ACTIVITY BASED LEARNING Tamil Nadu Amukta Mahapatra Director SchoolScape, Centre for Educators

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Education for All Movement In line with MDGs & other international & national commitments CRC, Constitution of India, RtE A central-state programme

Indirect Preparation NEP: 1986 Mass Training of Teachers DPEP: 1994 – 2001 Textbooks Reworked Joyful Learning: 1995 – 2000 Teacher Active Professional Development of the Teacher Educator (DIET Faculty Training): 2001- 2003 Participatory & Constructive Approach Visit to Rishi Valley satellite schools

ABL Incubation in Chennai Corporation 2003: 10 + 3 schools with photocopied materials for Classes 1 & 2 to 2006: 265 schools for Classes 1 to 4 almost 50,000 children with printed and 3 D material reaching the most disadvantaged communities of Chennai

Scaled Across State June 2007 Reaching approx: 37,500 schools 1.2 lakh teachers 50 lakh children Support by Chennai Corporation teachers and BRTs Classes 1 to 4 with printed TLM; 3D materials given in phases Baseline Survey 84% of children are with the government schools in the state

An ABL Classroom

Teacher at head of Class

Where is the Teacher?

Transparent Curriculum

ABL Addresses Issues of: Children not Learning Teachers not Teaching Dominant Role of the Teacher Multi-levels of Learning Lack of on-site support for teacher Absenteeism of Children

ABL Base Year Surveys June 2007 and April 2008 Classes II and IV Review of classroom processes & learning environment available to the child Assessment in Tamil, Maths and English Reading skills in Tamil for Class II & both Tamil & English for Class IV

Tools Administered School profile format (Format A) Schedule for classroom observers (Format B) Questionnaire for teachers to write in (Format C) Child Interview schedule (Format D) Achievement test papers for Class II & IV in Tamil, Mathematics, English Reading test sheets for Class II in Tamil; Tamil and English for Class IV

Key Findings 2008 Average Achievement Class II Class IV Tamil 61.63% 63.19% Mathematics 74.45% 63.01% English 70.62% 52.33% The figures revealed that as compared to the baseline study there was an increase of nearly 25% to 29% in all three subjects in both the classes.

Key Findings Gaps in achievement narrowed down: within gender, location and social groups Baseline: significant difference in achievement boys and girls urban and rural children and children from different social communities 2008: in Tamil achievement no significant difference found between rural and urban children and among the children of different social groups; in English achievement, no significant difference between rural and urban and among boys and girls.

Achievement by Gender, Location and Community - Class IV Groups Tamil Mathematics English Baseline End term Boys 34.99 61.23 36.65 65.81 26.07 51.60 Girls 38.45 66.25 39.14 60.97 28.20 52.99 Rural 35.67 63.01 37.06 63.58 26.36 53.24 Urban 41.13 65.06 42.70 58.32 31.29 44.16 SC/ST 33.60 61.01 36.38 60.75 25.60 50.28 MBC 33.20 62.18 37.07 62.11 24.12 49.95 BC 43.47 66.51 40.33 66.43 31.92 57.62 OC 46.15 68.67 50.57 47.80 34.88 47.00  Significantly improved;  no improvement Mean achievement of children improved significantly in all groups and in all subjects Maximum improvement observed among SC/ST and MBC children in all three subjects

Quality of Achievement during Baseline & End term– Class II Percentage of basic (low) achievers children reduced by 34% to 40% in all subjects Percentage of children who scored very high and excellent increased during end term in all three subjects

Summary Average achievement of children in both the classes and all subjects increased significantly Gaps in achievement within gender, area and social groups narrowed down More children shifted from low achievement range to very high and excellent achievement range Inter and intra district variations reduced in both the classes Number of children who could read Tamil and English fluently increased substantially in both the classes

Classroom Environment Baseline 2008 Children sitting in rows 78% 5.47% Children sitting in a circle 21% 81%

Teaching and Learning materials Baseline 2008 Supplementary reading materials other than textbooks 40% 80% Materials found to be challenging 3% 80%

Availability of Materials Baseline Findings 40-50% of classrooms were lacking Tamil, Maths and English materials. Students felt that all materials were lacking in most classrooms.

Understanding Lessons Baseline 2008 Children’s understanding of the lesson being taught was “high” 32% 89% Teachers gave explanations with examples 30% 50% In addition, it was observed in 2008 that 97% of teachers provided an informative introduction to the lesson

Child Participation Baseline Findings Students were rarely or never observed asking the teacher a question in almost half of the classrooms Teachers frequently silenced the children - 66% of the classrooms 2008 Findings Teachers asked relevant questions - 54% Children were encouraged to ask questions - 48% Teachers encouraged children to volunteer answers to questions - 49% Slower learners encouraged - 57%

Lessons for Education Community No branding by individuals or organisation but a seepage of ideas Involvement & participation of people from teacher to minister Fundamental change, not incremental Stage by stage growth with direction Continuous review Mix of centralization & ground-up

Ref: http:www.ssa.tn.nic.in 2009 Presented by Amukta Mahapatra schoolscape@yahoo.com Ref: http:www.ssa.tn.nic.in 2009 “Feet on the ground, eyes on the horizon, and with heart in the sky”