Paper presented at Learning Conference held on March 12 - 14, 2004 at Benglore
Usha
Rane, Rukmini Banerji, Madhav Chavan (Pratham Resource Center) and Vasant
Kalpande, (Director,
Elementary Education, Government of Mahararashtra and Director Maharashtra Prathamik Shikshan Parishad).
Abstract[1]
A
people-government collaborative effort to rapidly enhance the reading skills of
children began with a pilot project in January-March 2003 in Maharashtra. School teachers, the Zilla Parishad, the Department of Education of Government of
Maharashtra, and Pratham- a non governmental agency have been participating in
the effort which has now gone through three phases:
- Innovation of a new method and approach for rapid ‘learning to read’ by Pratham Dec 2002. (coverage 170,000 children across India)
- Pilots in predominantly tribal Mokhada and Igatpuri talukas of Thane and Nashik districts in Jan-March 2003.
- Replicating the taluka pilot to create one pilot taluka per district in 30 out of 33 districts of Maharashtra as a strategic springboard for district-wise scaling up. (coverage: 504,000 children in 5265 schools in as many villages)
Having
completed the above three phases, the next phase of scaling up of the taluka
pilots to district level has begun in 17 out of the 30 pilot districts.
(coverage: approximately 2.5 million children).
Statewide
results of district-wise pilots in one taluka in each of the 30 districts:
·
Among the
std II-IV children, the percentage of those “able to read” at least simple
sentences-paragraphs, or more difficult texts, has increased uniformly from
about 61% to 93%. Simultaneously, the percentage of those who can read nothing
or can just identify alphabets reduced from 28% to 2%/
·
Among the
std V-VII children the percentage of those “able to read” increased from 71% to
94%, those who can read nothing or can just identify alphabets has dropped from
about 13% to about 2%.
A
combination of factors could explain the success of this program.
- Efforts focused on a specific problem and achievement in a short period
- Simplicity of the solution, predictable mass scale results in a short duration Simplicity of the assessment tool based on one-on-one testing of reading skills allowing rapid analysis and verification on a mass-scale.
- Visibility of the problem and effectiveness of the solution to teachers, parents, officers, and the surrounding community
- Word of mouth transfer of success stories from school teachers to peers
- Departure from ‘train and leave’ type of training to ‘train, monitor, pursue, impact’ method used by Pratham volunteers (average age 21!)
- Mutual trust among district elected representatives, officers and volunteers
The
‘learning to read’ method has been shown to lead to similar predictable results
in Gujrat, Rajasthan, Delhi,
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Assam. The mass
scale Maharashtra model can be replicated in
other states with ease.
[1] Paper to be presented at the Learning Conference in Bangalore, March 12-14, 2004. Work
supported by Pratham USA,
Pratham UK.
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