Improving Learning Outcomes

The National Policy on Education, as revised in 1992, had emphasized the need for a substantial improvement in quality of education to achieve essential levels of learning.The Programme of Action, 1992, stressed the need to lay down Minimum Levels of Learning at Primary and Upper Primary stage.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) includes several features that seek to improve the quality of elementary education, (a) ensuring basic provisioning to enable improvement in the quality of classroom transactions; (b) large scale capacity building of States, for undertaking interventions for quality enhancement; and (c) evaluation of quality related processes and assessment of learning outcomes.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will make efforts to take a holistic and comprehensive approach to the issue of quality. Efforts to decentralize the whole process of curriculum development down (grassroot level) to the district level will be made. Some guiding principles in curriculum and evaluation reform will be as follows:

1. Teacher/ community participation in material preparation and in developing a school vision
2. Focus on good quality printing, illustrations for books alongside improvement in content; freedom from ‘cheapest syndrome’ in matters of children’s books
3. Use of local dialects as language in classes one and two
4. Community-based and school-based projects for work experience
5. Association of local artisans/workmen in school activities
6. Primacy to cultural activities, art, sports, etc
7. Content based and motivational training for teachers
8. Continuous assessment of students for all round development
9. Facilitating child-to-child learning
10. Looking upon quality improvement as integral to a holistic School Improvement Programme

Important Initiatives to improve learning outcome at elementary level have been listed below:

• An initiative called ADEPTS (Advancement of Educational Performance through Teacher Support) has been rolled out in 2007 – 08.

NCERT’s guidelines talk about ‘Reflective Teaching’ which requires teachers to be ‘mindful enquireres’ into their own experiences, to guide children meaningfully.

• 2% of the total SSA outlay for each district has been made available for ‘Learning Enhancement Programs’ that aims specifically at improving the quality of learning processes and learning outcomes.
• In 2013-14, 9 States have been supported for carrying out Learning Enhancement Programs focused on the primary level (especially for strengthening early reading and mathematics skills), and all the States have been supported for Learning Enhancement Programs with a focus on strengthening Science and Maths learning at the upper primary level.
• NCERT has launched a Reading Programme for the early primary grades, as an exemplar for States to build their own programmes for strengthening children’s reading skills. This includes a prototype graded series of 40 early readers, a teachers’ training manual, and a dossier of materials on reading pedagogy.
• Similarly, NCERT has initiated a programme for strengthening the teaching of Mathematics at Early primary grades, which includes development of a prototype maths learning kit for Class I and II, and a teacher training manual with appropriate pedagogic strategies.
• National Surveys on learning achievement of students are conducted by NCERT every three years to assess the level of achievement of children in different subject areas at the end of classes III, V and VII/ VIII.
• A computerized District Information System for Education (DISE) is operational in the country which looks into several quality related parameters like student-classroom ratio, teacher-pupil ratio, teachers’ profiles and examination results.
• Government of India, with the help of NCERT, has operationalised a quarterly monitoring system in the form of Quality Monitoring Tools (QMTs) to monitor quality aspects such as student attendance, teacher availability in schools, classroom practices, student learning achievement, academic supervision provided by BRC/CRCs, community support, etc.
• The Government of India has come up with the National Curriculum framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE) 2009, which mainly emphasizes on the following 5 issues: i). Reflective Teaching, ii) Inclusive Education, iii) Constructivist Environment, iv) Technology Introduction, v) Teaching for Democracy
• Scheme for Providing Quality Education for Madarsas (SPQEM): SPQEM seeks to bring about qualitative improvement in madrassas to enable Muslim children attain standards of the national education system in formal education subjects.

No Detention Policy

In India, children in the age group of 6-14 years have the right to free and compulsory elementary education in a neighbourhood school under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009.This covers primary (classes 1-5) and upper primary (classes 6-8) levels, which collectively constitute elementary education.

Amongst several provisions focused on elementary education, the Act provides for the No Detention Policy.Under this, no child will be detained till the completion of elementary education in class 8. The RTE (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017, which is yet to be passed by Parliament, revisits the No Detention Policy.

What is No Detention Policy?

The rationale for the No Detention Policy or automatic promotion to the next class is minimising dropouts, making learning joyful, and removing the fear of failure in exams. The evaluation mechanism under the Policy is the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) for holistic assessments (e.g., paper-pencil test, drawing and reading pictures, and expressing orally) as opposed to the traditional system of examinations. CCE does not mean no evaluation, but it means an evaluation of a different kind from the traditional system of examinations.

What does the RTE (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 propose to do?

The Bill proposes a ‘regular examination’ which will be held in class 5 and class 8 at the end of every academic year. In the event that a child fails these examinations, he/she will be given remedial instruction and the opportunity for a re-examination.

If he fails in the re-examination, the Central or State governments may choose: (i) to not detain the child at all, or (ii) to detain the child in class 5, class 8, or in both classes.This is in contrast to the current Policy where a child cannot be detained until the completion of class 8.