EQUIP ProjectEQUIP ProjectEQUIP ProjectEQUIP 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.• 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.

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.

Two Pronged Implementation Strategy

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Padippum Inikkum Levels5 Reading Levels

Level 4: Child Reads stories fluentlyLevel 3: Child Reads sentences but not storiesLevel 2: Child Reads words but not sentencesLevel 1: Child Reads letters but not wordsLevel 0: Child Cannot even identify letters

PI Affects 90,671 childrenSchools where Reading program is being implemented

No Block No. of Schools we are working in

1 Manamadurai 86

2 Sakkotai 98

3 S. Pudur 57

4 Kannankudi 42

5,6 Singampunari + Thirupathur 196

7 Thiruppuvanam 107

8 Ilayangudi 97

9 Sivagangai 122

10 Kallal 75

11 Kalayarkoil 142

12 Devakottai 97

  Total (for 9 blocks) 1119

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

AA affects 31,834 childrenBlock Name No.of schools

Sivagangai 32

Singampunari 17

Ellayankudi 13

S.Pudur 16

Tirupathur 32

Tirubuvanam 34

Manamadurai 28

Total 172

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

Library involves 5,456 children

Block Name No.of Libraries

Manamadurai 50

Devakottai 50

Thiruppuvanam 50

Thiruppuvanam 70

Kaalaiyaarkovil 50

Sivagangai 50

   

Total 320

Total Funds Received from Asha SV INR 2,869,275.00

1st Installment Received from Asha SV INR 1,368,500.00

2nd Installment Received from Asha SV INR 1,500,775.00

Total Expenses on project from Sept 07 to July 08 INR 3,001,158.00

Reading + Math Program INR 1,407,153.00

Science Program INR 556,113.00

Village Libraries Program INR 556,301.00

Festivals, Events and Workshops INR 66,904.00

Training, Coordination, Evaluation and Program Support INR 341,196.00

Administration INR 73,491.00

Excess of Expenditure over Funds Received INR 131,883.00

Budget 2007-08

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%.

Reading Skill Improvement with the program

Std 1 Reading Skill Improvement

26.3

34.7

39

42.640.4

17

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

L2 L1 LA

Reading Levels

% o

f C

hild

ren

Initial

Final

Std 1st and 2nd Reading skill Improvement

37.3 34.628.1

51

37.4

11.6

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

L2 L1 LA

Reading Levels

% o

f c

hild

ren

Initial

Final

Std 1st -5th Reading Skill Improvement

71.9 67.3

88.478.8

0

20

40

60

80

100

L2+L1(Std 1&2) L3+L4(Std 3-5)

Reading Levels

% o

f C

hil

dre

n

Initial Final

PI ImprovementsSnapshot of progressStd 1+2: % children who can read letters or more

57.971.9 72.6 88.4

0

20

40

60

80

100

Nov 2006 Aug 2007 Nov 2007 Mar 2008

%

ch

ild

re

n

Std 1+2: Letter or more

Std 1&2 Reading Skills Improvement of all Blocks

0102030405060708090

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Reading Levels

% o

f ch

ild

ren

Initial

Final

Std 3-5 Reading Skills Improvement of all Blocks

0

510

15202530354045

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Reading Levels

% o

f ch

ild

ren

Initial

Final

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.

AA resultsStudents Performance of Doing and Explaining Experiments in Ariviyal Anandham Program

49

86

98

26

67

84

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

50% 80% 100%

Percentage of Experiments

Per

cen

tag

e o

f C

hil

dre

n

Students who Can do Experiments

Students Who can do and Explain Experiments

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

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

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

Reading Levels of Childrenin 3rd and 4th Std in Chennai Schools

after 4 years of ABL

7.312.7

43.6

19.1 17.3

1.88.3

33.127.8 29.0

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

90.0

100.0

Nothing Letter Word Sentence Story

Per

cen

tag

e o

f C

hild

ren

3rd Std 4th Std

11

.59 17

.47

14

.76

8.6

7

11

.3

4.3

1 12

.37

-1.1

3

3.3

-0.1

8

6.5

2

0.4

1

-5.1

-1.5

5

-10

.92

-18

.29

-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

20

Std 8 ReadsStory

Std 7 ReadsStory

Std 6 ReadsStory

Std 5 ReadsStory

Std 4 Reads

Sentence

Std 3 ReadsWords

Std 2 ReadsLetters

Std 1 ReadsLetters

PI Districts Non PI (ABL) Districts

ASER 2006 to ASER 2007: Reading Level Changes

These are the changes in reading levels between Nov 2006 and Nov 2007 – From ASER Reports

ContentIn the Past

TodayABL

TomorrowABL+PI

Additions Proposed

Infrastructure

Teachers

Enrollment

Child Friendly Classroom

Group Activities Level Specific Group Activities

Resource Materials Dynamic & Graded Materials

Activity Tracking Simpler but Effective Tracking

Learning Outcome Evaluation

Reading and Math

Skill Evaluation

Remedial Classes for reading and math

Daily Remedial Classes

School Libraries for Reading Enrichment

Materials to build and sustain newly acquired reading skills.

Learning outcomes that each system will achieve in 3 years (#: ASER results, *: Our Estimates)

Learning Outcomes in 3 years predicted

35% # 40%* 85%* Age appropriate fluent

reading and arithmetic skills

Future Plans

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

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

Budget Request 2008-09

Heads

Reading + School Lib Intensive

Reading +

Math Outreach

Math Intensive

ScienceVillage

Library

CLCPre-

primary

Blocks 12 12 4 12 8 4 4

Units500 school

s

619 schoo

ls

120 schoo

ls

414 schoo

ls

500 villag

es60 villages

120 Balwa

dis

Fulltimers 20 6 6 24 8 3 8

People Cost

Rs. 720,0

00

Rs. 216,0

00

Rs. 216,0

00

Rs. 864,0

00

Rs. 288,0

00

Rs. 108,0

00

Rs. 288,0

00

Material Cost

Rs. 1000,000

Rs. 247,6

00

Rs. 180,0

00

Rs. 496,8

00

Rs. 600,0

00

Rs. 120,0

00

Rs. 240,0

00

Coordination

Rs. 150,0

00Rs. 60,000

Rs.60,000

Rs. 144,0

00

Rs. 120,0

00Rs. 48,000 Rs. 60,000

Admin (10%)

Rs. 187,0

00Rs. 52,360 Rs. 45,600

Rs. 1504

80

Rs. 1008

00Rs. 27600 Rs. 58800

Program Budg

et

Rs. 2057,000

Rs. 575,960

Rs. 501,600

Rs.1655,280

Rs.1108,800

Rs. 303,600

Rs. 646,800

Grand Total Rs. 6848,600 = $ 163,000

Option Particulars Total Budget

AAsha SV supports to the total project above. This is the of course our most

desirable option!$ 163,000

B

Project is implemented as above without scaling down. Asha SV supports the Intensive components alone:Reading Intensive + Math Intensive + Science + CLC And we try to raise funds for the outreach components separately - for the

reading outreach, village library and Pre-primary. As these will be in different schools and villages (and a lower intensity program), the Asha SV schools and villages will be clearly kept separate. The evaluation for the Asha SV schools can also be done separately.

$ 107,559

C

Project is implemented as above without scaling down. Asha SV supports fully a few of the components above like Science, Village

Library, CLC and Pre-primary (for example). And we will raise additional funds for the Reading and Math components.

$ 88,440

D

Asha SV supports the project in Sivagangai with the following scaling down of the project components:

Reading + School Lib = 200 schoolsOutreach Reading + Math program = 919 schoolsMath Intensive program = 120 schoolScience = 360 schools (existing - with lesser materials than proposed above)Village Library = 300 library (existing but with lesser materials than

proposed above)

$ 92,523

EAsha SV supports only the Science program in all schools in the district with

a greater intensity than done in the last year (more materials and people).

$ 39,400

FAsha SV supports only the Library and CLC components - the community

components.$ 33,628

GAsha SV supports only the Science Program - but at the same level of

intensity as done last year. 1 person per block and lesser number of kits/school (costing Rs. 800 per school/year)

$ 25,182

Other Options 2008-09

Q & A