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Students'
workbooks a big hit with
teachers
In Government Primary School
classrooms
across Rajasthan, the animated pages of a new pictorial workbook help
children learn Language
and Math
In 2007, the
Government of Rajasthan
invited the Azim Premji Foundation to develop workbooks for classes 1
to 8 to aid the classroom transaction of all subjects. The
Foundation agreed, considering the exercise a natural extension of
the Learning Guarantee Program which, through systematic evaluation
over the years, had highlighted students' pain areas requiring
immediate redressal. To aid in this exercise, the Foundation
partnered with two respected organisations, Digantar, Jaipur and
Vidya Bhavan Society, Udaipur who had considerable experience in
developing learning materials for children. While Digantar was
requested to help develop workbooks for Primary Classes, Vidya Bhavan
supported the Foundation in developing upper Primary workbooks. In
both the sections, subject wise teams were formed which consisted of
subject matter experts, educationists and teacher educators. A
thorough appraisal of the curriculum and textbooks was conducted
based on which, detailed worksheets were evolved. The objective was
to develop exercises that would bolster conceptual clarity of the
subject matter and invite practical application of students'
learning. Pictures, games, outdoor activities and stories were used
to incite the curiosity and enthusiasm of the child for learning. The
workbooks were subsequently field-tested and validated by State
Government education officials.
In the first
phase, workbooks for
classes 1-3 have been printed and are being distributed in this
academic year, 2009-10 to all the government schools in the State,
totaling around 80,000 schools. In the second phase, plans are to
provide workbooks to all the children of classes 3 and 4 and in the
third phase, upper primary children will get workbooks for all the
subjects. It is expected that all children of classes 1-8 will get
free workbooks for all subjects within this year.
In April 2009,
as soon the academic
year began, the government teachers union, REESA (Rajasthan
Elementary Education Service Association), formally acknowledged the
utility of the workbooks in a letter
addressed to the Director of the
Rajasthan Education Department citing the workbooks to have been of
immense value for their capacity to 'expand the child's experience
and strengthen her learning'. They also urged the Department to
distribute workbooks for classes 4-8. Several teachers and
headmasters have also written in testifying to the high quality of
the workbooks and the interest it is invoking in the children.
Download a
selected sample of the primary section Maths
and Hindi
workbooks.
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