Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Attendees:
Room to Read (1) Mr. Dhir Jhingran, Regional Director, Asia, Room
to Read
Educational Development Centre
(EDC) (1) Ms Vandita Sharma, Country Director, EDC
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SESSION 1 – ELT: Need for Unified Efforts;
About the Consortium;
English in the context of SSA: State expectation
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d. Varied forms of Teaching Leaning Materials (TLMs) are being used by
states – radio programmes developed by EDC are being used in 2-3 states,
SSA is trying to organize teacher training programmes
e. There is no English Language teaching policy in any state.
9. Dr. Shabnam Sinha spoke about the need for an English Consortium and the
need for agencies and NGOs who have been working in the area of ELT,
preparing and delivering quality and meaningful programmes in English, to
come together and consolidate their efforts by working through a Consortium
rather than as individuals. The mission of the Consortium could be
“ENGLISH FOR EQUITY”. The mushrooming of small English medium
schools has rendered quality of teaching pathetic. The growing demand for
quality-controlled delivery for English teaching, which can be offered as a
cohesive teaching-learning system that is easy to deliver and caters to overall
skill developed prompted the setting up of the Consortium for English
Language Teaching.
10. The Consortium would focus on English Language teaching at the primary
level in Phase I.
11. She also gave a brief national overview on English in the context of SSA. .
There would be three important dimensions to this
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SESSION 2 – Presentation by Core Partners –
SESSION CHAIR : Prof Arun Nigvekar
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q. All girls under the scholarship programme are provided with uniforms for
summer and winter, stationary, a variety of school and personal supplies
(ranging from shoes and socks to a lunch box, umbrella), textbooks,
reference books and tutoring (when required), school fess, travel costs,
and medical check-ups
r. Computer Room Program – Program Objective – To develop the
creativity and confidence of computer teachers such that they integrate
computer literacy and educational software as a tool for enhancing
students understanding of academic subjects – 15 computer rooms
s. Each computer lab receives three years of support – Room to Read
donates hardware (6 to 8 computers) software and trainings to assist
teachers with curriculum development
t. Room to Read also commit to maintenance of the computers and provide
upgrades as needed in the third year
u. The focus of the computer labs is both on Computer Assisted Learning
(CAL) and Computer Literacy (CL).CAL refers to the use of educational
software such as audio-visual teaching material for academic topics such
as maths, science, social science and language. CL refers to the use of
basic computer packages such as Microsoft Office and Windows
v. In the first year Room to Read trains teachers with a focus on how to plan
CAL programs. The other focus is on setting up systems for the lab so that
children spend at least 3 hours on a computer every week. In the second
year innovative teaching pedagogies are explored with the teachers.
Additional aids such as digital cameras or projectors are also used.
Children from each lab who have demonstrated potential in advanced
computer understanding are identified and scholarships provided for
further training.
w. The underlying focus of the computer labs is building sustainability for
labs to function beyond Room to Read’s 3-year support.
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h. This is an Easy-to-use method of integrating technology into existing
educational processes
i. It embraces the whole class with a single computer
j. It engages up to 20 students simultaneously
k. Digital Library
l. The Digital Library is a repository of educational content from T4 project
and agencies working with the Education system in India
m. It is usable and searchable in Kannada, Hindi and English languages
n. The library makes use of existing infrastructure and educational
governance system
o. Content is available for classes 1 to 10 in Social science, maths, science
and languages
p. IRI for Introductory English – This programme aims to create an
environment where English happens than is taught
q. Learning is through hands-on experience
r. It involves simulating day-to-day activities
s. The emphasis is on continued practice and reinforcement
t. It is a group and peer learning exercises
u. It aims to provide model and methods to teachers
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n. The impact of the CLR radio programme was that those class 5 and class 7
students exposed to the radio programme had better English speaking skill
than those students not exposed to the programme.
o. CLR has introduced a Pilot radio programme “Let’s Read and Write
English” – this is a 3-yr interactive radio programme for teaching reading
and writing in classes 5,6,7
p. The first 2 levels successfully completed – the third level is to be
broadcast this year
q. CLR has capacity building programmes and training materials for primary
school teachers and trainers for teaching of English in govt schools which
encompasses
i. Programmes for primary school teachers and trainers for teaching
of English in Government schools
ii. Developing a course for improving teachers’ own knowledge of
English
r. CLR has supplementary reading materials for students which are child-
centered learning materials and games for phonemic awareness, word
recognition, sentence construction and early reading, bilingual picture
word book in English-Marathi, English-Hindi and 8 other regional
languages, bilingual storybooks in English-Marathi, English-Hindi.
s. It has been found that 50% of the teachers do not turn on the radio to listen
to these programmes
t. Of the balance 50%, 25% turn it on irregularly
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i) Springboard – A business communication program for fresh
graduates as well as junior level employees
ii) Accomplish – An English and IT skills program for middle and
senior management employees of organizations
iii) Right Turn – A basic English language program for the police
iv) Take Off – A program for school teachers
v) English Relay – a program for children
vi) I-PACE – Proficiency and aptitude training in Computers and
English – To support ICICI Bank in its initiative to train the staff
of Sangli Bank in English Language skills and computer efficiency
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ii) Take all participating children first to basic English literacy and
then to competent usage of English for their academic purpose
r. The package is based on the Curriculum Learning Outcomes
s. The philosophy behind developing English Relay is that language
learning, especially for children requires and input-rich environment.
Engaging learning contexts also leads to quicker learning and learning for
use. A Holistic approach towards concurrent development of receptive
and productive skills ensures increases comprehension and regular usage.
t. The Programme is delivered at four levels
i) Level 1 …. Std. I-II students
ii) Level 2 …. Std. III-V students
iii) Level 3 …. Std. VI-VIII students
iv) Level 4 …. Std. IX to X students
u. Each level has a 60 session (1.5 hours each) program
v. The learning progression is from picture cards to letter cards to word cards
to reading cards to story cards to work books.
w. The components of the English Relay program is as follows:
i) Teaching-Learning material
ii) Student workbook
iii) Facilitator Manual
iv) Facilitator Training
v) Monitoring and Reporting Tools
x. Teaching Learning materials are designed for repeated use and can cater to
a large number of children at the same time. It exposes children to varied
art styles. It comprises audio-visuals and games.
y. The Student Workbook is colourfully designed and caters to guided
writing practice, has reading material and games for word play at home.
z. The Facilitator Manual contains detailed step-by-step explanations and
clearly described learning outcomes. It is written in easy-to-understand
local language. The English component is explained and transliterated for
correct pronunciation. It also contains a Glossary to aid continuous
learning. The manual caters to English skills development of the facilitator
as well.
aa. A typical facilitator profile would be either School English teachers or a
local adult from the community who has completed high school, has a
predisposition to work with children, has a befitting personality and habits
and shows commitment for one English Relay cycle.
bb. Facilitator Training comprises language teaching – both theory and
methods and incorporates session-wise explanation of objectives and
process. The training involves familiarizing facilitators with materials for
planned usage and for creative application, effective classroom
management techniques, mock teaching practice and solution finding for
expected challenges.
cc. The Monitoring and Reporting Tools in English Relay monitors the
learners progress
i) Through pretests and post-tests of students
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ii) Inbuilt assessment plan for written and spoken English
iii) By tracking progress – written, case study and audio recording
dd. It also monitors program delivery through
i) Facilitator debriefing
ii) Program supervisor observation sheets
iii) Weekly planning and reporting formats
iv) Program coordinator report format
ee. The strength of the English Relay program is that the framework and
design of the programme addresses the lack of good English teachers and
leads to the development of competency of facilitators at the grass-root
level. It is so designed that it provides an option of being implemented by
a volunteer or by a teacher. It also encourages employment of local
educated youth in the village.
ff. English Relay has been launched for 1500 students across 8 villages of
Rajasthan, in Rabriyawas and Bhauri. A 4-day intensive training program
for 16 grass root level workers has been conducted at the program site.
gg. The English Relay Training Programme for facilitators in Yavatmal was
conducted for the Sanchalaks of E-Choupals.
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SESSION 3 – OPEN DISCUSSION
SESSION CHAIR – DR. KUMUD BANSAL
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j. The emphasis should be on teacher training – under the SSA, time should
be set aside for teachers for English training.
k. The number of children in the 6-14 years age group is 200 million
l. A minimum of 5 million teachers are required to teach and cater to the
requirements of these 200 million children. This emphasizes the need to
look at capacity building. Hence institutional capacities of the NCERT,
SCERTS, ELTIs, etc. needs to be looked at closely. It is important to
engage the NCERTs and SCERTs on the challenges ahead through a
Public-Private-Partnership mode. Tie-ups with agencies outside the
conventional domain could also be a possible solution for capacity
building.
m. As part of the capacity-building process, mentorship programmes can be
introduced wherein BRC and CRC teachers will have mentors to hand-
hold and help them.
n. Students already learning English could be engaged to partner and foster
peer learning.
Dr. Kumud Bansal delineated the following action points for the Consortium, based on
the discussions with the core partners
c. A sub-group comprising Dr. Gayatri, Dr. Shabnam Sinha, Dhir Jingran and
Dr. John Kurien would create the Position Paper
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d. The Position Paper should be ready in a month’s time – by end June
e. The Position Paper would be sent to MHRD and to state governments,
national agencies etc.
f. UNICEF would request MHRD to invite NCERT, SCERTs, SPDs etc. for a
National level conference
g. The tentative date for the conference would be the third week of July
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