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EQUIP Project

EQUIP Project. www.eurekachild.org. Problems in 2007. 50% children in 5th standard cannot read a paragraph in Tamil. 10% cannot even identify letters. 50% children in 5th standard cannot even subtract two 2-digit numbers.

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EQUIP Project

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  1. EQUIP Project www.eurekachild.org

  2. Problems in 2007 • 50% children in 5th standard cannot read a paragraph in Tamil. 10% cannot even identify letters. • 50% children in 5th standard cannot even subtract two 2-digit numbers. • Science education is just rote memorization – no concepts, no experiments, no connection with the real world. • Many 4-year-olds in balwadis cannot even match two identical pictures - something even 1-year-olds in middle class families easily do.

  3. Reasons for this state • No School Focus on Basic Skills: Focus on exam mark & textbook memorization and not on ensuring basic skills. • Lack of Learning Resources: No access to learning resources. Schools and teachers have no libraries, no reading materials, no activity kits, no science experiment materials, etc. Balwadis have no learning aids or even simple toys. • Ineffective Methodology: Teachers lecture and read out from books. There is no focus on activities or even demonstrations in class. No avenues for children to think independently or to work in groups or to learn by doing. Poor training of teachers. Teachers are not trained in practical ideas nor on good teaching methodologies. • Low community involvement: Low community interest and involvement in education. Poor children have no access to a learning environment at home.

  4. Two Pronged Implementation Strategy Create Community Learning Initiatives We mobilize village volunteers, train them and start village libraries, children’s learning centers, form science clubs, math clubs, sports clubs, etc. We also get the community volunteers to both help schools improve as well as to pressurize schools to deliver quality. Improve Learning Quality in Schools We work with teachers to bring about measurable improvements in specific learning skills like reading, maths and science. We train and motivate teachers, provide teaching learning materials and change classroom practices through regular visits and practical demonstrations.

  5. Methodology • Primary Education: • Improving Reading Skills of Children • Improving Basic Math Skills of Children • Continuous Evaluation of Children • Corrective Measures being Applied so as to help teachers identify the kids who need additional help • Secondary Education • Science Education • Community Initiatives and Community Learning Centers • Village Libraries and Children’s Clubs • Science and Math clubs • Support Centers and Summer Campaigns

  6. Sivaganga Details • Revenue Divisions 2 • Taluks 6 • Blocks 12 • Town Panchayats 12 • Revenue Villages 521 • Panchayat Villages 431

  7. EQUIP Sivagangai Summary • Impacts 127,961 students • Reading program was conducted last year in all 12 blocks and 1119 schools • The science program is running in a total of 360 schools • Library program is being run in 300 villages with the help of 4 local NGOs. • Summer camp was held in 1320 villages • 25 Rallies and 264 melas were held for community awareness • 75 villages have the children club • 54 teachers attended the network workshops

  8. Padippum Inikkum Group activity based reading program Aim: Is to bring rapid improvement in reading levels of a child Structure Initial Evaluation and Categorization into 5 levels Everyday 1hr level specific activities Child-to-Child reading methods Reading materials and story boards to make it a fun event

  9. Padippum Inikkum Levels

  10. PI Affects 90,671 children

  11. Arivial Anandam Do-it-yourself experiments for children Low cost science experiments as a means to teach Encouraging a child to think and come up with their own experiments

  12. AA affects 31,834 children

  13. Library Program Community based learning using “Library in a Bag” concept Aim is to use this as a booster to Padippum Inikkum program When community involves, the schools feel responsible to deliver better quality education In addition to library style learning, additional activities with games, fun events and activities etc. Encourage formation of children clubs

  14. Library involves 5,456 children

  15. Budget 2007-08

  16. Impact of PI Reading Program: Sample evaluation on 17700 children in 400 schools in the beginning and at the end of the program. The evaluation showed: In Standards I and II: The number of children who couldn’t even recognize letters has come down significantly, by 22%. Children able to read words have also increased, by 16.3%. In Standards II, IV and V: The number of children who could read at least sentences (which includes stories and sentence levels combined) has improved from 67% to 79%, an improvement of 12%.

  17. Reading Skill Improvement with the program

  18. Snapshot of progress Std 1+2: % children who can read letters or more 100 72.6 71.9 88.4 80 57.9 % children 60 40 20 0 Nov 2006 Aug 2007 Nov 2007 Mar 2008 Std 1+2: Letter or more PI Improvements

  19. Impact of AA Children are able to relate real world science phenomena and able to quote it in their answers, instead of memorizing and repeating the books Science Program: Evaluation of the science skills of 700 children in the 7th and 8th Std. For this evaluation, we randomly selected 10 children in 70 schools (10 schools/block). The children were evaluated on whether they do and explain 40 selected experiments. The evaluation showed that: 98% of children were able to do 20 experiments and 84% of children were able to do as well as explain 20 experiments correctly. 49% of children were able to do all 40 experiments and 26% of children were able to do and explain all 40 experiments correctly.

  20. AA results

  21. Impact of Library Program This is still in experimental phase Several constraints to implement the program.. e.g. finding volunteers in villages is hard Providing reading materials appropriate for the age and sufficient amount is difficult

  22. Staff Information • Total staff: 55 (52 Field Staff + 1 District Coordinator + 1 Asst coord + 1 Admin Asst). (This does not include state team as they work on multiple projects). • Number of teachers trained last year: Close to 2000 teachers. • Number of Administrative Staff (Please list positions: e.g., peon, clerk, etc.) last year: 1 - Admin Asst in the District • Same details for Volunteers, if any: 1320 volunteers (participated in the summer camp) • The Field Staff are called Block Resource Persons (BRP) - They are not teachers, but they visit schools and demonstrate reading, math and science classes to teachers and provide materials and training to teachers. They also help in conducting evaluations, get feedback on the materials and usage. The total number of BRPs = 52. They are in the following categories: • Reading + Math BRP = 34 • Science = 12 • Library = 6

  23. ABL v/s PI • TN Government introduced ABL (Activity based learning) all across the state • Text books were converted to cards Pros • The government ABL program achieves the reading to a small extent Cons • But it does not help in identification and improving the kids who need attention • ABL also does not account for teacher participation

  24. ASER 2006 to ASER 2007: Reading Level Changes These are the changes in reading levels between Nov 2006 and Nov 2007 – From ASER Reports

  25. Future Plans

  26. PI Intensive Program • Key Points • PI Intensive is the primary differentiator from ABL. With this program, the students who are lagging behind are identified and corrective steps are taken (evaluation + correction) • Intend to start off this in 500 schools of Sivagangai where there is increased teacher participation. • Students are given new texts and not allowed to memorize • More co-ordinators per school • Small library in PI Intensive schools • But costs increase due to this too • Continue PI program in remaining schools to emphasize teacher participation • Math Intensive Program in 120 schools • PI Intensive being conducted in 10 other districts with CIFF aid • Government has asked for story cards from AID • Work with government so that ABL adopts the methodology of evaluation + correction

  27. Other Program Expand AA it to all high schools (414) of Sivagangai from 360 Expand Village libraries to 500 villages from 300 Start Community Learning Centers (CLC) in 60 villages which have village libraries Start 120 Balvadis State is borrowing some of the ideas for its Activity Based Learning Method program, and also asking AID to expand the AA program. Need to work with the state to adopt these into their syllabus

  28. Budget Request 2008-09

  29. Other Options 2008-09

  30. Q & A

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