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Improvements on Learning Outcomes and Teacher Capacity

Building of multigrade rural schools in India:

A Quasi Experimental Study under PCTFI

By

CARE INDIA

July 2017

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Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................ 5

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 7

1.1 Background ..................................................................................................................... 7

1.2 Context of the Intervention ............................................................................................. 8

1.3 Issues to address ............................................................................................................ 10

1.4 Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI), the intervention in India ........................ 12

1.4.1 Goal and Objectives of Phase 1 and 2 .................................................................. 12

1.4.2 Children, Teachers and Schools Reached Directly .............................................. 14

1.4.3 Strategy of intervention ........................................................................................ 16

A.- Quasi Experimental Research: Teacher Capacity Building .................... 16

B.- Supported quality improvement intervention in other clusters ................ 18

1.4.4 Theory of Change ................................................................................................. 21

CHAPTER 2: FRAMEWORK OF THE RESEARCH ............................................................ 22

2.1 About experimental and control group ............................................................................... 22

2.1.1 Social Stratification of children ........................................................................... 22

2.1.2 Distribution of children by gender and castes ...................................................... 23

2.1.3 Social information of teachers ............................................................................. 24

2.2 Analytical framework: Data series and Methodology ........................................................ 27

CHAPTER 3: MAIN FINDINGS ............................................................................................ 33

3.1 Increased learning outcomes in language and mathematics ............................................... 33

3.1.1 Learners’ result in Language for Grade 2 & 3 ..................................................... 33

3.1.2 Learner’s Assessment in Mathematics in Grade 2 and 3 ..................................... 35

3.2 Learning Achievement: Read in Time - PCTFI Phase 2, all 3 districts ............................. 38

3.3 Reduced gender gap in achievement in both language and mathematics .......................... 40

3.4 Classroom Processes .......................................................................................................... 42

3.4.1 Teachers’ Behaviors, Practices and Methods ....................................................... 43

3.4.2 Incremented Students Engagement ...................................................................... 45

3.5 Teacher Participation & Practices from Phase 1 to Phase 2............................................... 47

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS AND LEARNINGS ............................................................. 49

REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 54

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TABLES

Table 1

Number of children reached in 34 Primary School -Shrawasti- through Longitudinal

Quasi Experimental Study

Table 2

Number of Teachers reached with PCTFI in Primary School Shrawasti, through

Longitudinal Quasi Experimental Study

Table 3

Number of children reached direcly in Primary Schools -Shrawasti, Bahraich and

Balrampur through Longitudinal Quasi Experimental Study – PCTFI Phase 2

Table 4 Number of Primary Schools reached directly – PCTFI Phase 2

Table 5

Number of children in KGBV (upper primary residential schools) reached directly –

PCTFI Phase 2 (three districts)

Table 6 Numbers of Teachers and Government Functionaries reached directly – PCTFI Phase 2

Table 7

Cluster wise and caste wise distribution of children in control and experimental district

(2013-14)

Table 8 Distance of school from nearest minority habitation (2013-14)

Table 9 Distance of school from nearest Dalit community (2013-14)

Table 10 Infrastructure Status of Control & Experiment Schools (2013-14)

Table 11 Data Analysis Framework

Table 12 Database and Methodology for the Research in PCTFI

Table 13 Over all scenario-Competencies achievement of Grade 2 children in Language (%)

Table 14 Competency wise Achievement of Grade 2 children in Mathematics (%) T1 and T5

Table 15 Competency wise Achievement of Grade 3 children of in Mathematics (%)

Table 16 Progress in average reading score of children 2015-2016 (%)

Table 17 Progress in competencies associated to reading skills 2015-2016 (%)

Table 18 Children Reporting Gender fair environment

Table 19 Girls participation and interest in class

Table 20 Gender analysis of students reading with comprehension (%)

Table 21 Total No. of Classroom Observations

Table 22 Teachers’ Classroom Practices (% teachers)

Table 23 Teachers’ Classroom Practices (% teachers)

Table 24 Lesson Plan (% teachers)

Table 25 Teaching Methods (%)

Table 26 Attendance of Boys & Girls during Classroom Observations recorded in table 25

Table 27 Students Engagement (%)

Table 28 Frequency & Nature of Teachers’ Interaction with the Children

Table 29 Quality of Teacher Participation in cluster forums

Table 30 Teaching Practices in motivation to learn

Table 31 Changes on student workload

FIGURES Figure 1 Social Stratification of Children of Grade 2 & 3 in Experiment & Control schools (%)

(2014)

Figure 2 Social Stratification of Teachers from Experiment & Control site (in number) 2013-14

Figure 3 Comparative Analysis of performance in Hindi for Grade-2

Figure 4 Comparative Trend Analysis of Performance in Hindi for Grade-3

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Figure 5 Comparative Trend Analysis of performance in Maths for Grade-2

Figure 6 Comparative Trend Analysis for performance of Maths for Grade-3

Figure 7 Gender Gap- Maths

ABBREVIATIONS

BRC Block Resource Centre

BRG Block Resource Group

CC Cluster Coordinator

CCE Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation

CIHQ Care India Head Quarter

CISSD CARE India Solutions for Sustainable Development

COT Classroom Observation Tool

CRC Cluster Resource Centre

CRCC Cluster Resource Centre Coordinator

DIET District Institute of Education and Training

DISE District Information System for Education

DRG District Resource Group

EBB Educationally Backward Blocks

GDI Gender Disparity Index

GEP Girls Education Program

GO Government Order

GOI Government of India

HDI Human Development Index

KGBV Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya

M & E Monitoring and Evaluation

MHRD Ministry of Human Resource Development

NER Net Enrollment Ratio

OBC Other Backward Caste

OoSC Out of school children

PCTFI Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiatives

QEC Quality Education Cell

RTE Right to Education

SC Scheduled Castes

SCERT State Council for Education Research and Training

SCORE State Collective for Right to Education

SDP School Development Plans

SMC School Management Committees

SSA Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for all)

ST Scheduled Tribes

TLM Teaching and Learning Materials

UP Uttar Pradesh

UPS Upper Primary School

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

CARE India es uno de los cuatro países que implementó la Iniciativa del Fondo Fiduciario Patsy Collins (PCTFI) Cohorte 2. El objetivo del PCTFI es lograr un cambio significativo y sostenido en la vida de las niñas marginadas, garantizando sus derechos a una educación de calidad y desarrollo. PCTFI en la India apoyó el Programa de Educación de las Niñas de CARE India, en dos fases, la fase 1 de 2009 al 2014 y la fase 2 de 2015 al 2016. La intervención en la fase 1 se centró en 34 escuelas primarias rurales multigrado, llegando a 7,142 niños de 2do y 3er grado, en el distrito de Shrawasti, Estado de Uttar Pradesh, a través de un estudio longitudinal cuasi experimental centrado en el desarrollo docente. Basándose en la experiencia de la Fase 1, la Fase 2, se centró en el desarrollo de los maestros en torno a las habilidades de comprensión lectora y escritura de 1ro a 5to de primaria y el fortalecimiento de los KGBV (escuelas residenciales para niñas del 6to al 8vo grado de primaria). Esto se implementó, en tres distritos: Shrawasti, Bahraich y Balrampur, la mayor parte de las escuelas de intervención en esta fase fueron escuelas multigrado. La fase 2 alcanzó a un total de 114.414 niñas y niños de 1ro a 5to grado, de 480 escuelas, en 48 redes educativas (clusters). La intervención del PCTFI – Fase 1 en India se centra en los siguientes factores:

• Limitada capacidad de las y los docentes para implementar procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje centrados en las y los estudiantes.

• El ambiente escolar marcado por el abandono, el miedo y el castigo físico. La premisa básica de la intervención es que si las y los docentes implementan adecuadamente en aula procesos inclusivos y centrados en las y los estudiantes, los docentes logran una comprensión real de los fundamentos de la enseñanza y aprendizaje de las matemáticas y el lenguaje, practican estrategias didácticas apropiadas y proveerán el apoyo académico adecuado. De esta manera, se logra una mejora de los resultados de aprendizaje de las y los estudiantes, especialmente de las niñas. La intervención comprende tres componentes de básicos del desarrollo y desempeño docente:

a. Talleres anuales de capacitación docente sobre el uso de enfoques inclusivos y centrados en las y los estudiantes para el manejo de las matemáticas y el lenguaje.

b. Reuniones mensuales con las y los profesores a nivel de cluster (red educativa) para analizar y planificar sus estrategias de enseñanza y aprendizaje, y

c. Soporte pedagógico in situ una vez al mes a cada docente a través de visitas en aula. Además de los tres componentes anteriores, también se organizó un día de trabajo con el/la directora de las escuelas, con el objetivo de desarrollar una actitud de apoyo del directivo hacia la intervención. La hipótesis del cambio se resume en lo siguiente:

a. La capacitación de las y los docentes sobre el aprendizaje centrado en las y los estudiantes y el manejo de una pedagogía inclusiva y sensible al género conduce a un cambio de las prácticas en aula: la calidad de las relaciones y de los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje mejorará y las aulas serán más inclusivas.

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b. Las mejores prácticas inclusivas en aula permitirán a que todos los niños, especialmente a las niñas marginadas, logren mejores resultados de aprendizaje, mayor autoestima y confianza a una mejor participación en las aulas.

En el marco del estudio cuasi experimental, el sitio de ‘experimento’ está localizado en Shrawasti y el sitio ‘control’ en Gonda. Ambos distritos tienen bajos indicadores de desarrollo humano y pertenecen al lado Este del Estado Uttar Pradesh, el cual es considerado un estado económicamente deprimido. Las características principales son las frecuentes inundaciones y un alto porcentaje de población rural dependiente de la agricultra y con limitadas oportunidades económicas.

El estudio incluyó a 34 escuelas de experimento y 32 escuelas control. Las escuelas tanto del experimento como control tienen el mismo perfil. Los estudiantes y profesores tienen similar situación socioeconómica y provienen del mismo contexto cultural. Todas las escuelas primarias seleccionadas tienen al menos tres docentes y la misma proporción de niñas y niños matriculados.

El estudio cuasi experimental fue de carácter longitudinal y la recolección de los datos se realizó en 5 años del 2010 al 2014 en la fase 1 y un año de la fase 2 (T6). Las técnicas utilizadas, tanto en las escuelas de sitio experimento y control fueron las evaluaciones de los aprendizajes de las niñas y niños, observación docente y del aula y entrevistas. Entre los principales resultados tenemos:

1. Se incrementó los niveles de aprendizaje durante todos los años tanto en matemáticas y lenguaje. En el caso de matemáticas se alcanzó mejoras en competencias básicas y con cierto grado de complejidad. El incremento fue mayor en las niñas en las escuelas de intervención. Mejoras significativas se mostró en competencias básicas en lenguaje.

2. Se redujo la brecha de género, tanto en lenguaje como en matemáticas. Esta tendencia continuó en la fase 2 del proyecto, atribuyendo este resultado al enfoque inclusivo y sensible al género que implementaron los docentes.

3. El desarrollo y desempeño de los docentes focalizado sobre género y prácticas inclusivas crearon un ambiente facilitador de aprendizajes en las escuelas que impactó en los resultados de las niñas con la clara reducción de la brecha de género en el aprendizaje.

4. El funcionamiento de las redes educativas de los docentes fue altamente positivo para generar el auto aprendizaje, el intercambio y de colaboración en desarrollar los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje inclusivos, sensibles al género y centrados en los aprendizajes de las y los estudiantes.

El Programa de Educación de las Niñas, bajo el PCTFI Cohort 2 Phase 1 y 2 ha contribuido significativamente en el nivel de las y los estudiantes, docentes y comunidades. Los aprendizajes de esta experiencia han sido compartidos a nivel de los tomadores de decisiones y el gobierno. CARE a través de esta intervención en India ha construido una credibilidad importante y se ha constituido en un aliado estratégico del gobierno en India, que se refleja en la colaboración de CARE India en aspectos técnicos relacionados a los asuntos de calidad y equidad en la educación, especialmente en contextos de alta marginación, principalmente de las niñas. Experiencia que además CARE comparte en todos los programas de educación en los países en que interviene.

Julio, 2017

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

• Care India launched its Girls’ Education Program (GEP) in 19961. Over the years GEP

has been able to test new models that are focused towards improving the opportunities

for marginalized2 girls and women through their increased participation in formal and

alternative education systems. Girls’ leadership and empowerment are at the heart of

GEP interventions. GEP implements comprehensive education programs that aim to

increase educational attainment, enhance gender equality, improve educational quality

and promote empowerment of marginalized girls in a holistic way.

• Building on these contexts, CARE India was one of the four countries implementing the

education program supported by the Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI, Cohort

2). PCTFI seeks to make a difference in the lives of the marginalized girls by ensuring

their rights to quality education and development. As part of this initiative, CARE India

implemented a quasi- experimental design intervention through which it measures

impact. The goal of PCTFI is to generate evidences to establish most effective practices

that may address issues of girls’ marginalization in Education. Through this experimental

research, CARE expects to contribute to the knowledge base towards empowering and

enabling most marginalized children; especially girls, achieve quality primary education.

• PCTFI supported grant in India was implemented in two phases, phase 1 from 2009-2014

and phase 2 from 2015-2016. The intervention in phase 1 was focused in 34 primary

multigrade rural schools, reaching 7142 children of grade 2 and 3, in Shrawasti district,

through a longitudinal quasi experimental study focusing on teacher development.

Building on the experiences from the Phase 1, Phase 2, was focused on teacher

development around early literacy and strengthening KGBVs (upper primary girls

residential schools), this happened in three districts, Shrawasti, Bahraich and Balrampur,

and most of the intervention for phase 2 are multigrade primary schools, the early literacy

teacher development intervention reached out to 114,414 children (grade 1 to grade 5) of

480 schools, in 48 clusters and the Upper primary (grade 6 to 8) intervention reached

directly to 24 KGBVs in these three districts.

• Among others, the PCTFI intervention in India focuses on the following factors as

important reasons for marginalization of girls in the sphere of education:

o Limited teachers’ capacity in transacting learner centered methods

o School environment marked by neglect, fear and corporal punishment

The basic premise of the intervention is that if teachers are oriented on using learner

centered and inclusive teaching method, they have an understanding epistemology of

mathematics and language, they practice appropriate instructional strategies and they

are provided academic support at regular interval, then it will lead to improved learning

outcomes for all children, especially girls. There are three components of this teacher

development intervention:

1 Girls Education Program (GEP): Key Features and Achievements, Care India, March 2017 2 Marginalised groups refer to dalits, adivasis (tribals), minorities, other backward castes and economically weaker sections of the society

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a) Annual training workshops for teachers on use of inclusive and learner

centered approaches to transact mathematics and language

b) Monthly teachers meeting at cluster level to review and plan their teaching

strategies and

c) Onsite support to teacher once in a month through school visits.

Besides the above three components, orientations of head teachers in schools is also

organized, with an aim to develop a cooperative attitude of head teachers towards the

intervention.

• The long-term outcomes and impact of PCTFI Cohort 2 (phase 1 and phase 2) are seen

in the light of intensive work that was rolled out as part of this project and supplemented

through other projects such as Start Early: Read in Time, Teacher Resource Laboratory,

Community library, Join my village and School improvement project.

The outcomes and impact consider specific changes from PCTFI as well as the

influence of other project interventions on the integrated strategy implemented as part

of Girls education program in India. This strategy addresses social, pedagogical and

systemic domains to enhance learning outcomes of the most marginalized children,

especially girls in the public schools of India.

• This learning document has been informed by various PCTFI Cohort 2 India related

documents and research findings including: PCTFI Intervention in India, Strategy

Document, July 2014; Trend analysis, Time 1 to Time 5 Data (2010 -2014), Patsy

Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI) supported Research in Shrawasti Uttar Pradesh,

India, PCTFI-CISSD, 2015; PCTFI – Cohort 2 proposal, CARE India, 2015; Secondary

Research on Effectiveness of Cluster Approach on Teachers’ Behaviour, Classroom

Practices and Learning Outcomes (Under PCTFI), Kaarak, 2015; PCTFI Cohort 2 India

Final Narrative Report, 2016.

The effort in this report is to synthesize key learnings of 8 years program with especial

focus to its experience around the ‘quasi-experimental design’.

1.2 Context of the Intervention3

In context of India, there has been an instrumental progress and positive trends visible on some

educational indicators such as school infrastructure, enrolment, and movement of children

across primary level due to favorable policies (National Policy of Education-86, Right to

Education Act-09) and implementation instruments like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan4 (SSA). Due

to this positive environment, as per DISE5 (District Information System for Education) data,

3 Section taken from PCTFI – Cohort 2 Proposal, CARE India, 2015. 4 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is Government of India's flagship programme for achievement of Universalization of Elementary Education

(UEE) in a time bound manner, as mandated by 86th amendment to the Constitution of India making free and compulsory Education to the

Children of 6-14 years age group, a Fundamental Right. 5 District Information System of Education. The site provides useful information for policy planners on information management using most

modern software called District Information System for Education.

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there is an improvement in enrolment from 83% in 2000 to 97% in 2013-14, projecting the

country to be well set to achieve cent percent enrolment in primary education by 2015.

Notwithstanding the increased enrolment figures, the dropout rate of children in India is still

high at 40% and 57% respectively at the primary and elementary levels6 around 38% boys and

52% girls in the age group 6-14 are enrolled but not attending school. The dropout data is high

for rural and urban poor, SCs and STs being higher than the average drop-out rate. Data also

reveals that states which are low in general and tribal literacy are also states with higher gender

disparity.7 India has more than 6.6 million children who are Out of School, the problem being

more acute for children and girls from Dalit and Adivasi Communities. (Ministry of Human

Resource Development, MHRD, 2014)

Despite the enactment of the Right to Education act in India five years ago, the government

data8shows that only 10% schools meet the key provisions given in the act. The functioning of

the school system does not address the diverse learning needs of children from a wide range of

cultural, economic and linguistic backgrounds. The lack of enabling environment in school

adds to the burden on vulnerable children, especially girls from Dalit and Adivasi communities,

who are already shouldering responsibilities in the household.

Safety and security issues have been considered as one of the prime causes due to which

children drop out from schools especially girls with poor achievement and lower self –esteem.

Several studies including MHRD on Exclusion and Inclusion of children in school and

classrooms, establish that girls are being physically, mentally and sexually abused in schools.

Which has resulted into poor attendance and lack of participation in learning processes. If we

look at the root causes for not having safe and secure environment in schools, it may be

understood under four broad strands; i) lack of physical infrastructure like boundary wall,

dysfunctional girls toilets, dilapidated school building, safe access to school ii) Insensitive and

humiliating teaching learning practices - Sensitivity in teachers for social and gender inclusion,

corporal punishment and mental harassment iii) lack of community knowledge for bringing up

cases of abuse and report them & iv) lack of accountability in system towards safety and

security for children.

The RTE Act mentions about the safety and security of children in schools along with clear cut

roles and responsibility of each of the stakeholders involved in. However, systemic readiness

seems to be poor to establish proper system for grievance redressed at different levels.

Simultaneously, it has also been recognized that in school, there is a lack of such platforms

where children can raise their concerns/issues, and also children especially girls are not

equipped with leadership skills that they could raise their voice and negotiate for their rights.

In 2011, the crimes against children reported a 24% increase from the previous year with a total

of 33,098 cases of crimes against children reported in the country during 2011 as compared to

26,694 cases during 2010. The State of Uttar Pradesh accounted for 16.6% of total crimes

against children at national level in 2011. Studies reveal that marginalized children especially

girls belonging to Dalit communities face a range of discrimination in schools as they don’t

6 Mehta A, 2002 Education for all in India with focus on elementary education: Current status, recent initiatives and future prospects,

Occasional papers, NUEPA 7 K. Sujatha, 2000 Strategies for education and training for the disadvantaged groups, working paper series, Education of India Scheduled Tribes, Study of the community schools in the district of Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, UNESCO 8 DISE, 2013-14

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feel themselves safe and secure.9 This shows that Safety and security concerns are emerging as

important factors in children’s learning and completing schooling especially for girls from

Dalit community.10

Despite resources being churned into the Educational system, data also shows that children are

not learning. In, UP, being the largest state with highest concentration of Dalit and Other

Backward Caste children attending government schools. The data on reading levels indicates

that only 43.8 per cent of children respectively are able to only read a class 2 textbook on

completion of 5 years of schooling.11 Teaching of language for the most marginalized requires

sensitivity of the teachers to address it both as a pedagogical and social construct. In the existing

scenario, teachers lack holistic support to address and deliver inclusive, quality education for

the most marginalized, which includes addressing their scholastic or the psycho-social needs.

In India, the role of Cluster Resource Centers12 under revised SSA framework for

implementation has been considered critical in building capacities of teachers and in providing

regular academic support to teachers and supervision of school processes. Right to Education

Act-09 also realizes the importance of these decentralized units in ensuring the delivery of

quality education and puts an obligation on state government to strengthen these institutions to

promote and support a process of school quality improvement. In the current scenario, inspite

of the above thrust on decentralised teacher development structures stated in different policy

documents, these structures at the grassroots are not functional, it is the teacher who is expected

to handle issues concerning quality, equity and diversity in their classroom all by themselves

in vacuum.

1.3 Issues to address

There are various problems faced by children from marginalized context especially girls in

accessing a quality education program13. The concerns vary from their safety security, to the

way they are being valued and treated in the classroom, to the teaching methods and practices

adopted in the classroom. Most of the children who are entering the system in the post “Rights

to Education” scenario are first generation learners, for whom interface with numeracy and

literacy can enable them to continue their education cycle or can force them to quit the

education system. The statistics on safety security concerns, learning levels specifically early

reading levels, articulates the seriousness to come up with holistic strategies to address the

educational and psycho social needs of girls from the most marginalized context.

In 2008, in the district Shravasti of State of Uttar Pradesh, a situational analysis was conducted

to ascertain the existing situation and factors that lead to marginalization of girls in the sphere

of education14. Various factors including school environment, quality of education, teachers’

capacity and gender-sensitivity, parents’ attitudes and aspirations for girls, work distribution at

household level and overall access of families to various government schemes and services

9 Study on inclusion and exclusion in nine states, MHRD, 2012

10 A vision document on safety and security for children in elementary schools in India; CARE India, 2015 11 Annual State of Education Report (ASER) 2013

12 The Cluster Resource Centres (CRCs) form the lowest rung of institutions in the vertical hierarchy for providing in-service training to

school teachers. http://mhrd.gov.in/TE_ov 13 As described in PCTFI-Cohort 2 Proposaal, CARE India, 2015. 14 PCTFI Intervention in India, Strategy Document, CARE India, July 2014.

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were studied in context of girls’ marginalization. It is noteworthy that the population in the

district largely constituted of marginalised groups referred to as Dalits15. It was, and continues

to be, amongst the most backward districts of the state in terms of human development indices.

It is interesting to note that six years hence, as CISSD worked towards designing its long term

Program strategy, clearly laying down its Strategic Program Framework, it committed to focus

on the empowerment of the marginalised for its Program approach, clearly identifying Dalits

and Adivasis16 to be the two groups to focus upon.

The situation analysis (2008) identified some critical factors directly affecting education and

others as indirectly linked. The direct factors that negatively impacted girls’ participation in

education relate to schools, institutions and larger society. However, keeping in view the

availability of resources and CISSD’s own capacity, a prioritization exercise was done. The

team decided upon a couple of most crucial factors to work upon:

• Limited teachers’ capacity in transacting gender sensitive, learner centered methods

• School environment marked by neglect, fear and corporal punishment

‘Teacher’ being the fulcrum for quality education, it was logical to work with them and the

school settings in which they provide education to children.

In the above context, teachers play a critical role in creating the enabling environment for all

children especially girls from marginalized background to feel safe, valued and to enable them

with a voice to negotiate for their rights. It is often seen that the teachers who are entrusted

with these responsibilities are not inducted and prepared for the expectation. They work in an

environment where there is no support, encouragement or acknowledgement of the hardships

they face in isolation to address quality and equity issues. There is no platform where they can

voice their problems both at personal and professional front. A teacher in a rural school almost

fights a battle all alone, forcing the teacher either to innovate or end up in a hypocrisy that

nothing would and could be changed for better. The sad part is that most of the teachers chose

the second strand than the first one. In the above scenario, it is important to look for platforms

where teachers can gain strength from each other, have vent outs for their problems, look for

collective solution and reinforce themselves as social change agent.

Several studies reveal that decentralized teacher development institutions by and large have

failed to deliver their expected roles due to various administrative reasons, hence states

including Uttar Pradesh are finding challenges in making Cluster Resource centers (CRCs)

effective. In absence of regular academic support and supervision, teachers do not have any

platform, to strengthen their subject specific knowledge, to share the issues and challenges

faced during classroom processes and most importantly to reflect upon their personal issues

that hamper their roles.

The current proposal would try to address the problem: Teachers lack continuous capacity

building platform that promotes their understanding and sensitisation to deliver safe, inclusive

15 SC: Scheduled Castes the term including all historically discriminated communities of India out-caste and Untouchables and are listed as

the Scheduled Castes in the Constitution of India. 16 Traditionally referred as Adivasis, the communities identified as the Scheduled Tribes in the Article 342 of the Indian Constitution, are the other most marginalized groups in India. Constituting about 8% of the total Indian population (Census of India 2011), there are 645 tribes

(many overlapping types in more than one State) in different States and Union Territories.

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and quality education catering to the needs of the most marginalized children especially girls

belonging to Dalit setting.

1.4 Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI), the intervention in India

Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative is aimed to bring significant and sustainable change in lives

of marginalized girls through education. CARE India Solutions for Sustainable Development

(CISSD) is one of four countries implementing the Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI),

Cohort 2 for CARE USA. The purpose of PCTFI is to generate evidences to establish most

effective practices that may address issues of girls’ marginalization in Education. Following

are the goals and objectives of Phase 1 and 2:

1.4.1 Goal and Objectives of Phase 1 and 2

Phase 117: Goal:

To assess the impact of teacher development on enhanced participation and achievement of

girls.

Objectives:

1) To facilitate change in teachers' practices, behaviour and attitudes for better quality

transaction and enhanced participation of girls

Impact

• Teachers practice gender sensitive and learner centred teaching method.

• Enhanced participation of girls and all children in class and school activities.

• Ensuring timeliness and quality of inputs to teachers

2) To understand and measure change in teaching-learning practices as well as

students' achievements

Impact

• Teachers understand the overall target population

• Changes emerging as a response to teacher development initiatives understood and

monitored

• Teachers improve their classroom practice based on well-documented feedback.

3) To enhance capacity of India team on research, data analysis and pedagogy

Impact

CISSD establishes its credibility in the area of research based intervention

4) To improve the quality of education being provided by government schools in

Shravasti through application of research findings

17 PCTFI Intervention in India. Strategy Document, CARE India, July 2014.

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Impact

• Improved learning outcomes in language and math in the district

• Strengthened teacher development forums at cluster level

• Supportive supervision for teachers at the school and cluster level

• Collective actions initiated for quality education at school and community

level

• Strengthened networks and coalitions for quality, inclusive education in the

district

5) To apply PCTFI learning for substantiating advocacy efforts of CISSD

Impact

o Enhanced safety and security of children, especially girls, in schools

o Active cluster forums functional in Shravasti

Phase2: Goal, Objectives and Results18

To address Early Grade Reading, leadership skills and safety, security of children, especially

girls, from the marginalized Dalit communities in selected geography of Uttar Pradesh by

enhancing understanding and capacities of teachers in the Government Primary schools and

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs)

Objectives:

1. To empower teachers to deliver inclusive quality education for enhanced early grade

reading and leadership in children especially Dalit girls

1.1To strengthen capacities of teachers in the domain of early grade reading and

leadership development focusing on negotiation and voice

1.2 To build sensitivity amongst teachers to address safety security concerns of girls

focusing on Dalit girls

1.3 To build capacity of teacher support functionaries and institutions on capacity

building to teachers

2. To advocate with system for continuous teachers development approaches focusing on

early grade reading ,leadership ability and addressing safety and security of children

Results:

1. A holistic teacher development Cluster based approach functional in three districts of

UP

18 PCTFI Cohort 2 Phase 2 Proposal, CARE India 2015

14 | P a g e

2. Evidence based holistic teacher development approach focusing on addressing safety

security concerns, enhancing early grade reading and leadership ability in girls ready

for scale up.

1.4.2 Children, Teachers and Schools Reached Directly

As stated earlier, PCTFI in India had two phases, phase 1 from 2009-2014 and phase 2

from 2015-2016:

Phase 1 from 2009-14, the intervention was in 34 primary schools in one district Shrawasti

through a longitudinal quasi experimental study focusing on teacher development. All the

primary schools, where the intervention was, were multigrade rural schools:

Tables 1 and 2 show children and teachers reached with PCTFI-phase 1 in the intervention

respectively

Table 1 Number of children reached in 34 Primary School -Shrawasti- through Longitudinal

Quasi Experimental Study PCTFI Phase 1

TIME Grade II Grade III Cumulative

Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Total

Time-1 (FY 2009-10) 582 604 520 569 1102 1173 2275

Time-2 (FY 2010-11) 478 521 0 0 1580 1694 3274

Time-3 (FY 2011-12) 579 575 0 0 2159 2269 4428

Time-4 (FY 2012-13) 521 482 0 0 2680 2751 5431

Time-5 (FY 2013-14) 508 445 0 0 3188 3196 6384

Time-6 (FY 2014-15) 377 381 0 0 3565 3577 7142

3045 3008 520 569

Table 2 Number of Teachers reached in Multigrade Primary School Shrawasti,

through Longitudinal Quasi Experimental Study – PCTFI Phase 1

TIME EXPERIMENTAL

Male Female Total

Time-1 (FY 2009-10) 57 62 119

Time-2 (FY 2010-11) 56 57 113

Time-3 (FY 2011-12) 61 108 169

Time-4 (FY 2012-13) 50 80 130

Time-5 (FY 2013-14) 57 39 96

Time-6 (FY 2014-15) 0 0 0 281 346 627

Phase 2, there was an implementation intervention focusing on teacher development

around early literacy and strengthening KGBVs (upper primary girls residential schools),

this happened in three districts, Shrawasti, Bahraich and Balrampur. The early literacy

teacher development intervention reached out to 480 schools and the Upper primary

15 | P a g e

intervention reached directly to 24 KGBVs in these three districts. The majority of the

intervention primary schools are multigrade rural schools.

Tables 3 and 4 show children and teachers of primary schools, from grade 1 to grade 5,

reached with PCTFI-phase 2

Table 3 Number of children reached direcly in Multigrade Primary Schools -Shrawasti,

Bahraich and Balrampur – PCTFI Phase 2

Table 4 Number of Multigrade Primary Schools reached directly – PCTFI Phase 2

Year District Total

Shrawasti Bahraich Balrampur

FY 2014-15 120 200 160 480

FY 2015-16 120 200 160 480

FY 2016-17 120 200 160 480

Table 5 Number of children in KGBV (Upper Primary Residential Shools)

reached directly – PCTFI Phase 2 (three districts)

Year Boys Girls Total

FY 2014-15 0 2381 2381

FY 2015-16 0 2400 2400

FY 2016-17 0 2400 2400

0 7181 7181

YEAR Grade I Grade II Grade III Grade IV Grade V Total

Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Total

FY 2014-15 9562 9311 9770 9236 10075 9683 8550 8391 8641 7990 46598 44611 91209

FY 2015-16 6737 6495 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6737 6495 13232

FY 2016-17 5141 4832 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5141 4832 9973

21440 20638 9770 9236 10075 9683 8550 8391 8641 7990 58476 55938 114414

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Table 6 Numbers of Teachers and Government Functionaries reached directly – PCTFI Phase 2

Year # of Teachers # of Block

Resource

Persons (BRPs)

# of Cluster

Resource Centre

Coordinators

(CRCs)

# of teachers in

KGBV

M F Total M F Total M F Total M F Total

FY 2014-15 1236 956 2192 66 5 71 41 7 48 14 125 139

FY 2015-16 939 868 1807 107 3 110 40 8 48 65 70 135

FY 2016-17 809 798 1607 65 4 69 114 14 128 70 121 191

2984 2622 5606 238 12 250 195 29 224 149 316 465

1.4.3 Strategy of intervention

A two fold strategy19 is adopted as part of PCTFI – phase1 support to improve quality of

education in government schools of Shrawasti, especially focusing on Gender-sensitive, Child-

centered, teaching and Learning processes:

• Quasi Experimental Research

• Quality improvement intervention

A.- Quasi Experimental Research: Teacher Capacity Building

The treatment site for the intervention is located in Ekauna block of Shravasti district in Uttar

Pradesh. The control site is located in the Rupaideeh block of neighboring Gonda. Both the

districts perform badly on key human development indicators and belong to Eastern part of

UP, which is considered an economically backward region. Frequent floods, high proportion

of agriculture-dependent rural population and limited economic opportunities are salient

features of this area.

34 schools in Ekauna, Shravasti are treatment schools whereas 32 schools in Rupaideeh, Gonda

are control schools. Schools in both control and treatment sites have similar profiles. The

students and teachers belong to similar socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. All the

schools selected have at least three teachers. Roughly similar proportion of boys and girls are

enrolled in the schools.

Three pronged strategy adopted specifically in the 34 schools

The ‘teacher development intervention’ in the 34schools focuses on capacity building of grade

2 and 3 teachers on learner centered and gender sensitive teaching learning approaches. These

are done through different platforms

• Annual training workshops

• Monthly teacher forums

• Onsite support

19 Section extracted from PCTFI Intervention in India. Strategy Document, CARE India, July 2014.

17 | P a g e

Annual training workshops

Annual training workshops are basically done in a residential mode and this lasts for around

ten days. The trainings focus on use of inclusive and learner centered approaches to transact

mathematics and language. It specifically focuses on building Teachers ‘understanding on

mathematics and language teaching, instructional methods, use of TLMs, management of

classroom and assessment of children. The workshops primarily also focus on sensitizing

teachers on gender and equity issues.

Monthly teacher forums

Teachers are oriented through the Cluster forums on monthly basis. These are platforms where

teachers from a cluster (consisting of 10 -11 schools) converge together every month.

Cluster Forum is conceptualized as a self-help commune, a group, which undertakes

responsibility for its own professional development. The two subjects that are being covered

by this intervention through these forums are mathematics and language (Hindi). The Cluster

forums mainly focuses on using learner centered and inclusive teaching methods, epistemology

of mathematics and language, instructional strategies &classroom management strategies.

These forums act as continuous capacity building platforms, where there is a linkage between

each forum. These meetings are used as a medium to reinforce the principles already discussed

in training. They also serve as platforms for sharing feedback and observations about ongoing

classroom practices. Teachers develop the plans for the month during these workshops. Role-

plays, reflection sessions and group exercises are integral to all these meetings.

Salient features:

• This is a platform where teachers meet up and converse on the experiences, problems,

successes and triumphs they encounter in their everyday classrooms.

• The central assumption behind the forum is that there is no absolute expert who can

provide solutions and address the needs of the group. Instead every member should

work together to seek collective solutions.

• Here the problems encountered are not theoretical or hypothetical in nature, they are

burning problems, which every practitioner wants to address to make their classroom

processes more effective and inclusive in nature.

• The Teachers' Forum is a flat democratic platform, where there is no hierarchy between

different participants. Everyone has the same stake over the issues and their strength to

influence a discussion or dialogue is based on their logic and reasoning strength rather

than their power or position.

Each of these monthly meetings are planned actively. The capacity building initiative is backed

by a follow up through onsite support by Cluster Coordinators (CC) at the school level.

Onsite support to teacher once in a month

Onsite support to teacher once in a month through school visits is provided by cluster

coordinators. Duration of each visit is 4-5 hours. During these visits, CCs seek teachers’

opinions about the progress and challenges during the month. Teachers may share, if any

success they received in implementing new methods of teaching that they learned through

monthly meeting, any modifications they made to that, any other method they tried and how it

18 | P a g e

worked. They may also share other problems related to classroom management. Model lessons

are also provided by CCs. Classroom observations to understand areas of teacher support will

be undertaken. CC and teacher undertake some activities that involve collaborative work e.g.

developing TLM, planning library usage, etc., which complements the training input. The CC

give an overall feedback to teachers based on the progress shared by teachers and their

observations.

B.- Supported quality improvement intervention in other clusters

The PCTFI intervention also focuses on improving quality of education in Shravasti district.

This along with the learnings from the research, is a linked and critical learning ground for the

overall GEP strategy in other districts of UP and other states as well.

The strategy involves a comprehensive school improvement approach for improving the quality

of education in government primary schools located in other geography, where the research is

not being conducted. The schools and teachers are being supported through technical support

provided by CISSD. The hypothesis is that children will be able to learn better, if teachers use

inclusive and learner centered approaches.

The PCTFI supported quality intervention in other blocks reaches 12 clusters, involving 11 to

schools/village per cluster and 396 teachers

The intervention focuses on a holistic approach trying to create a synergy amongst schools,

system and community. It rests on important four levers of change which includes, system

strengthening, teacher development school governance and collectivization, to empower the

girl child from the most marginalized context. Maintaining the focus on PCTFI research

strategy on Teacher Development, the strategy includes additional component of working with

Education institutions and Collectivization of Community.

Strengthening educational institutions

Educational institutions (CRC, BRC, DIET, and SCERT) are strengthened to institutionalize

mechanisms to provide supportive supervision and capacity building of teachers. Academic

teacher support Resource groups like BRGs/DRGs (Block/District resource Group) are

functionalized to sustain and institutionalize efforts of teacher development in the blocks and

district.

The capacities of school support functionaries are strengthened at the cluster, block and district

levels (CRCC, BRCC, BRP, and BEO) through monthly meetings, joint visits and reviews.

They are looked as catalyst and mentors, who will disseminate, enable and monitor the

processes across the district even after the program withdraws or exits from the district.

Mechanisms for joint reviews by government and civil society are initiated through which

lessons are shared and good practices are pushed for expansion across similar geography.

Teacher development

Teacher development is done in a similar fashion as in Treatment clusters. It is dealt through

annual trainings, monthly cluster forums and through follow up by onsite support. Through

continuous forums, focus is on language development and math skills. In language

development focus is on Hindi and efforts are also done to build perspective of teacher in

transacting English in the primary classes. As most of the schools, all the subjects are dealt by

19 | P a g e

single teachers, it becomes imperative for the teacher to transact Hindi, Math and English in

the same class.

In Uttar Pradesh, the State Government has introduced English from class one. There is huge

emphasis on rote memorization of alphabets as part of English instruction. There is no work

done in schools that focuses on creating a print rich environment, providing exposure to

children to hear, see, listen and speak the language. All the effort done by CISSD in the past as

part of Hindi language instruction is to build perspective on language teaching which uses the

strength of whole language and phonics approach. As single teacher is handling the primary

classes (especially classes 1, 2 & 3). It is often seen they teach both English and Hindi in

different manner. There is huge dearth even in the capacity of the teacher to transact English.

The effort through the monthly forums is to build capacity of teachers , build their perspective

on teaching language, help them create a print rich environment, create locally relevant TLMs

to supplement the effort . The focus is to enable children to express and make meaning as core

of language instruction.

The focus of language teaching both in Hindi and English at the beginning grades is to make

children get competent in early grade reading competencies. There is compulsion on the teacher

to teach different languages at the beginning grades. CISSD effort is to make it more organic

in terms of linking experiences from their mother tongues to Hindi and gradually transit to

English

Collective Action of community

Collectives are created and nurtured in schools and community of children especially girls and

through formal structures like SMCs that represent the voice and educational aspiration of girls

and women from Dalit community. The specific objectives to be achieved through these

collectives are to:

• institutionalise collective action in schools through different platforms for enhancing

leadership ability in Dalit girls

• strengthen School Management Committees in villages to facilitate inclusive

governance in schools

• create and empower networks of girls and boys in community to mobilize and advocate

for rights of Dalit girls

Efforts are targeted to alter in a meaningful way the relationships between state administrators,

power holder village leadership, teachers and the poorer, low-caste groups within their

communities. This is done by building alternative spaces and processes for hearing the

perspectives of those excluded on what underpins their exclusion, what they feel about

education can offer, and how they see education fitting into their economic and social survival

strategies.

Under the Right to Education Act 2009, (RTE)20, School management committees have been

constituted with specified roles and responsibilities. SMC can play a vital role in influencing

and acting as a pressure group on government to ensure effective implementation of the Act.

20 Right to Education Act (RTE), is an Indian legislation enacted by the Parliament of India on 4 August 2009, which describes the

modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21a of the Indian Constitution. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the act came into force on 1

April 2010.

20 | P a g e

Hence, various capacity building programs are targeted towards SMCs to bring community and

school together. Thrust is maintained on creating an enabling environment at family and

community level to build their understanding on issues like equity, diversity, mobility of girls

and specific challenges associated with girls and finding way forward through collective

process.

Efforts are made to endorse and facilitate the participation of Dalit girls at all levels, especially

at the level of SMCs. The efforts will result in the following:

i) Inclusive SMCs having representation of parents of Dalit girls, they are aware of

their rights and duties as members of SMC and are instrumental in formulating

School Development Plans (SDPs)

ii) Empowered Collectives: Representation of Dalit girls in the collectives who are

aware of their rights and duties as citizens and are instrumental in initiating civic

actions

iii) Leadership at School level: Dalit girls aware of their rights and duties , participate

and organise collective action in school where they exercise and demand rights from

concerned authorities (teachers, head teachers, SMC, panchayat representatives)

Advocacy efforts in Phase 1 and 2

In the PCTFI design, advocacy efforts are focused towards

o Enhancing safety and security of children, especially girls, in schools

o Developing appropriate technical material for teachers and teacher supervisors

around safety and security to develop their understanding

o Activating functional cluster forums for teacher development

o Documenting the key learning and approaches in the domain of teacher

development and advocate for their state-wide adoption and replication largely

by the Government system

o Influencing the state government (UP) to develop guidelines on provisions for

continuous teacher development forums by 2017.

The advocacy efforts are taken up at different levels for issues of safety and security of girls.

At the community level, advocacy is done through the SMC, panchayat structures and through

the collectives on issues of safety and security of children specially girls. This is done through

monthly SMC meetings at the school level. Community seminar held once quarterly at the

village and through the monthly meetings of the collectives, Through the collectives, boys and

men also receive positive messages about gender equality, alternate masculinity and non-

violence This helps in creating a conducive environment that helps in social access of girls to

schools and also helps in promoting attendance and retention of girls in the schools.

The issues of safety and security is taken up at district and state level through networking with

system functionaries in SSA at block, district and state level. CISSD has initiated creation of

safety and security manual to orient SMC members on safety and security issues. The effort is

initiated at the state level and CISSD supports training of master trainers and SMC members

at the district level.

21 | P a g e

At the state and national level, the issues of safety and security of girls is taken up through state

level consortium SCORE and at national level forums like the RtE forums. Efforts are put in

to identify the indicators during the social audit and public hearing as part of the consortium.

One of the other critical advocacy agenda, which CISSD is pushing forward is activating of

cluster forums for teacher development at the cluster level in the district. This agenda has been

a critical programming area focused as part of the PCTFI intervention. Advocacy is created

through creation of model teacher forums at cluster level as part of programming and bringing

in relevant system stakeholders to make joint visits to understand the model and work out

similar models in other clusters. The visits are not only restricted to the cluster and block

functionaries , where the cluster forums are functional , but efforts have also be taken up to

make cross visits from other blocks and districts to disseminate the learning from the approach.

It is important to note that the cluster approach has also potential to support the government

and policy makers by helping to strengthen teacher’s understanding on some of the recent

education reforms and play a critical role for their implementation; fully understand the

contexts of the subject matters and contents they teach; solidify their professionalism towards

contributing to strengthen student’s learning outcomes.

To achieve the advocacy aspirations around cluster forums for teachers CISSD is engaged with

multiple stakeholders including teachers, School Management Committees (SMC), policy

makers and government.

For evidence based advocacy, quality research and studies are undertaken to learn lessons and

share with others. In addition to advocacy, some technical pieces are also developed especially

in the core subject and leadership areas. Conferences & media campaigns are also organized in

partnerships with others for community awareness and systemic awakening.

1.4.4 Theory of Change

The basic premise of the intervention21 is that if teachers are oriented on using learner centered

and inclusive teaching methods, they have an understanding epistemology of mathematics and

language, they practice appropriate instructional strategies and they are provided academic

support at regular interval, then it will lead to improved learning outcomes for all children,

especially girls. Technical support to teachers will enhance teachers’ capacity on content as

well as methodology. Hence, they will transact language (Hindi) and mathematics classes in a

learner centered and inclusive manner. This will also impact on students’ participation in class

and consequently students will learn better. Children, especially girls will improve their

performance in mathematics and language.

In addition, PCTFI support was extended to the quality intervention component of the overall

Girls' Education Program in the other identified clusters in the district. Thus, CISSD set upon

collecting evidences for the existing longitudinal study from the control district Gonda,

intervention blocks in Shrawasti. While the research focused on a structured research design,

the other blocks of Shrawasti applied learnings from the research as well as included other key

components essential for the quality enhancement of the education in the government schools.

21 PCTFI Intervention in India. Strategy Document, CARE India, July 2014.

22 | P a g e

Hypotheses or propositions of effect/change:

a) Training of teachers on the learner centered, gender sensitive and inclusive

pedagogies will lead to change in classroom practices: quality of transactions will

improve and classrooms will be more inclusive.

b) Improved classroom practices and inclusive classrooms will enable all children,

especially marginalized girls to achieve better learning outcomes, enhanced self-

esteem and confidence and better participation in classrooms.

Evidences from across the world prove that layering of capacity building efforts at the level of

the cluster brings about greater success and sustainability. Most such sharing indicate that

teachers changed their teaching style from teacher – centric to student- centric and make efforts

to make the classrooms integrated.

CHAPTER 2: FRAMEWORK OF THE RESEARCH

This chapter22 specifically highlights about the research which was conducted as part of the

first phase of intervention. Following are the main characteristics both experimental & control

sites and analytical framework of the quasi-experimental research design.

2.1 About experimental and control group

The research intervention was implemented in 3 clusters of Ekauna block of Shravasti district.

In addition, three clusters of Rupaidih block of adjacent district Gonda are the control sites for

this intervention. There are 34 schools in the experimental clusters and 32 schools in control

sites. Intervention focuses only on grade II and III language and mathematics classes in the

government primary schools. There are 60 teachers23 in the experimental schools that are

responsible for grades 2 and 3.

As stated earlier, both the districts perform badly on key human development indicators and

belong to an economically backward region. Also, schools in both control and experimental

sites have similar profiles and the students come from agriculture-dependent rural families with

limited economic opportunities. Description of comparison groups from available information

is as follows.

2.1.1 Social Stratification of children

Both control and experiment districts are the most backward districts with respect to the human

indicators

22 Information concerning of this chapter has been taken from Trend Analysis, Time 1 to Time 5 Data (2010-2014). PCTFI supported

Research in Shrawasti Uttar Pradesh, India, CARE India 2015. 23 During Time 1 & Time 2, there were 59 teachers in experimental schools. Out of 59 teachers 10 teachers were transferred during Time 3

but 16 new teachers were added. During Time 4, 6 teachers were transferred and 1 new teacher was added to the list.

23 | P a g e

FIGURE 1.-

Social Stratification of Children of Grade 2 & 3 in Experiment & Control schools (%) (2014)

Social stratification of students reveals that majority of the children in experiment & control

sites are from OBC (Other Backward Caste) category (45 % & 40% respectively) whereas SC

(Schedule Caste) students in experiment site and general category students in control site

represent as the second highest category.

2.1.2 Distribution of children by gender and castes

There are around 48 per cent girls in the experimental schools and 49 per cent girls in the

control schools. 82 per cent of the girls in experimental schools are from the Dalit/other

backward castes as compared to 74 per cent in the control schools. The school size in Shrawasti

is bigger than Gonda. The 34 schools in Shrawasti have around 1898 students enrolled in

comparison to 1573 students in 32 schools of Gonda.

Kalyanpur cluster has more number of girls from Dalit community in comparison to any other

cluster in both the districts put together. Veerpur has substantial representation from minority

community. The clusters in Gonda have more students from General and OBC categories in

comparison to all the experimental clusters in Shrawasti.

Table 7 Cluster wise and caste wise distribution of children in control and experimental district (2013-14)

DISTRICT CLUSTERS CASTES TOTAL

SC OBC GEN MINORITY

Girls Boys G B G B G B G B Total

Shrawasti

(Experiment

al)

Kalyanpur 103 97 87 92 88 79 17 41 295 309 604

Ramwapur 53 53 168 200 18 10 27 57 266 320 586

Veerpur 60 67 160 139 55 42 82 103 357 351 708

Total 3 clusters 216 217 415 431 161 131 126 201 918 980 1898

23

45

15 1722

40

26

12

SC OBC GEN MINORITY

Shrawasti

Gonda

24 | P a g e

Gonda

(Control)

Achlapur

Bargadahi 39 47 84 75 50 49 13 19 186 190 376

Bhaganha 47 64 97 107 40 40 28 38 212 249 461

Fathegard 69 78 153 117 110 125 41 43 373 363 736

Total 3 clusters 155 189 334 299 200 214 82 100 771 802 1573

Grand Total 6 clusters 371 406 749 730 361 345 208 301 1689 1782 3471

2.1.3 Social information of teachers

Social stratification of teachers in the experimental and control districts shows that majority of

the teachers belong to the general category and the rest belong to the OBC, SC and minority as

second, third and fourth, in that order. There are 40 female and 49 male teachers in the

experiment site, where as there are 38 female and 43 male teachers in the control site.

The data reveals a substantial number of students from Dalit, other backward castes and

minority communities going to the government schools in the experimental schools. This

population of children is being educated largely by the teachers from the general category.

There are less than half number of female teachers in both districts.

Figure 2

Social Stratification of Teachers from Experiment & Control site (in number) 2013-14

2.1.4 School location

Two kinds of data are collected under PCTFI, one on the distance of schools from the nearest

minority (Muslim) community and the other on the distance of schools from the nearest Dalit

community. As per the Right to Education (RtE)24 Act all primary schools need to be within 1

kilometre (km) of a habitation.

24 The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE), is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and

14 in India under Article 21a of the Indian Constitution.[1] India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every

child when the act came into force on 1 April 2010.[2][3][4]

Source: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Framework of Intervention, page no- 13 (1)The area within which a school has to be established by

appropriate Government or local authority shall be: in respect of children in classes I to V, a school shall be established within a walking

distance of one km of the neighbourhood (3) In places with difficult terrain, risk of landslides, floods, lack of roads and in general, danger

for young children in the approach from their homes to the school, the appropriate Government or the local authority shall locate school in

such a manner as to avoid such dangers, by reducing the area or limits specified under sub-rule (1).

59

11

16

2119

354 4

79

25 25

25

Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male

SC OBC GEN MINORITY

Shrawasti Gonda

25 | P a g e

Table 8

Distance of school from nearest minority habitation (2013-14)

District Cluster < 1 KM 1-4 KM

Gonda (control) Achlapur Bargadahi 6 2

Bhaganha 5 4

Fathegard 10 5

Total control schools 21 11

Shrawasti (Experimental) Kalyanpur 7 7

Ramwapur 3 5

Veerpur 5 7

Total experimental schools 15 19

Grand Total 36 30

The data on the schools closer to minority communities in experimental and control districts

show that in the control district 65 per cent of the schools are within this norm but there are

still 35 per cent schools which are situated at a longer distance, even upto 4 kms. The

experimental district is not doing any better, with only 44 per cent schools located as per the

norm and 56 per cent schools are situated between 1 to 4 kms.

Table 9

Distance of school from nearest Dalit community (2013-14)

With respect to the distance of schools from the Dalit community in the control district Table

1.5 shows that 62 per cent schools are within the norm of 1 km but 38% schools are located up

to a distance of 4 kms. In Shrawasti, only 23 per cent schools follow the norm of 1 km.

The above has a bearing on uniform enrolment and regular attendance of children in primary

schools. There are safety and security issues for children, especially for girls, which hampers

their active participation in school. It is also a problem for teacher attendance in terms of their

commuting long distances to reach school.

District Cluster < 1 KM 1-4 KM

Gonda (Control) Achlapur Bargadahi 5 3

Bhaganha 4 5

Fathegard 11 4

Gonda Total Schools 20 12

Shrawasti (Experimental) Kalyanpur 7 7

Ramwapur 0 8

Veerpur 1 11

Shrawasti Total Schools 8 26

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2.1.5 Infrastructure conditions

Table below reflects some important data with respect to the infrastructure. The norm of having

a separate toilet for girls has been addressed to a large extent (72 percent in control and 88

percent in experimental). Same is the situation with respect to having a separate toilet for boys

(72 percent in control and 88 percent in experimental). However, the use of these toilets is

fairly poor in case of both. The data shows that in control district only 37 per cent girls and

boys use the toilet. Similarly, in the experimental district only 24% girls and 21% boys use the

toilets. This is because of the non-functionality of the toilets in schools and the issue of keeping

it clean. As a result, while issues of safe drinking water and construction of toilets is addressed

to a large extent, the usability of toilets remain a concern. Overall there is a depleting

infrastructure in schools.

Table 10

Infrastructure Status of Control & Experiment Schools (2013-14)

Description Control Experiment

No Yes Total No Yes Total

Boundary wall 21 11 32 4 30 34

Gates 21 11 32 15 19 34

Sports grounds 15 17 32 6 28 34

Use the common toilet 31 1 32 34 0 34

Separate girls toilet 9 23 32 4 30 34

Use of the girls toilet 20 12 32 26 8 34

Separate boys toilet 9 23 32 4 30 34

Use of the boys toilet 20 12 32 26 7 33

Light 22 10 32 22 12 34

Safe drinking water facility 3 29 32 5 29 34

Classroom as per norms 17 15 32 11 23 34

Safe ramps as per norm 5 27 32 9 25 34

Black board 0 32 32 0 34 34

Green board 32 0 32 5 29 34

Availability of library books 27 5 32 6 28 34

Learning corner for children in school 31 1 32 23 11 34

Science kit in school 32 0 32 29 5 34

Math kit in school 31 1 32 27 7 34

Other important data inferred is the following:

• 90 percent schools in control and 85 percent in experimental district have safe drinking

water.

• 84 percent control schools and 74 percent experimental schools have safe ramps for children

27 | P a g e

• While 68 percent experimental school have classrooms as per norms, only 37 per cent

control schools have such classrooms

• Blackboards are present in ALL schools but greenboard is present only in 85 per cent

experimental schools but none in control schools

• Only 15 per cent of control schools as opposed to 83 per cent of experimental schools are

equipped with libraries.

• One third experimental schools as compared to negligible control schools have started to

maintain learning corners for children.

• Only 15 percent and 17 per cent experimental schools have science and math kits against

none/negligible in the control schools.

• Other infrastructure in the control and experimental schools show a depleting state -

boundary walls in 88 per cent of experimental but only in 34 per cent of control schools,

gates in 34 percent control and 56 per cent experimental, playground in 53 control and 82

experimental, adequate light in 31 per cent control and 35 per cent experimental).

2.2 Analytical framework: Data series and Methodology

Data for trend analysis pertains to the Research component of PCTFI across Time 1 to Time 5

period (2010-2014). This data series is referred to as Time 1 (T1)- 2010, Time 2 (T2)- 2011,

Time 3 (T3)- 2012, Time 4 (T4)- 2013, Time 1 (T1)- 2014.

The following tools have been used for data collection:

• Children’s assessment

• Teacher Observation

• Classroom Observation

• Teachers’ Interview

• Children Interview

• Whole School information

28 | P a g e

Analytical framework with clear indicators measured by each of the tool is given in the Table

11:

Table 11

Data Analysis Framework

Table 12 presents the tools used and the analytical framework for the research. The database

emanating from these have been used to get the trends.

Tool Indicators

Teacher Observation

Tool (COT 1)

1. %age of teachers using various teaching methods

2. Extent of children participation in different teaching methods

3. Level of teachers’ behaviour in classroom processes

4. Teachers' language in classroom processes (gender & caste

sensitive)

5. Extent of teachers' engagement with girls & boys during

classroom processes

6. Extent of TLM used by teachers, girls & boys

7. Extent to which teachers offer assistance to girls & boys and

move around the classroom

8. % of teachers prepare lesson plan with objectives & processes

9. %age of teachers keep record of each students learning level and

update it

10 %age of teachers found to handle the multi-grade classroom

well

Classroom

Observation Tool

(COT 2)

1. Frequency of teachers calling on girls & boys

2. Frequency of girls & boys speak in class

3. Frequency of teachers rewards/praises girls & boys

4. Frequency of teachers disciplines/punishes girls & boys

Teachers' Interview 1. How have the expectation of teachers towards girls' & boys'

educational and/or career attainment changed over time

2. How have the teachers' gender-sensitive practices changed over

time

Children Interview 1. To what extent do girls & boys differ in their workload

2. To what extent have girls' & boys' workload changed over time

3. What is the relationship between workload and student

achievement in hindi & mathematics

One Time

information/Monthly

reports of Cluster

Coordinators

1. Social stratification of enrolled children & teachers (Experiment

Vs control site)

2. No of School having good & usable infrastructure facilities -

item wise

3. Reasons for not attending schools i) Social Obstruction ii)

Physical Obstruction

4. Average distance of school from Dalit Community & Minority

Community

29 | P a g e

Table 12

Database and Methodology for the Research in PCTFI

1 2 3 4 5 6

Common item:

Teacher observation

tool (COT 1)

Common item:

Teacher

interview

Classroom

observation tool

(COT 2)

Children’s common item Children’s

Assessment

One time

information

tool

Target (on

whom)

Teachers in treatment

and control sites

Teachers only in

treatment schools

Teachers in treatment

and control sites

Select grade 2 and 3

children from treatment

schools

Grade 2 and 3

children in

treatment and

control sites

Whole school

Once in an academic

year

Once in an

academic year

Once in an academic

year

Once in academic year Twice in an

academic year

Once in an

academic year

Sites All 32 control and 34

experimental schools

All 34

experimental

schools

All 32 control and 34

experimental schools

34 experimental schools All 32 control and

34 experimental

schools

All 32 control

and 34

experimental

schools

T1 Mar-Apr/2010 Apr - May/2010 Apr-May 2010 Dec 2010-Jan-2011 Nov-Dec-2010 Sep-Oct 2010

T2 Mar-May/2011 Apr- May/2011 Mar-Apr 2011 Nov-Dec 2011 Apr-May-2011 Sep-Oct 2011

T3 Apr-May/2012 May-August/2012 Apr-May, 2012 Nov 2012 Mar-Apr-2012 Sep-Oct 2012

T4 Apr-May/2013 May- 2013 Apr-May, 2013 Nov 2013 Mar-Apr-2013 Sep-Oct 2013

T5 March - April, 2014 March - April, 2014 tbd in Nov 2014 tbd in Nov 2014 Mar-Apr, 2014 tbd in Nov 2014

Male 94 28 94 135 1042 (Grade II-524,

Grade III-518)

Female 108 31 108 138 1126 (Grade II-558,

Grade III-568)

This tool was

administered along

with common item on

teacher observation

Majority of students were

grade II student(211), so

that they may be tracked in

next year

30 | P a g e

Data cleaning Frequency analysis and

cross tabulation on each

variable of the tool to

check data consistency

Frequency analysis

and cross tabulation

on each variable of

the tool to check data

consistency

Frequency analysis and

cross tabulation on each

variable of the tool to check

data consistency

Frequency analysis

and cross tabulation

on each variable of

the tool to check

data consistency

To check

Normality of

the variables

Examine One

Quantitative

Variable

Calculate percentage of

instances showing a

particular incidence:

how many times girls

spoke in class

Code

management

Calculate %

observations showing

one incidence. For

example, how often

'questioning' method

was used in 202

observations

Calculate % of each sub

items of a key parameter of

the tool (Learning time of

girls/boys at home and in

school, girl's/boy's opinion

about intelligence etc.)

Know the number

of children by

gender, school,

cluster etc. %

students scoring in

the competencies

Examine

Relation

Between Two

Categorical

Variables

This gave the count of

incidences of an even

segregated by a

category.

To segregate data based

on experimental sites,

gender of teachers and

subjects; Eg. whether

teacher from control site

praised girls more or

teachers from treatment

sites praised girls more

To segregate data

based on experimental

sites, gender of

teachers and subjects.

For example, whether

lecture method was

more often used in

Hindi or in

Mathematics

To know how often boys

felt confident while

answering in class and how

often girls felt confident in

speaking in class….similar

other factors

Relation

Between One

Quantitative

Variable &

One

To know average

number of times, girls

spoke in class in

treatment sites v/s

average number of

To look at the

average number of

instances when

teacher moved in

class, or talked on

We created scales based

on reliability analysis.

Some items were grouped

together under various

headings 'perception

Mean scores by

gender and

experimental were

compared

31 | P a g e

Categorical

Variable

times girls in control

sites …..this was often

used after T test to

check in which site the

'mean' is greater

phone, or used a

particular method

and so on based on

site, gender, subject

etc.

about work load' ,

'perception about study

time' etc then we

compared the mean on

each scale based on

gender of student. (Since

item was only used in

treatment sites, we could

not compare it by sites)

Testing the

mean value of

a distribution

To test whether the

difference between 2

means was statistically

significant or not.

To test whether the

difference between

2 means was

statistically

significant or not.

To test whether the

difference between 2

means was statistically

significant or not.

To test whether

the difference

between 2 means

was statistically

significant or not.

Testing the

mean value of

a distribution

contains more

than two sub

group

It was used in

combination with T-

test

It was used in

combination with T-

test

It was used in

combination with

T-test; to check

cluster wise

variations

Non-

parametric

test used

when data

consist

nominal or

ordinal

variables

To compare responses

under three or more

categories. For example,

children were asked when

someone hurts you, do

you seek help from

mother, father, sister,

brother, friend and so

on…

32 | P a g e

Reliability

test to check

whether a

scale variable

is a group of

similar items

In formation of scale

variables

In formation of

scale variables

In formation of scale

variables

To check

reliability of the

tools

Compare the

means of two

variables. To

compute the

difference

between the

two variables

to see if the

average

difference is

significantly

different from

zero

Teachers' engagement

with boys and girls

compared

Comparing

materials used by

boys and girls in

class, teachers'

assistance to boys

and girls

To compare perceptions

about men's likelihood of

coming together to solve

a common problem vs.

women's likelihood of

coming together to solve

a problem

Not done Preliminary

codes formation

Memo

development

Narrative

writing

33 | P a g e

CHAPTER 3: MAIN FINDINGS

The learner’s assessment data in PCTFI captures25 the achievement of the students in

grade 2 and 3 in language (Hindi) and mathematics. It also provides for the competency

wise achievement in these subjects. The sections in the chapter are organized as per the

achievement in each of the subject area for grade 2 and 3.

3.1 Increased learning outcomes in language and mathematics

3.1.1 Learners’ result in Language for Grade 2 & 3

Figures below show that the average achievement scores in language for grade 2 and 3

have steadily improved in Shrawasti as well as in Gonda. At the same time the gap in

average scores between boys and girls has decreased over time, especially for grade 3

scores from T1 to T5. This reflects that girls are speeding up with boys in performance.

25 Topics of this chapter are taken from the following reports: Trend analysis, Time 1 to Time 5 Data (2010-2014) PCTFI supported research in Shrawasti Uttar Pradesh, India. Care India, 2015; ‘Secondary Research on Effectiveness of Cluster Approach on

Teachers’ Behaviour, Classroom Practices and Learning Outcome, Kaarak, 2015 and PCTFI Cohort 2 Final Narrative Report, 2016.

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6

Control boys 6.1 9.1 7.0 10.3 11.5 11.4

Control girls 5.6 7.2 6.2 9.0 8.5 11.2

Experiment boys 6.4 10.1 10.7 11.8 10.6 13.8

Experiment girls 5.3 8.0 9.2 10.1 8.9 11.3

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

Mean

Sco

res

Figure 3

Comparative Analysis of performance in Hindi for Grade-2

34 | P a g e

There was an improvement in early literacy scores recorded from T1 to T6 in some

important basic level competencies in grade 2 and 3 (sound symbol association, word

formation, picture reading, listening comprehension).

Table 13

Over all scenario-Competencies achievement of Grade 2 children in Language (%)

Grade 2- Hindi T1 T5 T6

Competencies in % Control Exp Control Exp Control Exp

B G B G B G B G B G B G

Listening & Identification of 2

letter words

26 26 28 26 10 33 52 43 45 47 55 49

Listening & Identification of 3

letter words

29 29 24 24 10 35 54 44 39 45 55 51

Pairing of picture and word part 40 28 41 34 10 44 56 40 55 54 64 55

Word formation with a

particular letter

6 7 9 5 4 17 23 18 34 28 39 29

Picture identification and

writing

20 18 24 17 8 22 31 24 34 35 42 31

In grade 3, 70% children could identify letters and establish sound and symbol

correspondence. In higher order competencies like (reading comprehension, writing)

children’s performance did not show much progress in comparison to baseline scores,

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6

control boys 7.4 9.4 7.8 8.1 12.5 12.3

control girls 5.4 7.4 7.0 7.2 10.9 9.3

Experiment boys 8.2 10.5 10.1 10.3 11.0 11.3

Experiment girls 6.5 8.9 8.2 9.3 9.6 9.2

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

Mean

Sco

res

Figure 4

Comparative Trend Analysis of Performance in Hindi for Grade-3

35 | P a g e

around 11% children could read fluently and comprehend in comparison to 5% children

in T1.

Trends of average achievement of grade 2 children in Hindi reveals that from Time 1 to

Time 5 there has been an increase in average achievement score of control and experiment

sites respectively. However, the increase in the control schools has been less consistent.

The analysis shows children, especially girls were getting more opportunity in

experimental schools. This can be correlated with the language instruction methods that

has been used in the experimental schools over a period which is more participatory in

nature.

Significant improvement is recorded from T1 to T5-T6 in some important competencies

(identifying two & three letter words, pairing pictures & word, word formation, picture

reading). Children of experiment site doing better than control group with about 50 %

children from experiment site able to identify two and three letter words and pairing of

pictures with words.

3.1.2 Learner’s Assessment in Mathematics in Grade 2 and 3

Steady improvement in math is recorded both in experiment schools in grade 2 and 3,

with higher increase for girls. The girls’ achievement score in grade 2 has more than

doubled from T1 to T5. The gender gap in the scores has also steadily decreased from T1

to T5, indicating better performance of girls in mathematics in grade 2 and 3.

36 | P a g e

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6

Control boys 4.1 5.7 4.7 6.5 8.8 7.4

Control girls 2.8 4.1 3.7 5.2 5.5 6.8

Experiment boys 4.2 6.9 7.5 8.2 7.2 10.7

Experiment girls 2.5 4.4 5.0 5.9 5.4 6.9

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

Mean

Sco

re

Figure 5Comparative Trend Analysis of performance in Maths for Grade-2

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6

Control boys 5.4 7.1 5.0 6.2 10.8 9.1

Control girls 3.3 4.6 4.2 4.8 8.0 6.9

Experiment boys 6.3 8.5 7.1 8.9 9.4 8.7

Experiment girls 4.2 5.8 5.7 7.6 8.2 7.3

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

Mean

Sco

re

Figure 6Comparative Trend Analysis for performance of Maths for Grade-3

37 | P a g e

In grade 3, both boys and girls showed a marked increase in the achievement scores. All

the three experiment clusters performed better over time, with increase being substantial

for girls in experimental schools. The control clusters too showed an increase from T1 to

T6 (PCTFI Cohort 2 Final Narrative Report, CARE 2016).

Table below shows there is a considerable improvement in basic concepts (counting,

spatial sense) and improvement in conceptual themes like place value (from 0% to 12%).

However, the increase is negligible in higher level competencies like application concepts

(operations, length), for both control and experimental schools in grade 2 and 3.

Table 14

Competency wise Achievement of Grade 2 children in Mathematics (%) T1 and T5

Class-2

Competency

Time 1 Time 5

Control Experiment Control Experiment

Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls

Count & write 26.0 17.1 24.6 14.2 37.2 19.3 36.0 27.5

Write the place

value of the number

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 14.2 8.3 12.9 10.0

Simple addition of 3

digit number

20.2 14.6 23.2 12.3 27.2 16.1 25.2 19.4

Understanding of

concept of shape

9.9 7.1 10.9 9.7 34.6 33.5 39.5 35.9

Understanding of

concept length

8.5 8.2 7.0 4.9 28.6 19.3 20.7 15.8

Understanding of

concept of Time

37.7 28.1 39.8 25.7 48.4 36.7 47.1 37.7

Table 14 shows that the girls in the experimental schools have done better than the control

group in the basic competencies. They have also shown notable gains in these

competencies over the control group. Competencies in shapes and time showed maximum

achievement scores.

Table 15 shows for Grade 3 similar trends as in grade 2, with improvement shown in only

basic competencies (identify 3 digit numbers, count and write, additions). In addition,

improvement over T1 is seen in concepts related to time and calendar. Rest of the

competencies show negligible gains (subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions).

38 | P a g e

Table 15

Competency wise Achievement of Grade 3 children of in Mathematics (%)

3.2 Learning Achievement: Read in Time - PCTFI Phase 2, all 3 districts26

The child assessment survey tool used for data collection in the baseline study was used

to assess the current reading competency of students. Students who completed grades I to

IV were surveyed in selected districts in Uttar Pradesh.

A representative sample 1703 child were collected from UP. The sample had equal

representation of girls and boys and included students belonging to various marginalised

communities, such as Dalit, Adivasi, OBC and religious minority.

In order to assess a child’s overall progress in reading ability, the research framework

covered five competencies associated to one’s reading skills, namely- phonemic

awareness, phonic awareness, comprehension (listening and reading), reading fluency

and independent writing.

There has been an average improvement of 15 % in capabilities (in reading skills) of

children across grades compared to baseline score. The table below describes progress in

average reading score of children as per assessment conducted in 2016 (Baseline 2014 and

midline study 2016).

26 Section extracted from PCTFI Cohort 2. Final Narrative Report, CARE 2016.

Class-3 Competency Time 1 Time 5

Exp. Cont. Exp. Cont.

Identify 3 digit numbers 13 8 23 31

Count & Write 24 17 42 44

Addition in equation form 7 5 10 13

Simple addition of 3 digit number 29 24 27 35

Addition through carry over 2 digit 17 14 21 19

Addition through carry over 3 digit 15 12 19 16

Simple subtraction of 3 digit number 19 17 24 26

Subtraction through carry over 8 5 10 9

Complex subtraction in equation form 6 4 8 13

Multiplication through carry over (2-1 digit) 10 10 17 16

Multiplication through carry over (3-digit) 11 9 15 16

Multiplication in equation form 3 2 7 8

Simple división 11 11 16 17

Understanding of concept of shape 3 2 19 13

Understanding of concept of length 3 3 13 18

Understanding of concept of time 41 37 53 57

Understanding of concept of calendar 18 14 32 32

39 | P a g e

Table 16

Progress in average reading score of children 2015-2016 (%)

Class Year 2015 Year 2016

Grade 1 18 % 36%

Grade 2 25 % 38%

Grade 3 29% 48%

Grade 4 35% 51%

There is an improvement in all four grades in Uttar Pradesh from the baseline results. The

change is more prominent in grades III and IV (where the increase is of 12 and 9

percentage points respectively) than in the lower grades (where increase is 4 and 3

percentage points respectively). See the table below.

Table 17

Progress in competencies associated to reading skills 2015-2016 (%)

Grades Phonemic

awareness

Phonic

awareness

Listening

comprehension

Reading

Fluency

Independent

writing 2016 Baseline 2016 Baseline 2016 Baseline 2016 Baseline 2016 Baseline

Grade I 40 11 27 15 74 40 5 2 9 4

Grade II 50 21 34 27 76 45 13 10 17 10

Grade III 67 31 50 35 70 38 25 19 24 15

Grade IV 70 40 57 48 60 32 31 27 17 10

The overall percentage of students who have phonemic awareness increased from 48% in

baseline (2015) to 68% in 2016. There has been a significant improvement in this

competency, from 26% of the students having the ability to identify and differentiate

sounds in baseline, the percentage increased to 57%. The growth is consistent in all four

grades in the state.

There is an 11% increase in the percentage points in average phonic awareness in all four

grades in Uttar Pradesh. Additionally, similar to the trend in phonemic awareness and the

trend in phonic awareness in the baseline, the competency increases with advancement in

grades.

The overall percentage of students who were able to correctly answer questions based on

a passage read to them increased from 39% to 70%. This level of improvement is

consistent in all four grades in UP. Hence, majority of the students in Uttar Pradesh were

able to demonstrate the ability to comprehend while listening

There is a seven-percentage point improvement in the results in Uttar Pradesh in

comparison to the baseline. The level is highest in grade IV where 24% of the students

demonstrated having this competency.

40 | P a g e

3.3 Reduced gender gap in achievement in both language and mathematics

By end of phase 1, gender gap in achievement in both language and mathematics

narrowed, reflecting girls speeding up with boys and reduced much more for the

experiment schools. The trend continues in phase 2, attributing to a more gender sensitive

approach followed by teachers (Secondary research, GEP (2015), Baseline study, Kaarak (2015),

Annual assessment, GEP (2016))

Table 18 Children Reporting Gender fair environment

Children report gender-fair

environment T1 T2 T3 T4 T5

B G B G B G B G B G

Do you think your

teacher calls on girls

and boys the same

number of times?

Equal 43 57 61 72 68 71 61 65 72 58

Girls > boys 18 20 11 16 11 14 12 20 9 25

Boys > girls 39 22 28 13 21 15 26 15 18 17

Who does your

teacher ask more easy

questions to?

Equal 53 57 63 72 71 66 64 66 71 63

More for girls 21 23 18 13 14 20 13 18 11 20

More for boys 25 20 19 15 14 14 23 15 18 18

Who does your

teacher ask more

difficult questions to?

Both equally 36 46 42 59 62 61 54 60 59 59

More for girls 24 12 15 13 14 9 20 13 19 16

More for boys 40 43 43 28 24 30 25 27 22 25

Who do teachers

reward / praise more

when girls and boys

do good work?

Both equally 52 58 57 70 81 73 65 73 75 74

More for girls 19 29 13 19 9 20 18 15 8 16

More for boys 28 13 30 11 10 7 17 13 16 11

When girls are teased

by boys, who usually

helps solve the

problem?

Both 30 28 44 52 42 38 46 47 51 49

More female

teachers

30 36 28 29 27 36 20 28 16 27

More male

teachers

40 26 27 17 30 25 33 22 29 24

Neither 1 10 2 2 2 1 1 2 4 1

The table shows that the children feel there is more of an equal and fair environment for

both boys and girls to participate, this perception has shown an upward trend from T1.

Girl speaking in class

Girls speaking in class is one of the immediate indicator of their participation and

interest in class. This is possible if a fair and conducive environment is built by the

teachers. In all the experimental clusters girls participation showed an increasing trend

41 | P a g e

from T1 to T6, this was true both in Language and Math class (PCTFI Cohort 2 Final

Narrative Report, 2016).

Table 19

Girls participation and interest in class

Experiment/

Clusters Girls speaks in class- HINDI Girls speaks in class- MATHS

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 TOT T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 TOT

Kalyanpur 3 3 4 4 7 9 5 3 3 4 3 7 11 5

Ramwapur 2 7 7 4 5 6 5 1 5 7 3 7 8 5

Veerpur 2 4 2 3 5 6 4 2 6 4 4 5 8 5

Total 2 4 4 3 6 7 5 2 4 4 4 6 9 5

Girls in the experimental schools did better than the control group in the basic

competencies in language and mathematics in phase 1. Leadership and regular onsite

academic support to school and its teachers plays a critical role in improving teacher’s

performance and learner’s scores.

There has been an upward trend in girls participation in grade 3 math classes in

experimental school, as well as their learning outcome, The gender gap has considerable

reduced for Grade 3 experimental school from 2.2 in T1 to 1.4 in T6. The table on teaching

methods also points that teachers from T1 to T6 started using participatory, collaborative

methods to their teaching.

2.1

2.5

0.8

1.4

2.7

2.22.2

2.8

1.4

1.2 1.2

1.41.3

1.6

1.0

1.4

3.3

0.6

1.8

2.4

2.5

2.2

1.7

3.8

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6

Figure 7Gender Gap- Maths

Class 3 Control Class 3 Experiment

class 2 Control class 2 Experiment

42 | P a g e

This points out that a fear free environment creates a conducive learning environment for

all children specially girls in non stereotypical subjects like math.

Reading with comprehension by gender

Gender-wise break up of students who are able to read with comprehension in each class.

Table 20 Gender analysis of students reading with comprehension (%)

Uttar Pradesh (% of children)

2016 Baseline

Boys Girls Boys Girls

Grade I 7 5 3 2

Grade II 14 11 11 6

Grade III 30 25 19 11

Grade IV 38 35 29 24

Total 22 19 15 11

In reading comprehension, there is an improvement in all four grades from the baseline

results. The change is more prominent in grades III and IV (where the increase is of 12

and 9 percentage points respectively) than in the lower grades (where increase is 4 and 3

percentage points respectively). Overall gender gap in reading comprehension is small;

however, girls have shown more improvement than boys.

3.4 Classroom Processes

The Classroom observation data was derived from two separate tools. The first tool

focused on teaching methods, student engagement, teacher behavior, lesson planning and

use of materials. The second tool identified the frequency and nature of teacher

interactions with children. In all cases, two observations were conducted in each

classroom: one during a Hindi lesson and one during a mathematics lesson. These data

were collected in grade 2 and 3 classrooms in both experimental and control schools.

Break down of the classrooms observed is as follow:

Table 21

Total No. of Classroom Observations

Time Experiment Control Grand Total

Time 1 102 100 202

Time 2 122 104 226

Time 3 125 94 219

Time 4 120 108 228

Time 5 130 108 238

43 | P a g e

3.4.1 Teachers’ Behaviors, Practices and Methods

Table 22 shows that in terms of indicators such as seating arrangement for children,

gender and caste sensitivity, teachers’ language and voice, teachers from both the

experiment and control schools are reflecting similar behavioral pattern. On the other

side, teachers from experiment schools display better behavioral pattern during classroom

transaction on indicators such as encouraging girls & boys, offering assistance, moving

around the class and encouraging shy & hesitant students. Teachers in both control and

experiment schools show less inclination towards using additional material for teaching.

Table 22

Teachers’ behavior during classroom transaction (% teachers)

Teachers’ Behavior District Time 1 Time 5

N R S A N R S A

Teacher Ensure proper

Seating Arrangement

Exp. 52 0 0 48 8.5 5.4 5.4 80.8

Control 32 15 10 43 2.8 7.3 9.2 80.7

Teacher Language is

Gender Sensitive

Exp. 86.3 8.8 3.9 1 0 0 3.1 96.9

Control 77 16 4 3 2.8 1.8 0 95.4

Teacher Language Caste is

Sensitive

Exp. 1 0 1 98 0 0 0.8 99.2

Control 0 0 0 100 3.7 0 0 96.3

Teacher Voice is Clear Exp 0 0 0 100 0 0 4.6 95.4

Control 1 0 0 99 0.9 1.8 0 97.2

Teacher Encourage Boys Exp. 0 0 2 98 1.5 10.8 27.7 60

Control 1 0 0 99 5.5 16.5 34.9 43.1

Teacher Encourage Girls Exp. 14.7 13.7 30.4 41.2 1.5 13.1 26.9 58.5

Control 0 6 40 54 4.6 19.3 33 43.1

Teacher Uses Other

Materials

Exp. 13.7 19.6 26.5 39.2 55.4 10.8 20 13.8

Control 2 7 41 50 71.6 12.8 10.1 5.5

Teacher Approaches Girls

to offer assistance

Exp. 92.2 2 5.9 0 35.4 25.4 20.8 18.5

Control 78 6 1 15 47.7 36.7 13.8 1.8

Teacher Approaches Boys

to offer assistance

Exp. 86.3 13.7 0 0 29.2 29.2 22.3 19.2

Control 66 21 10 3 52.3 35.8 11 0.9

Teacher Moves In Class Exp. 91.2 3.9 4.9 0 3.8 23.1 33.1 40

Control 66 18 13 3 29.4 33 34.9 2.8

Teacher Encourage Shy

Student

Exp. 67.6 19.6 12.7 0 48.5 23.1 22.3 5.4

Control 52 24 21 3 64.2 24.8 9.2 1.8

Note: N=Never; R=Rarely; S=Sometimes; A=Always

The correlation between girls performing better in language or mathematics in experiment

schools can be made with the behavior practices followed in classrooms by teachers, in

terms of their using mixed seating arrangement for both boys and girls, encouraging them,

offering assistance and encouraging shy and hesitant students.

44 | P a g e

Table 23

Teachers’ Class room Practices (% teachers)

Time 1 Time 5

Exp. Control Exp. Control

Teacher clearly outline the problems 1 1 4.6 3.7

Teacher gives clues 1 1 4.6 3.7

Teacher creates opportunity 2 1 4.6 1.8

Teacher ask student to read 10 3.9 7.7 9.2

Teacher writes question on the board 41 39.2 58.5 51.4

Teacher ask student to repeat word 18 13.7 23.8 41.3

Teacher ask student copy 39 27.5 74.6 67

The above table suggests that classroom practices by teachers from both the experiment

& control sites are not very dissimilar. However, there seems to be a change in trends

amongst the teachers of experiment schools, with them remarkably following varied and

different classroom practices.

It cannot be concluded which practice is better to follow in which situation. A traditional

practice such as writing question on board or asking students to copy or repeating a word

may be appropriate in one situation or the other.

Table 24

Lesson Plan (% teachers)

Time 1 Time 5

Lesson Plan Exp. Control Exp Cont

Lesson Plan available 13 0 54.6 5.5

Lesson Plan For Day 11 0 25.4 5.5

Lesson Plan For Week 2 0 18.5 0

Lesson Plan For Month 0 0 10.8 0

Lesson Plan Book and Objectives 3 0 30.8 5.5

Class Type (Multi-grade) 32 38 47.7 56

Table 24 shows a far more clear cut practice in developing and maintaining lesson plans

in the experiment schools as compared to the control schools. More than half (54.6 %)

of the teachers in experiment schools as compared to only 5.5% teachers from control site

do the same. In the experiment sites around 20% & 11% teachers found to have lesson

plan for a week and for a month respectively.

The teachers in both experiment and control schools are handling a far more multigrade

classrooms than before. This has implications on the classroom practices and subsequent

achievement of children.

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Table 25

Teaching Methods (%)

Table 25 shows questioning method to be the most predominant in both the experiment

and control schools. Both schools teachers provide enough time to students to reply.

While lecture method is still used by one-third of teachers, in addition the experiment

school teachers are using role play, group formation and games in their transactions.

Control school teachers are using more of lecture method and examples for explanation.

Those methods which were not used by any of the teachers in control or experiment

schools during T1, such as role play, indoor games, outdoor games, giving instructions,

group formation, games; these have now started to emerge as being used by some teachers

in both schools but more by experiment school teachers.

3.4.2 Incremented Students Engagement

This study examined classroom activity settings in relation to children’s observed

behavior during classroom interactions, child gender, and basic teacher behavior within

the classroom. 1294 children were observed during Time 1 and 1372 through Time 5.

Time 5 Time 1

Exp. Control Exp. Control

Questioning 72.3 78 27 38.2

Teacher asked Close ended Question 65.4 71.6 23 33.3

Teacher asked Open ended Question 20 28.4 5 10.8

Teacher asked Series of Question 29.2 34.9 8 14.7

Teacher Provide Time to students to reply 72.3 77.1 27 38.2

Teacher facilitate Role Play 6.2 0.9 0 0

Indoor Games 10 3.7 0 0

Outdoor Games 0 0.9 0 0

Teacher gave Instruction 10 2.8 0 0

Teacher Divided groups 4.6 1.8 0 0

Teacher Facilitated Game 10 2.8 0 0

Lecture Method 29.2 42.2 42 16.7

Teacher ask Question in between 24.6 37.6 35 15.7

Teacher used Examples to explain 27.7 36.7 0 0

Teacher Forms Small Group 29.2 0 0 0

Teacher Forms Mix Group 27.7 0 0 0

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Table 26

Attendance of Boys & Girls during Classroom Observations

TIME 1 TIME 5

Time Exp. Cont. Total Exp. Cont. Total

Time 1 505 562 1067 583 607 1190

Time 2 619 488 1107 635 572 1207

Time 3 486 384 870 517 459 976

Time 4 504 478 982 589 461 1050

Time 5 776 518 1294 802 570 1372

Trend analysis showed increase in students’ engagement interactions with peers in group

work and with teachers in child-directed settings. Majority of the students were more

positive in other methods (solving questions on board).

Table 27

Students Engagement (%)

Particulars Time 1 Time 5

None Few Some Most All None Few Some Most All

Cont. Exp. C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E

Students respond

to closed ended question

0 0 0 1 1 5 4 5 0 0 7 6 6 3 25 15 36 42 4 6

Students respond

to opened ended

question

0 0 0 9 7 4 10 21 6 0 46 47 6 2 13 7 11 16 3 1

Students

participate in the

game

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 1 7

Students were engaged in group

work

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 15 0 12

Students were engaged in

problem solving

0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 2 0 2

Students engaged

in role play

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 1 7

Students were

engaged with

other method

0 0 0 1 3 7 49 54 28 2 0 0 5 2 26 9 51 55 16 29

Table 27 shows that there is an increase in students’ response to close ended question as

42% experiment schools and 36% control school students have started responding to

those as compared to 4% and 5% respectively during T1. In the experiment site, 15%

students were found to be engaged in group work. It is also noted that majority of the

students were found to be engaged in other methods (predominantly teacher writing some

questions on the blackboard and asking students to solve).

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Table 28

Frequency & Nature of Teachers’ Interaction with the Children

Observation

details

Time1 Time2 Time3 Time4 Time5

Cont Exp Cont Ex. Cont Exp Cont Exp. Cont Exp.

Teacher calls on Girls 185 272 408 549 52 751 340 523 433 522

Teacher calls on Boys 295 297 353 569 53 763 355 393 430 540

Girls speak in class 239 273 453 534 33 801 297 426 643 858

Boys speak in class 355 307 378 566 45 813 282 377 681 824

Teacher rewards or

praises girls

10 22 21 15 6 65 60 70 44 39

Teacher rewards or

praises boys

11 18 13 20 3 82 44 46 31 28

Teacher disciplines or

punishes girls

51 11 51 89 2 68 25 134 31 23

Teacher disciplines or

punishes boys

56 7 44 90 1 83 22 132 34 29

Teacher approaches girls

to offer assistance

38 27 29 146 7 192 46 293 95 195

Teacher approaches boys

to offer assistance

55 24 39 117 5 168 49 246 88 171

Table 28 shows nearly 3-fold increase in the number of times girls speak in the class,

indicating the girls’ participation in the classrooms. Also teachers’ engagement with girls

increased consistently. There is also decrease in instances of teachers disciplining girls.

Alternatively, even the boys are not being rewarded or praised frequently by teachers in

both locations. There is also increase in instances of teachers approaching girls to offer

assistance. Instances of girls and boys speaking in the class was far more in the

intervention schools by end of phase 1 (T5). Experiment school teachers were now

frequently found to be approaching both boys and girls for assistance as compared to

control schools.

3.5 Teacher Participation & Practices from Phase 1 to Phase 2

Increased Participation Index of teachers in cluster forums

Phase 1 worked intensively around supporting teachers for positive changes in motivation

to learn, attitudes towards marginalized children, especially girls, content understanding

and in classroom transactions. These efforts were continued in phase 2. The significant

gain has been in the Participation index of teachers in cluster forums that has continued

to increase in the intervention clusters in phase 2 of the project.

In 48 intervening clusters in three districts, there was a specific agenda for the cluster

meetings, teachers were found to be active in the meetings, and the teacher support

functionaries (cluster and block level resource persons) were seen taking initiative and

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leading the process. Below table illustrates the quality of teacher development processes

through cluster meetings collected through the internal MIS.

Table 29

Quality of Teacher Participation in cluster forums

Positive Teaching Practices in Intervention schools

PCTFI Cohort 2 reflected visible changes in teaching practices in intervention schools.

Phase 2 focus explicitly on reading skills using mother tongue based approach. The

changes are visible in most teachers following mother tongue to enhance learning, being

gender and socially sensitive in their approaches in classrooms, following varied and

joyful classroom practices, use age and grade appropriate learning materials and are now

focusing intensively around learning indicators, especially on reading with

comprehension.

In 93% of the observed classes in early grades, teachers have started interacting with

children in their mother tongue in early grades. 74 % of the classes, teachers are attentive

to both girls and boys. 75% of classes teachers use grade appropriate reading resources

with children other than text book. Most significant change has been where in 69 % of

classrooms, teachers are driving efforts to ensure children read with comprehension.

Table 30

Teaching Practices in motivation to learn

Teaching Practices Total Doing oral reading activities (poem/story/discussion) 86.0%

Interacts in mother tongue of the child 93.0%

Doing activities for sound and letter identification 67.0%

Shows how to hold a book properly (directionality) 69.0%

Teacher encourages students to read a book of theirs' interest 73.0%

Teacher does role modelling activities for reading 65.0%

Teacher ensures students helps each other in reading 84.0%

Makes an effort to ensure children read with comprehension (ask questions,

discussion)

69.0%

Provides opportunities to children for independent reading 77.0%

Teacher gives writing assignment having comprehension 70.0%

Teacher is attentive to both groups of students 74.0%

Teacher uses grade appropriate reading resources other than text book 75.8%

Teacher Participation in Cluster Forums Total

Teachers borrowing materials from CRC to be used in the school 88.0%

Meeting has specific agenda (review & reflection, next month's plan

and capacity building)

100.0%

Academic issues discussed 100.0%

Gender specific issue discussed 68.0%

Participants engaging actively in discussion 100.0%

NPRCC/CRCC take lead in cluster meeting 88.0%

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Positive teachers’ behavior, instruction methods and interaction pattern

The changes are more in terms of teachers’ sensitivity towards learner and their context,

creating a democratic fear free learning environment and use of child centric instruction

methods.

In Phase 1, the classroom practices by teachers from both the experiment & control sites

were similar in the content that they were transacting, However, the change in trends

amongst the teachers of experiment schools, was most of the teachers reaching out to

children, adapting learner centred methods like works in groups, giving more opportunity

for children to participate and express. A far clearer practice in developing and

maintaining lesson plans in the experiment schools as compared to the control schools

was seen with more than half (54.6 %) of the teachers in experiment schools as compared

to only 5.5% teachers from control site developing lesson plans.

The teachers in both experiment and control schools started to handle far more multi-

grade classrooms than before. This has implications on the classroom practices and

subsequent achievement of children. The difficulty in making a difference in higher order

competencies may be attributed partly to this aspect.

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS AND LEARNINGS

This section highlights key lessons learnt as part of PCTFI Cohort 2 Phase 1 and 2 (2009-

2016) which was focused in the state of Uttar Pradesh of India Phase 1 in 34 multigrade

schools in district Shrawasti through a longitudinal quasi experimental study focusing on

teacher development from 2009 to 2014, Phase 2 an implementation intervention around

early literacy and strengthening KGBVs in three districts Shrawasti, Bahraich and

Balrampur reaching out to 48 clusters-480 schools and 24 KGBVs from 2014 to 2016.

The second phase of the PCTFI proposal was based on methodological approaches

developed during the first phase of the PCTFI India project, as well as other education

projects, and on lessons learned regarding key factors affecting learning outcomes and

shifts in social/gender norms. The PCTFI second phase approach incorporated reading

skills development, leadership skills development and safety and security in the

previously developed clustered teacher training process.

It is also important to note that the outcomes and impact27 consider specific changes from

PCTFI as well as the influence of other project interventions on the integrated strategy

implemented as part of Girls education program in India. This strategy addresses social,

pedagogical and systemic domains to enhance learning outcomes of the most

marginalized children, especially girls in the public schools of India.

27 Learning achievement and outcomes described in Trend Analysis Time 1 to Time 5 Data (2010-2014), CARE India, 2015 and

PCTFI Cohort 2. Final Narrative Report, CARE 2016

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• Outcomes at the level of children

Increased learning outcomes in mathematics and language: The first phase of PCTFI

cohort 2 recorded increased learning outcomes of children in the early grades (grade

2 and 3) in the intervention schools in mathematics and language. 82% of children in

the intervention schools were primarily from marginalized Dalit28 communities.

Steady improvements were recorded through time series data (T1 to T6) in basic as

well as higher level competencies of children in mathematics, with the increase more

for girls and more in intervention schools. Significant improvements in basic level

competencies in language were also visible in grade 2 and 3 but not in higher level

competencies29

Reduced gender gap in achievement in both language and mathematics: by end of

phase 1, girls were at par with boys in performance in both language and

mathematics. The trend continues in phase 2, attributing to a more gender sensitive

approach followed by teachers. Teacher development initiative focusing on

components of gender and inclusiveness created enabling environment in school for

teaching learning, and in turn impacted girls learning outcomes, clearly reducing

gender gap in learning30

Increased Student engagement: student engagement increased in the classroom,

especially that of girls, with nearly three- fold increase in the number of times girls

participate in classrooms31

• Outcomes at the level of teachers

Functionalizing continuous teacher development approach through cluster forums -

In phase one through cluster forums continuous teacher development initiatives were

initiated in 3 clusters reaching out to 94 teachers in one district. The lessons learnt in

functionalizing continuous teacher development forums were further scaled in phase

2 through working in 48 clusters, reaching out to around 879 teachers across 3

districts.

Increased Participation Index of teachers in cluster forums: Phase 1 worked

intensively around supporting teachers for positive changes in motivation to learn,

attitudes towards marginalized children, especially girls, content understanding and

in classroom transactions. These efforts were continued in phase 2. The significant

28 Dalit: part of the Scheduled Caste, the term includes all historically discriminated communities of India out-caste and Untouchables and are listed as the Scheduled Castes in the Constitution of India. 29 Secondary Research on Effectiveness of Cluster Approach on Teachers’ Behavior, Classroom Practices and Learning Outcomes,

Kaarak, 2015. 30 Secondary Research on Effectiveness of Cluster Approach on Teachers’ Behavior, Classroom Practices and Learning Outcomes,

Kaarak, 2015, Baseline Study, Karak 2015 and Annual assessment, GEP (2016). 31 Baseline Study to Understand Reading skills and classroom practices in government Primary Schools of Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, Kaarak, 2015.

GEP (2016), Annual Assessment of Children Reading Level in Uttar Pradesh & Odisha

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gain has been in the Participation index of teachers in cluster forums that has

continued to increase in the intervention clusters in phase 2 of the project32.

Positive Teaching Practices in Intervention schools: Both phases of PCTFI Cohort 2

brought visible changes in teaching practices in intervention schools. Phase 2

narrowed down to a focus on building skills in language, using mother tongue based

approach; this was informed by linguistic and teacher development approaches

adopted in Udaan, one of the pioneer education innovations of GEP which aims to

give never enrolled or early drop-out Dalit33 adolescent girls, aged 10 to 14 years,

the chance to receive a fifth-grade education in just 11 months. The Study taken by

Mohanty 34 points out in Udaan teachers place importance on children’s wide

experience and resourcefulness, and there is a basic belief in teachers that teaching

in mother tongue is more effective, this formulated the basis of language pedagogy

which was used in first and second phase of PCTFI implementation . Changes were

also observed in intervention schools and classrooms where teachers were seen being

gender and socially sensitive in their approaches in classrooms, following varied and

joyful classroom practices, use age and grade appropriate learning materials and are

now focusing intensively around learning indicators, especially on reading with

comprehension.

Positive teachers’ behavior, instruction methods and interaction pattern: The changes

are more in terms of teachers’ sensitivity towards learner and their context, creating

a democratic fear free learning environment and use of child centric instruction

methods.

• Learnings from PCTFI Phase -1 being part of the quasi experimental

Longitudinal study35

The PCTFI phase 1 intervention in India focused on the following factors as important

reasons for marginalization of girls in the sphere of education, -Limited teachers’

capacity in transacting learner centered methods, School environment marked by

neglect, fear and corporal punishment. The longitudinal research design helped in

focusing down approaches targeted towards testing two hypothesis

a) Training of teachers on the learner centered, gender sensitive and inclusive

pedagogies will lead to change in classroom practices: quality of transactions will

improve and classrooms will be more inclusive.

b) Improved classroom practices and inclusive classrooms will enable all children,

especially marginalized girls to achieve better learning outcomes, enhanced self-

esteem and confidence and better participation in classrooms.

32 Baseline study, Kaarak, 2015 and Annual assessment, GEP (2016) 33 The term Dalit has been interchangeably used with Scheduled Caste, including all historically discriminated communities of India out-caste and Untouchables. They constitute around 16% of the Indian population (Census of India, 2011) today and are listed as the

Scheduled Castes in the Constitution of India 34 Mohanty Ajit(2016),"Multilingualism, Pedagogy and Learning: Understanding Transactions, Transformations and Tribulations in Udaan, Odisha" 35 PCTFI Cohort 2. Final Narrative Report, CARE 2016

52 | P a g e

The focus as part of longitudinal study research design helped in trying and testing

technical approaches around inclusive teacher development approaches and setting

up of continuous teacher development platforms for teachers It further provided

insights on understanding components around school organization, system

strengthening.

The longitudinal study helped in creating knowledge products around the approaches-

training modules, classroom observation tools, monitoring indicators, operational

strategies. It also helped in designing a composite operational strategy for scaling

working with different components teacher, school and community for enhancing

quality and equitable learning opportunities for children especially girls.

It also helped with insights around systemic and structural components which were

hugely influential in impacting outcomes both at experimental and control sites –

availability of teachers, attendance, transfer, monitoring, enrolment and retention of

children. This reemphasized the need to work with community and advocate with

system simultaneously to create sustainable educational impact for children.

The longitudinal study also provided insights on the need to work on belief , attitude

and sensitivity of teachers as a foundation stone to work on conceptual clarity and

pedagogical approaches with teachers.

• Analysis through triangulation for Phase 136

In the experiment schools, teachers were more active in providing opportunity for

students, especially girls, in their classroom processes. They started moving out of

traditional roles and are trying out facilitative roles instead.

The data strongly hinted that the intervention has had influence on the perspective,

sensitivity and instruction methods of the teachers. In five years of intervention,

teachers started using teaching methods, which are more participatory in nature. In

language teaching, method like role play were used and in mathematics games were

more widely used along with traditional methods. These methods provided more

opportunity and gained more acceptance from children specially girls. There has been

wider use of group methods in classroom which has helped in creating collaborative

and peer learning culture in the classroom. This also helped in making the classrooms

more inclusive.

However, all the above positive measures have not resulted in enhancing the

achievement scores of the students in experimental schools drastically. The impact on

learning outcome is not very drastically different between the experimental and

control schools. It is necessary to apply a much more rigorous evaluation using impact

evaluation methods like Difference in Difference model or a Randomized Control

Trials. These techniques will give causality to the intervention in the outcomes

without the effects of external shocks that may influence in the results.

36 Trend Analysis Time1 to Time 5 Data (2010-2014). PCTFI supported researched in Sharawasti Uttar Pradesch, India. CARE

India, 2015.

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The greater achievement has been the reduction in achievement gap between boys

and girls. This is clearly visible in grade 3 children, in both language and mathematics.

Efforts like using more activity methods, allowing children to work in group, play

way methods, providing more opportunity to children specially girls have helped girls

to open and has contributed in reduction of the achievement gap. There is a slow but

steady increase in achievement for both boys and girls and the gender gap in

achievement has reduced in the intervention period. There has also been noticeable

increase in girl’s achievement in the experimental schools, specifically in the cluster

having considerable representation from Dalit and minority communities.

More and intensive focus was required to improve various competencies of

mathematics amongst the children and higher order competencies in language. Apart

from the basic ones where to an extent, some students are score reasonably, in all

other competencies, the children achievement level is not very encouraging.

Comprehensive focus is required by the teacher to work with the children to improve

the competencies of children on mathematics and language.

• Learnings of teacher development37

o Teacher development initiative impacts learner outcome gradually and the

enhancement consistently increases with time.

o Learning outcome is also dependent on other enabling factors like School

leadership, supportive supervision and monitoring by the Teacher support

structures and system, parent’s willingness and perception on value of education

o Teacher development initiative focusing on components of gender and

inclusiveness creates enabling environment in school for teaching learning, which

in turn impacts girls learning outcome. Over a period, this influences reduction of

gender gap in learning

o Continuous Teacher development initiative results in visible changes in teacher

behavior, instruction methods and interaction pattern. The changes are more in

terms of teacher’s sensitivity towards learner and their context, creating a

democratic fear free learning environment and use of child centric instruction

methods. This change is gradual and slowly penetrates to the classrooms

As mentioned above, PCTFI Cohort 2 Phase 1 and 2 as part of GEP interventions in India

have significantly contributed at the level of students, teachers and communities. The

learnings have also been instrumental to the government and policy makers. Over the

years, GEP, through its programs and strategic engagement with the government, ‘has

built a credibility as a serious player in education, and this has reflected in it being

approached by state and national governments to collaborate on technical aspects related

to quality and equity issues in education, especially in the context of girls and

marginalized communities’38. One of the comparative advantages of GEP is its

37 PCTFI Cohort 2. Final Narrative Report, CARE 2016 38 Girl’s education program (GEP): Key features and achievements, Care India, March 2017

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comprehensive programming approach which has helped various education programs to

be nested together, share information and results and solidify the intervention models.

REFERENCES

CARE India (2014. PCTFI Intervention in India, Strategy Document, July.

CARE India (2015) Trend analysis, Time 1 to Time 5 Data (2010 -2014), Patsy Collins

Trust Fund Initiative -PCTFI- supported Research in Shrawasti Uttar Pradesh, India.

CARE India (2015) PCTFI – Cohort 2 proposal 2015 – 2017.July.

KAARAK (2015) Secondary Research on Effectiveness of Cluster Approach on

Teachers’ Behaviour, Classroom Practices and Learning Outcomes (Under PCTFI),

August.

CARE (2016) PCTFI Cohort 2 India, Final Narrative Report