ProjectCompletionReport READ Alliance (CKS) 310119

Project Completion Report
READ Alliance
Award #CA-AID-386-A-13-00006
Submitted to:
Ms. Balaka Dey
Program Management Specialist - Disaster Management & Education
Office of Social Sector Initiative (OSSI)

USAID/India
Submitted by:
The READ Alliance team
Centre for Knowledge Societies
31st January 2019
1
Table of Contents
1. Project Overview and Performance …………………………………………… 3

2. Programs Function ……………………………………………………………………. 6
I. Early Grade Reading Challenge 1 and 2 …………………………. 7
1. Karadi Path Education Company (KPEC)
2. Quality Education and Support Trust (QUEST)
3. Agragamee
4. PlanetRead
5. Humana People to People India (HPPI)
6. Educational Initiatives (EI)
II. ACER Third Party Evaluation of EGRIC 1 and 2 partners …. 55
III. Education Innovation Mentorship Program ……………………… 57
1. Federation of Democratic Voices (Meraki Foundation)
2. Jungroo Learning Education Pvt. Ltd.
3. Samait Shala
4. Happy Horizons Foundation (HHT)
5. Nutspace Ed-tech Pvt. Ltd.
IV. Education Technology Survey …………………………………………… 80
3. Knowledge and Communications Function ………………………………….. 84
4. Partnerships Function ………………………………………………………………….. 88
5. Project Finance Summary and Cost Sharing
6. Annexures
2
Project Details
Project Name READ Alliance
Award # #CA-AID-386-A-13-00006
Project Lead Aditya Dev Sood (CEO, CKS

Consulting Pvt. Ltd.); Nidhi Singh
(Project Director, READ Alliance)
Project Funder United States Agency for

International Development
(USAID)
Duration August 2013 – December 2018
Location New Delhi
Budget $3,181,872.00
1. Project Overview and Performance
This section will have the details on READ Alliance, the concept and the inception of the Alliance,
the project objectives, the intervention modules, implementation plan, target beneficiaries and
coverage.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is among the leading
development agencies to support initiatives in the areas of early literacy and education in India.
A key intervention that USAID supported was the Read - Engage - Achieve - Dream (READ) Alliance
which helped improve the reading skills of primary school age children in India. The project aimed
at spurring an early grade reading movement in India by supporting innovative reading solutions
and providing a platform that brings together education professionals, corporations, social
organizations, and government entities as resource partners working collaboratively to improve
early grade reading outcomes. The Alliance had three key objectives which are outlined in the
3
following exhibit.
A key mandate of the READ Alliance in India was to identify innovative reading interventions and
support them to develop and scale up projects. The Early Grade Reading Innovation Challenge
(EGRIC) was implemented by CKS with a view to serve this mandate. The EGRIC Challenge held in
2014 and 2015 identified six innovative projects that held the promise of scalability. Through
these projects, the READ Alliance aimed to reach over 100,000 students across 8 states and train
about 30,000 teachers for improving reading skills at the elementary level.
Following were the key objectives of the READ Alliance project
I. Achieving impact through scaling up promising early grade reading innovations
● Through the Innovation Challenges, select and scale effective reading programs by
offering them a range of support services including funding, technical assistance, and
networking
● Utilize robust monitoring and evaluation processes to generate knowledge on the

implementation and impact of sub-awarded projects
II. Fostering partnerships and advocacy for building a dynamic stakeholder platform for early
reading
● Through strategic communication and outreach, build and establish partnerships to

strengthen the READ Alliance platform and mobilize resources (financial and non-
financial) to meet or exceed the development goal
● Champion early grade reading in India by identifying a rich pool of potential

implementation partners through Innovation Challenges. Advocate for state, national,
and potentially international scale-up, of effective interventions
III. Creating and sharing knowledge that can inform future design of interventions and can
spread awareness on the importance of early grade reading
● To create in-depth and insightful knowledge about early reading and the systemic,
technological, socio-political and linguistic issues that have the potential to impact the
reading outcomes of children
● To curate a knowledge hub with repositories of reading programs, research documents,

knowledge collaterals to make available to existing and new knowledge around early
grade reading
4
● To promote, publicize and propagate the work of the READ Alliance through online and
offline communication for ensuring greater affiliation
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Project Results Framework
2. Programs function
Through the programs function, READ Alliance has incubated and scaled-up innovations in Early
Grade Reading for primary school going children in India by providing fund and management
support to selected organizations. The activities below contribute to Outcome 1 in READ Alliance’s
PMEP framework.
The programs function has hosted the following major activities from 2013-2018:
I. Early Grade Reading Innovation Challenge 1 (EGRIC 1)

II. Early Grade Reading Innovation Challenge 2 (EGRIC 2)
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III. Third party evaluation of EGRIC 1 and EGRIC 2 projects
IV. Education Innovation Mentorship Program (EIMP)
V. Education Technology Survey
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I. Early Grade Reading Innovation Challenge 1 and 2
READ Alliance selected six partners through its Early Grade Reading Innovation Challenge in
2014 and 2015. The six partners were:
1. Karadi Path Education Company (KPEC)

2. Quality Education Support Trust (QUEST)
3. Agragamee
4. PlanetRead
6. Educational Initiatives (EI)
Their projects and log-frame status are provided below:
1. Karadi Path Education Company (KPEC) | Joyful Reading Project | 2015-18
1.1 Project Overview
The Joyful Reading is a two-year immersive project that attempts to rapidly improve the English
proficiency of primary grade children from predominantly non-English environments. This project
brought about functional language development, enabling “whole word” reading and
comprehension. Listening comprehension, conversational speaking, and reading abilities of
primary grade students were nurtured using an indigenously developed set of tools and
processes. It followed a 100% experiential and derivative learning process that taught language
without teaching words, meaning or grammar. The program was implemented for scenarios
where the teachers have limited English proficiency.
90 project schools under the “Joyful reading” project implemented Karadi Path Magic English
Second Language Learning (KP ME SLL) Beginner program for students from grades (1-5). Karadi
Path Magic English Second Language Learning Beginner is a two level program, and each level
has 72 sessions of 40 minutes each. Each 60 minute Karadi Path session was packed with
enjoyable activities and intensive learning. Each session had 4 modules:
i. Action Path – 10 minutes: In the module, students internalized sentence structures

and vocabulary through a series of imperative statements and actions. The teacher
performed a series of actions, and the students repeat after the teacher and learn
through mirroring and priming.
ii. Music Path – 10 minutes: This module consisted of a series of scientifically scripted
songs set in an Indian milieu celebrating the country’s rich cultural diversity. The
songs created many opportunities for language activities, such as basic conversations
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where one learns to talk about themselves. Learning took place in a stress free
environment.
iii. Reading Path – 20 minutes: This module introduced students to the basic phonetic
sounds of the English alphabet, and phonic and sight word recognition. It accelerated
sight reading.
iv. Story Path – 20 minutes: The module aided reading comprehension by replicating the
mother-tongue learning process through a “derivative” rather than an “instructive”
curriculum. It achieved these using vividly illustrated stories as print and audio-books.
The stories were narrated in a neutral Indian accent, and were presented with a rich
and contextually appropriate background score. This was followed up by a range of
activities including Expressive Reading, Miming, Conversation Practice, and Tiny
Theatre.
1.2 Implementation Details
The project team, in consultation with and support from the 90 implementation schools allocated
three periods to the Karadi Path sessions as part of the school time-table. The students in grades
2, 3, 4 were the target population for this project.
The following activities were conducted in the three years of implementation:
i. Project School Selection (in Year 1): A tentative list of project schools was created in the
three districts of Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur and Villupuram. A preliminary screening was done
to assess the teachers’ availability, students’ strength, infrastructure facilities and
accessibility (March – April 2015). Post that, 90 schools were finalised and MoUs were signed
for the implementation of the project.
ii. Procurement and Installation of Equipment (only in Year 1): The project schools were
equipped with 32-inch LED TVs with a power back up system (month of May-June 2015).
iii. Supply of School kit (year 1 and 2): Each school received a school kit that consists of 40 sets
of books with Karadi Tales, along with USBs with video and animated stories. The Kit also
contained Karadi Rhymes books and DVD, Phonetic DVD and flip chart for Reading Path
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activities. Teachers received a manual that instructed them on each of the sessions. Level 1
materials were supplied in Year 1 and Level 2 materials in Year 2.
iv. Teacher Training Workshop (Year 1, 2 and 3): One-day training sessions were conducted for
teachers to train them on Karadi Path methodology. The training accommodated around 25-
30 participants.
v. Setting up School Library (Year 1, 2 and 3): To sustain the interest in reading and enhance
exposure to various levels of reading, Karadi Path set up library in all the 90 schools. A total
of 300 books were distributed in the 90 schools. The story titles were sourced from various
publications which were otherwise inaccessible to the children.
1.3 Monitoring and Evaluation
Throughout the year, specific trainers were allocated to support the schools for ensuring quality
implementation of the program. The trainer made in-house monitoring visit, observed the Karadi
Path sessions and provided feedback to the teachers. Monitoring reports were generated with
school authorities; three monitoring visits were conducted in each school in one academic year.
This aside, the trainers provided remote support to the school by doing weekly phone call
monitoring to track session progress and support on doubts and challenges met in conducting
Karadi Path sessions.
The M&E checklist of trainers during school visit were inclusive of the following parameters.
Infrastructure details: Are the audio/video equipments in proper working order? Is the UPS in
working order and sufficient to conduct an entire lesson? Is the infrastructure sufficient for
meeting the needs of the number of students utilizing them?
Teacher’s capacity: Is the teacher able to read and understand the instructions in the session
manual? Are they playing the correct supporting audio and video tracks at the appropriate
moment?
Module implementation details: Are the teachers implementing the activities in each module as
they were demonstrated in the training? Are there areas or activities in which they are struggling?
Student response: Are the students demonstrating their understanding by following instructions
and completing activities correctly? Are the children enjoying themselves during the session?
Administering Assessment and Documenting Impact: As part of the project, Karadi Path
administered baseline, midline and endline assessments to select sample set of students across
the project schools to analyse the impact of the project. Similarly, equipment maintenance
activities and audits were conducted every year.
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1.4 Project Achievements | 2015-18
Summary of output level achievements of KPEC is provided below.
i. Equipment support of LED TV along with UPS, Karadi Path Magic English Second Learning
Language materials for Level 1 and Level 2 to 90 schools
ii. Established libraries with 300 books in each of the 90 schools
iii. A total of 592 teachers were trained on the KPEC module from 2015-2018
iv. The project benefitted 28907 primary grade students
v. Work done under READ Alliance was presented to various governments and this has
helped KPEC develop partnership with the Tribal Development Department in
Maharashtra to work in 406 schools. Through these 406 schools, KPEC will reach out to
more than 150,000 students and about 1,500 teachers.
Outcome(s):
Capacity building of students and teachers: A total of 28907 students received additional English
inputs of around 96 hours of classroom instruction. More than 500 government schools teachers
now have improved capacity to deliver English proficiency to primary school students.
Log-frame status:
Indicator# Indicator Project Target Project

Achievement
USAID # of learners receiving reading 32000 28907

Standard 1 interventions at the primary level
(3.2.1-35)
READ % of children receiving reading 100% 100%

Alliance 1.0 intervention at the primary level with
improved reading skills
Output 1.0a Number and % of girls enrolled at the 50% 50%

start of the project year
Output 1.0b Number and % of girls retained at the 16000 14588

end of the project year
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USAID # of textbooks and other teaching and NA 63180
Standard 2 learning materials (TLM) provided
(3.2.1-33)
USAID # of teachers/educators/teaching 500 teachers 595 (Year 1)

Standard 3 assistants who successfully completed every year
470 (Year 2)
(3.2.1-31) in-service training
467 (Year 3)
Ref of 3.2.1- # and % age of female teachers 445 per year

31 /educators/teaching assistants who
successfully completed in-service
training or received intensive coaching
or mentoring with USG support
READ # of para-teachers/master trainers (out 6 6

Alliance of the government system) trained on
1.2.1 reading pedagogy, trained to conduct
similar training and/or to manage
implementation of the reading
programs in government schools
READ % of number of days or weeks of 3 days a week Completed

Alliance classroom instruction completed
1.3.1 against the planned targets
READ # and % of schools on track with 100 % 100%

Alliance sessions as per planned targets and
1.3.2 schedule
1.5 Lessons Learnt

i. Technology for large scale assessments helps save time and resources - Joyful Reading Project
helped KPEC to change its paper-based assessment protocols to mobile based assessment.
While the paper based assessments are time consuming and had more errors, the use of the
third-party app Kobo Collect for field level data entry has made the process efficient with less
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hassles. Karadi Path trainers were trained to use the app. When they visited schools, they
trained teachers to use this particular app in different sessions. This has helped in reducing
the time, manpower and resources involved in collecting raw data and consolidating the data
for the assessment report and KPEC is willing to replicate this for its other education ventures.
ii. Ownership and cooperation from the Government is essential for project implementation and
success - From the beginning of the program, KPEC received great support from Sarva Siksha
Abhiyan Tamil Nadu (SSA TN) team. Officials visited the Joyful reading schools and monitored
classroom implementation. The State Project Director-SSA TN assigned the training
coordinators at SSA TN to observe KP class and monitor the implementation progress. This
helped largely in winning the trust of community, the school board as well as the parents of
the intervention students, which in turn showed up in students’ reading progresses.
iii. Disaster preparedness should not be overlooked - During the implementation period, Chennai
witnessed two large natural disasters, in two consecutive years. During the Chennai floods
2015, the materials supplied to schools, TV and UPS were damaged in many schools. The
trainers had to plan additional visits to schools for inspection and it took a long time in
planning and scheduling visits to all the schools to resolve the issues. Likewise in 2016, similar
issues were reported during the Okhi cyclone in Chennai. Learning from its past experience,
KPEC planned extra support visits to all the schools and check the materials status, prior to the
visit of the technical team. The schools also stated taking precautionary measures to avoid
damage to supplies and equipment during natural calamities as well as from theft/ vandalize
during long holidays or when the school premises are used for other activities like relief camps
or as polling booths.
iv. Need to connect teachers with books to increase the use of books in classrooms - KPEC
supplied 300 library books to each of the schools. It was observed that books were not utilized
effectively in all the 90 schools. The team saw the capacity gap; a need to train the teachers
in storytelling as well as other classroom activities that can facilitate the use of books. Hence,
KPEC has been indulged in designing such modules for teachers, as well as generating
additional TLM for support.
1.6 Project Scalability and Sustainability Plan
Since the investments in TLM and infrastructure required for the project is already available in
the school, the program can be continued with minimal resources. Reallocation of resources from
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existing allocations in the department could sustain the program.
2. Quality Education Support Trust (QUEST) |Literacy Enhancement in Ashram Schools
Literacy Enhancement program through Lipi and Saksham are designed to address the literacy
learning difficulties of children from tribal communities of Maharashtra, which often remain on
the margins of mainstream development and occasionally even suffer from it. Lipi and Saksham
program are designed to address the following core issues that children face in these schools:
a. Most of the students are first generation learners, or literacy levels are at a minimal among
their parents
b. Ashram schools, usually do not have libraries or rigorously trained teachers.
c. Inadequate understanding among teachers in Ashram schools regarding the students’ learning
needs.
d. Lack of exposure to a literate environment, difference in home language (tribal languages) and
curricular language (Marathi),
e. Inconsistent academic input due to seasonal migration.
The Core Model of Literacy Enhancement through Lipi and Saksham programs is provided below:
a. QUEST’s Approach towards early literacy instruction (Lipi)

ii. focus on acquiring mastery on encoding and decoding skills going hand in hand
with meaning making and expression through Lipi’s 16-unit graded literacy
program
iii. Setting up small classroom libraries with age appropriate books
iv. Contextualized reading material for children
a. QUEST’s approach to literacy remediation in later grades (Saksham)

i. Diagnose children’s to identify the learning levels of children
ii. Input to children- The appropriate material from QUEST’s 16-unit graded
program is selected and used with the children
iii. Monitoring the progress of the children
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b. The project focuses heavily on building the capabilities of the teachers. It was expected
that this training and support will bring about long term change in teachers’ instruction,
which will continue even after the project comes to a close.
c. Lipi’s approach of giving literacy instruction using groups of letters- in Lipi, the script is
introduced gradually in groups of a few Aksharas (letters) and Maatras (abbreviated
vowel signs).
d. A comprehensive set of child aid tools in the Lipi and Saksham kit can be adapted for use
in a classroom.
e. Guiding and supporting the teachers in their day to day classroom transactions, will make
sure that the training received by teachers is deeply entrenched and gets translated into
practice in a tangible way.
f. Provide a dependable resource for teachers, which is often missing, especially for
teachers working in remote areas. Usually, teachers work in isolated contexts and do not
have access to any external agency that can provide support or feedback to their work.
Literacy Enhancement program under READ Alliance program, Saksham and LiPi programs were
rolled out in 20 Ashram schools (AS) under Jawhar TDPO (Tribal Development Project Office). The
project involved training the teachers to implement Lipi models in grade 1 to 3 and Saksham in
grades 4-7. Teachers were trained to implement both Lipi and Saksham program in their schools
through planned inputs given during teacher workshops and onsite support provided by Shikshak
Mitras (SMs) and timely onsite reviews by experts.
To enhance the capacity of Lipi teachers QUEST’s team organized 8 training programs with 20
Ashram Shalas teachers on the following topics-
 Language used at home and at schools

 Difference between Spoken Language and written language
 What is Ankur program and how this help the children learning
Writing for children (मु ल ां ने स ां गणे शिक्षक ने शलहीणे)
 Discussion on techniques of introducing Marathi alphabets / vowels (अक्षर / (स्वरशिन्ह
पररिय तां त्र)
 Orientation of Maze pustaks (books)use and lesson planning
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 Provide hands on experience to various classroom activities which teachers from grade 1
to 3 are expected to do in their classrooms (Shared reading, Read Aloud, lesson plan etc.)
 Importance of print rich environment and required classroom set-up
 Demonstrate lessons of Maze Pustak
 What is emergent literacy
 The difference between the traditional and emergent approaches of literacy
 Orient teachers on making classroom session plans for Lipi independently
 Demonstration of classroom refreshment activities (Games for classroom management)
 Introduction of devanagari (the local language script) script
 Techniques of reading comprehension and what useful? Is it sharing of useful TLM for
reading comprehension.
 Lesson demonstration on making story with the help of picture
 Discussion on activities for self-expression by writing and demonstration of such
activities.
 Orientation and demonstration of Maze Pustak (book)series
 What is Guided Reading and how this will be conducted in classrooms
To enhance the capacity of Saksham teachers, QUEST’s team organized 4 training programs with
20 Ashram Shalas teachers on the following topics-
 Discussion about the Pretest for Saksham - Informing about students groups
 Language: At home and school
 Words, sentences and sentence reading practice
 language: Written and Spoken
 Introduction to pustak peti and reading card
 Discussion on Saksham Banu Ya workbook use and lesson plan
 Explaining the planning for each group in Saksham and work schedule
 Review of Saksham work and Practice of Lessons- A Group – िब्द ि योग्य क्रम ल वून अर्थ पुणथ
व क्य तय र करणे, अनुस्व र पररिय; B Group – शित्र वरून गोष्ट
 Introduction to Devnagri script
 Discussion on Article ‘व िू न द खवण्य िे महत्त्व’ (Importance of reading aloud)
 Different techniques of Reading Comprehension
 Different techniques on how to conduct writing activities.
 Train teachers on various lessons and practicing them.
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 Dialogue writing (sample reading of book and listing of topics from teachers) and reading
of dialogue will be discussed
 Functional Grammar-Nouns and Pronouns Lessons
A team of 8 Shikshak Mitras provided the following onsite support to teachers in between two
training programs:
i. Teacher observation and feedback sharing

ii. Demonstrating or simulating some lessons
iii. Explaining how to use teaching learning material
iv. Inputs on classroom management
v. Providing theoretical linkages to the practice
vi. Maintaining the motivation of teachers
vii. Updating Head Master on the progress of intervention in his / her school
In addition to the on-site support, around 8 days of expert review in each quarter was planned in
the project. Following were some of the focal areas of expert review:
i. Capacity building of Shikshak Mitras for providing onsite support

ii. To review the quality of work being transacted on the field
iii. To provide customised solutions for some special cases
iv. To review the transaction of the content, taught by experts during training, in schools. This
information was used for developing the content of the next training.
v. To orient Shikshak Mitras on some important topics which they felt important for the
execution of program
The project implementation included following things in order to monitor and evaluate the
effectiveness of intervention and to alter the design if needed.
i. Assessments
The project was comprised of two programs viz. Lipi and Saksham. Lipi program had year-end
assessments for selected sample from both intervention and non-intervention students from
grade 1 to 3. Apart from that, in the first year of implementation school readiness test was also
envisioned to establish the parity between intervention and non-intervention.
For Saksham, a diagnostic test was used which measured the achievement level of students on
the curriculum till grade 5. Similar test was used to measure the impact after one and two years
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of intervention.
For school readiness test, 60 grade 1 students (9%) from intervention and non-intervention both
were selected randomly. 320 Children from grade 1 (50%), 80 from grade 2 and 3 (Around 10%)
each were selected randomly for Lipi assessments. Saksham being a diagnostic assessment was
done on all children.
The tools used for assessments were evolved in house as such tools were not available for
adaption. QUEST hadtested these tools before using them for the project. QUEST had referred to
the important curricular areas and weighed them on grade-appropriate expectations highlighted
from State Curriculum. This framework have been used for assessments, making it unique and
valuable,
ii. Use of teacher observation tool
This tool was used to measure the quality of classroom interaction happened during the
implementation. Looking at the complex design of both the programs, designing a tool to
measure the quality of interaction was a bit difficult task. This tool was tried in the project schools
and after few instances of try-out the project designed a plan for using the same tool for scaled
projects.
iii. Teacher knowledge test
A test on teachers’ pedagogical awareness about literacy was instructed before the first training
program and after the last training program. This helped the project to measure the change in
their understanding level of students.
2.4 Project Achievements
QUEST’s Saksham program has been shared with many agencies who wanted to adapt similar
programs in their interest regions. The collaborations worked out are given below –
i. SIP and SDP: School Improvement Project (SIP) and Sahyogi Dal Project (SDP) being
implemented in Pune, with the support from Pune City Connect (PCC), caters to all
government Municipal schools in Pune block. Here, the government system has taken over
the implementation of Saksham program.
ii. Buniyad: Saksham program has been adapted in Hindi. Centre for Microfinance (CmF) from
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Rajasthan is implementing the program and QUEST is providing the technical support for
adapting the program in the Rajasthan context and capacity building of human resource.
Through this project, 1800 students will be benefitted.
Overview of progress against the log frame (2016-18)
Results Chain Indicator Project Target Project

(Outcome, Output) Achievement
Outcome 1 # of learners receiving [TOTAL: 7120

intervention at the (Approx)]
primary level
Year- 1 (2015-16): 320 Year 1: 437
Year 2 (2016-17): 5600 Year 2: 6455
{new enrolment} Year Year 3: 1581

3 (2017-18): 1200
Total: 8473
Outcome 2 # of teachers/ [TOTAL: 150]

educators/ teaching
assistants who Year 1 (2015-16): 8
successfully completed Year 1 : 8
in-service training
Year 2 and 3 (2016- Year 2 and 3: 130
18): 140
Total:138
Outcome 3 # of textbooks and 705 Around 7000

other teaching and
learning materials
(TLM) provided
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Outcome 4 # of children in primary [TOTAL: 5780] In Year 3; 1924
grade with improved {Projected figure Saksham students
reading skills based on sample showed
results} improvements
Year 1 (2015-16): - (we

are doing remediation
in year 1)
Year 2 (2016-17): 4760
Year 3 (2017-18): 1020
The Shikshak Mitra % score on the Teacher 90% of SMs will score All SMs scored
(SM) will know the Knowledge and above 90% on Teacher above 80%
strengths and Pedagogy test Knowledge and
weaknesses of Pedagogy Test
different approaches
to literacy instruction
and make suitable
choices for the Lipi
and Saksham
interventions
The Shikshak Mitra Improvement in the 75% of SMs 60 to 75% SMs

will plan for literacy plans made by % SMs (i.e. 5 to 6)
instruction and analyzed qualitatively showed
remedial instructions by studying the improvement in
trajectory of their lesson plans
instructions, expected in the year 1
time on task etc.
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On-site support to Onsite support to # of 5 Ashram schools in a 4 – 5
teachers in Ashram Ashram schools in a week (After year 1)
schools is provided by week by a pair of SMs
SMs
Qualitative analysis of
field report of SMs
Observation and
qualitative analysis of
supervision done by
SMs and critical inputs
given by them to
teachers
Teachers will know % score on the Teacher 60% of teachers will 60% teachers
the strengths and Knowledge and score above 75% in the scored above 50%
weaknesses of Pedagogy test Teacher Knowledge out of which 20%
different approaches and Pedagogy test were above 75%
to literacy instruction
and make a suitable
choice
Teachers will create Improvement in the 60% Ashram school There was lack of
plans for their literacy plans made by % teachers teachers in many
instruction lessons teachers analyzed Ashram schools,
qualitatively by due to this many
studying the trajectory teachers have a
of instructions, responsibility of 2-
expected time on task 3 classes. Hence,
etc. they were unable
to create plans for
their classes.
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The teachers will put Improvement in the 60% Ashram school Absence of
key ideas related to Scores of % teachers teachers teachers and
literacy instruction on observation tools frequent transfer
into practice of teachers were
the main reasons
behind
underperformanc
e in this target.
The teachers will be % of teachers who 90% of teachers Absence of

able to conduct the conduct the diagnostic teachers and
diagnostic test and test independently and frequent transfer
analyse the results group students of teachers were
the main reasons
behind
underperformanc
e in this target.
The teachers will be Improvement in the 60% Ashram school 60-70%

able to provide plans made by % teachers
appropriate remedial teachers analyzed
input qualitatively by
studying the trajectory
of instructions,
expected time on task
etc.
Improvement in the % score by teachers on 60% of teachers will Absence of

remedial classroom the teacher score about 75% teachers and
instruction by observation tool frequent transfer
teachers of teachers were
the main reasons
behind
underperformanc
e in this target.
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(Resource) Time for # of Lipi Workshop 8 Lipi workshops 8 Lipi workshops
the documentation reports,
4 Saksham workshops 8 Saksham
workshops
# of Saksham
Workshop reports,
Signed MoU with the MoU will be signed till Nov-15 Mar 2016
Tribal Development #
Project Office (TDPO)
The Tribal Office copy of # 4 quarterly reports 4 quarterly

Development Project Quarterly Report reports
Office (TDPO) will be submitted on due time
aware of the progress / copy of email 3rd week of following
and impacts of the communication with month of every
program regard to the timely quarter
submission of
Quarterly report to the
TDPO office;
2.5 Lessons learnt
The major lessons learnt on the project are:
i. In Ashram schools, both Lipi and Saksham programs should not be offered as a part of a
single project. Teachers face difficulty in acquiring relieving orders to attend QUEST
training sessions because of unavailability of spare teachers to carry out regular
classroom responsibilities in their absence.
ii. Involvement of Head Master in the implementation of the program is key to the success
of the program. One of the ways of doing this is by allocating him/her some role in
monitoring and evaluation.
iii. Use technology in assessment helps in minimizing the time required for testing, paper
correcting and analysis
iv. It is imperative to conduct field visit of Ashram school teachers to QUEST centers for them
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to experience impact of the modules being delivered to them. This helps in keeping the
motivation levels of teachers high at all times during the implementation of the program.
2.6 Project scalability and sustainability plan
QUEST had developed a series of books for early literacy teaching program known as Maze
Pustak which was used in all of their Early Literacy projects including the READ Alliance project.
For scaling and sustainably purposes, QUEST is planning to put its material in the public
domain for the government to easily procure and use them.
2.7 Project extension activities
QUEST was provided a no cost time extension until 30th November 2018 to utilise the unspent
amount from EGRIC. QUEST had submitted a plan to complete the following two activities:
1. Development of Early literacy package: with the objective of providing age appropriate
and contextual material to the students and teaching material for the teachers, QUEST
proposes to develop an Early Literacy package which will include 2 types of material in 4
colour offset–
• Material for learning scripts will consists of 6 booklets for students;
• Classroom material – to be used by the teachers will consist of –
i) Shared reading books – 10
ii) Poem Posters – 25 – 30
iii) Pictures for picture talk with probable questions – 10
Once developed this will be a comprehensive Early Literacy resource with a range of
activities for Literacy Development
Salient Features of the package will be:
- Themes with diverse cultural context of the State

- Will serve as a reading material and workbook for children
- Contain various activities on different genres of literature
2. Short films for early literacy: QUEST proposes to develop 12 to 15 short films pertaining
to Early Grade Literacy. These will include live classroom films, interview based films,
voice over films etc. which are useful for the capacity building of the teachers/teacher
educators
24
Salient features of the films:
- These films bring actual classroom situation into the workshop where participants can
observe the pertinent interactions between children and teachers. Generally, there are
several parallel instances going on in the classroom which a novice teacher may not notice
during live classroom observations. In the films, these instances are shown one after
another and hence teachers can focus on each of them.
- Another feature of the films is the participatory anchor, who connects the theoretical
point to the actual classroom situation. Thus these films help in deepening the
pedagogical understanding in the light of different theories. During the contact session,
Teacher Educator pauses the film at critical points and ask the participants to anticipate
the teacher’s or the child’s response in the film, discusses the alternative strategies for a
particular situation in the film. Thus triggering a rich interaction amongst the participants.
- Teachers can revisit the films whenever needed and do not need to depend on the
workshop notes alone which helps them to prepare before going to the classroom and
actually conducting the lesson plan.
- Developing reflective teachers, which is the need of the hour where they reflect on their
daily work, and think about how the things could have done differently or what different
strategies could have been applied to address the learning issues of children and
simultaneously understanding their own learning needs. Keeping these videos as a
referral point they channelize their thoughts in required direction.
- Sometimes participants are also asked to reverse engineer the lesson plans for the video
lessons which helps them in actual implementation or enhance and adapt the available
lesson plan in their own context.
Status of the work completed under no-cost extension, as of 31st Dec 2018:
S.No. Item No. as submitted Achievement

in proposal
1. Material for learning scripts 6 3 booklets complete

in the form of booklets
25
Script for remaining 3 complete,
work on designing and outlaying
for these 3 is ongoing
2. Shared reading books 10 7 out of 10 complete,
work on designing of remaining

books is ongoing
3. Poem Posters 25-30 25 posters complete
4. Pictures for picture talk with 10 10 pictures complete

probable questions
5. Short films 12-15 15 films complete
3. Agragamee | Creative Language Development Efforts (CLDE)
The Creative Language Development Effort (CLDE) project at Agragamee aims to improve the
reading and language abilities of first generation school goers in tribal districts of Odisha.
Agragamee worked in Kashipur, Nabarangpur and Rayagada of Odisha, communities which are
predominantly tribal with multilingual contexts. The project addressed complex sets of problems
affecting reading abilities of primary graders in 18 government schools.
The major objectives of the project were:
i. To develop reading and literacy skills in first generation school going children of Grades I and
II in Government schools in Tribal areas through innovative and stress free approach
ii. To address problems of poor reading skills in children of grades III to V
iii. To develop appropriate teaching and learning materials (TLM) for facilitation of easy and fun
reading and literacy development for children of first and second grade,
iv. To take up orientation and training of teachers to help them give up the traditional rote
learning approach, and adopt child-friendly methods and approach using appropriate TLM
v. To undertake documentation and dissemination of the process for scaling up and ensure
wider impact
3.2 Implementation details
26
Prior to implementing the project, Agragamee trained 18 educated youth (Intermediate Degree
and above) from the three districts, Kashipur, Nabarangpur and Rayagada, ‘Siksha Sathi’ or
Support Teachers for 30 days. They were trained on the TLM designed by Agragamee- Kau Dake
Ka (workbook in two levels for Odia language), flash cards, picture stories and recreation
activities; classroom management and aspects of early grade reading.
The Siksha Sathis supported the schools by taking regular Odia classes from July 2016 for two
academic sessions. Through the Agragamee TLM, the Siksha Sathi helped students’ progress from
drawing simple shapes of flowers, vegetables, etc. to rhymes and action songs, familiar names
and their own names, word pictures, small sentences, objects of daily life, finally progressing to
rhymes.
Following are the multiple levels of interventions at Agragamee.
Drawing and coloring, to catch their interest and develop writing
Identifying pictures of familiar objects, to build up their interest in identifying objects and
remembering their names
Learning to write their own and classmates’ names, to increase classroom connections and
reinforce learning at home
Names of familiar objects from labelled picture cards to enable reading writing skills with
intuition
Learning folk songs and rhymes to help improve speech
Writing key words from the songs and rhymes to reinforce phonetics
Reading and writing songs and nursery rhymes from their textbooks to develop reading skills,
connect the child with print and reinforce phonetics
Reading small stories facilitated by teachers and follow up with fun exercises to develop
comprehension abilities
27
Library reading to expose children to different kinds of books; encouraging students in higher
grades to use the library space to read, and pursue their interests, apart from textbook
learning.
The following M&E methods were used by Agragamee during the implementation of the project:
Rapid baseline of learning levels by Siksha Sathi: All Siksha Sathis conducted baseline every
academic year, to report on the basic learning levels of students at the beginning of program.
The baseline covered all students from the intervention schools. The written and oral tests were
targeted to assess the students’ reading comprehension and fluency levels.
Shiksha Sathi’s School Visit report: Siksha Sathis maintained Weekly report of their activities and
teachings, monthly progress of the students, use of the TLM provided, and its effectiveness and
special record of students who are slower than the others. Agragamee had developed easy
formats to lessen the burden of work for Siksha Sathis.
Monthly reports: The managerial staff monitored the intervention schools on a monthly basis,
observing the class strength, TLM usage by teachers and students, progress of students from
different linguistic backgrounds, the use of material produced and the weekly records of the
teachers. This included interaction of the team with teachers on every visit and incorporation of
their feedbacks in the project.
Monthly Reviews: Agragamee conducted reviews of the team every month with school teachers,
Siksha Sathis and program team to discuss student progress, address problems of teachers in
taking classes and draw solutions.
Quarterly Reviews: Four quarterly reviews (in each academic year) were conducted as part of
the refresher training for teachers wherein all Shiksha Sathis and staff gathered for review of the
progress. These review and refresher trainings were conducted for three days (residential) and
involved resource persons to provide additional insights.
Summary of output level achievements of Agragamee is given below:
i. Organized eight training sessions for primary grade teachers of the 18 government schools,
on Early Grade Reading, classroom management and TLM usage.
ii. Altogether 18 Siksha Sathis were trained and engaged in taking classes in primary grades in 18
28
government schools
iii. Designed, published and distributed 2000 copies of Kau Dake Ka (Level 1 and 2), a workbook
for primary grade students
iv. Five district level workshops were organised for sharing CLDE concept and experience with
education departments in districts; and two state level workshops were held on Reading and
Language Development
v. An interactive dialog session with Government officials from state and district education
authorities was held.
Following section provides a description of major outcomes of the project.
iv. Development of trained workforce in the hinterlands of Orissa

Through the activities mentioned above, Agragamee has created a network of 18
young education volunteers (Siksha Sathi) from the tribal community, trained them
for over two academic years on primary grade curriculum, classroom management
and the use of TLM. The Sikhsha Sathis engaged with schools by taking regular Odia
classes, trying to bridge the gap between mother tongue and official state language
in which the school curriculum is taught.
Agragamee has engaged the Siksha Sathi in their residential school in Kashipur
(Odisha), which caters to the tribal community around. Additionally, two of the 18
Siksha Sathi have enrolled in the National Open School for diploma courses on early
grade education. These Sikha Sathis have the potential to undergo further training
and be absorbed in the government for teaching positions.
v. Networked community of government education stakeholders

Agragamee held Annual State level workshops and quarterly district level dialogs to
showcase their work in tribal communities, and generate support from the education
influencers in the working districts. Their findings show reading improvement of
almost 42% in the intervention schools. The team is further advocating at the district
level for the Kau Dake Ka curriculum so that it gets adopted widely. This has created
a network of stakeholders from the government and civil society (like minded
organizations) level who are willing to work and initiating new discourses in support
of education of tribals. This is of long term importance to the communities which
require basic advocacy on education their children.
The following table presents the achievements of the project against the quantifiable indicators
29
of project success.
Description INDICATORS Target Achievement
Outcome 1: Improved Reading skills in grades 1 to 5 in 18 Govt Primary schools
18 Government 18 Government
Primary schools Primary schools with
Number of Children receiving reading
intervention at the primary level with improved 1800 children 1419 children.
reading skills
The
underachievement
of target was due to
low enrolment in
schools.
Output 1.1: 18 Shiksha Number of 18 Government 18 Government

Sathies engaged to teach Schools on track Primary schools Primary schools,
in Govt. primary schools with sessions as 100% session
100% session
per planned completed
completion
targets and
schedule
Outcome 2: Easy and stress free learning increases children’s interest and attendance in 18
Govt. schools
TLM provided, 18 Government Print rich classrooms

children’s Primary Schools in the 18
notebooks, Government Primary
attendance of Schools
children
Output 2.1: Development
30
and distribution of TLM Number of 1800 textbooks, 2000 supplementary
for grades 1 and 2 textbooks and text books, and 1100
Story cards 36,
other teaching and story and learning
learning materials Look and say cards charts, 180 sets of
(hereafter, TLM) 36 flash cards
provided with
USGs assistance
Outcome 3: 18 youth Number of youth 18 youth 18 youth

trained to take CLDE provided training,
model forward number of hours
of training
Output 3.1: Training and Number of Para- 18 youth 18 youth

orientation of Shiksha teachers/master
Sathies trainers (out of the
government
system) trained on
reading pedagogy
and to teach in
government
schools
Output 4.1: Linkages with schools and Govt departments
Outcome 5: A model of Research and Nil for first year Research and
reading development for documentation on documentation has
first generation school best practices, been completed and
goers that can be shared response of shared with READ
and upscaled Government Alliance.
teachers and other
functionaries,
Output 5.1: State level Participation of 1 State level Organized on May

Workshop different workshop 12th and 13, 2018
stakeholders,
31
discussion content
3.5 Lessons Learnt
i. Support of multiple stakeholders is essential for project success

Coordination and support from district level education authorities and the councils
for tribal population was seen as pivotal to the CLDE project, which was implemented
in 18 tribal schools. The project team maintained a close relationship with the
requisite government authorities, as well as emphasized on orientation of the school
teachers from the very beginning of the project. This helped not only in smooth
implementation of the project, but, in the process, the team also gained the trust of
the tribal communities. The project has reached out to civil society organizations,
media, universities, academics, as well as the state government, to increase the
understanding of the concept and practice of the CLDE approach. This has been done
through reports, press notes and direct personal contacts, apart from organizing of
events to generate debate, as well as larger sharing.
ii. Bilingual teacher support from the community is essential to make the curriculum
closer to students
CLDE project was implemented in the tribal areas of Odisha, communities which
majorly speaks Kui language. Agragamee trained 18 Siksha Sathi, bilingual teacher
supporters who were capable of speaking Kui and other similar tribal languages, as
well as Odia language. This helped the children open up in class in the first place.
Siksha Sathi could start a relationship with the students to make them speak in class,
in a graduated order to learning the Odia language and in comprehension of the
curriculum itself.
i. Agragamee will involve the Government School as well as other civil society
organisations in the Program, through various means, including village to district to
state level linkage, invitation to different forums, sharing of TLM, reports and
documents and outcomes. It will thus create an understanding of the strength and
need of the CLDE model. The other civil society organisations network will lobby for
support to promotion of the model through national and international funding
32
agencies, and the Government School and Mass education Program will also begin to
accept it. Corporate interests who are keen for the development of the state will also
be involved through CSR activities for the support of the model. In specifics the
following steps will ensure sustainability after the end of the project period:
ii. Establishing linkages with the existing School and Mass Education Department of
Government of Odisha: Agragamee will establish linkages with the school and mass
education Program for not only facilitating acceptance of the Shiksha Sathi, but also
to ensure that the method and pedagogy of the effort are understood, and accepted.
Agragamee will showcase the efforts with District Education Officers in the 3 districts,
so that the process can be integrated into the various teacher capacity building
programs. At the state level, Agragamee’s efforts to share and disseminate through
workshops which will also involve the Shiksha Sathies and the students will facilitate
awareness and appreciation of the material development under the CLDE project, and
will create a demand for it. This will create the climate for curricular reformulation in
keeping with the approach under the current project
iii. Showcasing with Civil Society Organisations and Education Networks: Agragamee
works closely with many civil society networks at the state and national level as also
international funding agencies. Many of these organisations are involved in
educational programmes in rural and tribal regions. The outcome, best practices and
the researched documentations of the project will be shared with these networks and
organisations to mobilise support for replication and up scaling.
4. PlanetRead
4.1 Project Overview | Same Language Subtitling (SLS) | 2016-18
PlanetRead designed AniBooks, which are animated stories for children, with the narration
appearing on-screen as Same Language Subtitles (SLS)1. Every word is highlighted in perfect
timing with the audio narration, thus strengthening reading skills, automatically and
subconsciously. SLS is a pedagogically sound and proven technique to reinforce reading skills and
is the recipient of several international awards.
1
SLS is a pedagogically sound and proven technique to reinforce reading skills and is the recipient of several
international awards. SLS has been implemented widely on film song-based TV programs in India, in 10 languages
(see www.planetread.org). This is the first study to explore the impact of regular AniBook exposure in schools, on
the early reading skills of children from low-income backgrounds.
33
The AniBooks for Early Grade Reading project was built on two established findings:
i. The world over, children like to watch cartoons. That is well-known to most parents.
ii. Much less known is a well-researched conclusion that a viewer who watches video content
with subtitles, will try to read along inescapably and automatically, assuming a passing
familiarity with the text.
The main goal of our project was to integrate AniBooks into the schools and lives of children from
very low-income backgrounds in Grades 1-4, or ages 6-10, to support the development of reading
skills, and evaluate its impact.
PlanetRead implemented the project through a two pronged approach.
1) Direct Implementation: The aim of this approach was to implement AniBooks for a small group
of children, closely monitor the intervention and study its impact on the reading skills of children.
2) Indirect Implementation: This approach was aimed at testing the scalability of AniBooks. To
achieve this, PlanetRead partnered with ed-tech organizations that can help to distribute
AniBooks at scale.
The main stages of Direct Implementation in Delhi were:
i. PlanetRead produced 40 levelled AniBooks in Hindi, 10 each for Grades 1-4 along with
learning activities for all 40 AniBooks.
ii. In close discussion with a local NGO (Society for All Round Development, SARD)
PlanetRead worked out the modalities of an AniBook intervention, to be implemented
in 5 Treatment Group (TG) schools and NOT to be implemented in 5 Control Group
(CG) schools.
iii. Over a 7-month period, teachers showed AniBooks in class, three times a week, in five
‘Treatment’ schools in rural Delhi, serving low-income children. Five comparable
‘Control’ schools got no AniBook exposure.
iv. As preparation, a baseline was conducted using Early Grade Reading Assessment
(EGRA) tools and fluency battery test of children in Grades 1-4, in 14 schools, and then
whittled the group of schools down to 5 in TG and 5 in CG, such that TG and CG was
similar in reading performance on the EGRA.
v. The AniBook intervention and implementation was closely monitored in TG schools,
over a period of 7 months, to ensure that it was implemented as planned.
34
Apart from the direct implementation to see reading outcomes, Planet Read also aimed at scaling
up the distribution of Anibooks which was fulfilled by the indirect implementation aspect of the
project. The main stages of the Indirect Implementation in Delhi, Maharashtra and Rajasthan:
PlanetRead Identified three ed-tech organizations- Project DRUV (Rajasthan), 4SL (Delhi), and E
Class Education (Maharashtra) to distribute AniBooks via their respective interventions.
An MoU was signed and the fulfilment of technical requirements were made to adjust Anibooks
within their dissemination system
PlanetRead used Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) to see the impact of Anibooks in students,
in both direct and indirect implementation. The treatment groups (TG) had access to the
AniBooks in Hindi for a certain period while the Control Groups (CGs) did not have access to the
AniBooks. Baseline and endline evaluations were conducted for each academic years to see the
students performances on reading through support received from Anibooks.
Summary of output level achievement of the Anibooks for EGR project is given below.
i. PlanetRead produced 40 AniBooks during the project for classes 1 to 4, along with TLM
(workbooks, flashcards and recreational activities) to facilitate each story lesson by SARD
teachers.
ii. In seven months, children who got the AniBook intervention scored 69% higher on reading
than children in control schools. Schooling alone got 51% of the absolute non-readers started
on the path to reading. Schooling plus the AniBook intervention got 84% of the absolute non-
readers on the path to reading. The Treatment Schools’ mean comprehension score went up
80% more than Control Schools. The strongest measurable impact of SLS on reading was on
children in Grades 2 and 3 (PlanetRead reported data)
Results Chain Indicator Project Project Achievement

Target
Finalize M&E Plan The final Plans By July 2016 Completed as per plan
35
and AWP
Find book publishers Signed copy of By Oct 2016 Completed as per plan
Agreement
Production of 30 30 new Anibooks By April 2017 Completed as per plan

new Anibooks
Baseline Study Baseline report By July 2017 Completed in Nov

2017*
Endline Study Endline Report May 2018 Completed as per plan
DRUV Endline study Endline Report of DRUV July 2018 Completed as per plan
intervention
As per the proposal, the target for achievement of student target was 50,000. However, during
the course of the project this number was revised to 32,000. The achievement of the project has
been 39,973 students through direct and indirect implementation. Direct implementation
student number is 973 and students reached out through indirect implementation are 39,000.
4.5 Lessons learnt
This project AniBooks for Early Grade Reading was the first of its kind for Planet Read. The team
worked with education expert to map the reading components for primary grade students,
36
understood them before making stories and Anibooks. This helped the team to arrange the
content as required by the curriculum and bring it closer to making understand for the students.
Similarly, team learnt how to produce many AniBooks in a short span of time. Working so closely
with government school teachers gave Planet Read an insight on how teachers can use AniBooks.
Systematically and regularly exposing AniBooks to children made understand their requirements
better, for example, how many AniBooks they need in an academic year.
PlanetRead’s vision has been to scale children’s reading in India by making AniBooks available on
mobile apps and TV. On TV we are aiming to “package” our existing crop of AniBooks into TV
programs, in several Indian languages, and then telecasting them on Doordarshan and/or private
channels.
The immediate goal is to produce the required number AniBooks to create and televise 13
AniBook-based episodes of 30 minutes each, in Hindi and English, as proof of mass children’s
reading and language adaptability. Per episode, we need 5 AniBooks; for 13 episodes we need 65
AniBooks.
PlanetRead already has 40 reading-levelled AniBooks in English and Hindi, and needs to produce
another 25 in 2 languages to achieve our immediate goal of 65 AniBooks.
With the help of READ Alliance’s project extension, PlanetRead added 10 new AniBooks.
PlanetRead also received support from Oracle Giving to produce 5 new AniBooks. Additionally,
the organization is reaching out to other foundations for support to produce 10 more AniBooks
and leveraging YouTube advertising and to reach out to schools and organizations that will be
interested in licensing their content.
4.7 Project Extension activities
As part of project extension activities, PlanetRead developed 10 new Anibooks for primary grades
students. PlanetRead put in place the necessary teams and started by shortlisting the stories from
Pratham Storyweaver and other sources. They identified five new stories by end of August and
another five new stories by end of September.
The production of AniBooks involves five major steps, namely: 1) Artwork 2) Narration 3)
Animation 4) Music and 5) Finalization of AniBooks. Details are as follows:
37
Artwork: Review the content that has been finalized and see how much artwork is needed.
Narration: Find good voice over artists and get the recordings are going on.
Animation: Start the animation based on the recordings.
Music: Once the animation is finalized, start getting the background music for the story.
Finalization of AniBooks: Once the music and the animation are done, the review of AniBook and
fine-tuning of various elements. Then finally, the AniBooks will be sent out for the external
reviews.
Please find the titles and their links below:
Story or
Sl. No. Poem Name Grade YouTube Link
Poem
1. The Red Fairy Story 3 https://youtu.be/6ooWoWhldZc
2. A Book for Puchku Story 3 https://youtu.be/XdtG4TY9Qh8
3. Brushing is No Fun Story 2 https://youtu.be/6j8bFvMyhDQ
4. Cheenu’s Gift Story 2 https://youtu.be/eF4qQM14CkY
5. The Seed Savers Story 3 https://youtu.be/uH3CSf9SOhw
6. Lara the Yellow Ladybird Story 1 https://youtu.be/yRRQRkU4SdI
7. Too Big! Too Small! Story 1 https://youtu.be/ZFbOGx0GjFI
8. Satya, Watch Out! Story 2 https://youtu.be/t0CMcXT3FEY
9. Farida Plans a Feast Story 2 https://youtu.be/M84CPQ1JQPs
10. Timmy and Peppe Story 1 https://youtu.be/OBo8qDDiE8I
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The intervention was based on the Kadam Step-Up program, which is designed to address
learning gaps found in a varied age group of children within the same classroom. It uses a
combination of 10 Steps for learning subject-based competencies and Theme Learning for all-
round skills building. The learning is child-oriented, activity-based as well as outcome-based.
In the intervention program adapted for this project, the core program concepts were:
For students:
Students’ own work material – Kadam Art of Reading Workbooks, Levels 1 & 2, Hindi and English;
worksheets. Students were organized in trios for independent work
Other activities: - students’ competitions 2x, theme weeks 2x
For teachers:
Theoretical training: – 5x 1-1½-hour sessions on the Kadam methodology and developing simple
TLM
Practical training: – Min. 8x classroom support of 1-2 hours by Reading Facilitators
Other: Link teachers and parents – 2x Parents-Teacher Meetings
The material
The Kadam tool kit consisted of Kadam Workbooks Level 1 (1st-2nd grade) and Level 2 (3rd-5th
grade) for the students, with a rich number of exercises and tasks, and Teacher’s Manual and
Teacher Training Framework for the teachers, with instructions and ideas for how to carry out
the main activities.
Students working in trios
The trio organization was used to make the learning more efficient, by using it as the modus
operandi for the students to work independently in the workbooks, at their own pace. Some of
the time they worked individually and some of the time they consulted and helped each other
to move forward. Their learning became consolidated through their interactions in the trio.
Special activities
Students’ competitions:
The Students’ Competitions were organized in the two Kadam levels. The students participated
either individually or in trio. The competitions were usually carried out in 3 parts, as follows: -
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The Reading Facilitators gave an initial instruction to teachers and students in how to use any
materials handed out for the competition; then they conducted and monitored the competition
itself; finally, they collated and presented the results to the students immediately after and also
handed out simple prizes as encouragement. The whole activity took between 1½ and 2 hours.
Theme Weeks:
There were two suggested themes, “The world I live in – Me, My Family, My School, My Country”
and “We tell our stories”.
Briefly, Theme 1 was divided in the four topics seen in the headline and let students tell different
aspects of themselves, their families, their school and their country, using different methods.
For instance, under the topic “My family” the students drew a family tree to understand the
relations, in the topic “My School” they went out and observed carefully their school and
schoolyard, then went back and drew a simple map of their school and in the topic “Our country”
they got to understand the map of India along with the diversity in food, clothes, culture, etc.
Theme 2 let the students make different objects in clay, make puppets and select picture cut-
outs, around all of which they created and told their stories.
The Reading Facilitators prepared worksheets to be used by the students and guided the
teachers how to carry out the activities.
Training of teachers
The Reading Facilitators conducted 5 sessions of 1-1½ hours with the teachers of each primary
school, on the modules mentioned below. The sessions were usually completed across 3-4
weeks in the first half of the 10-week intervention.
The content of the 5 sessions was as under:
‘Training on the Kadam methodology’ had a number of modules, which were:
i. The use of the Teacher Training Framework and the Teacher’s Manual;
ii. The Kadam Reading Pedagogy;
iii. The students’ continuous assessment and how to use the competency checklist;
iv. How to develop simple TLM.
v. ‘The use of the Kadam Workbook’ introduced “The Art of Reading”, Level 1 and Level 2.
The objectives of each module were briefly as follows:
Under ‘Training on the Kadam methodology’:
A. The use of the Teacher Training Framework and the Teacher’s Manual;
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- To make sure that the teachers were familiar with all sections, particularly of the
Teacher’s Manual, which they were expected to consult frequently (the TTFW was for
their information only);
- To make sure that any queries by teachers on the use of the manual had been properly
answered
B. The Kadam Reading Pedagogy;
- To make sure that the teachers understood the pedagogical base of selected reading
exercises in the Level 1 as well as in the Level 2 workbooks.
C. The students’ continuous assessment and how to use the competency checklist;
- To ensure that the teachers had understood why continuous assessment should take
place, and why it is good for students’ learning that they do their own self-assessment
along the way;
- To make sure that the teachers knew how to guide the students in the use of the
competency checklist, “My checklist”, found in the Kadam Workbooks.
D. How to develop simple TLM.
- To develop new ideas for simple TLM together with the teachers, to promote their
creativity;
- To make sure that the teachers got a hands-on experience with producing some of
their TLM ideas.
Under ‘The use of the Kadam Workbook’:
- To make sure that the teachers had understood that students were expected to work
on their own and in trios most of the time and the reasons for this;
- To make sure that the teachers had understood that they would need to give
instructions for approximately 30% of the exercises (instructions are found in the
books);
- To make sure that the teachers knew how to instruct some of the exercises, by RFs
doing this together with the teachers during classroom support.
The training sessions went hand in hand with classroom support as below.
Classroom support
The teachers were expected to adopt the following methods and activities with their students:
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i. Give the students time to work on their own, as well as at their own pace, with the
workbooks, which covered Hindi and English;
ii. Organize the students to do the above in ‘permanent’ groups of three, “trios”;
iii. Give the instructions required for some of the exercises in the workbooks;
iv. Ensure that the students would use “My Checklist” to keep track of how far they reach;
v. Regularly and commonly use the poster “Tracking Our Progress” in the classroom as a
shared status tool;
vi. Organize theme week activities twice, using the two themes described above;
vii. Organize so-called Students’ Competitions twice, based on the “trios” and what the
children had learned by using the workbooks, and through other classroom work;
viii. Organize PTM twice, with a good agenda including presentations by the children to their
parents.
The Reading Facilitators supported the teachers in adopting the above in two main ways:
i. They carried out the activity with the students themselves while the teachers observed it;
ii. They prepared and carried out the activity together with the teachers.
Usually they first did 2-3 rounds of the former, to be able to move on and do the latter with
many teachers. Reading Facilitators came on average once a week to each school.
Parents-Teacher Meetings – involvement of parents
PTM programs typically lasted around 2 hours and included points such as a welcome and short
introduction to the event by the school headmaster and/or a Reading Facilitator; a speech about
the READ Alliance Kadam project and its purposes, performances and presentations by the
students, Q&A sessions by parents and teachers, a few funny games involving the parents, alone
or with their children and finally some servings to those present and words of good-bye in the
end.
The project was carried out over a 2-year period in three districts of Madhya Pradesh state,
Dewas, Khandwa and Ujjain. It was planned to cover approximately 200 primary schools and to
work with 1,000 primary school teachers and 30,600 children in grades 1-5.
The intervention was structured in five consecutive time periods of 10 weeks each, involving a
different batch of between 3,500 and 5,100 children (a ‘cohort’) and their teachers in each
period. For each cohort, the first 10-week period was followed by a second 10 weeks in which 2-
3 follow-up visits were planned. Two cohorts were reached in Year 1 and six cohorts (running
parallel two and two) in Year 2.
42
The activities of the intervention, such as teacher training sessions, classroom support, Theme
Week events, Parents-Teacher Meetings, etc, were organized and carried out together with the
primary school teachers by three district teams, consisting of two Reading Facilitators each in
Year 1 and four Reading Facilitators each in Year 2. A tool kit developed for the purpose was
provided to the schools at the beginning of each cohort intervention, consisting of a Teacher’s
Manual, a Teacher Training Framework and Kadam Workbooks, Level 1 and Level 2.
There were four main objectives of the project, as under, which are therefore also the focus of the
intervention:
Primary Achieve enhanced reading skills in 200 Government primary schools

Objective 1 in 3 districts of Madhya Pradesh, reaching an estimated 30,600
primary grade learners (of the age group 6-10 years)
Primary Enhance teaching skills in 1,000 primary grade teachers in 200

Objective 2 Government primary schools by training them in child-centric
processes and TLM development
Secondary Establish a sustainable learning support system for children at the

Objective 1 local level by engaging and networking local stakeholders- teachers,
parents and local communities
Secondary Prove a replicable and scalable model by strengthening the

Objective 2 institutional support systems for resource-scarce Government
primary schools through 3 local DIETs centers
The project was linked to three government District Institutes for Education and Training (DIET),
one in each district, that are running pre- and in-service teacher training courses since many
years. HPPI has already worked in these DIETs since January 2013, with a pre-service teacher-
training program called NeTT – the Necessary Teacher Training. By Year 2, these institutes were
expected to have assigned faculty members to do continuous monitoring and follow-up in the
intervention schools. This type of responsibility is already defined by the state education
authorities as being within the mandate and scope of the DIETs.
The monitoring and evaluation mechanism adopted by the project-

43
The monitoring process has been entirely based on the indicators and means of verification
stated in the original logical framework, in the way that MIS data collection tools include the
same data points and that monitoring visits focus on the same, mostly selected points depending
on the activity monitored at the time of visit.
The monitoring responsibility was placed mainly on the Assistant Project Supervisor. He also
occasionally has involved other people, such as the district NeTT team leaders, in the monitoring
process.
As planned, evaluation has taken place by the end of each cohort 10-week direct intervention
period, usually in the form of state level review meetings with all field staff gathered in one of
the districts and including experience sharing as well as discussions of any changes of approach
deemed necessary.
Data collection and verification of indicators, addressing all the changes made over project
duration-
The data collection tools on all main intervention activities were two separate MIS formats, one
for the on-going intervention in a cohort and one for the follow-up support period in a previous
cohort.
Verification of indicators took various forms, such as:
- Cross-check of MIS formats with evidence from the actual activities, such as attendance
sheets signed and sealed by primary school headmasters;
- Random visits by the Assistant Project Supervisor or NeTT team leaders, interviewing
teachers and students as to the veracity of recorded activities;
- Use of photos from activities, comparing them with recorded and reported activities.
The data collection on student assessments had its own set of data collection formats – for
baseline and end-line data – and procedures, as described below.
The elimination of rudimentary indicators and activities and how their impact changed over time-
The overall, general indicators have been used throughout the project and were not changed
(compare with M&E Plan).
However, in August 2017 the HPPI Programme and Content Material Development team
reviewed the original indicators used to measure teachers’ uptake of Kadam methodology traits
(as below).
44
i. Students are grouped in trios
ii. Students use the Kadam workbooks/do exercises
iii. Teachers use Kadam material/Kadam methodology
iv. Teachers explain exercises at the students’ level of understanding
v. Students use their workbooks to achieve the competencies
vi. Students fill the competencies checklist after completing the competency levels in workbook
vii. "Tracking our progress" poster is being filled
The team concluded that there was a need to reformulate some of them as well as take out the
last one. It was found that some of these indicators, used in the Follow-up Support period, were
too vague and somehow overlapping, while the indicator ‘"Tracking our progress" poster is being
filled’ was found not to be helpful in the Kadam intervention in primary schools and was therefore
eliminated. The short time of the cohort intervention period was not enough to persuade the
teachers to the fact that public sharing of progress would beneficially affect the results in their
classroom.
The new indicators, better suited to the reality and used throughout the remainder of the project,
i.e. with Cohorts 2-6 (there was no Follow-up Support to Cohorts 7-8 since they ended with the
end of the project), are as below:
i. Students are grouped in trios

ii. Teachers use Kadam material/methodology in their classes
iii. Students are learning and filling up Kadam Workbooks at their own pace (meaning teachers
let students work independently some of the time)
iv. Students are using Kadam Workbooks to achieve the competencies (meaning exercises are
used to energize self-drive and reach results faster)
v. Students fill the competencies checklist after completing the competency levels in workbook
The baseline and end line assessment process details
Baseline assessment:
Before the actual assessment the Reading Facilitators visited the schools and informed the
teachers about its purpose. The teachers were told that the assessment was to be conducted in
order to make it possible to measure the impact by the end of the intervention. After agreeing a
date for the assessment with the teachers the guidelines for implementation – as set out in a
manual for the purpose – were explained to them.
During the assessment the teachers’ role was to oversee the process and to ensure that the
students participating had been selected according to the assessment guidelines. The assessor
would take care to make the students feel comfortable and not be under stress.
45
Depending on the number of students to be assessed, the process could be completed in two to
four days. The data was entered digitally in a data collection sheet along the way and this process
was completed latest 3 days after the end of the assessment itself.
End-line assessment:
Teachers were given prior information about the end-line assessment and accordingly dates were
fixed. The list of the students who participated during baseline assessment was shared with the
teachers to ensure that the concerned students would be available on the assessment day. The
teachers were oriented on the guidelines of the assessment – again as described in a manual for
the purpose – to ensure that they were aware of the process.
On the assessment day the concerned students were called by the teacher of each class or the
Reading Facilitators and were seated together in a separate room so that the normal classes
would not be disturbed. The assessor then called the students one by one and the assessment
was done. Enough time was given to the students to think and then give an answer.
As for baseline assessment, the end-line assessment process could take two to four days to
complete. Again the assessment results were entered digitally along the way and this task would
be completed within 2-3 days after the end of the actual assessment.
Data quality assurance measure adopted-
The Data Quality Assurance Measures adopted were the following, in three phases:
1. Preparatory phase:
a. A detailed assessment instruction manual was prepared and handed over to each
reading facilitator and primary school teacher involved in assessment.
b. Primary school teachers and HPPI Reading Facilitators were oriented on baseline
and endline assessment, which included orientation on selection of sample
students for the assessment, equal representation of boys and girls and also
considering the specific number of students to be taken from each class for the
assessment.
c. To avoid any bias in the process of selection, the first 3-4 boys and the first 3-4 girls
in the class attendance register were selected for the assessment from each class.
2. Data collection phase:
a. Each student who took part in the assessment was given an UID (Unique Identifier).
The UID helped in tracking the student during the entire process of assessment.
46
b. Some assessments were observed by the Assistant Project Supervisor himself to
ensure that teachers and reading facilitators were assessing the students in the
right manner.
c. There was review of each assessment tool to be sure it was complete and internally
consistent.
d. Around 5% of assessment answer sheets were cross checked by the Assistant Project
Supervisor.
3. Data processing phase:
The data set was put through a set of consistency checks like scrutiny, data entry, and
editing inconsistencies found during scrutiny and data cleaning. It was, then, rectified in
consultation with the field program manager. After these checks, the data was analyzed
through the use of functions of excel.
5.4 Achievements
i. Reach 31,917 children through program- 31,917 children at 215 schools were
organized to work with tasks and exercises in Hindi and English in the Kadam
Workbooks; they did this in groups of three, trios, in their classrooms, assisted by the
Reading Facilitators and their teachers. They also took part in the Kadam ‘special
activities’, such as two Theme Weeks – Theme 1, “The world I live in – Me, My Family,
My School, My Country”, and Theme 2, “We tell our stories” – as well as two Students’
Competitions with reading and word games. Furthermore, a sample group of nearly
17% of the total number of students participated in baseline and end-line assessments
at the beginning of each cohort intervention and 5 months later, respectively. The mix
of students’ own work with a substantial number of tasks and exercises AND holistic
theme learning with hands-on activities is what made the intervention achieve good
results.
ii. Trained 1203 teachers during the project period- The Reading Facilitators conducted
5 training sessions with 1,203 teachers at 215 schools, going through with them how
to use the Kadam material and methods. The teachers then worked with the Kadam
Teacher’s Manual, using it as a guide for their classroom work. Furthermore, the
Reading Facilitators gave classroom support by working with the teachers in their
classrooms on average once a week, carrying out the proscribed activities together.
As soon as the teachers – or the Reading Facilitators – started to apply the Kadam
methods in the classrooms, the teachers realized that the students’ interest and
engagement rose substantially and the energy level increased. They also noted that
47
the students learned better and more efficiently. This discovery has made many
teachers want to continue with the same methods.
iii. Completed PTM in 215 schools with more than 9926 parents- The Reading
Facilitators in cooperation with primary school teachers called the parents of all
students at 215 schools to Parents-Teacher meetings. 9,926 parents have participated
in at least one PTM out of two, with engaging and well-prepared agendas, and most
of them participated in both PTMs. Assuming that one parent per child is attending a
PTM, this figure represents 31% of parents. The most crucial point on the PTM agenda
was the presentations and performances given by the students, based on what they
had produced in the Theme Weeks mentioned above. This made the parents proud
and happy for their children, which in turn in many instances paved the way for
parents and teachers broaching some more difficult issues, such as how to improve
the attendance of some students, measures to make teachers known to use corporal
punishment stop that, how to improve students’ learning results, etc. Many parents
have expressed that they are interested in their children’s progress and will try to
come more often to the school.
iv. Building capacity of 3 DIETs Principals and faculty- The Reading Facilitators, backed
up by the HPPI/NeTT team leaders, held regular cooperation meetings with DIET
Principals and faculty at 3 DIETs, at least once per quarter, discussing points from a
fixed agenda. Furthermore, the 3 NeTT team leaders have worked with DIET Principals
and faculty regarding primary school monitoring and inspection, particularly at the
times of teaching practice of the pre-service pupil teachers. Of the three DIETs, DIET
Khandwa has been the most active with the Principal and a number of DIET faculty
members visiting nearly half of the primary schools participating in the Kadam project
at least once. The increased focus by HPPI on primary school students’ learning results
in Hindi and English, along with the work with the pre-service teacher training in the
DIETs, has elicited more interest among DIET Principals and some DIET faculty in
expanded cooperation in this area. Several DIET faculty members have noted the
effects of the Kadam intervention in primary school classrooms during their inspection
visits and they have also been approached by a number of primary school teachers
enquiring about the same.
Overview of progress against the logframe (2016-18)
48
Results Chain Indicator Project Target Project
(Outcome, Output) Achievement
Outcome 1: - No. and % of girls enrolled # as of school 17,057

30,600 children in at the start of the project enrolments; % = 55
53.4%
200 Government year
primary schools
show improved No. and % of girls retained # based on above; % = 2,831/2,895
reading levels at the end of the project 90
97.8%
year
% of schools on track with At least 90% of 200 90.7%

sessions as per planned schools
Of 215 schools
targets and schedule
% of number of days or At least 90% of each 10 88.6%

weeks of classroom weeks of planned
instruction completed instruction
against the planned targets
No. of learners receiving 30,600 students 31,917

reading interventions at the
primary level
No. of students’ practice 30,600 workbooks 30,618

book and TLM provided
% of children in 75% Hindi Reading,

Government primary 78%/52%; English
schools showed improved Reading
reading levels 84%/13%
49
Outcome 2: - 1,000 No. of teachers/educators/ 1,000 primary school 1,203
teachers in 200 teaching assistants who teachers
Government successfully completed in-
primary schools service training on KADAM
will adopt child- and assessment methods
centric, innovative with USG support
methodologies,
and develop No. of teachers trained in 1,000 primary school 1,045
needed TLM on site developing simple TLM teachers
using locally available
resources
No. of para- 6 master 14

teachers/master trainers trainers/reading
(out of the government facilitators
system) trained on reading
1 field project manager
pedagogy, trained to
conduct similar training
and/or to manage
implementation of the
reading programs in
government schools
No. of Teacher’s Manual 1,000 copies 968

and other teaching and
learning materials (TLM)
provided
No. of schools where 200 Government 189

Parents-Teacher Meeting primary schools
has been conducted as per
plan
50
Outcome 3: - No. of parents participated 10,000 parents in total 9,926
Parents of children in Parents Teachers
commit time and Meeting (PTM) and
energy in simple discussion related to
manners to build a children’s progress
conducive reading
enabling No. of community 10,000 community 580
atmosphere at members participated in members
home and in school the theme events
Outcome 4: - DIETs 3 DIETs involved in Monitoring of 30% of 36 schools visited

provide a strengthening and the schools, i.e. 60 out of planned
sustainable expanding the existing schools, by the DIET 60, 60%
support system to monitoring system from staff; fulfillment of
schools to enable the 2nd year on pilot basis goal.
8 DIET faculty trained
the reading
to guide school No DIET faculty
initiative to
teachers in use of was trained
continue in a
Kadam methodology within the
sustainable
project time
manner
frame.
No. of monitoring visits 60 visits 55

made by the DIET faculty to
schools.
5.5 Lessons learnt
Lesson 1- It was originally planned that the Reading Facilitators would carry out all
assessments. However, the time constraint, particularly felt in Year 2 made this mostly non-
viable. They then approached the DIET Principals, with the help of the HPPI/NeTT teams, to
request the participation of a number of DIET pupil teachers.
The participation of DIET pupil teachers who are in pre-service teacher training made the
assessments more time efficient, since it meant that a higher number of assessors were available.
51
At the same time it provided opportunities for hands-on experiences by the pupil teachers with
how to do assessments, which added to their training as teachers. It also worked to strengthen
the link between DIET pre-service and in-service teacher training responsibility, bringing yet
another occasion for DIET faculty to go to the primary schools to inspect, monitor and support
the activity and interact with the primary school teachers in their own schools.
Throughout the project, 20-40 DIET pupil teachers in each of the 3 districts were engaged in
several baseline and end-line assessments, with the permission of DIET Principals. At some other
occasions they could not take part, due to the demand of their training program. They were
trained for the assessments – and later supervised – by the Reading Facilitators.
All in all this was a good lesson, in the above-mentioned aspects.
Lesson 2 - The intervention involved providing material for artistic creative use in relation to
the Theme ‘We tell our Stories’, such as colored, synthetic clay and colored paper for origami
(making objects through paper folding). This Theme was sequenced as Theme 2. However, the
Reading Facilitators realized that if they made it into Theme 1, carrying it out early in the
intervention, not only were the students inspired, engaged and energized, but most of the
teachers were, too! This energy and enthusiasm by the teachers carried over into the next
activities and they tended to be more engaged throughout the remainder of the intervention.
Furthermore, it inspired some students to go find real, natural clay to make figures from.
Whether this lesson can be put into efficient future use will depend on funding for creative
resources and/or the willingness of Education Departments to provide similar resources. In the
meantime, while this has its limitations, HPPI can always make project teams try with locally
found natural materials.
Lesson 3- This started out as a ‘theory’ – that parent would come to Parents-Teacher meetings if
part of the agenda involved their children presenting or performing something they had learned
AND that children would make their parents come to the meeting for the same reason.
So the theory was tested with each and every cohort, in the way that students would prepare to
show and tell about things they had learned during the Theme Weeks. Come Parents-Teacher
Meeting Day and unexpectedly high numbers of parents (as foreseen by the teachers) appeared.
It was an eye-opener for many teachers who realized that this element on the meeting agenda
was essential. Then, with the presence of the parents, other points and issues could be treated,
like passing general information, sharing other student learning results, discussing difficulties,
etc.
Lesson 4- A few overall lessons learned are on the level of the Kadam program content and
52
implementation strategy. For instance, the use of workbooks with a defined stepwise progression
on competencies has proven effective in the primary school setting, while 10-week cohorts is a
too short timespan in the way that even better results and more impact could probably be
reached with a longer intervention, particularly with the teachers’ uptake of the methods. These
lessons have influenced the approach adopted for the next Kadam project in Uttar Pradesh, in
which the field staff will work with the same schools for one academic year and with a similar
type of workbooks.
Project scalability:
HPPI plans to scale up through a combination of direct implemented replication of the Kadam
model, workshop based training of teachers in Kadam methodology and development of an
online teacher resource repository. Funding for this will be sourced from company CSR funds,
foundations and State infrastructure leverage.
Kadam is to be replicated in Uttar Pradesh in a new 3-year project that has just started. As in the
READ Alliance Kadam project, it is linked to 4 DIETs in which HPPI has a presence, working with
pre-service teacher training. In the new project additional HPPI staff, in cooperation with DIET
faculty, will work with students and teachers of 60 primary schools near each DIET, reaching
24,000 children over 3 years. The project also involves nearly 10,000 Out-of-School children in
the same areas, to be brought back into school under the original Kadam Step-Up program. The
project locations are the Districts of Meerut, Jhansi, Allahabad and Gorakhpur.
Workshop based training of primary school teachers is planned in Madhya Pradesh, through an
Oracle funded initiative, in cooperation with the state Education Department. For this, HPPI is far
in negotiating to make the Kadam methodology part of the RSK’s annual calendar for in-service
teacher training in the 3 districts of the READ Alliance project.
The online teacher resource repository is planned to include Kadam material as well as an MIS
tool. It is meant to be used first by primary school teachers involved in any Kadam project, and
later by other primary school teachers. It will be made accessible on any electronic device with
internet access, first on computers and later on smartphones, etc.
The online Kadam material comprises:
- All Kadam Workbook exercises

- All Theme Week activities
- Worksheets for Students’ Competitions
The MIS tool comprises:

53
- Enrollment module
- Baseline and end-line assessments
- Competencies module and tests, to track progress
6. Educational Initiatives Pvt. Ltd. (EI)
This program aims to address the important pedagogic need for an accurate and reliable
diagnosis of the challenges faced in reading Hindi. The focus of the program will be to work with
early grade children for identifying reading related challenges. A language research team will
work on primary and secondary research to create the data based evidence for this. The research
will be done by creating an electronic diagnostic tool which will be tested and validated with a
small group of 370 students to make sure it is of sufficient quality to be scaled. Also an advisory
committee will be formed for external validation of each improved version of these applications.
Simultaneously, EI will collaborate with NGOs / Government to train 250 teachers on the findings,
which will come out of the baseline test of 370 students. EI can implement the study on its own
with permission of the government in case NGO partnerships do not materialize. EI contacted
NGOs to support in the process, but NGOs found it challenging to incorporate activities in the
existing schedule of things, hence EI executed on its own in partnership with the state
government. The baseline test will be conducted with 370 children who are taught by a subset
of teachers. The same schools covered in baseline will be re-visited in the endline test.
The resulting data with interpretations and indications will be shared with teachers. Also, there
will be a session on strategic reading recommendations based on the teachers’ class performance
on the tools, which they will be able to implement hands on. This will help teachers to get a clear
idea on the issues a child is facing in Hindi language reading, so she can take an informed decision
while making lesson plans including learning level differentiation between groups in the class.
Tech based monitoring system by using WhatsApp will be in place through which we will be in
touch with teachers and the activities happening in the classrooms. Through WhatsApp the
teachers were reminded of the recommendations provided during the workshop.
EI’s intervention was in Hindi Language, targeting the demographics where Hindi is the mother
54
tongue. The project was implemented in districts namely Kota, Bundi and Jhalawar of Rajasthan.
The intervention being tech based was gender neutral. We targeted to reach equivalent number
of girls and boys through this project. As the intervention requires EI collaborated with
Government, EI choose 18 schools from these districts. The test was implemented in 2 rounds of
assessment; one was in September 2016 and February 2017. The tool was developed by EI expert
team. An advisory committee was formed externally and internally to give regular feedback to
the team working on this project.
1. Outreach:
a. Reach of reading intervention
Direct Beneficiaries:
i. Number of Students in the intervention area was over 370 in baseline and endline
assessment. These students were assessed on the Hindi diagnostic tool.
ii. 225 teachers were provided with 1 day workshop on assessment results and Hindi
reading.
Indirect Beneficiaries:
i. With the help of the workshops for 225 teachers, over 15000 students were reached.
b. Number of Schools:
Direct Beneficiaries: Assessment during baseline and endline were conducted in 18 schools
in 3 districts of Rajasthan state in grades 2 to 5.
Indirect Beneficiaries: Over 200 schools were covered based on the number of teachers who
came for the workshop.
c. Grade Covered: The diagnostic tests were conducted in grade 2 to 5.
2. Reading Improvement outcomes: Endline assessment was conducted in February 2017, for
the same population as in the baseline. During this period, the EI team will remain in touch with
these schools and remind schools to follow what was shared during the workshops. The
instructions will be passed and reinforced through Whatsapp, SMS and E-mail. Performance
improvement was seen in 65% of students from baseline to endline, with an overall gain of over
5% in learning.
55
3. Teacher Training
a. 224 Teachers were trained based on the assessment data obtained from the survey.
b. Training was given for all 224 teachers for one day
c. The teachers came from government primary schools of 2 districts (Bundi and Jhalawar) of
Rajasthan state.
The project started with a goal - Improvement in reading skills of 10,000 primary government
school students through diagnostic tool which will address the importance of pedagogic need for
an accurate and reliable diagnosis of challenges faced in reading Hindi. In order to achieve this
goal, the following outcomes were achieved:
1. 10000 learners receiving reading interventions at the primary level – In order to ensure that
10000 students receive the intervention, 300 schools were identified which have sufficient
number of students and Hindi teacher in the school. The team visited the District Education
officer’s (DEO) office and Block Education Officer’s office (BEO), to discuss and select the schools
from the all school list. The schools were selected with higher number of enrollment to ensure
that the target it achieved. The student enrollment data was verified with teachers who attended
the workshop.
2. 225 Teacher Trained – In each school selected there is only 1 or two teachers teaching Hindi.
In order to ensure that these teachers attend the workshop on specified date, a letter was issued
by the DEO. This letter was personally delivered to the school by hand or Whatsapp and this was
followed up with calls from DEO/BEO office and EI team. This process ensured that teachers come
to the workshop. At the end 225 teachers came to the workshops.
OBJECTIVES INDICATORS TARGET TARGET ACHIEVED

PLANNED
Improvement in reading skills of 10,000 primary government school

students through diagnostic tool which will address the importance of
pedagogic need for an accurate and reliable diagnosis of challenges faced in
GOAL reading Hindi.
56
Teachers from Primary and
secondary schools of Bundi
and Jhalwar participated in the
study. A total of 226 teachers
participate in workshop
covering 15941 students. The
teachers were provided with 8
hours of training to ensure that
# of learners receiving they not only understand the
reading interventions at [TOTAL: findings but also absorb it
Outcome 1 the primary level 10,000] during the day.
# of teachers/ educators/ The program will only require 8

teaching assistants who hours of training. The teachers
successfully completed were called from 250+ Schools.
number of hours required It is possible that more than 1
for program teacher came from a school
and some teachers become
absent on the day of the
workshop so finally 226
teachers were trained. A
written approval was taken
from READ Alliance that 226
teachers is fine and no need to
do more training. The teacher
absenteeism is a usual
problem in government
[TOTAL: trainings, here we avoided it by
Outcome 2 250] continuous follow-up.
% of children in primary Overall 5% performance

grade with improved improved from Round 1 to
reading skills Round 2. While over 60%
students showed
Outcome 3 15%
improvement on the reading
57
skills from round 1 to round 2.
# and % of girls enrolled 8219 girls out of 15941 total

at the start of the project enrolled at the start of the
year project year. This comes 51.5%
Outcome 5 50% of total enrollment.
# and % of girls retained 8203 girls out of total 8219

at the end of the project retained at the end of the
year project year which is 99.80% of
total girls enrolled in
48% beginning.
6.5 Lessons learnt
i. Students from marginalized community i.e. who do not get proper resources at home
and at school, are willing to learn at any point of time and they should be provided with
proper opportunities.
ii. We experienced that students were able to learn new things very quickly. For example,
appearing on an online test with 15 to 20 minutes of training and then operates the
computer on their own.
iii. MOU with the government should be signed before working in government schools, this
really helps.
iv. We have observed that over 50% teachers are not interested in learning new things and
taking it back to schools. This mostly relates to Leadership issues at school.
v. Teachers do not get fair treatment in remote locations. If they are provided with good
treatment, then are willing to participate in events wholeheartedly.
vi. The research in Hindi language is very less, and we can make a change by doing it in
depth and developing better tools each time. This factor motivated the team a lot during
the project.
58
vii. Insights from student responses and validation of the same by teachers are an important
factor for improving the tool.
viii. Technology driven diagnostic assessment in school can be done very quickly and quality
of data is also maintained.
The program has potential to scale in the following ways, provided we have a funder to support
these activities.
i. Adding more tests in Hindi for students every 3 months, so that the user come back
to the platform check the growth in learning skills.
ii. The program can have diagnostic assessments not only in Hindi Languages but also
for other vernacular languages in India. This will increase the reach of the tool.
iii. The data for the tool needs more analysis as it gets used over the period time.
iv. The tool can be added with online remedial activities for areas students are weak in
or weaker students can be provided with practice cum learning units online for Hindi.
v. The tool can have more granular questions and can be made adaptive to make it more
accurate, this can be done by application of Machine learning.
The program has potential to scale in the following ways, by EI.
i. EI would like to keep this program alive by promoting the work it has done with support
of USAID at national and state forums.
ii. Promote usage of the tool via newsletters to get visibility among the education fraternity.
II. ACER Third Party Evaluation of EGRIC 1 and 2 partners
READ Alliance in the final year of its tenure conducted a third party evaluation of the overall
progress towards the fulfilment of project objectives. This evaluation was conducted by
Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), in a baseline- endline format for assessing
the reading abilities.
Following are the major highlights of the evaluation.
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Partner-wise reading outcomes on Program function
Agragamee
Students were assessed in Odia language and showed statistically significant improvements on
nearly all reading skills. Around 62.5 percent of students answered more than 80 percent of the
Pre-reading items correctly and 30.5 percent each answered more than 80 percent of the Reading
comprehension and Fluency items correctly at endline.
HPPI
Students were assessed in Hindi language and showed statistically significant improvements on
nearly all reading skills. Around 89 percent of students answered more than 80 percent of the
Pre-reading items correctly, 79.5 percent answered more than 80 percent of the Reading
comprehension and 50.6 percent answered more than 80 percent of the Fluency items correctly
in endline assessment.
KPEC
Students were assessed in English language and demonstrated statistically significant

improvements in most reading skills. 54.4 percent of students answered more than 80 percent
of the Pre-reading items correctly, 26.2 percent answered more than 80 percent of the Reading
comprehension and 15.8 percent answered more than 80 percent of the Fluency items correctly
in endline assessment.
PlanetRead
Students were assessed in Hindi language and while there were some improvements in student
performance, only one measure was statistically significant. 56.7 percent of students answered
more than 80 percent of the Pre-reading items correctly, 35.8 percent answered more than 80
percent of the Reading comprehension and 14.2 percent answered more than 80 percent of the
Fluency items correctly in endline assessment.
QUEST
Students were assessed in Marathi and demonstrated statistically significant improvements in
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some reading skills. 77.6 percent of students answered more than 80 percent of the Pre-reading
items correctly, 53.2 percent answered more than 80 percent of the Reading comprehension and
41 percent answered more than 80 percent of the Fluency items correctly in endline assessment.
Knowledge and Communication and Partnership functions
Clear efforts were made to both disseminate information to interested parties and also to build
a library of accessible resources. The team focused on secondary research to create knowledge
based on the work by the intervention partners and created an online repository that could be
publicly accessed. Both online and offline means have been used to propagate, publicize and
promote the knowledge thus created.
A newsletter with a reach of 1600 recipients was sent out every quarter. Online means such as
blogs, photo blogs and case studies based on work by intervention partners have been created
as part of this effort. The main social media platforms used are Facebook and Twitter with an
average post of once a week. This was increased when events are organized.
In terms of partnerships, the READ Alliance Partnership Network has incorporated 33 partner
organisations. Newsletters and events – such as the Reading Hackathon - were used to bring
partners together in order to ensure continuous engagement. The approach towards partner
engagement has changed over time. In the latter years of the program it had evolved into a
project based approach. There was an emphasis on building and establishing partnerships with
specific focus around projects or events being held. For instance, individuals have been
approached with the specific purpose becoming mentors under the Education Innovation
Mentorship Program (EIMP).
One of the main initiatives intended to help achieve the partnerships goal 2 was the setting up of
the READ Alliance Partnership Network (RAPN). The RAPN is a database of interested individuals
and organisations, both for-profit and not-for profit. Interested potential partners can sign up to
the RAPN through a web-based signup form. As of March 2018, there are 29 partners registered
2
The primary aim of the Partnerships function was to build and establish strategic partnerships with broad spectrum
of actors in the domain of early grade reading. A networked community of stakeholders who work collaboratively to
understand and overcome the issues that confront early grade reading in India was the intended outcome. Thus the
project engaged with diverse education partners as was envisaged as part of achieving the objectives.
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through the RAPN. READ Alliance used this database to reach out to partners, engage them in
different events like READ talks, which are based on important themes around early grade
reading such as ‘Leveraging Technology in Early Grade Reading’. Another example of such event
is the Reading Hackathon – which was intended to provide innovative technology-based solutions
for problems in the Early Reading domain. Amazon Internet Services and Pratham Books were
partners for the event along with CKS and USAID. Some of the solutions created during the
hackathon included creation of apps to effectively monitor the growth in performance and use
of game-like contexts to address learning needs.
IV. Education Innovation Mentorship Program (EIMP) | August- November, 2018
READ Alliance initiated EIMP in August 2018, a four month long mentorship program for the
education startups focusing on development of impactful products, services and solutions which
can support the reading needs of low cost/government primary school going children in India.
These solutions are targeted at resolving education gaps and fulfilling the learning challenges,
targeting the following users: Students (6-14 years old), Primary School Teachers, Librarians,
Parents, School Administration, Low cost/affordable primary school ecosystem and
Publishers/Content Providers.
The main objective of EIMP is to provide seed grants and capacity building support to early stage
education entrepreneurs over a course of four months. Capacity building support would include,
continuous mentoring from a team of experts, ecosystem analysis, piloting, prototyping
solutions/products, help develop implementation strategies, networking and future funding
opportunities. The following sections introduces each EIMP partners, their objectives,
implementation details, monitoring and evaluation mechanism, and highlights their
achievements specific to the mentorship program in the past four month.
1. Federation of Democratic Voices (Meraki Foundation) | Meraki Sprint
Meraki works with parents of 6-8 years old children, to cultivate knowledge, skills and mindsets
necessary to build a supportive environment at home for their child. The project Meraki Sprint
was delivered through Do-It-Yourself (DIY) tasks distributed through custom technology and in
person workshops to parents.
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At each workshop, parents learn contextualised ways to engage with their children to improve
the child’s ability to develop language skills through meaningful interactions at home. After each
workshop, parent are provided with simple DIY activities, relevant to the context of low income,
under resourced homes. These activities support parents in engaging with their children at home
with a focus on building language skills. These activities are provided using both offline (Meraki
booklets) and online methods. Using voice enabled technology developed in-house, parents with
feature phones receive automated voice calls while those with smartphones received automated
messages to complement the workshops as well as assist them in using the Meraki booklets.
There two main functions of Meraki’s program - The Sprint included creating parent training
framework and Content; and conducting parent training/engagement program.
The major objectives of the project were to impact the children from bottom of pyramid (BoP)
communities who are at a disadvantage the moment they enter school. To improve student
outcomes, Meraki works at building the capacity of parents to understand child development
principles, their role in aiding language and cognitive development, equipping them with
adequate parenting practices that enable building a stimulating environment at home. Through
the activities, Meraki aims to impact:
1. School readiness of children
2. Reduction of child neglect
3. Improved parent-child relationships
1.2 Implementation details
Meraki’s parent engagement program for EIMP had the following phases:
i. Scouting, Identification and Finalisation of Schools

Meraki conducted scouting of public and private schools in South Delhi Municipal
Corporation area and New Delhi municipal corporation area. Primary criteria of
selection were kept as- the accessibility of schools, availability of telephonic network
and signed letter from department, or MoU with the public/private schools. The
scouting of exact locations were done by a team of operations and senior operations
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associates along with Meraki Margdarshak 3. The pitching to the schools were done
by the Senior Operations associates with the Operations Associate team. Further, the
schools for this intervention was finalised in September, selecting nursery and grade
one students and their parents for this intervention.
ii. Training of Meraki Margdarshak

The Meraki Margdarshak were trained on: (i) Parent Engagement Framework, (ii)
Introduction to Workshops, Support visits and DIY activities, (iii) Data Collection and
entry, (iv) Technology at Meraki, (v) Working with Adults and (vi) Culture and
Professional Expectations at Meraki. The presentation materials for the training and
the training was conducted by the content and senior operations teams at Meraki,
with a balance of theoretical and on-ground knowledge.
iii. Creation, Recording and Deployment of Activities

The first step to this involved shortlisting activities which are engaging, easier to
conduct and align with the developmental aspects of children. These activities were
rigorously tested, including feedback from Meraki Margdarshak who were involved
as beta testers. These activities were scaffolded so as to ease the parents into the
process of conducting at home. After shortlisting the activities, they were passed
onto the voice recording artist who recorded and finalised them. The voice recordings
were then shared with the technology team to store onto Meraki databases, and
further deployment.
iv. Creation of Workshops

The content team of Meraki put together the overall workshop design, each script of
which was then tested through the Margdarshak. They provided feedback to the
workshop design and script, making this program more accessible to low income
parents.
v. Pre-program data collection of parent
Meraki designed a questionnaire focussed on the monitoring and evaluation
framework and trained the operations team, the volunteers and Margdarshak on
conducting the questionnaires and data collection techniques. The team spent a
week administering the questionnaire and collecting data which was then analysed
3
Meraki identified 12 women from the community with leadership capabilities, for the role of community
champions, referred to as ‘Meraki Margdarshak’. Their role in the project is similar to onsite supporters.
Meraki trains the Margdarshak on the content (pre literacy and numeracy skills) of DIY activities so as they
can support other parents in the communities.
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by the data and M&E team at Meraki. Results from the data analysis were fed back
into the workshops and the induction sessions to Margdarshak and parents.
vi. Invitation to Parents for Induction & Workshops
The field team gathered data like parents’ names, their contact number, address from
the schools (with their permission). Team Meraki sent out invitation for the induction
through classroom diaries of students, calls and home visits (based on the availability
of the parent).
vii. Conduct Workshop
The operations team at Meraki coordinated with the school, teachers and parents to
decide a day and time that works to conduct the workshop. They also ensured of
workshop venue, coordination with all stakeholders is complete and informed
everyone related about the sessions, as well as finalise the ready-to-distribute kits for
parents.
viii. Conduct Support visits
Support visit framework were created in collaboration by the operations and the
content team. Based on the performance of the parents at the workshop and in the
activities, support visit design for each parent were customised and conducted by
Margdarshak and operations associate. Data collected from each support visits were
documented, analysed and further used to create a customised support for each
parent.
1.3 Monitoring and Implementation
Meraki aimed at driving behavioural changes in parents from BoP communities and the
continuous data collection and analysis has helped generate evidence to:
i. Ensure effective delivery and adoption of the program

ii. Capture qualitative experiences and quantitative satisfaction levels of parents with the
program
iii. Track interaction with activities using technology to measure progress and drive personalised
support visits
iv. Assess children’s school readiness levels before and after the intervention
v. Access engagement and impact within families
vi. Generate actionable changes needed to iterate and improve the intervention
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Following are the M&E mechanisms followed by Meraki to ensure smooth implementation of the
project.
i. Log frame
Meraki maintained a logframe with major project success indicators with achievable
quantifiable targets against it, for the duration of four months. A detail on the achievement
is presented in the following sections in this report.
ii. Field Visits and regular on-site support

Team Meraki conducted regular field visits to complete the following activities:
a. Pre-program surveys
b. Parent Surveys
c. Child School-Readiness Assessment
iii. Daily activities

a. Activity progress of parents on BOT and IVRS
iv. Mid-Program (every 3 weeks post workshops)

a. Satisfaction surveys
b. Qualitative & anecdotal feedback was collected via Case studies designed
c. Reflections of operations team was collated regularly as well
Meraki used both census and sampling techniques when collecting data based on logistical
constraints, availability of time and personnel. The rubrics for parent activities are based on an
anagogical framework, while those for children are pegged against cognition and language skills.
This robust analytical framework, helps effectively measure the child’s levels before and after the
program.
Meraki’s findings on the school readiness of primary grade students:
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Status % students
School ready 28.7
At Risk 43.9
At high risk 27.27
Findings on trans-theoretical model of behavior change of parents, the status of parents along
the 4 levels:
Trans-theoretical Levels % parents on each level
Pre-contemplation 24.4
Contemplation 72.2
Preparation 3.3
Action 0.0
1.4 Major Achievements
Meraki Bot 4 set up on Facebook: This achievement has enabled the team to build an interactive
platform where parents can engage meaningfully with the content put together by Meraki.
4
For the parents who use smartphones, Meraki established an online bot in commonly used social platform-
Facebook to release content materials, videos and question answers based on the DIY activities. The parents could
then refer to the video available in the bot as a reference to conduct activity with their children, answer the questions
in the bot- thus also providing data to the analyses and M&E team at Meraki.
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Approximately 72% Parents interact with the IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) 5 - 10
times a month, for an average of 58 seconds
The success of the IVRS intervention means that more and more parents are completing the
activities. Altogether 94% caregivers who attended the workshop rated them excellent, which
shows the usefulness of these workshops to the parents. This also shows that the primary
caregivers, who are a part of the intervention, are themselves mobilising members within their
own family for the cause of these young children.
Expert mentorship and navigation: READ Alliance connected Meraki and its project Meraki Sprint
for the EIMP with Professor Venita Kaul. The team met Professor Kaul over three brief mentoring
sessions to discuss their program, intervention nudges and the content. The mentoring sessions
ran team Meraki through critical examination of the contents and the delivery and facilitation.
The team has ensured of engaging with the mentor for content and technical aspects of delivery,
even after the EIMP has come to an end on November.
Indicators Target Achievement
No. of champion mothers recruited 3 3
No. of DIY Activities developed 56 56
No. of parents engagement kits

600 600
created
No. of workshops conducted 2 3
No. of DIY Activities disseminated 14 21
No. of parents attending the

150 150
workshops
No of parent engagement kits

300 450
distributed
5
For the parents who do not have android based smartphones, Meraki transforms the audio recordings of the DIY
activities through IVRS, also facilitated with an audio recording based feedback system.
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No. of parents engaged in DIY
150 150
activities
1.5 Lessons Learned
Organization Strengthening: The EIMP added structure to the organizational, human resource
and financial policies of Meraki, along with strengthening the monitoring and evaluation process
through establishment of a Logical Framework. In addition to that, the organization gained a
better perspective on visibility of project and products through the Branding and Marking Plan.
Additionally, through a continuous feedback and technical support from READ Alliance, Meraki
is working on the content design (to make the graphics child friendly with more colors and
attractive pictures) as well as towards product sustainability.
2. Jungroo Learning Private Limited | Jungroo Adaptive Assessment
Jungroo Learning is a startup that helps educators and organizations understand and chart their
student’s journey at a microscopic level through an AI-powered Adaptive Engine. Traditional
reading fluency assessments is time consuming for the teacher thus immensely reducing her
classroom interaction time. The results of this test are also prone to human errors and could be
subjective to personal biases. This major shortcoming led Jungroo to leverage technology to
create a software tool that incorporates speech to text recognition to accurately identify the
reading level of a student. The student’s comprehension ability is also diagnosed in optimum time
through adaptive algorithm to determine the reading comprehension categorized at the skill
level. The highly reusable framework on top of which the software is built, also enables
organizations to customize it based on the needs and metrics if necessary.
The objectives of this project were to:
i. Leverage technology to build a tool that uses speech to text recognition to identify reading
ability
ii. Diagnose the reading comprehension levels of the students and the skills mastered by them
through an adaptive assessment
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iii. Increase teacher effectiveness and making them aware about the importance of reading and
reading levels
Jungroo created an Artificial Intelligence powered adaptive assessment for primary grade
students. Int the process of finalising their adaptive assessment software, or, the Minimum Viable
Produce (MVP), Jungroo completed the following activities.
Tech infrastructure, wireframes and validation: Jungroo created a backend systems like Customer
Relationship Management to on-board Principals, teachers and students to the adaptive
assessment and a Content Management Systems to input reading contents. The system also
incorporated ML algorithms to analyse students reading and comprehension skills. The team built
wireframes and which will be iterated in schools for an appropriation selection based (customer
satisfied) design.
Created product prototype: With the wireframes and backend systems in place, Jungroo launch
the Minimum Viable Product, to start testing initially. Jungroo is now in the process of running a
iteration at schools 6 to test the effectiveness of the MVP and compare the results with the
qualitative analysis of the student by being in person to do the pilots.
Teacher training camps: Jungroo conducted two teacher training camps in Tamil Nadu with
teachers of low cost private schools, who will be using the product in academic year 2019. The
training contents have a major focus on core reading concepts and assessment pattern followed
by the MVP. The teachers were also made familiar on differentiation, personalization teaching in
classrooms and how best to leverage student data to cater to the unique needs of the student.
Monitoring and Evaluation was done by the product in itself as this were a tech enabled product.
1. The reading levels of the students are captured by the system.
6
Jungroo has tied up with schools run by Vidya Vidai NGO in Tamil Nadu to ru iteration in this academic session,
train teachers on using the MVP, understand core concepts related to it and understand student perspectives.
Jungroo is also launching the product in academic year 2019 in these schools.
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2. The time take for each assessment,
3. The time spent on each question and
4. The overall time taken for growth of students is captured by the system.
Jungroo also did qualitative analysis of the teacher training with feedback from teachers and also
about the assessments with qualitative feedback from the teacher regarding the levels of the
classroom. The assessment results are checked and validated by the manual assessments that
the student undergoes. The results are cross checked for accuracy and feedback into the system.
2.4 Project Achievements | August- November 2018
Development of the adaptive assessment, the MVP: Jungroo developed an AI powered online
adaptive assessment system with the Reading Fluency and Comprehension as productized
separate features.
Organizational Strengthening: The Company framed policies and guidelines for its internal
finance, HR and admin purposes. The company now has a clear idea of grant making, reporting
and other aspects involved in running an enterprise.
Outreach Achievements: The Company has won Government of Karnataka grant to develop the
platform further into a full-fledged product on its own. The main catalyst to this was the EIMP
program which pushed us to work in this project and have formal documents and pitches and
ideas to be presented to the government.
Four new business-to-business (B2B) leads: Due to the additional offerings by Jungroo there are
four new B2B clients that Jungroo is pursuing. The organization is confident about converting two
of the four leads by the start of academic year 2019.
Indicator Target Project Achievement
No. of primary grade students reached by the project 500 518
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No. of Reading App developed 1 1
No. of training sessions 2 2
No. of teachers trained to use the Reading 30 39
2.5 Lessons Learned
The following are the features and updates that Jungroo is planning to incorporate in the product
from the lessons learnt during the past four months.
i. Increase in Accuracy of the speech to text conversion for Reading Fluency

The speech to text algorithm needs to be more optimized to Indian accent and
students below the age of 14. Voice samples from different schools, age groups and
geography needs to be trained and the accuracy of the algorithm and speech to text
conversion engine needs to be increased upon. As Jungroo is not solving an open
speech recognition problem but solving a speech to text matching problem to see the
accuracy of the passage read, there are many false positives that might be possible
as the engine tries to match the voice to the best possible matching word. The aim
would be to achieve a 98% and above accuracy for the engine.
ii. Change in Question Interface for Reading Comprehension
Jungroo uses an adaptive framework for reading comprehension the passage adapts
itself based on the responses. Hence any new passage is shown that is mapped to a
certain level after each response of the student. There is possibility of the same
passage shown again to ask a different question mapped to a different skill at a later
point of time in the assessment. Jungroo will optimize this and tag multiple skills to a
single passage so that different skill level questions can be mapped to a single passage
and questions can be asked.
iii. Increase user engagement
To increase the engagement level of students and to improve retention rates, the
students are given the choice of their reading material. They can choose the passage
theme based on their aligned interests. Jungroo will create different types of text-
fiction, non-fiction, poem, play etc.
iv. Behavioral aspects to acceptance
During the interaction sessions and trainings with teachers, team Jungroo observed
that teachers see reading as a standalone part of English subject and do not see it as
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a skill that compliments the student in learning all the subjects. Reading Assessment
is something teachers are not aware of. The knowledge of reading levels of the
student can instruct the teaching for a teacher is something teachers are new to.
Hence Jungroo will works towards bringing the slow mindset shift in the ecosystem
with respect to reading as a skill and reading assessments.
3. Samait Shala
Samait Shala runs a three years Systemic Intervention Program (SIP) for mainstream classrooms
to cater to differential needs of the children. Their program is specifically designed for affordable
private schools with deep focus on students’ learning outcomes, building capacity of in-service
teachers and empowering parents and stronger implementation of the same on ground.
Samait Shala’s Model (3 - tier Systemic Intervention Program)
Balanced on the literacy approach, Samait Shala failitates and assesses students on the six core
literacy components in English language- (i) Speaking and listening, (ii) Phonemic
awareness/Phonics, (iii) Sight words/Sentence structure, (iv) Reading Comprehension, (v)
Grammar and, (vi) Writing.
For the EIMP, Samait Shala fulfilled the following objectives:
i. Designed and developed summative assessments aligned with NCERT

ii. Digitised the assessment by creating a technology platform for data collection and then help
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design analysis platform for teachers and the Samait Shala program
iii. Prepare and purchase Teaching and Learning Materials (TLM) to establish literary learning
stations and also for remediation activities during the classroom activities
i. Development of Assessments and Interactive Platform
Samait Shala collaborated with Avadhaarna Educational Services to develop literacy assessment
for grades (1-5) with skills segregated for four literacy components viz; grammar, high frequency
words/vocabulary words, reading comprehension and writing. All assessments were developed
on the basis of NCERT learning outcomes.
ii. Digitization of the Assessment scorebook to technology platform
Samait Shala also partnered with Augmented Understanding (AU) to develop android based,
open source digital platform for the collation of data received from the assessments for the
baseline, midline and endline assessments at schools.
The technology platform is called the Saral and the name of the app is ODK Collect. It is an open
ended app available on Android store. AU inputs the summative exam questions on the app. The
teacher uses the app to input marks for the summative exams. Once the teacher input the scores,
the data is collected at the back end on a dashboard Google sheet. The dashboard is ready with
the required plugins based on the analysis we need. Once the scores are entered the graphs start
showing up. Currently Samait Shala shares the results displayed on the dashboard with the school
Principal and teachers.
The purpose of development of this tool is to give direct insights of the summative exams in the
hand of the school Principal and the teachers. Samait Shala believes that the school should be
able to analyze not only the scores of the students but also the breakdown of the different skills
that the students are able to master. This will in turn help the teacher to plan for effective
instructions towards the actual need of the class. It also tells the school the overall strengths of
English literacy of their school and it is completely backed by data.
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Samait Shala conducted two training sessions at each intervention schools towards the iteration
of the tech platform and collecting feedback, as well as training the primary grade teachers on
the features and usage of the application.
iii. Materials purchased for Teachers and design of Remedial Kits
Samait Sahala has brought together some additional learning material like read aloud story
books, teacher professional development materials for comprehension skills, different English
level assessments, grammar books at schools with support received from READ Alliance. This has
given the teachers- a rich flavor for the English Language. The differentiated materials have been
introduced at primary grades to cater to different learning level at the same time.
v. Designing of Remedial Kits
Samait Shala has devised remedial kits for students of grades (2-8), based on NCERT learning
outcomes for the respective grades. The remedial materials are used for the entire class with
mixed ability groups together. A particular time during the week is scheduled for remedial for
English for the same. Children practice in their group of 5-6 students each. The purpose of these
remedial kits is for the children to revise the learning material which is aligned to the grade level
learning outcome through different activities with their peers in a whole class time. The students
get to there in groups and interact with the cards and activities which have grade level
appropriate instructions in short text and with visual clues.
It further aims at promoting working in groups and encourage stronger interaction with the peers
to drive learning. The interaction among the peers also reduces dependency on teachers for
every small information and clarification. Additionally, it provides students with ample of space
and time to revisit the learning material at their own pace.
The major monitoring and evaluation mechanism adopted at Samait Shala were:
Observation of Teachers for execution of Unit Plan: Samait Shala provided constant support for
2-3 days every week for observation, feedback and practice sessions as required for the
facilitation of new unit plans (of remedial kits). Samait Shala records and maintains database of
the observations made to track progress of every teacher on the facilitation. Learning circle
sessions are conducted every week for 60 to 90 mins for the teachers to get hands on practice of
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the execution of plans, based on the observations and feedbacks of regular classroom support.
Beginning, Mid and End of Year Data Collection: Samait Shala collected three typical
assessments on the six literacy components of English language in all grades (2-8). The programs
teams of Samait Shala conducted the assessments to avoid data collection biases at each class in
both the intervention schools.
Post Mid-year data reflection: Based on the mid-year assessment reflections, the teachers were
taken through two steps training. First, they were shown the overall status of the school in terms
of Primary and Secondary section; and then the teachers were grouped in pairs to brainstorm
the reasons behind the data. They took this time to reflect on their past practices and come up
with the level of intervention they would like to use in the next leg of the execution of plans.
Development of the Summative and Diagnostic Assessments and tech platform
Samait Shala developed and finalised the assessment with the purpose of supporting the school
system to recognise skillswise strength of each student in each subject. This will now allow Samait
Shala to conduct assessment throughout three different quarters of an academic year, in the
intervention schools during the entire implementation period.
The development of the assessment and the tech platform has given a direct insight of the
summative exams in the hand of the school Principal and the teachers. The schools will now be
able to analyze not only the scores of the students but also the breakdown of the different skills
that the students are able to master. This will in turn help the teacher to plan for effective
instructions towards the actual need of the class. It also tells the school the overall strengths of
English literacy of their school and it is completely backed by data. The dashboard has provided
an apt understanding of the breakdown that happens in the Primary and Middle School Segment
of the school. This enabled the management to understand the overall segment wise strength of
the school and for teachers to make effective instructional decisions.
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Remedial kits to be used in whole class
Remedial kits for Grade 2 to Grade 8 classrooms have been designed to be used in a whole class
scenario. The remedial learning materials are based on NCERT Learning Outcomes for the
respective Grades. This has now allowed the children to revise the learning material which is
aligned to the grade level learning outcome through different activities with their peers during
the school hours. The students get to there in groups and interact with the cards and activities
which have grade level appropriate instructions in short text and with visual clues.
TLMs for teachers and learning centers
With support received from READ Alliance, Samait Shala bought different teacher learning
materials shared with the teacher which has provided an opportunity improve their knowledge
with rich text and reference material for English Literacy, and also create a reading environment
at schools.
Mentorship Support
Samait Shala received mentor support from Pranav Kothari of Educational Initiatives, for the
initial understanding of development of an assessment system and deriving analysis of the
assessments created. One of the key learning from the mentorship to Samait Shala has been
designing any tech platform with the views of creating value for customers rather thinking about
lowering the costs. Stakeholders will be satisfied in paying for value oriented product, and even
the cheapest product will not go far if it fails to create value for the customers.
Indicator Target Achievement
No. of primary grade students reached by the project 780 412
No. of tech platforms developed 1 1
No. of training sessions for the teachers 12 12
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No. of teachers trained to use the tech platform 26 26
TLM Material Distribution 48 35
Development of assessments 1 1
3.5 Lessons Learned
The challenge of shortage of hands on the Samait Shala team was quite visible from the 4 month
of execution. Hence the team is working at expanding members, building up a local team for
execution is being taken up as a priority.
In the same regards, Ssamait Shala was very ambitious about the collection of data for the entire
school, grades (1-8) for English language. The organisation has thus learnt that it is good to start
with piloting with only 2-3 early grades and understanding the mechanisms or factors affecting
the authenticity would have helped reduce the pressure on the team.
Having Avadhaarna and Augmented Understanding on board has enriched the quality of learning
Samait Shala has had. However, the remote coordination led to some communication breakdown
and also did not give them the feel of the ground. Their presence on the ground would have
benefitted them with how the ground is being receptive to the information and analysis
developed by them. Samait Shala is thus working on these grounds of arrangements.
4. Happy Horizon Trust (HHT)
Despite of the high number of students in schools in rural Bihar, today, the quality of education
remains poor. Lack of interest and motivation in education also results in drop out from schools.
The ‘Youth Leadership Development Program’ run by Happy Horizons Trust (HHT) in rural Bihar,
aims towards strengthening the reading abilities in children in primary schools by empowering
local girls as changemakers.
The primary school students are engaged through activity-based learnings and emphasizes on
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the development of the language, motor, cognitive, interpersonal social and creative skills. The
project is aimed at these different questions: How may HHT get students to read, write &
communicate better? Can HHT do it by intervening through weekly engagement sessions? In
order to address this, HHT asked, how might we motivate and guide the youth of today towards
feeling more concerned for the society and the education of children in particular? The program
was based on the facts, that the children show higher interest of engagement to a person
belonging to their local community and show higher levels of motivation towards learning, when
engaged in fun sessions like storytelling and activity-based learnings.
HHT closely worked with the existing education system and the government in bringing about a
systemic change. So far in the successful pilot, the trust has seen ample evidences of this working.
Students are more motivated to come to schools, the engagement levels of the students are high,
and the environment of the schools is more conducive to learning. HHT has adopted a bottom up
approach till now but moving forward it seeks to have a top-down approach with the support of
the state machinery’s education department. The key areas identified are finding opportunities
for soft skills development for the students (motivation, critical reasoning, motor skills, self-
confidence etc.) and training the youth to become leaders in their own society. Eventually the
trust, also seeks to engage with existing teachers to enhance their teaching and leadership skills.
i. Conducted the Midline survey
Happy Horizons Team team conducted the midline survey with the partner schools across
different grades using the ASER Survey tool in order to gauge the progress of the children through
its intervention.
ii. Planning and Executing the Quarterly Training the champions
Objective: HHT trained the champions on how to plan and conduct the reading, writing and
storytelling sessions with the children in a better way to ensure that every child of different
reading level are able to progress in their reading and understanding abilities.
iii. Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation
Objective: To monitor and gauge the learnings from the program / impact created with both the
children as well as the champions. To put the champions on a path of continuous learning and to
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able to engage with children better in the schools.
iv. Book Reading Clubs in schools
Objective: Equip all the classrooms with books from Pratham Books and to support reading
activities among students. To conduct reading activities or competitions in order to build a
reading habit among students in the schools where the champions are working.
Collaborations were made with the local schools, district administration and community leaders
to drive the different aspects of project. HHT leveraged its collaboration with Pratham Books to
get books and library kits delivered to Bihar. HHT were also able to leverage the local
communities to understand the needs of schools better and the functioning (or non-functioning)
of the schools.
The M&E developed by Happy Horizons Trust aims to capture the impact of the efforts done to
improve the Early childhood reading levels and the overall development of the child. Currently
the monitoring of activities under the Early Childhood Reading Project are done via offline
maintenance of logs through the Sessions Log book. The champions are required to keep record
of the activities conducted in the primary schools. The champions are monitored by the Program
Coordinator and the Project Manager, to ensure the proper delivery of the sessions.
The major monitoring and evaluation mechanism adopted at HHT were:
Assessments to understand the impact of interventions (Baseline, Midline and Endline)
The baseline assessments were carried out in the month of May 2018 with the help of local team
in Saharsa. Recently, in the month of September HHT carried out the Midline survey. The Endline
Assessments are to be carried out in the month of February 2019.
Process Involved:
• Project Manager informed and took prior permission from the school authorities in order
to conduct the survey
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• Project Manager planned the dates and formed a team considering the dates provided by
the school authorities and holidays
• The Head of Training/Program Manager demonstrated the champions and the project
coordinators on the process to conduct the survey for children in the partner schools where
the champions function.
• The surveyors went to the schools and met the Headmaster/Senior most teacher for their
permission after which they conducted the school survey.
Following steps were taken by the surveyors:
- Record the school information
- Record information of the student of class 1 to class 3
- Assess the basic reading, Hindi, English level and Arithmetic of the children.
• The surveyor consolidated and submitted the data to Program Manager.
• Program manager digitized the data to analyze it efficiently.
• The graph was collated in an info-graphic format which can be interpreted easily by all the
different stakeholders, supporters and partners to understand the improvements the
students are making with the help of the champions and the regular mentoring and guidance
provided by the organization.
Project Progress overview
MONITORING & EVALUATION TOOL ADOPTION
• HHT have finished the design and the development of the tool, and now it’s important to
start using it. This will further require the training of all the stakeholders involved.
• Adopt the Monitoring & evaluation tool across all the schools & engage with all
stakeholders
• Secure funding to purchase of 25 more tablets for distribution to all champions.
LIBRARY KIT UTILISATION
• After the distribution of the books, HHT need to ensure that the kits are being utilized
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properly and that there is no shortage of books.
• Track & evaluate the usage of the library kits distributed in the schools
• Monitor reading levels across the schools and all children
● Conducted Midline survey in the partner schools: This is perhaps the first time that any
organization is conducting a survey in these community schools to understand the
students’ learning levels and track their learning progress. This exercise is helping all the
stakeholders get more involved in driving the learning outcomes of the students. HHT’s
intent is that it follows up this midline survey with an end-line activity, to understand the
progress of the children based on the interventions HHT have done in the schools. This will
also help HHT design better interventions. Once HHT is able to show the progress levels to
the parents and other stakeholders within the eco-system, HHT can get the community
more involved.
● Launched the Reading Clubs in 35 schools in Saharsa District in Bihar: A major problem
HHT noticed in the work was that, children were not reading enough. Probing further HHT
found that schools did not have any regular program running to strengthen the student’s
reading levels. HHT has initiated the book reading clubs in the different schools, to be able
to encourage the students to read regularly. The goal with this is that HHT build the reading
habit that the students will then use to read at their school, homes and in the community.
● Distributed of the Library-In-a-Classroom kits: HHT all want the learning levels of the
students in the schools improves. However; in the absence of any regular program that
encourages children to do so, HHT sees poor age appropriate reading levels. On probing
deeper HHT noticed that many children were able to read the texts that were in the school
textbooks but were unable to read the texts from a random book. So, what was basically
happening was that the students were rote learning the text in the school books and then
reading them aloud. To enhance the reading levels of any book, HHT had to make more of
such books available to the children. By launching Pratham Books’ Library in a classroom
kit across the 35 schools, HHT made more books available to the children. The different
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stakeholders (teachers, parents) now know that the books are available. HHT is making the
champions accountable to ensure that the library kits are utilized properly, and the
students develop age appropriate reading levels.
● Regularized the Monthly Training of the champions: One of the challenges HHT faced
earlier in the work, was that there was no formal structure to the monthly champions
meetings. Also due to the lack of budget HHT was not able to invite external trainers. During
the course of this program HHT brought in better planning by mapping onto the Leadership
Development Journey of the fellows and identifying the externals trainers. Tapping into the
resource pool both locally within the district and across the different groups HHT have been
part of, allowed HHT to get a good list of trainers. Getting external trainers from outside
sends a positive message in the community. The champions learn aspects of professionalism
and leadership through these regularized monthly trainings now.
● Developed the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning platform: As HHT grows with the
number of sessions and champions spread across the district, it becomes important to have
tools that will help the organization analyze the collected data properly. The Monitoring and
Evaluation tool developed allows to capture objective data about the work HHT is doing and
generate reports that demonstrate the development of the children and the champions.
Many of the champions are using mobile for the first time, and for a few this is also the first
time they are using any form of technology. This is an important thing that was kept in mind,
in designing the application. The tool takes minimum input via entry texts, due to the comfort
level of writing on the tablets being low. Instead it relies on close end questions to keep the
users engaged easily. Special attention was paid to ensure that the learning curve has to be
smooth for the champions. Having interventions like these allows the stakeholders in the
community to see a more visual manifestation of the learning levels of the children and the
development levels of the champions.
● Training of Champions, Project Manager, Project Coordinator on M & E platform: After the
demonstration of the Monitoring & Evaluation platform during the monthly meeting, it was
important to have the champions and all staff members get trained on the usage of platform.
HHT had the Director of the company that did the design & development of the platform,
come and explain the different features of the platform. For the demonstration, the
champions were divided into groups of four and each group was given a tab. A walkthrough
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of the app from the login screen to the demonstration of the key features in the tool was
organized.
● Mentorship guidance: One other good thing about the EIMP program was that HHT had
access to a mentor, who could help with various things in the due course of the program.
From conceptualization of the book reading program for children to discussions on how
children reading habits are developed. From design of the Monitoring & Evaluation platform
to the help with the content & planning of the monthly champions training. Guidance on
organization growth and development was also provided to the organization.
Indicator Project Target Project Achievement
No. of books identified for the 3500 2325

Reading Clubs (for all schools)
No. of Reading Clubs created 35 August- 0
Sept- 5
Oct- 26
Nov- 4
No. of training sessions 4 August- 1
Sept- 1
Oct- 1
Nov- 1
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No. of champions trained 31 August- 31
Sept- 31
Oct- 31
Nov- 31
No. of primary grade students 4000 August- 2000

reached by the project
Sept- 1000
Oct- 500
Nov- 500
No. of MLE prepared 1 1
No. of champions trained for 31 31

the MLE tool
Case Study 4 4
4.5 Lessons Learned
The engagement duration of the program has been a period of immense learning for everyone
at the organization. HHT is immensely thankful for the opportunity provided. Here are a few
learnings from the EIMP project.
Adherence to timelines: The whole team understood the importance of logs, milestones and
delivery as per the timelines. The team benefitted a lot in learning how to plan things better and
work within time limits and deadlines.
Budgeting: Often when one is deep into the work on the field, budgeting and keeping track of
expenses takes a back seat. In the due course of the EIMP Project, the team learnt a lot about
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budgeting. Right from budgeting to budget utilization to submitting documents that prove the
expenditure made. This will go a long way in making the organization more transparent when it
comes to its expenditures.
Bookkeeping: Finance Management was a tough point for HHT in the past. With no formal
structure in place, the organization always faced difficulties in accounting and managing of the
funds. With the EIMP experience, HHT has been able to understand the working with a dedicated
account team, and the keeping the entries in the accounts updated. It feels confident that it will
do better with this in the months to come.
Working as a team: The EIMP project ensured that Happy Horizons Trust worked in good
teamwork throughout the duration of the project, as the team is spread across two locations i.e.
Delhi and Bihar. It also showed how HHT can leverage strengths of each location. The project
made sure there was better communication between team members, and coordination. People
understood the importance of timelines, milestones and deliverables. It made people within the
organization more accountable as well.
Organization Processes: HHT has learned a lot about how organizations function, and the
processes involved in things like purchase, raising purchase orders, invoicing and payments. This
has helped in better operations management of the organization in dealing with vendors, tender
process management. Apart from the operations, the team understood better the role of
different committees and how they work in tandem with each other.
5. Nutspace
NutSpace’s Booknuts Reading Programme helps teachers to raise readers and arouse love for
books in their children with the primary objective to get children Future Ready by developing
21st Century Skills which include Communication Skills, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration
and Mindfulness.

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Throughout the program a streamlined process of implementation was maintained which
required every activity to be documented through pictures as well as signed documents wherever
possible.
From the very first step of confirming the final list of schools to getting the app demos conducted,
it was made sure that everything was documented through pictures and School Acceptance
Forms, TLM Receiving Letters, App Demo Attendance etc.
In order to procure TLM, NutSpace collaborated with Pratham Books directly so as to speed up
the order placement and delivery process since no middlemen were involved. This collaboration
not only helped in procuring books on time but also helped in staying in direct touch with the
sales team and personally discuss the issues or glitches in the process if any.
1. Creation of assessment formats
 Pre-assessment format & implementation: Students come to the classroom from diverse
backgrounds and skills in literacy. It became important to identify individual needs of each
student by taking initial and ongoing reading assessments. These assessments helped in
developing appropriate lessons and in improving instructions for all students and teachers.
 Post-assessment format & implementation: It was essential to gauge how well the lessons
and instructions had been absorbed by the students and if there was any further scope of
improvement. After this curriculum (that was designed for a pre-decided period of time)
ended, a post assessment helped us assess the progress of the group and the teacher.
2. Development of technology application/reading app
The NutSpace reading app is a dedicated app for our Reading Program. The purpose of
the app is to act as a consistent guide to the teachers and will feature training videos,
class scripts, assessment modules, vocab videos. Eventually, we wouldn't want to give out
the physical copies of the content and share digitized material only (for teachers’
support).
For parents:
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English is a second language for most households and parents are usually clueless about
what's happening in the classroom. The app acts as a bridge between the school and
parent. Wherein book reading videos, VocabAct videos were shared and for phonics
sounds and lip movements videos were shared making learning uniform at home and in
school, hence more effective.
Some of the Assessment features:
There were two sides to the assessments:
1. Teacher Assessment - Where the teacher assesses the children based on their performance.
The questions / rubrics for these were decided after the first milestone of creation of
assessment formats was finished.
2. Self-Assessment - This was where the child / parent of the child could assess the learnings
at home. Children could watch / read / do activities on the app and get assessed for each
book through following features:
 Voice recording / reading of paragraphs / reading of books to assess the pronunciation,

reading skills and confidence of the reader.
 Comprehension Skills: Questions to understand how much the reader had understood the
text - literally and figuratively. (surface understanding, Reading between the lines and
Reading beyond the lines)
 Vocabulary Builder & Tester: NutSpace wanted to understand if children understood the
words / vocabulary that we were introducing in the class. This was done through sentence
creation and scenarios for correct usage of a word.
 Grammar: Students’ knowledge of spellings, punctuation, sentence formation and parts

of speech were tested through various questions.
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Monitoring and Evaluation
In order to monitor whether the program was being implemented properly or not, a dedicated
team member was made to keep a check on all the documentation needed and to organize it
regularly.
In order to monitor the progress of schools, regular Reading Observations were scheduled
wherein the teachers were evaluated on the basis of whether or not they were able to deliver
the content as per the lesson plans, during these observations their queries were also addressed.
This addressed a lot of logistical issues that came with the lesson plans and helped the scripts
become more concrete and easy to implement.
A baseline assessment was created to test the reading, writing, listening and speaking skills of
students as well as teachers, which helped in figuring out the starting level of the target that was
being dealt with.
Through the frequent schools visits and in-classroom observations, the growth and positive
changes in both students and the teachers was analysed. This gave us a clear idea of which areas
exactly the program seemed to be helpful.
Project Achievements:
• Reached out to 2048 children which is 848 more than what we had estimated in the beginning of
the program.
• Developed lesson plans for all the Pratham books to be distributed in the schools along with
assessments.
• Developed an app to provide the teachers scripts and the parents ideas on what they can do to
reinforce the learning at home.
Indicator Sub Indicators Project Target Project

Achievement
No. of Schools Receiving 6 schools 6 schools

Tablets
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No. of students receiving 1200 1200
the Books (across 12
Development of the reading
Schools)
and assessment app and
TLM distribution
No. of reading and 1 1
assessment app designed
Training on the app No. of training sessions held 12 12
No. of participants Teachers: 20 Teachers: 20

(segregated into teachers, Students: Students:1200
students and parents) 1200
Lessons Learned
● When deadlines were fixed, the targets were achieved in a more streamlined manner. So one big
learning was to set deadlines for the targets and then work towards it.
● Assigning particular roles to team members also helped in accomplishing tasks faster and get a
lot of clarity when it comes to accountability and reporting. This is one activity which will be
continued in the organization for everything else that is done in the future.
V. Education Technology Survey (August-December, 2018)
To understand the potential of EdTech (education technology) solutions and address the gaps in
early grade learning, READ Alliance conceptualised a research study to thoroughly assess the
existing landscape of technology solutions in three states- Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar
Pradesh. This required a detailed exploration of perceptions of various stakeholders, including
EdTech companies, education experts, parents, teachers as well as children studying in early
grades currently.
READ Alliance outsourced the study to Change Alliance Private Limited (CAPL) to achieve the
following specific objectives.
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i. Study technology adoption and penetration in lower income groups as a learning resource
ii. Understand the mind-set, aspirations regarding technology in lower income target group
iii. Capture the sociocultural impact of mobile data penetration in lower income groups,
especially in relation to reading behaviors and values
iv. Understand from theorists, thought-leaders and other stakeholders how to best envision
and model the future of reading as a life skill
v. Conduct a landscape assessment of the current educational technology innovations in the

early grade reading space in India (and the world) with an aim to understand the depth,
coverage and access
vi. Identify the existing barriers to and benefits of technology adoption in the early grade
reading space.
The study team used mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative data collection) in getting an
all-round perspective of the EdTech space and come out with a comprehensive report for
consumption by a wide audience comprising education experts, government officials,
INGO/NGOs working in the primary education space, policy makers, as well as corporates
working in the education space.
For the quantitative survey, parents and students were identified as key users of EdTech. Parents
of children aged 6-14 years and students studying in grades 4 to 8 were selected as respondents
in the selected schools. The selection of the primary survey location was done using the
Probability Proportion to Size (PPS) methodology. In every state, three districts were selected
using the PPS method. The study covered a total sample of 1,424 parents and 1,405 students
across the three states representing low income groups in the districts.
The qualitative interviews were undertaken with EdTech companies, education experts,
government officials at the district and state levels and institutes working on education or on
EdTech. These stakeholders play a critical role in advancement of EdTech technology, in providing
access and in ensuring consistent usage of these solutions in early grade learning. Their
perspectives are important when it comes to building a picture of the current scenario of EdTech
solutions in early grade learning.
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The major findings and highlights of this study are elaborated below.
Supply side: The EdTech companies 7 (which were studied) showed a major interest and emphasis
on developing content (subject-based content, hosting platforms where content can be
uploaded, offering MOOC), assessments (tools to track performance of students and provide
them with individualized feedback, tools for grading, etc.) and Teaching Aids.
The companies have segment-wise focus on the urban market and graduate programs as
students in these segments have higher affordability; the primary rural education market,
though, is the fastest emerging segment to focus on. EdTech companies are of the view that
students in Grade 8 and further above are the ideal age group to focus on as they start preparing
for various entrance and board exams.
The study observed that these EdTech companies are encourage with the support that is being
received from the government, but also feel that there are certain basic requirements that need
to be fulfilled to ensure the solutions are adopted by the early grade learning set ups. Some of
these requirements include: availability of Internet; awareness about EdTech; taxation policy;
and availability of government aid for providing EdTech at affordable or subsidized cost.
Stakeholders (Education experts/pedagogues, DIET and school headmasters): The study team
conducted in depth interviews with education pedagogues, DIET professionals, and the experts
who are working through I/NGOs - to strengthen the primary schools run by the government
where early grade learning largely takes place.
To make EdTech available at government schools, one of the main nudges highlighted by the
experts is poor infrastructure and in case of EdTech solutions specifically- the electricity supply.
While introducing ICT and EdTech, an uninterrupted electricity supply at schools is important,
appropriate number of equipments (like computers and/or tablets) tablets or computers are in
7
The study team conducted in depth interviews with content and technology managers of 20 EdTech companies.
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place, so that children get the access, at first place. Experts also believe the use of EdTech has
not been explored when it comes to resolving security and governance issues in schools.
The DIET professionals in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh on the other hand believe that the
EdTech usage in primary education holds great promise, especially as it comes as teaching aids.
They enable children to learn better as the content is demonstration based. The school principals
believe that as a precursor to introduction of EdTech in schools, proper training should be given
to teachers on digital learning and use of digital databases.
The DIET in all the three states were responsible for the training of teachers on using digital
content in teaching and support in using some readily available and relevant digital content. They
formed support group for teachers in WhatsApp, Facebook and email, which then becomes a
platform to share digital content among peer groups. Teachers from high schools use TLM
through PowerPoint presentations which are commonly shared through these groups to build a
common understanding on pedagogy.
The research team interviewed 10 school headmasters and teachers in each state to understand
their current levels of technology usage/adoption, key infrastructural and pedagogical challenges
they face while using EdTech, as well as key training needs and other requirements that would
enable better adoption of technology in schools for early grade education.
The study team concluded that the adoption and availability of EdTech solutions is limited to
providing schools with only computers. These provisions were mostly available in schools which
had senior secondary classes or where the model (adarsh) school affiliation was given to the
schools by the state education board. EdTech infrastructure such as internet facility, webcam or
speakers was not available thus, showcasing inconsistency in the provision of the facilities for
EdTech. Teachers have been using EdTech mostly for student engagement with the help of audio-
video devices. It was seen as a part of teaching aid and supplemented the students with
information on the subject topics.
In Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the study team observed that teachers often used their
mobile phones to show children interactive videos and animation on their subjects. This is a
purely self-driven initiative by teachers, especially those who teach Science and Mathematics.
Additionally, the teachers scan the bar codes given at the end of the lesson in the textbooks to
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access online lectures that DIET has developed. In Karnataka, where there were functional
computers, teachers use lessons that DIET has made available on open platform (Guruvinda) to
access EdTech content. In addition to using EdTech as a teaching aid, the study showed that
teachers across the states are now part of WhatsApp groups made at the block level for teaching
support. In Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the block authorities use this platform to
dispense notification and information, in Karnataka these platforms have become a medium for
teachers to discuss their common problems with teaching a particular chapter or a concept and
hold discussions about tackling these concepts in classrooms with ease. However, the unique
challenge to Karnataka was very little content, curricula material in vernacular language.
Community Perception (Parents and Students): From conversations with parents and students,
the study team concluded that the awareness on EdTech solutions among parents stood at 55
per cent. However, only 12 percent parents across the three states were using technology to
support their children for studies. For students, the actual usage turned out to be only 35 per
cent. This was different when it came to girls using technology for education- 31 percent of the
total (students) respondents felt that boys were given more access to mobile phones than girls.
This was a clear gender gap, validated when the study team interacted with parents and found
out that only one-third of them disagreed or were not sure of their view. In the in-depth
discussions with parents, the study team learnt that they feared of having little control over the
content being accessed by the girls on online platforms.
In the last one year, only 20 percent of the students have used any form of technology for
educational purpose. The gap between awareness and usage was filled by unavailability of
smartphones/other technology at homes as well as schools. It was seen that students had greater
awareness about EdTech platforms, but only 14.5 percent students had access to learning
through smart classes.
Recommendations: Looking at the existing challenges around poor infrastructure and capacities,
the study team highlighted some recommendations for each levels of the early grade education
structures.
Blocks as basis for planning Ed-tech interventions - Education blocks should become the basis
for planning the EdTech project, with consideration of budget availability at block levels, which
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in turn can be disbursed as per the norms and needs of schools. Along with this, the officials
working at block level should be trained to promptly address the needs and problems faced by
the teaching community at the school level. Any delay in doing so has repercussions that may
regress the efforts of promoting digital learning in schools. Along with which monitoring
mechanisms should be established to track and evaluate the impact of ICT/EdTech programs
implemented across government schools.
ICT incorporation at an overall school level should be envisioned - The ICT infrastructure at the
school level should be seen as a package rather than providing schools with just 3-4 computers.
In each school, one teacher could be trained on simple repair and maintenance of the ICT
systems, so that the dependence on vendors can decrease. Teachers can be encouraged to adopt
self-learning and can in turn encourage students with access to the internet to access self-
learning applications. Free Software-Linux-Mint has been found to be useful in states like Kerala.
Teachers can be given access to these platforms to share and generate content.
Lower rates of GST should be applied to achieve cost-effectiveness - The current GST on Ed Tech
is 18% which appears to be high. It should be brought down for the support of educations sector,
which is a priority of the government. The content and courses, especially digital content, should
be standardized with some government regulation as this will lead to greater acceptances across
the sector.
DIETs can be used Ed-tech training centers - Private players can also supplement trainings given
to teachers by DIETs by reaching out to school teachers directly and training them to use EdTech
in areas where teachers currently do not use these solutions like in lesson planning, tracking
student performance, etc. They can support the government to develop low-cost EdTech
solutions and devices that can be provided to both government as well as other affordable
private schools.
3. Knowledge and Communications Function
Through the knowledge and communications function READ Alliance aims to generate and
disseminate knowledge materials on Early Grade Reading primary school going children in India
to allow for knowledge sharing among organizations working in EGR. The activities below
contribute to Outcome 3 in READ Alliance’s PMEP framework.
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The Knowledge and Communications Function of the READ Alliance aimed to spur an active
dialogue around the early grade reading in India by creating, curating and disseminating
knowledge to the relevant target audience through myriad communication platforms. The K&C
function of the READ Alliance had the following objectives:
1. Create in-depth and insightful knowledge about early reading and the systemic, socio-
political and linguistic issues that have the potential to impact the reading outcomes of
children.
2. Curating a knowledge hub with repositories of reading programs, research documents,

knowledge collaterals to make available existing and new knowledge around early grade
reading.
3. Promotion, publicity and propagation of the work of the READ Alliance through online
and offline communication for ensuring greater affiliation.
Knowledge and Communications logframe:
S.No. Objectives Key deliverable(s) Achievement(s)
1 Create in-depth and insightful Case studies, blogs, Number of:

knowledge about early interviews, reports
Case studies - 28
reading and the systemic, and other forms of
socio-political and linguistic knowledge Published Interviews - 5
issues that have the potential documentation
Report/Blogs/Articles – 35
to impact the reading
outcomes of children. Newsletters: 9
2 Curating a knowledge hub Creation of an online Online platform -

with repositories of reading platform www.readalliance.in was
programs, research created. This platform is a
documents, knowledge knowledge hub of all reading
collaterals to make available interventions across the
existing and new knowledge country. Here is the link to
around early grade reading. this hub
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https://www.readalliance.in/
on-reading/
3 Promotion, publicity and Facebook page, Facebook page link:

propagation of the work of Linkedin page, Twitter https://www.facebook.com/
the READ Alliance through handle, hackathons, ReadAllianceIndia/
online and offline review meetings
communication for ensuring
greater affiliation. Linkedin page link:
https://www.linkedin.com/c
ompany/read-alliance-usaid-
funded-early-grade-reading-
project/?originalSubdomain=
in
Twitter handle link:

https://twitter.com/read_alli
ance?lang=en
READ Alliance’s Medium

platform:
https://medium.com/@read
alliance
No. of hackathons
conducted: 2
No. of review meetings

conducted: 4
No. of tweetchats: 2
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Knowledge and Communications has been an integral part in organizing all events. The function
has worked on all collateral development and printing, venue selection and finalization. Some of
the collaterals developed have been presented below:
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The function has also worked on development of READ Express – READ Alliance’s quarterly
newsletter, partner case studies, best practices reports, interviews of industry veterans,
education focused articles
Some on our interviews:
- Interview with Sandeep Mishra, Room to Read: https://medium.com/@readalliance/in-

conversation-with-sandeep-mishra-country-director-stir-education-1d5cc6a69b4e
- Interview with Shailja Menon, Learning Links Foundation:
https://medium.com/@readalliance/an-interview-with-language-literacy-expert-dr-
shailaja-menon-a2afa6a1d5a4
- Interview with Anuja Master Bose, Villgro Innovations Foundation:
https://medium.com/@readalliance/in-conversation-with-anuja-master-bose-practice-
leader-education-villgro-935aace04d79
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- Interview with Nidhi Singh, READ Alliance: https://medium.com/@readalliance/in-
conversation-with-nidhi-singh-project-director-education-innovation-mentorship-
program-7ae260c4c517
- Interview with Himanshu Giri, Pratham Books: https://medium.com/@readalliance/in-
conversation-with-himanshu-giri-ceo-pratham-books-a5c29dafd19b
Newsletters: Some of our newsletters
- Newsletter 1: https://us3.campaign-
archive.com/?u=9545b7a8d28ed5f59091282a5&id=62f238d709
- Newsletter 2: https://us3.campaign-
archive.com/?u=9545b7a8d28ed5f59091282a5&id=f670e37ce5
Articles: Some of our articles
- Learning language in digital age: https://medium.com/@readalliance/learning-language-

in-the-digital-age-1827d15102e1
- Innovation and Technology to accelerate progress in education:
https://medium.com/@readalliance/innovation-and-technology-to-accelerate-progress-
in-education-f36ab6bd84ef
- Innovation in learning technologies for English language teaching:
https://medium.com/@readalliance/innovations-in-learning-technologies-for-english-
language-teaching-bfeb479b07fe
- Technology in classrooms: How tech making reading (text) come alive:
https://medium.com/@readalliance/technology-in-classrooms-how-tech-makes-
reading-text-come-alive-f1502bf9491e
- Redefining primary education for first generation tribal children in Odisha:
https://medium.com/@readalliance/redefining-primary-education-for-first-generation-
tribal-children-in-odisha-1157c3b7b528
4. Partnerships Function
Through the partnerships function, READ Alliance aims to raise awareness and support EGR
organizations as well as leverage resources and expertise among private and public actors to
strengthen EGR for primary school going children in India. The activities below contribute to
Outcome 2 in READ Alliance’s PMEP framework.
100
Partnerships and Knowledge and Communications functions have worked in tandem with each
other on most of the initiatives. Partnerships function has been involved in developing
partnerships for all events at READ Alliance.
Partnerships logframe:
S.No. Objective(s) Key deliverable(s) Achievement(s)
1 Create partnerships to Alliance conclaves: 7 large A total of 20 events in

facilitate dialogues within scale events/conclaves, 10 consultation with USAID
the stakeholder group in medium scale events ad have been conducted
the Early Grade Reading 19 small scale READ during the life of the
(EGR) space in India. connect events project.
Focused and coordinated READ events – big and

stakeholder meetings small have provided a
platform for our partners
to meet various industry
veterans and explore
opportunities.
Fundraising and corporate The EIMP sub-recipients

philanthropy forums have found various further
funding opportunities via
the support provided by
our industry mentors.
The READ events have

provided a platform for
funders and our partners
to meet and explore
opportunities.
101
Rapid hackathons Two hackathons were held
during the life of the
project.
Public participation via READing Yatra was

fellowship program conducted from July 16-
28, 2018 with five
participants from the EGR
industry
Online ideation sessions Two tweetchats served as

online ideation sessions.
As per the revised Program Document (PD), READ Alliance was supposed to conduct an
immersive program for mid-level development sector professionals. The following section
provides a brief of the READing Yatra program.
i. READing Yatra (16-28 July 2018)
READ Alliance firmly beliefs that collaboration and innovation plays a key role in bringing about
social change. Therefore, in order to accelerate this change it becomes inevitable to facilitate
meaningful knowledge sharing between the various stakeholders involved. With an aim to
provide mid-level professionals working in the education sector an opportunity to closely observe
the on ground realities in the sector, READing Yatra was envisioned. An intense 2 week fully paid
program that would take the selected Yatris to five organizations to witness their evidence-based
innovations and interventions in early grade reading. The yatra was designed in such a way that
the yatris would spent one/two day(s) at each site, gaining insights through interviews,
stakeholder meetings, and qualitative classroom observations about the various intervention
models, deepening their understanding about the different processes and stakeholders involved.
These stakeholder interactions enabled the yatris to challenge their own previously held beliefs
and assumptions about the education system.
102
Broad objectives of the READing Yatra
The yatra aimed to help professionals from large foundations, NGOs and CSR depts. to develop
insights, while discussing a range of topics including, but not limited to:
● Successful, evidence-based innovations in early grade reading;
● Understanding of the existing reading methodologies and approaches for strengthening

reading among primary schoolchildren;
● Lessons on the factors critical to achieving scale and impact;
● Sources of capital for scaling up activities;
● Hands-on field experiences.
Once the program was envisioned with its objectives in place, the READ Alliance team narrowed
down the themes around which the yatra would be organised, where interventions based on
these themes to be observed. The themes decided were based on their ability to compliment the
goals and vision for the yatra. Finally, organizations working around the thematic areas of:
teachers, libraries, assessment, mother-tongue instruction, and community were selected.
Thus, STiR Education, RoomtoRead, Educational Initiatives, QUEST, and Meraki Foundation were
approached for partnerships.
The selected organisations extensively work around the interested thematic areas and are spread
across the country, working at the grassroots levels with various stakeholders. In order to gain
the most out of the yatra each partner shared a detailed day wise plan of engagement, taking
into account the ways in which the yatris can meaningfully engage with the relevant stakeholders
in the given time frame. Though all the organizations had a different take on how the interactions
would happen based on their organizational functioning but overarching pattern was maintained.
The itinerary included interactions with several verticals within the organization, on-field
observations of the innovation and interventions, and interactions with the stakeholders
involved.
Selection Process for READing Yatra
Online applications were invited on the READ Alliance website. The online form consisted of
several questions pertaining to the candidate’s educational and professional qualifications.
103
Further to assess a candidate’s motivation, two essay type questions were included where their
subjective opinion was sought. All the questions carried certain weightage and candidates were
marked accordingly. For the initial assessment a cut of score of 20 out of a possible 30 was
finalised. Based on the scores obtained, 10 candidates were shortlisted for a telephonic interview
from the 32 applications received. The telephonic interview was conducted to assess various
parameters including how well a candidate can articulate and how would they further utilize the
knowledge and insights gained through the yatra in their respective organisations.
The shortlisted candidates were interviewed by 5 different experts from social development
sector. Post the telephonic interviews, final marks were assigned and the total score for a
candidate (marks on written application + interview score) was obtained. Subsequently, the final
5 yatris were shortlisted:
1. Ms. Anju Grace Joy, Program Manager, Central Square Foundation.
2. Mr. Krishanu Chakraborty, Project Manager - Research, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action
Lab, MIT.
3. Ms. Ritu Lamba, Curriculum Developer, English and Social Science, XSEED Education.
4. Mr. Shubham Gupta, Co-founder, Blackboard Radio.
5. Mr. Vikas Sharma, Program Consultant, CSPC-TATA Trusts.
5. PROJECT FINANCE SUMMARY

S. Description Budget Previous Expense Current Balance
No. Amount Cummulative Current Cummulative Budget
Month
(INR) Total (INR) (INR) Total (INR) (INR)
1 Personnel 5,23,71,200 5,07,05,769 2,348,939 5,30,54,708 -683,508
2 Travel & 1,27,18,336 93,68,794 723,884 1,00,92,678 26,25,658

Transportation
3 Equip. & Supplies 21,71,520 21,37,310 41,000 21,78,310 -6,790
104
4 Other Direct Cost 2,39,02,336 2,28,08,545 2,488,279 2,52,96,824 -1,394,488
5 Sub-Awards 9,98,39,808 9,42,10,884 329,219 9,45,40,103 52,99,705
Sub Total Before Tax 19,10,03,20 179,231,302 5,931,321 185,162,623 58,40,577

(A) => 0
6 CGST @ 9% 63,18,304 6,197,713 533,819 6,731,532 -413,228
7 SGST @ 9% 63,18,304 6,197,713 533,819 6,731,532 -413,228

Total GST (B) => 1,26,36,608 12,395,426 1,067,638 13,463,064 (826,456)
Grand Total After 203,639,808 191,626,728 6,998,959 198,625,687 5,014,121

Tax (A+B) =>
6. LEVERAGE, COST SHARE, AND FINANCIAL MONITORING
Following are the amounts for cost share (In cash and kind) reported by each sub-awardees and
EIMPs for the period March 01st, 2013 to December 31st, 2018;
Name of the organisation Cost share amount for the period Mar’13’ to Dec’18
Quality Education Support Trust INR 3,211,220
Karadi Path Education Company P Ltd INR 10,363,962
Agragamee INR 2,877,341
Humana People to People India INR 4,120,200
Planet Read INR 8,208,582
Education Initiatives Pvt Ltd INR 4,017,009
105
Happy Horizon Trust INR 92,500
Federation for Democratic Voices INR 55,000
Jungroo Learning Pvt. Ltd INR 322,490
Nutspace Edtech Pvt Ltd INR 111,965
Samait Shala Education Foundation INR 79,000
Total (INR) 33,459,269
106
6. Annexures
Annex 1: List of events
Annex 2: READing Yatra documentation and itinerary
Annexure 1: List of events
S.No. Name of event Date
1. EGRIC 1 Needs Assessment in 3 locations October 2014

(counted as 3 events)
2. EGRIC 1 Orientation session 7-9 April 2015
3. EGRIC 2 Needs Assessment in 4 locations 2015

(counted as 4 events)
4. EGRIC 2 Orientation session 2015
5. READ Connect (Talk 1) 14 July 2016
6. READ Talk 2 18 Nov 2016
7. READ Talk 3 23 June 2017
8. READ Talk 4 10 August 2017
9. READ Talk 5 04 May 2018
10. EGRIC Review Meeting 1 23 April 2015
11. EGRIC Review Meeting 2 14 July 2016
12. EGRIC Review Meeting 3 8-9 March 2017
13. EGRIC Review Meeting 4 04 May 2018
107
14. EIMP Selection session 12-13 February 2018
15. EIMP orientation session 03 August 2018
16. EIMP Review an READ Alliance close-out 14 December 2018
Annexure 2: READing Yatra documentation and itinerary
17th July: STiR Education
The READing Yatra began with a visit to STiR Education, where the yatris engaged with the
management at STiR, Delhi office. STiR works on the inherent principle of intrinsic motivation.
The work revolves around tapping and increasing teachers’ intrinsic motivation which would
finally lead to increased learning outcomes.
During the visit, the yatris interacted with design team, program team, and the M/E team, who
provided insights into their operations and workings. After the initial session the yatris were split
into two groups and visited DIET schools for an interaction session with the DIET principals and
staff. During the interaction session several issues were discussed ranging from the difficulties
faced by the administration to how STiR has facilitated in strengthening and smoothening the
process. The day concluded with a debrief session with the STiR team. In this session several
queries were resolved and the yatris were able to understand how STiR works across laterals in
achieving their desired goals.
18th July: RoomtoRead (Delhi)
The yatris visited RoomtoRead Delhi office next. The day consisted of an immersive session with
various members from the research and M/E teams. The RoomtoRead team highlighted the
issues and challenges faced in the classrooms in rural areas where there exists a huge gap in
learning process. During this sessions the yatris gained clarity about the workings of RoomtoRead
and how the monitoring and evaluation of the various interventions is carried out.
19th July- RoomtoRead (Dehradun)

108
Further, two schools in Dehradun where the RoomtoRead interventions are implemented were
visited. Here the yatris got an opportunity to closely observe the classroom and library
interventions at the schools and interact with the school staff and children. Subsequently, the
yatris interacted with M/E team at the schools to better gauge their monitoring process. At the
schools, the yatris also viewed the RoomtoRead content being used in the classrooms and
observed the teachers implementing it. The visit concluded with a debrief session where the
yatris shared their experiences and clarified their doubts.
23rd July- QUEST (Sonale)
The third organisation visited by the yatris was QUEST, where the primary focus is to enable
children with the help of mother tongue instruction. The yatris observed two programs at QUEST-
Saksham and Lipi at the balbhavans and Adarsh schools. The first day began with an introduction
session on QUEST and its inception. Later, the yatris visited 4 remotely located schools operating
under QUEST, where the yatris had a hands on experience of the interventions and their
implementation. During the school visits, yatris interacted with the teachers and learned about
the challenges and issues faced in the rural areas. The day ended with an enthralling performance
by the in-house theatre fellows’ at QUEST. Over the period of the fellowship, these fellows travel
across Maharashtra and perform over 80 marathi translations of popular folktales for the tribal
children at various schools.
24th July- QUEST (Sonale)
On the second day of their visit the yatris had a session with the co-founder of the organisation
on the various aspects of their program and functions. Post this session, the materials developed
by QUEST were exhibited. The visit at QUEST concluded with a debrief session.
109
Yatris with the QUEST team.
25th July- Educational Initiatives (Udaipur)
Educational Initiatives (EI) was the fourth organisation for the READing Yatra. EI implements their
Mindspark program throughout the Model and Adarsh schools in Rajasthan. Mindspark is an
edtech product which aims to increase learning outcomes in children with the help of technology.
The yatris visited a model school on the first day of their visit. The day began with an interaction
session with the principal where he highlighted the shortcoming and the possible areas to
improve the education system in the rural areas and on the effectiveness of the Mindspark
program. In the second session, yatris observed the classroom implementation of the program
and children’s performance on the product along with their level of understanding regarding the
usage and content of it. The yatris also interacted with the teachers responsible at the school for
the program implementation. During this interaction the teachers expressed how Mindspark has
facilitated in increasing the learning outcomes. Post this session, the yatris had an hands on
Mindspark session, where they themselves engaged with the program. Finally, the day ended
with a presentation by EI on content and product development, followed by a debrief session.
26th July- Educational Initiatives (Udaipur)
110
On day two, the yatris went to Adarsh schools where they again interacted with the teachers and
school staff. The yatris also observed the children during their classes and gathered insights into
how the children adjust with technology and how much they benefit from it. Once again, the day
ended with a debrief session with the EI team.
27th July- Meraki Foundation (New Delhi)
The final organisation visited by the yatris was Meraki. Meraki works with low-income parents in
New Delhi with a belief that empowering them in a meaningful way would result in ‘school ready’
children.
In order to give an insight into the organisational structure, the yatris interacted with the various
stakeholders involved. The day began with a brief session with teachers working with children
from low income families. This enabled the yatris to increase their understanding about the
issues and challenges faced by them. Following this session, the yatris participated in a survey
being conducted by Meraki for screening the parents who would participate in the pilot study.
Post the field session, the yatris had an orientation on Meraki and their journey. During the
course of the interaction Meraki also demonstrated the 3 levels of their module and how they
are integrated with one another. Once the orientation was complete, an interaction with the
parents who are a part of the Meraki network was conducted to provide insight into their
experiences and learnings, and how they have benefited from the program. The visit concluded
with a debrief session.
28th July - Vihara Innovation Network (New Delhi)
READing Yatra 2018 concluded with brief presentations by the yatris on their takeaways from the
5 organisations. The presentations consisted yatri observations and recommendations based on
their area of expertise and understanding of the problem. The yatris also included factors which
would facilitate in bringing systemic changes in the education system. The perspectives shared
by the yatris were unique based on their individual understanding and experiences working in
the field.
The READing Yatra not only gave the yatris an opportunity to experience the innovations and
intervention first hand but also helped broaden their view on how to solve the problem at hand
111
in a more effective and meaningful way. It enabled them to question their prior beliefs regarding
the system and where to look for these answers and the effectiveness of the solutions. Further,
it helped them in deepening their understanding of the issues and problems faced by the various
stakeholders involved.
Yatris with the READ Alliance team
112

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Project Completion Report

Office of Social Sector Initiative (OSSI)

31st January 2019

1. Project Overview and Performance …………………………………………… 3

Project Name READ Alliance

Project Lead Aditya Dev Sood (CEO, CKS

Project Funder United States Agency for

Duration August 2013 – December 2018

Location New Delhi

1. Project Overview and Performance

Following were the key objectives of the READ Alliance project

I. Achieving impact through scaling up promising early grade reading innovations

● Utilize robust monitoring and evaluation processes to generate knowledge on the

● Through strategic communication and outreach, build and establish partnerships to

● Champion early grade reading in India by identifying a rich pool of potential

● To curate a knowledge hub with repositories of reading programs, research documents,

I. Early Grade Reading Innovation Challenge 1 (EGRIC 1)

1. Karadi Path Education Company (KPEC)

Their projects and log-frame status are provided below:

1. Karadi Path Education Company (KPEC) | Joyful Reading Project | 2015-18

1.1 Project Overview

i. Action Path – 10 minutes: In the module, students internalized sentence structures

1.2 Implementation Details

The following activities were conducted in the three years of implementation:

1.3 Monitoring and Evaluation

Summary of output level achievements of KPEC is provided below.

Indicator# Indicator Project Target Project

USAID # of learners receiving reading 32000 28907

READ % of children receiving reading 100% 100%

Output 1.0a Number and % of girls enrolled at the 50% 50%

Output 1.0b Number and % of girls retained at the 16000 14588

USAID # of teachers/educators/teaching 500 teachers 595 (Year 1)

Ref of 3.2.1- # and % age of female teachers 445 per year

READ # of para-teachers/master trainers (out 6 6

READ % of number of days or weeks of 3 days a week Completed

READ # and % of schools on track with 100 % 100%

1.5 Lessons Learnt

1.6 Project Scalability and Sustainability Plan

2. Quality Education Support Trust (QUEST) |Literacy Enhancement in Ashram Schools

2.1 Project Overview

b. Ashram schools, usually do not have libraries or rigorously trained teachers.

e. Inconsistent academic input due to seasonal migration.

a. QUEST’s Approach towards early literacy instruction (Lipi)

a. QUEST’s approach to literacy remediation in later grades (Saksham)

2.2 Implementation Details

 Language used at home and at schools

i. Teacher observation and feedback sharing

i. Capacity building of Shikshak Mitras for providing onsite support

2.3 Monitoring and Evaluation

ii. Use of teacher observation tool

iii. Teacher knowledge test

2.4 Project Achievements

Overview of progress against the log frame (2016-18)

Results Chain Indicator Project Target Project

Outcome 1 # of learners receiving [TOTAL: 7120

Year 2 (2016-17): 5600 Year 2: 6455

{new enrolment} Year Year 3: 1581

Outcome 2 # of teachers/ [TOTAL: 150]

Outcome 3 # of textbooks and 705 Around 7000

Year 1 (2015-16): - (we

Year 2 (2016-17): 4760

Year 3 (2017-18): 1020

The Shikshak Mitra Improvement in the 75% of SMs 60 to 75% SMs