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Report on Collaboration for Inclusive Learning

April 2012 to March 2014


Inclusive Learning Initiative
Chaitanya School (managed by the Sree Vidya Niketan Trust)
and the Sajeevta Foundation have been working together
since 2012 to create inclusive learning for children of different
backgrounds in Gandhinagar, Gujarats capital city. From
Chaitanya Schools inception in 2003, there has been a vision
for quality education to be affordable and available for
children of all financial backgrounds.

Table 1: enrolment of Sajeevta-
supported students at Chaitanya School
Date
Students
enrolled
Apr 2012 6
Jun 2012 3
Jan 2013 2
Apr 2013 2
Jun 2013 2
Apr 2014 1
Total 16

Chaitanya Schools commitment to inclusive learning
The Sree Vidya Niketan Trust has included children of low-income backgrounds at Chaitanya School
through a sponsorship programme since the school was founded in 2003, and much before the law made
inclusive education mandatory for private schools. In 2012 Indias Supreme Court upheld the validity of
the Right to Education (RTE) Clause 12 that makes it compulsory for private schools to admit 25% pupils at
the entry level for students from economically weaker sections (EWS) from the neighbourhood area, with
some funding to be provided per student from the centre and state governments. In 2013, Government of
Gujarat began implementation of RTE Clause 12, however in this first year only around 30 students from
EWS were enrolled in private schools in Ahmedabad city only.

Sajeevta Foundations support for inclusive learning
The Sajeevta Foundation is a registered not-for-profit company set up to inspire and mentor financially
disadvantaged children who are without the resources to learn well. Learning mentors work
collaboratively with children, their families, teachers and schools to build up childrens learning abilities,
academic understanding and long-term motivation. The Sajeevta Foundation works for children of all
backgrounds to be included in learning that gives them an equal opportunity for success in life.
At the Sajeevta Foundation Neighbourhood Learning Centre each student has 20 hours a week of
academic and mentoring sessions.
At Chaitanya School, the Sajeevta Foundation has facilitated a series of workshops for inclusive
learning, differentiated teaching and demonstration of systems to make classrooms inclusive.
Visits to family homes are regularly made by Sajeevta Foundations learning mentors to address
and find ways to overcome barriers to learning, in collaboration with the family.

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Background and selection of the students for sponsorship
The students are all residing in Gandhinagar city and typically their families have migrated from villages of
Gujarat and Rajasthan. The Fathers are mostly receiving irregular income and work as autorickshaw
drivers, shopkeepers, cooks, construction workers or building painters. Some of the Mothers work as
house cleaners and cooks with a fixed monthly income and some Mothers dont work but manage their
own home. Mostly, the children live in one or two room homes that are adjoining a house where they
work (often known as servant quarters) and some live in their own homes that adjoin a shop-space or in
huts without electricity and water connection.
The students were selected for the sponsorship programme as children from families that are without the
resources to afford quality education expenses. This means that they mostly belong to families where
their parents are illiterate or have only completed a few years of schooling. Some of the children
previously attended a government school where fees were not required. The educational outcomes and
learning abilities of the elder siblings and family members are low, meaning academic support is not
available at their home.
Responsibilities and commitment of the family
The families are financially and educationally constrained in supporting the learning of their children.
However, before children can join the programme parents are asked to demonstrate their commitment to
the long-term education, by guaranteeing their childs full attendance, punctuality and hygiene and health
over an extended period. Over the duration of this trial period families are supported with home visits
from learning mentors to solve problems and clarification is given regarding expectations and aspirations
for their childs education success. It has been the case that families require greater encouragement to
enrol girls into the programme, and we do work with families to ensure boys and girls join the programme.
The belief is held that every child can succeed with the appropriate support. Children are not selected into
the programme based on their initial intellect or the familys initial determination. If the programme were
to select for initial success then it could be that such families would in any case find ways to support their
children succeed. Instead selection is based on targeting children who would otherwise not have the
opportunity to succeed in education and have a need of the programme:

Selection criteria Visible indicators
1. Parents become committed to long-term
education of their child
Parents ensure attendance, punctuality, health and
hygiene of their child over an extended period at daily
Sajeevta study sessions.
2. Families are without the financial resources for
their child to have quality schooling.
Children/elder siblings enrolled at a non-fee taking school
and are not easily able to afford regular tuition classes.
3. Families are without the experience to support
their child with learning.
Parents are illiterate or with few years of schooling.
Elder siblings have low school examination pass rates

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Reviewing students learning journeys
The aim of this collaboration and initiative for inclusive learning is that
all children are successful students.

Instead of seeing progress as a linear path and having the expectation
that every student must always be moving up, we see the natural
learning journeys students make as composed of ups as well as
downs. The mentoring process is to support students become aware
of how they are learning, to identify problems and seek help to solve
them, so that they do move upwards as successful students.

The details of an individuals learning journey are private and often
sensitive information; through the Sajeevta Foundation mentoring
programme we ask students to be the primary owners of their own
learning journey by supporting them to articulate and record their
perspective. Through a series of monthly structured formats the
students reflect, record and review their own progress and find ways to
improve how well they learn.
Sample mentoring format for students
to review how well they are learning
over the year



Note on privacy:
This report will be shared internally (with staff and trustees of the organisations) as well as externally
(existing sponsors and potential sponsors of schooling expenses). Given the private and personal nature of
the information of the children, this report provides an overview of their learning without disclosing their
personal information.

Barriers to learning that have been overcome
The Sajeevta Foundations mentoring and study support programme has been designed with a
combination of research of similar programmes in India and other countries and responding to the
feedback and specific problems of this group of students. We found that only providing academic support
had little impact on improving their school performance, and only when we addressed their personal
problems through structured and regular mentoring sessions were the students able to succeed as
students. Some particular examples of the problems faced by these students are given below:
Income being unreliable for most of the families mean that some months they are not able to afford food,
health, leisure and school-related expenses simply missing on having items like seasonal mango-pulp or a new
school-bag can have a long-term stress on a student preventing them from concentrating on improving their
learning.
A weak memory meant some students would forget what they were able to understand and use (e.g.
mathematical concepts) within 1-2 days making learning and teaching a frustrating experience.
Living in a neighbourhood of children who have either dropped-out of school, and youths that are unemployed
makes students feel that it is acceptable and preferable to spend most of their time playing cricket, roaming the
area and enjoying frequent festivals till late in the night. The absence of visible hard-working students made it
difficult to convince children to put in daily hours for study.
Some parents are not familiar with better ways to motivate their children to work hard apart from repeated
shouting and punishment, which results in frustration and unhappiness without a clear solution for
improvement.

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Overview of Learning Journeys of the Primary Level Students

Time Main learning goals Details of learning journeys
Jan-Mar 2012
Initial talks regarding
collaboration
between Chaitanya
School and Sajeevta
Foundation

Ensuring 100% attendance and
punctuality.
English speaking and sentence
construction
Basic Mathematics
School behaviour and preparation
(managing textbooks and notebooks)
Concentration span: the time-on-task and
work produced was made visible and
students were shown ways to improve
their focus.
Conflict: solved with playing cooperative
games which show how working together
can mean all benefit/win.
Apr 2012
First two-weeks
adjusting to
Chaitanya School

Adjusting to the English medium, after
moving from a Gujarati medium school
Daily review of problems at school and
making solutions.
Students mostly found adjusting to a
school with a full daily schedule of learning,
regular homework and a different language
of instruction frightening. Some
considered leaving the school to return to
the government school: solved with daily
reviews of the details of problems faced at
school, and solutions were found by the
learning mentors.
May-Jun 2012
Six-week school
summer vacation


Producing project work (school
vacation work): posters, stories,
puzzles.
Focus on understanding English
(reading and listening) and learning
sentence useful to speak at school.
Students were not used to hard work after
being at a school where regular teaching
and homework was not common. Solution:
students were encouraged to build up day
by day the amount of hours they gave to
studying and completing their work.
Jun-Dec 2012
Adjusting to
Chaitanya School

Punctuality (not missing the school
bus)
Students independently read and
understand the school textbooks and
complete their homework on time.
Six-week research project on Pethapur
printing block carvers.
Some students were not used to the pace
of work and fell far behind in their class
notebooks and homework. Solution: extra
time was given for these students to catch
up on completing work and understanding
the basics.
Jan-Mar 2013
Preparation for
school examinations

Preparation for the school
examinations in March.
Focus on basic mathematics: fractions,
percentages, decimals, algebra etc.
Students had not understood all lessons
when instructed in English, so problem
areas were reviewed to improve their
understanding.
Some students had failed a number of
school exams, solution: parents were called
for a formal meeting to agree how to
improve how much and how well they
study.
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Time Main learning goals Details of learning journeys
May-Jun2013
Six-week school
summer vacation


Completion of school summer vacation
work.
Focus on building up reading skills to
move on to chapter books.
English speaking classes.
Four-week research project on the
Baobab / Kalpvrksh tree.
Students did not have the habit of self-
study, so classes focus on encouraging
reading for pleasure by sharing high quality
stories and giving award winning childrens
story books for reading.
Jun-Sep 2013
Homework was no
longer allowed to be
worked at Sajeevta
Study Sessions, and
was to be done at
home.

Weekly focus on Maths, Writing,
Reading, Running and Speaking.
Supporting students to become
independent in completing their school
work.
Students would not use time at home to
study: students were asked to complete
their school work only at home and
Sajeevta classes were for structured classes
to build up the abilities for independent
writing and Mathematics problem-solving.
After completing one year at Chaitanya
School most of the students felt that hard-
work was no longer necessary, especially
when seeing most children in the
neighbourhood spending hours playing
cricket and roaming: solution parents were
asked to observe and manage their
childrens study time.
Oct-Dec 2013
Childrens
aspirations and
attitude to work
hard for success
were a focus.

Reflection on how to improve as a
learner and identify what is required to
improve understanding and school
performance.
Focus on students to work at home,
with guidance in a weekly leaflet:
spellings, grammar, Mathematics and
work to produce.
Some students were attaining average
grades in the school weekly tests in some
subjects, but were unable or without
motivation to progress to higher standards:
this was solved by having reflective
sessions and activities to identify individual
aspirations and ways to reach learning
goals.
Students were also asked to become more
independent as learners by giving weekly
work to do at home to focus on the basics
of learning so that they will be ready for
higher standards with a strong habit of
studying on their own.
Jan-Mar 2014
Preparation for
school
examinations.

Focus on exam preparation
Research project on Hindu Temples:
architecture, Mathematics, History,
Geography.
Students became satisfied having moved
up from E grades to C grades: this was
solved by talking of role models to explain
the need to work hard to succeed, and to
aim for their personal best for long-term
success in life, and not for mediocre
performance.


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Overview of learning journeys of the PRE-Primary level students

Time Main learning goals Details of learning journeys
Jan-Mar 2012
Initial talks regarding
collaboration
between Chaitanya
School and Sajeevta
Foundation

Regular attendance: the youngest
children need their parents to drop
them and collect them, and initially
parents were disorganised and came
some days and not others.
Parents became more responsible and
organised in dropping and collecting
children and repeatedly explaining the
importance of timing, especially when later
they need to be punctual for the school-
van timings.
Apr 2012
Confidence and
vocabulary were
noticeably low with
all the children,
perhaps due to low
interaction at home.

Two of the youngest girls spoke very
little and in very quiet tones, and
would often cry when asked to speak.
There would be sessions when getting
them to say even one word would be
difficult. We began with telling them
they must at least begin by saying
hello, gently motivating was
successful in building up their
confidence.
Through peer-to-peer support the children
helped each other to become more vocal
and participate in the learning. Having a
young child explain to another was much
less intimidating than an adult instructing.
May-Jun 2012
Children are highly
active but with little
ability to focus and
concentrate.


Ensuring equal participation of all
children. Some of the children were
much louder than others, so we would
ensure they allow the others to also
speak.
Building up their concentration-span:
the children were hardly able to listen
to instructions for more than 30
seconds initially before being
distracted with humming, playing,
fighting etc.
The children are gradually becoming more
focused and are able to concentrate on
learning activities for short spans of time.
Concentration span is increasing.
Confidence has built up and children are all
able to speak out words to the group,
which they were not doing earlier.
Jun-Dec 2012
Children joined
Chaitanya Junior and
adjusted to
schooling.

Physical exercises to energise the
learning: there was a lack of focus and
great deal of fidgeting continuously,
instead of controlling the children we
let their energy lead the learning by
doing physical games linked to learning
e.g. races linked to picking up items
to spell and count.
Children had less stresses than earlier: our
primary indicator was to see them smiling
as they enter, learn and leave the centre.
Wed worked to identify and solve their
stresses which would include not having
enough food in their snack box to not
having stationery as well as health issues
and conflict at home and school.
Jan-Mar 2013
Preparation for
school examinations

Focus on letters and short words using
flash cards and games. Some children
had lower confidence so they were
paired for peer-to-peer learning.
All children were able to understand the
curriculum content and be confident about
the learning.
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Time Main learning goals Details of learning journeys
May-Jun2013
Six-week school
summer vacation


Reciting rhymes with actions were
used to build up vocabulary,
concentration and confidence to speak
clearly out. Two of the children have
unclear speech and couldnt form all
the syllables.
The improvement in their physical
movement and motor skills was visible. All
the children began to help each other with
learning tasks, this did not happen earlier.
Jun-Sep 2013
Homework was no
longer allowed to be
worked at Sajeevta
Study Sessions, and
was to be done at
home.

Convincing parents to take better care
of their health. One child often fell
asleep in our sessions and at school,
we asked parents to ensure she slept
for more hours at night. Two other
children had rotted teeth so we asked
parents to reduce the sugar and
sweets.
Story reading, storytelling and story
making was a focus of the class content
to build up their creativity and
communication skills in an enjoyable
manner.
They improved in building up the habit of
listening to each other, earlier they often
talk over, interrupt or get distracted when
each other speak. The children who earlier
had the lowest ability began catching up
with the rest of the group in speaking and
confidence and speed to complete an
activity like writing. Earlier the ability gap
between them was much greater.
Oct-Dec 2013
Childrens
motivation to
practice writing and
drawing at home
was strengthened.

Regular attendance and punctuality.
All the children would be on time
(7:30am) only some days of the week.
Problems varied from the tiffin, health,
being disorganised, going to bed late
etc. We decided the solution would be
a high incentive to change the habits.
We focused on motivating children to
arrive on time for a prize (clothing) just
for one week the change was instant,
and long-lasting and the prizes were
just given once.
Mind-maps used to extend their
vocabulary and connecting words for
recall.
The childrens ability to complete
production of work within the study
session improved and their motivation to
learn increased as they saw their writing
and drawings completed.
Jan-Mar 2014
Preparation for
school
examinations.

Counting, observation and listening,
recalling and speaking. Interactive
puzzles and learning activities were
used to activate their minds.
Producing their own picture story
books on paper through a step-by-step
process.
Preparation for examinations by
practicing what was expected.
The children all began to produce work at
home consistently, this includes writing out
words, making picture stories and
practicing sums. Forming this habit was
after persisting with motivating the
children to joyfully complete and
remember to bring work to the sessions an
explaining to parents the importance of
practice at home to solidify their learning.

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Academic Progress (2012-13 to 2013-14)
Academic progress of students has been measured for the six students who were enrolled 2 years ago
(where 2 years of examination scores data is available). The remaining ten children were studying at the
pre-primary level where such academic examination scores are not available, or they joined Chaitanya
School at the primary level but less than 2 years ago.
The table below shows that the six students who studied at the primary level (classes V-VIII) have mostly
improved their academic scores over the two school years 2012-13 and 2013-14.

Change in overall
school academic assessment scores

English _ _ _
= improved score

_ = same score

= reduced score
Hindi
Mathematics _ _
Science _ _
Social Studies _ _
Computer _
Gujarati