2011

A Progress Report for Doug Tilden

Thanks to support from Doug Tilden, CARE’s Girls’ Education

Program is providing a solid foundation for students to learn.

Project Name: Girls’ Education Program

Project Location: Uttar Pradesh, India

Project Duration: October 2010 – September 2013

Reporting Period: November 2012 – April 2013

Grant Amount:

CARE Contact:
 Introduction

CARE’s Girls’ Education Program (GEP) has been in operation in India for more than 10 years and plays
a vital role in achieving our long term goal of reaching out to 2 million women, girls and other
marginalized people to enhance their abilities to exercise greater choice in personal and public spheres by
2014. GEP seeks to improve opportunities for girls and women through their increased participation in
formal and alternative education systems.

GEP also builds upon innovative pilot projects and strategic partnerships that have made important
improvements in access to and quality of education for girls, especially among poor, marginalized and
vulnerable girls. Realizing that there are multiple bottlenecks affecting access, availability and quality of
education, CARE, in partnership with the government of India, addresses the problems on many levels,
both within the formal school system and though a number of alternative approaches to schooling.

Support from Doug Tilden has helped CARE deepen the scope of GEP by improving opportunities for
marginalized girls in India’s Uttar Pradesh state, particularly in Balrampur, Bahraich, Shravasti,
Mohanlaganj and Lucknow districts. This work targets government primary, upper primary and
residential Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) schools, as well as a CARE accelerated
residential Udaan school. The best practices that emerged over recent years are now being implemented
on a larger scale through the Uttar Pradesh government’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA or Education for
All) program.

The following report describes activities supported by Doug Tilden during the first half of the third year
(November 2012 through April 2013) of the grant period.

Project Activities and Outcomes

School Improvement Program

CARE’s School Improvement Program targets formal schools and focuses on developing teacher and
education officials’ capacities to implement child-centered teaching strategies. The program also
emphasizes the participation of communities in monitoring of and support to the school. At present,
CARE works directly with 91 government primary schools (lab schools) through visits, meetings and
training sessions in Balrampur, Bahraich, Shrawasti, Mohanlaganj and Lucknow, and 7,483 schools
indirectly through state-level advocacy (e.g., sharing best practices), as noted in the table below.

Intervention Target Point Intervention Districts

Strategy
Bahraich Balrampur Shrawasti Mohanlalganj Total
Direct Schools 30 21 15 25 91
(Lab Schools)
Teachers 81 62 45 96 284
Boys 2,649 2,156 1,581 1,496 7,882
Girls 2,739 1,828 1,549 1,571 7,687
Indirect Schools 3,667 2,200 1,461 155 7,483
(Excluding Lab Teachers 10,528 6,185 4,869 714 22,296
Schools)
Boys 289,862 203,547 109,382 11,315 614,106
Girls 268,394 179,609 89,459 13,047 550,509

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Schools open in early July after summer break. Each year during that time, teachers are engaged in the
distribution of books, uniforms, scholarships, etc. and the CARE team participates in rallies and drives to
push enrollments. The following sections provide an update on key activities and outcomes during this
reporting period:

School-based activities

1 Class Observation Tool and Lesson Demonstration:

COT and demonstrations are two strategies which play a role in providing input support to teachers. Class
Observation Tool (COT) is a tool to capture teaching learning processes followed in a class. It focuses on
various parameters like students’ participation, sitting arrangement, method of teaching, equity and
diversity issues in classrooms.

Based on the themes of support identified through class observation, CARE team demonstrates how a
competency can be transacted in a class. The teachers observe while the CARE staff gives a
demonstration. Through demonstrations, CARE staff built the teachers’ understanding on the following
themes:

 Making sentences on given point through oral activities

 Expending Numbers
 Select card related to the given topic (activity)
 Subtraction and Multiplication
 Understanding of Noun

During the academic year, it is being clearly reflected in figure 1 that number of classroom observations
and demonstrations have been high in october to december as compared to other quarters. In first quarter,
though schools open in July still lot of time of teachers is engaged in non academic activities while in
third quarter due to cold there were government orders to close the school for almost a month, therefore
October to December was the prime period when our District Resource Persons (DRPs) provided
maximum input support to teachers through COT and lesson demonstrations.

Figure 1: Status of lesson demonstration and classroom observation

After classroom observation, District Resource Persons (DRP) in field also provided input support to
teachers and students on following:
1. To use TLM for classroom transaction for making it easier for students to understand.

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 2. To reach out to students and help them if students are facing any problem while classroom
transaction.
3. To give clear cut instructions for any activity.
4. To give sufficient time to students for practice.
5. To make the group in such a way that it’s a combination of slow as well as fast learner.
6. To ask open ended question on the basis of text they are using and to link it with other material
available in other books as well.

The new academic year started from 1 st of July. In

month of July teachers were busy in distribution of
dress and books. Month of July

The new session stabilized in August with initiation

of academic activities. During the given quarter 19
class demonstration and 29 classroom observations
were done.

2 Morning Assemblies:
Morning Assemblies have been strengthened as forums of collective participation by CARE team. CARE
has helped teachers in conducting story telling sessions, role plays, songs and poem sessions in
assemblies. The objective of these activities is to create an enabling environment where teachers and
students feel free. It is a forum to build child-child relationship as well as teacher-child relationship. The
forum also helps children shed fear and hesitation. Besides, it helps children to develop communication
skills. The graph (figure 2) below shows the percentage of schools conducting morning assemblies with
more than three activities:

Figure 2: Status of morning assembly

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Though in the start of new academic session there had been irregularity in morning assembly but with
consistent effort of teachers and District Resource Person the morning assembly regularized by the end
of the quarter and it has been reported that 92% of schools are conducting morning assembly as per
the schedule.

3 Adherence to time table

During the beginning of each academic year, CARE team supports teachers in preparing time tables in
accordance with the total no. of teachers, subject responsibilities and students in each grade. However
absenteeism of the permanent teachers and engagement of teachers in other than academic activities acts
as a barrier in the way of adherence to time table. Though by August, time tables were prepared in most
of the lab schools, still it took lot of time to stabilize. As in the given figure 3 it clearly depicts that
percentage of schools adhering to timetable is lowest in first quarter and it increases in next quarter.

Figure 3: Percentage of schools adhering to timetable

As the new academic session for the year 2013-14 resumes in the month of July, teachers prepared their
time table for their respective classes. In July most of the teachers were involved in non academic
activities like distribution of books, dresses etc but with consistent supportive supervision almost 80%
schools were adhering to time table by the end of the quarter.

Engagement with the Education Officials at district and state level

4 Visit to schools with Education Officials:

The team has focused on laisoning with village level representatives stakeholders from village level to
district level. It has been result of consistent effort that team has been able to facilitate visits of
government officials in CARE intervened lab schools. There has been extensive stress on making
contacts with officials at cluster level and block level in first two quarters which resulted in increase in
number of visits of education officials in next quarter.

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 During the reporting period more than 50% of
visits were done jointly with CARE staff along
with Education Officials to observe schools. The
purpose of these visits is to build understanding
of government officials on indicators of a good
school and to help them monitor schools on
these indicators. In the course of the visit CARE
team helped government officials in knowing the
challenges in the schools and discussing
strategies to overcome them.

Figure 4: Engagement with government officials

5 Teachers’ training on ‘SAMVAD’, the module on Right to Education and National Curriculum
framework

SAMVAD is a module on Right to Education Act and its implications on regular teaching learning
process. CARE team, UNICEF, Education Department and other agencies have together contributed to
the development of this module.
Select members of CARE team participated in development and revision of SAWMAD Module and also
facilitated training of master trainers on the same. Master trainers were the senior teachers from various
districts of UP and these master trainers had the responsibility of training all the teachers across UP on
SAMVAD. 400 Master trainers were trained in Lucknow. CARE team members took select sessions in
the training of Master trainer.

6 Training on School Management Committee (SMC):

According to Right to Education Act, each school must constitute SMCs consisting of Parents, Head
Teacher, Panchayat Representative, ANM and Revenue officer. This body will support schools by
monitoring regularity of teachers and students, ensuring quality of infrastructure as well as services. The
body will also prepare plans for school improvement. The body as per RTE must have at least 50%
women members and proportionate representation of scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and other back
ward classes.
‘JAN PAHAL’ is the training module which has been developed for School Management Committees. 8
team members from CARE participated in training of Master trainers on SMC.

7 Development of CCE Module and training:

Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation of teaching learning process, is one of the components of
RTE that calls for immediate attention as it is subject to diverse and often, mutually contradictory
interpretations. Piece meal efforts had been made by government to implement CCE. However, there was
need to develop a shared understanding on CCE before one takes the steps towards its implementation.
CARE supported government in developing a training module to orient teachers across the state to
conduct comprehensive and continuous evaluation of teaching learning.
Besides this, CARE team also supported in conducting training on CCE module for 108 master trainers,
who will train other teachers on CCE.

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Community Engagement:

8 Strengthening SMCs:
During the reporting period, CARE staff focused on building capacities of School Management
Committees so that they may be oriented to their roles. CARE staff met the SMC members individually
and then in groups. Head Teacher is the main convener of SMC. It is the mandate of Head Teachers to
call SMC meetings. However, head teachers did not take the initiative of calling these meetings. CARE
team took this issue up and persuaded them to conduct meetings.
During the reporting period 207 SMC meetings were conducted with initiative of CARE staff. The district
team focused on following agenda in their SMC meetings which is as follows:
1. Information on Right to Education (RTE)
2. 100% Enrollment in schools
3. Role of SMC members in enrollment drive
4. Cleanliness of schools
5. Awareness of SMC and its role in functioning of school

The agenda developed by CARE team in district Shravasti for SMCs in Lab School was appreciated by
Basic Education Officer and a commitment was made from his side to replicate this process in non lab
schools.

9 Engagement with community

The engagement of team with community is at different levels. The three major points of contact with
community are community meetings, family contacts and community seminars.

Community meetings are conducted at village level while family contacts are made on one to one basis
for children who drop out from school for some specific reason. CARE had also promoted concept of
community seminars in which parents are appraised about the performance of their children, RTE (Right
to Education) as well as functioning of schools. In this forum parents also get a chance to question
teachers about progress of their child or related to functioning of schools.

In last quarter, CARE team has been extensively involved in making family contacts on one to one basis,
in first quarter focus was enrollment drive but from next quarter the challenge was to retain already
enrolled children. There have been drop outs but with continuous effort of District Resource Persons,
there has been a great achievement in getting back quite few of them to school.

Successes

10 Successful accomplishment of SIP assessment of academic year 2012-13:

Till now CARE-GEP team has been conducting assessment in selected lab & non lab schools with the
help of community organizers. The assessment tools were prepared by the technical team of CARE and
then validated by specialists & experts of CARE. Assessment was then conducted in selected schools by
CARE team after undertaking pilot testing in the intervention schools. In order to mainstream CARE’s
best practices in assessment, it for the first time that CARE team engaged with government in form of a
pilot project for conducting assessment in all primary and upper primary schools in the CARE’s
intervention districts.

In that process, resource persons from CARE got engaged in developing model questions papers for three
districts Balrampur, Bahraich and Shravasti. The effort from CARE has been highly acknowledged and
appreciated by government department.

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11 Successful accomplishment of SMC Convention in Bahraich:
SMCs are being increasingly seen as bodies that will ensure sustainability of the school improvement
initiatives. SMCs are expected to support schools by monitoring attendance and punctuality of teachers
and children; they will also monitor the quality of mid day meals provided by schools; they will support
in resolving local issues related to schools. To help SMCs members understand their rights and
responsibilities and to raise awareness on SMCs role, block events and district events had been planned
which was successfully conducted in all 16 blocks of Bahraich district.

The objective of the convention was to discuss on right to education, status of SMC and focus on most
marginalized section of population like Dalits and Scheduled Castes who are deprived of mainstream
education facilities. In this convention, along with SMC members, education officials from block level
were also present.

CARE team not only coordinated it but also facilitated most of the sessions. The convention brought in to
light various insights regarding functioning of SMC.

12 School Management Committee Meetings regularized in 50% of the schools:

CARE team has been intensively involved in orienting SMC members on their roles and responsibilities
and as a result in around 50% of the lab schools, monthly SMC meetings have been regularized. Parents
including mothers participate in these meetings and put forward their views. Key issues that have been
discussed include: ensuring punctuality of students and teachers, getting the school campus cleaned,
having functional toilets in schools for girls and boys, ensuring availability of timely availability of text
books and TLMs.

CARE team has also taken initiative in orienting SMC members on the role of teachers and community in
management of school as well as awareness regarding Right to Education (RTE).

13 Participation of CARE team in workshop on “Teacher’s attendance and issues of irregularity” in

Shrawasti:
CARE team in Shrawasti participated as technical agency and provided their inputs on teacher’s
attendance and issues of irregularity. In this workshop 22 Education officials of Shrawasti were present.
This workshop continued for 3 days and in this given period resource persons from CARE team in
Shrawasti not only raised some crucial issues from field but also facilitated in building a three month
strategic plan to combat this issue of irregularity among teachers.

14 CARE participated in committee constituted by the government to revise textbooks:

In district Shrawasti, Education Officials organized two day workshop in August to brainstorm on
suggestions for revising text books used in elementary schools. As technical resource persons on this
theme, CARE staff members were given a platform to share their suggestions

The process of revision of text books is still continuing and CARE team is partnering with SSA at all
levels to contribute in this process.

15 Greater and systemic engagement with education officials

In the reporting period, District Resource Persons (DRP) have been consistently visiting cluster and block
level officials. Major issues discussed were regarding cluster level teacher training on Thursdays,
planning meetings at block, visit of block resource persons to schools and participation in cluster training.
There has been tremendous effort by DRPs in mobilizing support from block officials in ensuring regular
school visit and quality in-service teacher training.
In addition, DRPs have also conducted joint visits to primary schools with block officials. Meetings with
district officials (Principal, DIET, Balrampur; BSA, Shrawasti and Bahraich) of all three districts were
held along with CARE state team members. Major issues discussed were regarding in-service teacher
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training at block level; Orientation and monthly meeting of block resource persons at DIET;
reconstitution and meetings of BRG/DRGs with inclusion of a member from CARE; school visit by
BRG/DRG members; joint school visit of CARE and district officials; and regularization of SMC
monthly meetings in all schools.
A regular and consistent engagement with government officials has helped in laisoning and creating a
vibrant presence in our intervention areas.

Challenges

16 Transfer of Teachers:
In July and August, large numbers of teachers have been transferred from school and as a result, there has
been a fall in Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR). In Bahraich the PTR has been 66 while the RTE norms make it
mandatory to have a PTR of 30.

17 Teacher’s involvement in non academic activities:

Throughout the reporting period, there have been number of instances when teachers have been involved
in non academic activities like their involvement in Adhar Card (i.e. a drive going on by government
initiative in giving Unique Identity Number to every Indian Citizen), vaccination drive, collation and
reporting of expenses of the financial year to District Magistrate and so on. During this period studies of
children are hampered due to teacher’s absence or focus on administrative activities.

18 Teacher’s engagement in Household Survey:

During July the schools reopen but teachers remain engaged in household survey to determine the number
of school age children in their neighborhood. It would have been much convenient if teachers could do
this survey in June, when children are having their summer breaks. However, unlike other government
officials, teachers enjoy summer break like the students do. When students finally come in July, schools
remain non-functional as teachers spend time in household surveys. This not only makes students suffer
but has another implication as well: if teacher do come across any out of school child in July / August, the
child will be joining school after missing a full month of school session, if not more. Had the child been
identified in June, s/he would have started coming to school right in July.

Next Steps

 Provide story and mathematics puzzle books to lab schools and work closely with teachers to help
them use the books creatively to enhance their students’ imaginations and communication skills.
 Strengthen our engagement with the State Council of Educational Research & Training (SCERT), the
institution that designs plans for teachers’ in-service and pre-service training. SCERT is also
responsible for curriculum and textbook-related issues at the state level. To date, CARE has mostly
engaged with the SAA on these themes but we are now in a better position to deal directly with
SCERT.
 Support in-service teacher training at the cluster level, coordinating with SAA to plan and facilitate
some sessions.
 Focus on fourth- and fifth-grade math and science curriculum areas in lab schools, working toward
ensuring more focused inputs to teachers on the use of science and math kits.

Expenditure Report

Project expenditures will be provided separately.

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Conclusion

CARE is building a solid foundation to improve educational opportunities for marginalized girls in
India’s Uttar Pradesh state. Teachers are being trained and girls are becoming more confident and active
in school activities. Communities and local authorities are more aware of their roles and responsibilities
in regards to the Right to Education act and supporting girls’ education. While at this point it is too early
to measure longer-term impact, we know that new approaches to education are being adopted in targeted
schools and beyond and that more girls are assuming leadership roles. Moving forward, CARE will
continue to champion extremely poor and marginalized girls, many of whom would not be in school right
now if it were not for Doug Tilden’s support. On behalf of the girls, their families and communities in
Uttar Pradesh, CARE thanks you for your partnership.

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