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Learning
Guarantee Programme: Year II Award Function in Bellary
December 11,
2004

Lighting
the Lamp
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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
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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.

Mrs.
Yasmeen Premji and Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, Commissioner for Public
Instructions distributing school bags to the students of Amarapur,
Bellary achieving 100 per cent competencies in the LGP evaluation
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