ASER Centre

Evidence for action

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Pratham/ASER Centre’s Partnerships with District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs)

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Capacity building of future teachers and improvement in basic reading and arithmetic proficiency of children in Std 3, 4 and 5.

Program Aim

This program aims to improve the ability of future primary school teachers to identify and address children's foundational learning needs. Pratham and ASER Centre teams train students who are studying to become teachers in selected District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), which are the government teacher training colleges that have been set up in most districts of the country. The training focuses on Pratham's teaching-learning approach known as CAMaL (Combined Activities for Maximized Learning). DIET students work with children in grades 3 to 5. They learn how to understand children's current learning levels, group children by learning level, and teach each group of children using methods and materials designed to help them acquire foundational skills in reading and arithmetic in a short period of time.

Background

Since 2005, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), facilitated by Pratham has been consistently highlighting the problem of poor foundational learning levels among children across rural India. Teaching from grade-level textbook is not helpful for children who are unable to read and understand the basics. There is a need to start from the child's level and use appropriate methods to help them progress. Grouping by level and not by grade is an efficient and effective method to help children acquire these basic skills quickly, so that further progress can be made.

The DIET Partnership Program tries to build this awareness and understanding among future teachers and in the institutions responsible for training them. Over the years, many DIETs have collaborated with Pratham and ASER Centre to conduct the ASER survey and have expressed interest in extending this collaboration to include additional activities that strengthen their students' capabilities in different areas.

Model

Typically, a batch of DIET students participates in a 5-day training where they are taken through the principles of CAMaL and its components on assessment and teaching-learning activities, including a field pilot and a quiz to assess students' understanding. Subsequently, they utilize their mandatory practice teaching days to run 30 to 50 day learning camps in government schools located near the DIET, during which they implement CAMaL methods with grade 3 to 5 students. In the learning camp, DIET students group children according to their learning level and teach basic reading and arithmetic for 2-3 hours every day.

Reach

Between 2015 and 2018, about 15,000 teacher trainees from 148 DIETs and private teacher training colleges have been trained in CAMaL (Combined Activities for Maximised Learning) methodology and have implemented it in 3,000 government schools covering 1,25,000 children, using the ‘learning camp’ approach. A detailed concept note on the CAMaL methodology is available here and state-wise partnerships have been listed on a map here.

Additionally, 2,000 students were also oriented on simple ways to assess whether policy objectives (of major policies in the field of education like Right to Education Act, National Curriculum Framework) are being met on the ground through short Translating Policy into Practice (TPP) modules. The four TPP modules are Introduction to Translating Policy into Practice, School Management Committees and Parental Involvement in School Education,Learning Assessment and Inside Classrooms. A detailed concept note on each is available here.

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Results

This capacity building program in partnership with the DIETs holds considerable promise for bringing about positive changes in overall teaching and learning in elementary schools across the country.

State-wise improvement in learning levels for 2015-16 can be accessed below:

Research

Pratham/ASER Centre in order to evaluate the usefulness of the intervention, in terms of adoption of training methods in future teaching practice of DIET students upon becoming teachers, is implementing a tracking exercise for a small cohort of these students. Extensive data is also being collected to understand how many trained students actually become teachers after graduation, in what time, the nature of their employment etc. in this exercise.