>> December 11, 2004

Learning Guarantee Programme: Year II Award Function in Bellary.

The imposing and spacious Basava Bhavana, normally filled with friends and relatives for a marriage or with devotees congregating for a religious discourse, was on December 11, 2004 overflowing with primary school teachers and children besides education functionaries. They were all there to applaud the learning skills displayed by winning schools as defined by the Learning Guarantee Programme being implemented by Azim Premji Foundation in partnership with the Karnataka Government.

The head teachers, teachers, SDMC presidents, block education officers, block resource persons, cluster resource persons had all gathered there in their best attire and represented 82 government schools of North East Karnataka who were declared winners for 2003-04 under the Learning Guarantee Programme.

A total of 1,443 schools from the seven districts voluntarily participated in the evaluation programme – as against 896 schools last year of which 40 were declared winners - and as each school was called to the stage to be presented with cash award and certificates, it was a big moment to cherish. Video cameras whirred and flash bulbs glowed to capture that great academic moment of each school. For 67 of the 82 schools it was their first step on the dais. For the other 16, it was a moment of even greater pride having been recognized as a ‘Learning Guarantee’ school for the second time in two years.

Azim Premji Foundation, a not for profit organization, has been implementing programmes since 2001 to help improve the quality of learning in government schools. It zeroed in on North East Karnataka as this was the most backward region in the state with a literacy rate of 55% against the state average of 67%. It also had the largest ‘out-of-school’ population – with 6.08 lakh of the total 10.5 lakh out-of-school children in the state.

The key elements of the Learning Guarantee Programme are:

• Voluntary participation
• Evaluation of every child
• Assessing competencies versus text book based memory
• Transparent and independent evaluation
• Recognition and Reward
• Feedback to every school

Over two lakh children from the 1,443 schools were tested this year and of them, 2,800 children (approx 20% of children in winning schools) demonstrated 100% attainment of competencies in Mathematics and Language. One rare school, Hanakanahalli Government Lower Primary School, also had the unique distinction of all its students recording 100 competencies in Maths and Language.

Of the 82 schools that won:

a. 40 were winning schools in Category A (Award of Rs. 20,000);
b. 19 were in Category B (Award of Rs. 10,000); and
c. 23 were in Category C (Award of Rs. 5,000).

 

K H Colony school recieving the award from Mr Premji

Expansion of the Programme

The Karnataka government from this year has expanded the programme to all the 202 educational blocks of Karnataka. The government has obtained funds from the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (S S A). The programme will cover 6,464 schools (32 schools in each block) in the academic year 2004-05. From the next academic year (2005-06), 10,000 schools will be covered.

The conceptual framework for the Learning Guarantee Programme is:

i. Creating a Voluntary Spirit for Accountability
Learning Guarantee Programme is an initiative of Azim Premji Foundation in partnership with the state Government. The overarching goal of the programme is to create a voluntary spirit among schools and communities to come forward and be evaluated on the criteria of enrolment, attendance and learning achievements of children. Schools that satisfy the criteria are eligible for awards including individual awards for teachers and students. The programme aims to inspire and motivate teachers and schools to develop classroom practices and processes that enable learning by every child.

ii. Potential of Assessment Driven Reform
Considering the importance given to examination and assessment by stakeholders, assessment driven education reforms will be critical. The need to move towards competency based testing of a child’s learning as opposed to text book and rote memory based testing is urgent. If this reform towards competency based assessment is strategically driven through the structured programme, it has high potential to create the necessary downstream improvement in class room processes.

iii. Long Term View
Strategic usage of assessment of learning outcomes of children can lead to reform and positive change in the class room. The fact that schools voluntarily opt for the programme implies that they have a desire to change even if arising out of a competitive spirit of winning. If out of such motivation a school demonstrates that it can achieve the defined standards on enrolment, attendance and learning outcomes, it means, the school and the community have the ability to achieve these under certain conditions.

a. There are also opportunities of the Government machinery being galvanized to become academic resource centers, once evaluation of schools reveals clear trends on the strengths and areas of improvement of schools on the expected competencies.
b. The soul of the programme, apart from the voluntary participation, is the integrity and quality of evaluation. Care must be taken to ensure that the integrity of the school evaluation is maintained – transparent, diligent and open to public scrutiny. The faith of the schools and community in the evaluation process must be always kept high.
c. Evaluation of schools must extend beyond the testing of scholastic achievements and over the next few years in a phased manner, tests to determine the quality of learning should also evaluate the all round development of personality and character: testing for social, emotional, physical attributes.

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