharing success stories as well as data on learning outcomes across districts can incentivize district collectors to focus on education
Infrastructural issues
Online networking on the GYAN network requires access to good infrastructure
Partnering with infrastructure providers such as TARAhaat can mitigate this risk
Expected Budget
Organization Cost
Management Team ( Rs. 6000 per district per annum) Volunteer Team (Rs. 1.8 lac per district) Regional
Rs 1.86 lac/district/an num
Logistics Cost
Technology Cost
Transportation Cost (Rs. 10000 per district per annum) Establishment Cost
Rs 10000/district/ annum
IT Software +Hardware Cost ( Rs. 2 lac per district per annum) Communication Expense mobile& internet ( Rs. 35000 per district per annum)
Rs 2.35lac/distri ct/annum
Estimated Cost / Child = Rs 1.30 per annum

Appendix
Lant Pritchett, The first PISA results for India: The end of the beginning http://ajayshahblog.blogspot.in/2012/01/first-pisaresults-for-india-end-of.html PAISA Report 2012 ASER Report 2012 World Development Report 2004, Making services work for the poor http://www.gse.pku.edu.cn/lib/gse_lib/edusearch/e_publication/e_pub/268950PAPER0WDR02004.pdf Using evidence for better policy: The case for primary education in India, Karthik Muralidharan http://www.ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=119

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Manthan Topic: Stepping Stones: Enhancing Quality of Primary Education NAV PARIVARTAN

DECLINE IN LEARNING OUTCOMES

Substantial Improvements in inputs to Education over the decades

However, this is not enough to reverse the crisis in learning

The Importance of SMCs in The Solution

School Based Management Evidence from Across the World

School Management Committees in India

Snapshot of solution proposed

Empowering School Management Committees

Implementation Model Volunteer-driven, Technology-enabled

Details of the Solution

Recruitment Of Volunteers in the 2 Channel Volunteer Model

Volunteer resource people:

Architecture of the Online Portal

Mentors, Sponsors support the portal

Key implementation challenges and mitigation

Lack of buy-in from district officials

Online networking on the GYAN network requires access to good infrastructure

Estimated Cost / Child = Rs 1.30 per annum

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