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Class Readiness Program

Best Practices
Department of School Education, Government of Haryana

I. Background to the Project in which the Best Practice is emerging (Why was/is
this program done? What happened in the project and why?).

Background:
The Government Schools in Haryana catering the economically backward and marginalised
sections of the society under the ambit of Department of School Education, Government of
Haryana, have over the years tried to counter the problems of low attendance among students and
a lack of order in the academic calendar. In a number of diagnostic workshops and studies, it was
found that teachers had to often delay the to-be taught curriculum or repeat the curriculum
covered in the initial months of the academic session because a considerable percentage of the
students joined the school much later into the academic session as opposed to joining school on
April 1 when the schools reopen for the new academic session. As a result, almost 45 teaching
days of the academic session were lost because of low turnout of the students in the initial
months of the academic session. This became a critical problem for the Department. The primary
reasons behind the low turnout in the initial months were found out to be:
1. Harvesting-season: A number of children were being asked to join in the harvest to help
their parents with the work. Girls would also be asked to look after younger siblings in
case the mothers were required to help in the harvest as well.
2. Indifference of parents: Parents were also found to not be proactive about the admissions
of their children and were also less involved in the school affairs.
3. Lack of change in school environment (leading to boredom): The students in the schools
were not exposed to newer environments of learning and there was limited
implementation of the suggested innovations in pedagogy in the classrooms. The lead to
boredom in the classrooms.
4. Lack of attractive reasons to go to school: With a lack of a constant push from the parents
and a straitjacketed approach to learning, the schools in the state had also begun to lose
the attractiveness for the students thereby resulting in low attendance.
In light of the above conditions, educationists at SCERT Gurgaon and DIETs across the state
under the guidance of the Planning and Management Team designed a programme that to create
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a positive academic environment in the schools. The focus of the design was to make the
education child-centred, activity based and creatively inspiring to make the schools more
attractive to the children and parents and help in an increase in school enrolment and attendance.
This program was called the Class Readiness Program.
Objectives:
In line with the guidelines of the National Curriculum Framework and the National Policy on
Education, the designed Classroom Readiness Program (CRP) of the Government of Haryana
had the following objectives:
1. To recreate the learning environment in the schools by making it more participatory
2. To raise the motivation levels of the teachers
3. To give impetus to project and activity based learning
4. To help the students localise their education
5. To make children familiar with their new class-room environment
6. To provide maximum learning days as per RTE Act, 2009
7. To develop a new curriculum inclusive of the existing curriculum
8. Assess human and infrastructural resources of the school and ensure optimal utilisation of
the same
9. To increase student-strength
10. To provide opportunity to the students to display their hidden talents and skills

Activities:
The following activities were planned and implemented in the schools as part of the Class
Readiness Program:

1. Library Week: With a standardised curriculum that mandates a certain number of books
for each academic session, it was found out that the students in the schools did not
enthusiastically pursue reading beyond the prescribed curriculum. So in order to develop
the habit of reading among the students and open their imagination to a whole new world,
Library Week was made part of the CRP. Thorough this programme all the schools
ensured that each student was provided at least one book per day from the school library.
The students would read the books and present a brief summary of the book to the rest of
the class. These follow up activities of the Library Week ensured that students gained
confidence and honed their talents.

2. Handwriting Week: With a dual focus of improving both the Handwriting of the
students and their skills to express themselves better through the means of the pen,
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Handwriting Week is an integral part of the CRP. To build a generation that is better
equipped to understand and express, the modules targeted at handwriting development
were also designed to help the teachers and the students to work together on the quality of
expression.

3. Yoga Sessions: Aimed at achieving physical and spiritual acuity, every day yoga sessions
were organised through broadcasted lessons on Edusat in all the schools. Morning
assemblies in all the schools started with yoga sessions during CRP.

4. Assessing Learning Level: There is an urgent need to implement Multi Grade Multi
Level teaching in the government schools in the state as it has been seen that students
studying in the same class demonstrate starkly different learning levels. CRP, through
different activities, helped the teachers identify and group the students as per their
learning levels so that more individual-focused learning could take place.

5. Quest for Knowledge: CRP is also designed to develop motivation among students to
seek knowledge outside of their text books. Hence, as part of CRP, students were
assigned eminent personalities every week to research and make presentations upon.
Sometimes, a quiz would also be held in the classroom. This activity has shown a
considerable improvement in the persistence levels of the students while tackling
problems.

6. Educational Tours: Localising education is as important for the students as it is for them
to understand the texts they read in the larger context. Hence to bring around such a local
understanding of theoretical knowledge, educational tours to local factories/industries,
banks, post offices, local hospitals, parks, grain markets, vegetable markets, bus-stand,
railway-station, police-station etc. were organised for making students aware of the
government/social system around them.

7. Communication Skills: Integrating various activities under CRP that pushed students to
take initiative are the modules and activities designed for enhancing communication
skills of the students. These activities included basic communication practices like
speaking on phone and greeting elders and officials as well as public speaking and
presentation.

8. General Knowledge: To help students gain awareness about current affairs and general
knowledge, sessions were held in every class as per need and level of class. Outdoor
activities like seed-gathering, collection of pictures, plant-leaves, post stamps, coins etc.
were also promoted. Grant for two newspapers per school was sanctioned and students
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were encouraged to read daily news in the morning assembly and write the same on the
notice-board of the school.

9. Film festival: Just after the Mid-Day Meal, television films were screened for the
students in all the schools. The aim of this activity was to create awareness among the
students. As a result, students were shown moral based children-films, inspirational films,
and awareness films for children with special needs.


Documentation of Good Practices and Lessons Learnt:

The documentation of good practices and lessons learnt was done as follows:

1. CRP Register: All schools were required to maintain a CRP register that recorded daily
activities conducted for each class during CRP. Planners were also provided to teachers as
part of the modules to help them plan and record their activities better.

2. Project Work: As part of the CRP, students were asked to develop projects and models
based on their learning during the period of the CRP. These projects and models are saved
every year as part of documentation.

3. Workbooks: A record is maintained by the students as well through their CRP files and
scrap books which showcase the work done by each individual student during the period
of CRP.

4. Media Coverage: The CRP program has been well covered by both the state and the
local media. A record of the same through newspaper cuttings and web clippings is
maintained at the state level.

5. Social Media: Teachers and school heads are also encouraged to share the work done in
their schools through social media like Facebook and Google Plus. A record of the same
is maintained at the state department.



II. What is the Good Practice from the project and Why?

1. What is the Good Practice?
The processes followed during the Class Readiness Program, stand out as a Good
Practice. It is aimed at delivering an educational environment in the schools of the state
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that is child and teacher oriented and encourages participative learning. The program was,
at all times, focused at improving the student-teacher relationships while providing a
platform for burgeoning creativity through morale building and community engagement.
For the success of the program, a state resource group was constituted that monitored and
streamlined all the activities under CRP from development of teacher modules to
implementation of the program. At the district level, committees were set up which were
headed by the District Education Officers and had the participation of district and block
level officials including the DIET Principals and the Block Education Officers. As part of
this system, 3 state level trainings and 4 division level trainings were conducted. At the
block level, all the 119 blocks underwent 1 training each while all the 1500 clusters were
also similarly trained through 1 training for each cluster. Besides these trainings, the
Block Resource Persons and Assistant Block Resource Coordinators were trained at
SCERT Gurgaon for CRP. The activities that were then conducted were widely covered
by the local and state media as every senior secondary school organised two or more
educational tours for its students while motivational lectures and competitions were
organised in all the school on a weekly basis. This resulted in solving the critical problem
of the loss of 45 academic days due to low attendance at the beginning of the academic
session and helped create a better student-teacher relationship for participatory learning.

2. Key Outcomes of Applying Best Practice:
Some of the key outcomes of the implementing the CRP can be divided into diagnostics
and solutions. To counter the problem of absenteeism in the initial months of the
academic session, a number of surveys were conducted which were followed through
with workshops and seminars to develop a holistic understanding of problems of the
school education at the grassroots. This diagnosis process helped the Department identify
the problems which could be addressed as part of CRP. The problems identified included
low teacher morale, lack of energetic environment of the school, low participation among
the students and the communities and a lack of academic nous among those who monitor
the schools. Hence solutions were developed which included:
a) Content Creation: National level organisations like the NCERT were incorporated in
defining the purpose of the content and developing it to suit the needs of the teachers
and the students of the state.
b) Innovation: Innovative teaching practices were developed as part of the CRP. These
practices were in sync with the Learning Level goals of the students of each class. For
example, as part of the English language, special focus was laid on developing oral
skills of students. Through poems and symbols, basic instructions were taught to the
children. Alphabets were taught through various patterns as opposed to rote learning.
These patterns were also used in developing an understanding of more complex
words. Similar patterns were also used in Hindi for developing grammar and spelling
skills among the students. Vocabulary for both languages was developed through
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puzzles, jumbled words and other games. Under EVS, special effort was made by
certain schools wherein the best practices stood out. For example, one school held the
elections of the gram panchayats in the school to help the students understand the
electoral process of the gram panchayats. Another school stood out by creating the
whole banking structure inside the school with all the concerned stakeholders.
c) Art as a Tool for Learning: Under CRP, art was identified as a special tool of
learning. To teach Mathematics, kids were enabled to use collage material and beads
to introduce them to numbers, positive and negative space, classification, and
sequencing and pattern recognition. To increase general knowledge, students were
asked to create had made journals wherein students used paper, paper bags and
collage paper to create journal covers, pages and binding. Various history lessons
were also taught in schools through the help of drama and theatre. It was seen through
these activities that children love to practice art and it helps them attain an authentic
medium of self-expression.
d) Community Engagement: Creating ownership among the community of the
government schools was understood to be an important factor in developing a more
accountable system driven towards academic excellence. By involving community
assets and important public spaces as part of the learning process, the community was
engaged beyond mere functions and administrative procedures of the schools but also
in a direct relation with the students of the schools.
e) Teacher Motivation: The programme was able to act as an initiative to plug the ever
widening gap between the students and the teachers. Teachers on realizing that their
efforts are being recognized at a state and district level, have been very motivated to
show their capabilities and there is a certain degree of healthy competition that has
been sparked between them and their peers.
f) Attendance: As compared with the previous years there has been a marked
improvement in the student attendance figures due to this programme. Through
informal talks it has also been realized that teacher absenteeism, which is a huge
problem that plagues our countrys education system, has also seen a reasonable
improvement in the schools.

3. Critical Success Factors in Leading to the Best Practice:
a) Volunteer Groups: Volunteer groups from within the Department were created at the
district level. These groups were called the Shiksha Diksha Groups. They were
comprised of both District and Block level officials as well as school heads and
teachers. This led to a greater ownership of the program and with proper support of
the Department, the enthusiasm levels for implementation of the program remained
high throughout.
b) Social Media: Through online social media like Facebook, teachers got an
opportunity to engage with the wider community and provide feedback to the state for
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improving delivery and monitoring mechanisms. Any wrong doings were also
brought to light and necessary actions were taken. Looking at the success of this
program on the social media, the Department is also looking at using similar means in
other processes.
c) Crowd Sourcing: Teachers also used the social media to engage with each other and
post their problems while implementing the CRP. Solutions and other creative ideas at
tackling problems and ensuring constant student interest in the classrooms were
regularly exchanged.
d) Resource Optimization: Instead of dedicating more human and monetary resources,
the CRP was targeted at optimizing the utilization of the existing resources. This
removed the challenge for the teachers and students to get used to new resources
while it enabled the creation of a new holistic educational environment from the old
one.
e) Training: To change the outlook of the monitors and the school heads towards the
students and their education, comprehensive and timely trainings were conducted for
them

4. Key Conditions for the Good Practice:
a) Research: Before starting the journey for transformation in teaching processes, it is
essential to understand and localise the problems. CRP was drafted as a result of
intensive surveys and workshops conducted by the Department. The finding from
these exercises helped in not only identifying the problems but also the kind of
solutions that work and the ones that havent worked. This provided the scope to
develop better solutions specifically tailored to local problems.
b) Mobilisation and Communication: Any state level program relies heavily on the
right kind of mobilisation and appropriate and specific communication for its success.
Block level resources were mobilised months in advance and trainings through master
trainers were provided at all the levels. To create enthusiasm among all the
stakeholders involved, massive advertising of the program through Radio and local
Television channels was also carried out.
c) Constant Support Mechanism: Through social media and interactive processes on
the ground, teachers and schools heads should be supported on a constant basis. Too
often, because of lack of power or resources, teachers have felt helpless. Dedicated
effort was made at improving the support system by hiring block level professionals
for academic support in the form of Block Resource Persons. BRPs provide constant
feedback to the teachers and help them in innovating their teaching practices. BRPs
are also encouraged to use social media in guiding those teachers who may not have
an online presence.

5. Key Initiatives to be Taken:
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a) Module Design: The modules for CRP were designed in sync with the Learning
Level Outcomes for the students of every class. Special effort was made in ensuring
that these modules were made interactive in nature so as to help increase student-
teacher interaction in the classroom. Hence these modules were prepared in a way
that they were both teacher oriented and student oriented.
b) Regular Visits: School visits were made a priority during this program wherein
officials and teams from the state level visited schools to encourage the teachers and
help them perform better. This resulted in an increased translation of the focus of CRP
from the state to the school level.
c) Rewards: Independent committees were set up to evaluate and recognise the best
performing schools under CRP. In a special event, these schools were also felicitated
by the Honourable Chief Minister of Haryana.

6. Why could it be replicable elsewhere?
a) Participatory: One of the constant imperatives of quality school education is to
increase student participation in the classroom activities. CRP, as a program, has been
intrinsically evolved on the ideals of participative teaching and participative learning.
While there may be geographical differences, there are basic tenets and ideals that all
classrooms share. Following the CRP model could help build school education in a
holistic manner.
b) Bottom Up: All the activities of the CRP have been designed in a way that the flow
of action is always bottom up. The program in itself was designed based on grassroots
study and feedback and is being continuously evolved through the support of teachers
and the community engagement.
c) Low Cost: The effort of Department, while implementing CRP, was not at providing
new resources but at providing new mechanisms to teacher and school heads to use
the old resources in a new way. Hence the cost incurred on the program is minimal
and a number of states through limited budgetary provisions could implement this
program effectively.

7. How could it be useful for other Programs?
a) Child Oriented: Any educational program could take a leaf out of the CRP booklet
in order to design a curriculum that is child oriented. Understanding the needs of the
individual student is at the centre of implementing the program. These techniques,
which are imparted to the teachers, have been developed by educationists and child
psychologists and work well in diversified classrooms.
b) Scale: CRP was implemented in close to 15,000 schools in Haryana. The processes of
CRP were the main reasons as to why such a scale could be achieved so efficiently. In
larger states as well, with proper support mechanism, a CRP styled program could be
implemented.
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c) Knowledge Base: CRP works not only because of high quality modules and trainings
but also because of the continuous monitoring and feedback mechanisms that help
create a knowledge base for the state through which various strategies are improvised
and evolved. Such a knowledge base is not only useful for improving the CRP in
particular but also the newer initiatives of the Department.

8. What would you tell the designers and implementers of other programs to look out
for when applying this best practice?
a) Guidelines: In any new effort designed to improve the education system, it is
important to keep in mind the guidelines of the National Curriculum Framework and
the National Policy on Education. Both these documents demonstrate well the desired
education environment for a child and these guidelines combined with the feedback
from the ground can help develop robust strategies for school education.
b) Focus on Specific Problems: While doing diagnostics, one can come across a
number of problems. However, not all problems can be fixed through a single
program. Hence objectives of the program need to be specified and specific problems
should be addressed.
c) Strengthen Grassroots Support: Haryana Government, through its Block Resource
Persons, has provided for the teachers in the schools a constant support mechanism.
For such a program to work grassroots support is essential and all district, block and
village level need to be involved in order to create a robust system that works for the
teacher and eventually for the children.