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An insight into the projects of Pratham - India's largest NGO - and the harsh realities of Indian education.
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BBIIGG DDRREEAAMMSS
A PRATHAM FIELD TRIP
by
Misha Talavera
Big Dreams – A Pratham Field Trip 2011
2
SERIOUS BUSINESS
s the sleeping pill wore off, my mind regained
consciousness and my droopy eyelids opened
to reveal the world. I gazed out the window,
which, to my surprise, had changed channel since
the previous night: the grimy, decrepit infrastructure
had turned into endless grass hills; the congested
avenues to swaying two-lane roads; the smog of the
city to the countryside's crystal blue sky... I rubbed
the last remnants of sleep off my eyes and thought
to myself: welcome to Himachal Pradesh.
But, I hadn't fled New Delhi's pandemonium to vacation
on Himachal's heavenly hills. No, I was here to attend
serious business. According to Pratham's 2011 Annual
Survey on Education Report (ASER), a shocking 68.7% of
Himachal's third graders cannot read second grade texts
and 54% of first graders cannot recognize numbers
greater than 10. Most worryingly, during the 6 years that
ASER has conducted its survey, learning levels have been
stagnating, if not decreasing. This is in spite of the fact
that enrollment at the primary-school level is in the high
90 percents.
Frighteningly, this educational crisis is not limited to
Himachal: it is a nation-wide phenomenon. In fact,
Himachal is one of the best performing states, shining in
comparison to the likes of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In the
vast majority of states, despite near universal primary-
school enrollment, learning levels remain terribly low, and
in some cases, keep falling. Children are going to school,
but they aren't learning.
Education has been proved again and again to have a
huge impact on a country's economic growth and human
development. As long as India maintains such weak
educational standards, it will become increasingly harder
for it to maintain its current economic boom and to offer
its millions of people who live in abhorrent poverty
dignified lives.
A
“68.7% of third graders
cannot read second grade texts”
“learning levels have been… decreasing”
“This educational crisis …
… is a nation-wide phenomenon”
“Children are going to school,
but they aren’t learning”
Big Dreams – A Pratham Field Trip 2011
3
READ INDIA
n response to this crisis, Pratham, India's largest
education NGO, both in size and in sprawl, devised the
Read India program with three clear objectives:
improve learning levels, influence teacher practices and
involve the communities. In each selected village, it
mobilized and trained volunteers to teach in the local
schools. The volunteer - equipped with the Pratham
teaching method and materials and supported by the
local Pratham members – has the duty of boosting the
academic abilities of her class, which consists of students
who were falling behind.
The program also goes beyond the classroom: it seeks to
get the whole village community involved. Parents and
village leaders are encouraged to take active interest in
their children's education and to ensure the local school
is functioning correctly. Merely providing better teaching
can only achieve so much if children are unsupported or
discouraged by their elders. By convincing the whole
community that their youth's education is of utmost
importance, Pratham increases the likelihood of its
students' success.
Currently, the program reaches out to 2.4 million children
spread out across 19 states. Pratham's strategy has been
to focus their efforts on a small (by Indian standards)
selection of villages grouped into blocks (group of
approximately 100 neighboring villages). Approximately
250 Block Excellence Programs (BEPs) are running, but
Pratham has much bigger aspirations. As Richa, the
member of the Program Review and Management Team I
was accompanying to Himachal explained to me: "we aim
to improve education at a nation-wide scale."
I “improve learning levels
influence teacher practices
involve the communities”
“2.4 million children
spread out across 19 states”
“improve education at a nation-wide scale”
Big Dreams – A Pratham Field Trip 2011
4
Pratham does not try to side-step the government, nor
does it relentlessly fight it. Instead, it aims to work with it
and advise it on how to improve its education system.
Implicit in the organization's strategy is the belief that, to
effectively and sustainably change the educational
system, they must join forces with the government. A
sensible view considering India is home to 1.22 billion
people and 80% of the country’s elementary schools are
government owned. In essence, Read India is about
leading by example: the BEPs are models for the state
governments to subsequently scale-up.
To monitor the program's progress and ensure it is being
implemented correctly, Pratham conducts regular surveys.
This regular stream of feedback is then used to better the
program and prove its effectiveness to state
governments. As it happens, it was to document and help
with the two-day training for an external evaluation of
Read India that I had ventured to the Northern heights.
“Read India is about leading by example”
Big Dreams – A Pratham Field Trip 2011
5
THE EXTERNAL EVALUATION
e sat in a conference room of the Himachal
Pradesh University in Shimla. On one side of the
table was the Pratham team: Joginder, the
Pratham state coordinator, Neeraj, the ASER center (the
data analysis sister organization of Pratham) state
representative, and Richa. On the other side were
Professor Chand and two Phd students, Ajay and Nisha,
who were volunteering to conduct the External
Evaluation. The training was to be carried out over two
days: first the theory, then the practice.
For the first two hours, Richa and her team gave a
thorough overview of Pratham and the Read India
program: their history, objectives and strategies. They
then tackled the External Evaluation. As a pilot program,
Pratham decided to conduct an evaluation of the Read
India program. Its sample size would be small, about 5
villages per state, as its objective was not to collect loads
of data but to identify any urging problems or features
that need to be improved or researched further. It would
seek breadth and depth: thoroughly evaluating the
effectiveness of the program by referring to all the
members involved, from the students to the Gram
Pradhan (village head) to the local Pratham Coordinators.
And, to avoid any bias, particularly when evaluating the
performance of the Pratham members, it would be
conducted by external volunteers.
Once the volunteers had understood the purpose of their
assignment, the team moved on to the attitude to be
adopted and methods to be applied when conducting
the survey. Important things like not taking a higher
moral ground when interacting with the community
members, or integrating the questions of the evaluation
into a conversation rather than blurting them out as a list.
Finally, the team wrapped up the session by going
through every single question on the evaluation, clearing
up confusions and explaining the intention of each one. I
remain impressed by the thoroughness with which
Pratham trained its volunteers. Justifiable thoroughness
as they are the link between the realities on the field and
the organizations' headquarters.
W
“the External Evaluation…
…would identify any urging problems”
“the volunteers…
…are the link between the realities on the field
and the organization”
Big Dreams – A Pratham Field Trip 2011
6
THE REALITY
he next day, we set off for the field practice.
Accompanied by the Pratham District Coordinator
(PDC), Block Coordinator (PBC) and Cluster
Coordinator (PCC, a cluster comprises 16 schools), we
ventured across Himachal’s ruthless mountain curves,
which were so sharp I had to swallow my intestinal liquids
a couple times. After a one hour rollercoaster ride, the
driver strayed off the paved road onto a bouldery path
which led us to the school, a small white and blue
concrete block hidden among the rocky hills and grass
valleys.
We entered through the small, grey gate that gave onto
the school’s two classrooms. The rooms were plain: the
children sat on the floor and the walls were uniform white
and blue with the exception of a few posters. Yet they
were sturdy: the solid concrete walls and roof ensured
classes could be held even during the monsoon, which is
not a given in India as 30% of schools have yet to be
rendered weatherproof.
We were soon joined by the government teacher, a
stubby middle-aged woman dressed in a black and red
sari who went by the name of Indu. She greeted us with a
glass of Pani (water), but very quickly, her greeting turned
into a complaint. She initially seemed to accuse Pratham
of exploiting the volunteer by putting her to work without
paying her. However, as her endless monologue rambled
on, it turned out that she was the one “exploiting” her by
pressuring her to work full time on top of the two daily
hours for Pratham. Yet, it is hard to blame Indu for
seeking extra help: she is the only teacher of the school,
in charge of more than 50 students going from first to
fifth grade. “How can I give these children an education if
I am alone?” she desperately asked.
T
Indu – “How can I give these children an education if I am alone?”
Big Dreams – A Pratham Field Trip 2011
7
The lack of teachers is one of the main problems
plaguing the Indian elementary system. 12.4% of primary
schools are run by a single teacher, meaning that when
she is absent, classes are not held, and around 60% of
schools do not meet the government’s Pupil-Teacher
Ratio (PTR), which requires at least one teacher for every
thirty students. With the volunteers’ help, Indu has been
able to cover more teaching, yet she still runs multi-grade
classrooms – which generally produce lower learning
levels, yet are outstandingly common in India with 58% of
second grade children sharing a classroom with another
grade – and has even had to occasionally let the older
children “teach themselves”: when we arrived a third class
was being run on the paved terrace, without any teacher.
Indu has often requested an extra hand from the
government, but they systematically reply that they have
neither the supply nor the funding to fulfill her demands.
This is not very surprising giving that India dedicates a
relatively small portion of its GDP in it education system.
In 2006, it invested a mere 3.1%, and only a third of that
went to primary schools. The lack of funds is mostly due
to the politics governing the education system, which
essentially consist of finger-pointing. The responsibility
for the public education system is supposedly split
between central and state governments, yet what exactly
each one is commended to do remains vague. It is
therefore very common for both parties to wash their
hands and leave projects unfunded and needs unfulfilled,
claiming it was the other’s responsibility.
After the teacher had spilt her heart out, the team moved
on to the volunteer, a soft-spoken young lady wearing a
light-green sari. They asked her a few questions, such as
her reasons for volunteering and satisfaction with the
experience, and then evaluated her teaching skills and
students. Richa later told me that in theory, the teacher
should be stopped from pressuring the volunteer into
teaching extra hours, but given the desperate lack of
teachers and that the volunteer was okay with it, the
reality on the field told a different story. Moreover, in
theory, the volunteer is meant to influence the
government teacher into adopting the Pratham teaching
method, but it practice, this rarely happens as the
government teachers are often more assertive and
experienced.
12.4% are run by a single teacher
60% have more than 30 students per teacher
58% of second grade classes are multi-grade
“the politics governing the education system…
…essentially consist of finger-pointing”
Big Dreams – A Pratham Field Trip 2011
8
In the meantime, I sat down with the group of fifth
graders on the terrace. Using broken English we
exchanged our names, ages and interests: India is
supposedly bilingual, but in reality, English remains
exclusive to the elite. Rather than through words they
preferred to communicate with actions: Kumar, the most
outspoken of the class, convinced me to play tag with
them. By the time the evaluation team was ready to leave,
my breath was short from the altitude and my shirt was
humid.
We left the school and followed Kumar up the dirt trail
deeper into the hills until we reached the village where
we would conduct the next part of the evaluation. He led
us through a gateway, across a yellow mustard flower
field to a turquoise house where we met with
his mother, a slim woman wearing a plain
white sari. She was asked several questions
ranging from her familiarity with the volunteer
project, her education background and her
involvement in her child’s education. She was
then asked to pick from a Pratham testing tool
what she thought was the hardest English text
her child could read, before Kumar was put to
the test.
To the mother’s great relief, Kumar succeeded, despite a
few hesitations. This was quite impressive given that she
had picked the hardest text, and, more remarkably, that
she was illiterate. Kumar is what is called a “first
generation learner”: he is the first of his family to be
completing a primary education. This phenomenon is
common in India given that the elementary education
system only started to be widely accessible in the mid
90s. It is also a very serious problem: uneducated parents
are less likely to see the benefits of education and
encourage and support their children to learn. Thus, a
child born from illiterate and uneducated parents is much
more prone to be left behind academically and drop out,
thereby continuing the vicious circle. Kumar’s mother is
an exception to the trend: despite her lack of education
she is highly involved in her child’s learning and has freed
him from the vicious circle. She is a living proof that
parent involvement in their child’s education increases
the child’s success rate.
Big Dreams – A Pratham Field Trip 2011
9
During the actual evaluation, more households and the
village leader would be visited, but as it was a field
practice, we drove down to the bigger town of Solan to
our last stop: the Education For Education (EFE) center. As
an incentive and a reward for Read India’s volunteers,
Pratham offers them a combined English, soft skills and
digital literacy course. The course takes place over six
months, at the end of which the volunteer is granted an
Intel-Pratham certification which can greatly increase
their job prospects. Furthermore, the weekly get-
togethers also serve as meeting sessions with the
Pratham coordinators where the volunteers can seek help
and ask questions.
The feedback we gathered from the volunteers was
overall very positive: they enjoyed learning and
appreciated that they had a laptop to themselves for the
computer course. But one widely shared complaint arose:
the weekly classes are too spread out. As Satiam, a
volunteer, put it: “by the time I come to the next class, I
have forgotten everything I had learnt the week before!”
Given the feedback, it would seem sensible to spread the
course throughout the week. However, Pratham has
already done that in other states, and interestingly, the
volunteers there have asked for the course to be on only
one day a week as commuting to the centers is
cumbersome. This issue could simply be a “the grass is
greener on the other side of the fence” one, but it clearly
demands more research.
Big Dreams – A Pratham Field Trip 2011
10
BIG DREAMS: MAKE THEM COME TRUE
hat evening, as we rolled back to Delhi, I pushed my
seat back and attempted to get some rest. But in
vain, as Hanuman, the Monkey King, was too busy
ramming his knuckles into Meghnaath’s, a demon, jaw on
the glitching, black and white screen. As sleep was not an
option, I fell into thought.
As I was interning with the ASER center – the data
collection and analysis sister organization of Pratham – I
had spent the previous weeks plowing through piles of
education indicators: 64% of children can do this; only
39% of schools have that… I knew the ASER report front
to back. Yet, making the link between numbers and
reality is oftentimes difficult. Reading that only 4% of first
graders can read English texts of their own grade level
might be slightly shocking, but only when you see the
child struggling to decipher a dead-simple text right in
front of your eyes, do you really start to think.
When I sat with the children I’d asked them (as the cliché
wants it) what they aspired to be when they “grew up”.
From soldier to scientist, prime minister to cricket player,
their ambitions had no limits. Kumar particularly caught
my attention as he and I shared the same dream of
wanting to be engineers. Of course it is inspiring to see
such big dreams emanate from their little bodies, but let’s
face the truth: the chances that Kumar becomes an
engineer are near zero. He is most likely to finish his
primary school, and if he works particularly hard and is
lucky enough he might even complete secondary school.
But then what? Only 15% of Indian children make it to
high-school, and that number drops to 7% for university.
Of course, there is a one-in-a-million chance that he
miraculously succeeds. But, the sad reality is that the vast
majority of Indian children have their dreams crushed
before they even get a shot
So yes, inspiring it is, inspiring to annihilate the gross lack
of opportunity that constricts these children to their birth
status, inspiring to eradicate the raging social injustice
that robs these children from a dignified life, inspiring to
ensure that one day, children are not only in school
learning well, but going to sleep to a dream that could
one day become reality.
T
“making the link between numbers and reality
is oftentimes difficult”
“let’s face the truth…
…the vast majority of children have their
dreams crushed before they even get a shot”
Big Dreams – A Pratham Field Trip 2011
11
“Inspiring to ensure that every child
goes to sleep to a dream
that could one day
become reality”
– Misha Talavera