Mathur Ritika Passi

a strong focus on the following. First,
instructional content must be such that it
develops early cognitive skills, especially
reading and math. 14 Second, teams of
trained specialists must be provided to
Anganwadi workers to improve their
instructional and interactive skills. The
Anganwadi staff’s ability to be responsive
to help children and work with parents
to improve the modelling and interactive
practices with the child—rather than simply
manage children for a few hours—is critical.
Third, a strong focus on community-based
care at the Anganwadi centres to create
local ownership must be maintained. ICDS
2.0, if done with a strong focus on quality,
can transform children’s lives and have a
cascading effect through to later years.
Adult Literacy: Unfinished Agenda
The ability to read, write and do simple
calculations are the basic skills that allow
women and men to function effectively
in society today. Ongoing government
programmes have stagnated. The Sakshaar
Bharat Mission (formerly the National
Literacy Mission) can complete this task,
but with a complete change in tactics. Literacy
programmes using mobile telephony
as the primary delivery model, building on
promising research on mobile apps for basic
literacy and numeracy, can be rolled out
more easily in partnership with civil society
and private enterprises. The government can
meanwhile prioritise, possibly on a five-year
basis, different groups of adults to target.
For example, in the first five years (2015-
2020) the target groups could include young
women and men migrating for work (15-40
years). Programmes can be designed specifically
around their constraints (location, language,
employment). This would allow the
government to aim for a 100% success rate
in each five-year tranche, with the overall
goal to reach over 90% literacy by 2030.
An Independent Assessment Agency
An independent assessment of student
learning that is tied to rewards for teachers,
school administrators and parents can
transform the quality of school education.
Such assessments have to be conducted
by a body external to the system to
be effective. An autonomous National
Assessment Agency outside of the purview
of the Ministry of Human Resource
Development or the National or State
Councils of Educational Research and
Training is needed, organised similarly to
the UK’s Office of Standards in Education,
Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED). 15
Unlike OFSTED, this agency would also
conduct learning assessments through tests,
and run surveys that record responses of
students, teachers and parents. It would
create publicly available “School Report
Cards” for both public and private schools,
covering progress on grade-appropriate
learning outcomes, teacher responsiveness
and capacity, resources available, student
satisfaction, facilities, spending per child and
parental satisfaction. District-wide school
rankings could be reported. 16 To succeed,
such an agency would need complete
autonomy from central/state executive
branches of government; conduct tests
that measure grade-appropriate learning
and not draw directly from the syllabus;
include survey-based responses on student,
parent and teacher satisfaction; report
on metrics of cost per child, facilities
available, etc.; and feed results into annual
programmatic reviews to record year-onyear
improvements.
A National Assessment Agency will serve
multiple purposes. It will link teaching and
learning in an objective, credible manner;
allow immediate corrections to improve
quality; help isolate the contributing factors
to student performance; give parents greater
information to make decisions about
their children’s education; hold school
administrators and teachers accountable;
and allow an analysis of student learning
without penalising students or teachers. If
such an agency is established immediately,
the first extensive “School Report Cards and
Rankings” could be produced by 2020.
Intensive Learning Support
Programmes
Children who struggle to keep pace with
their peers need additional help, but rarely
receive it when needed. The compounded
gap in learning leads to early dropouts.
Several organisations (Doosra Dashak,
Pratham) have demonstrated success in
intensive learning camps, where children
learn at their own level (using ‘teach at
the right level’ or TARL approaches).
Such programmes show initial gains in
learning, especially at primary grades, but fit
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