The document discusses challenges facing primary education in India and proposes solutions to improve quality. It notes that only 58% of rural children complete primary school and 50% of grade 5 students cannot read at a grade 2 level. It then outlines various problems such as lack of infrastructure, untrained teachers, and low enrollment. The document proposes ways to attract better teachers, motivate existing ones, develop technology-aided learning, and implement programs like bicycle provision and school meals to boost girls' enrollment. It provides details on implementing incentive-based compensation, training programs, and developing an IT-enabled system called TAS to deliver curricula and aid teaching.

1. Stepping Stones
Enhancing the quality of primary education in India
Team Swadesh
IIM Calcutta

2. Quality primary education is still a dream - India
Is education for all a possibility?
Children do not complete
primary education in India
58%
Rural children in standard
five can fluently read a
standard two text book
Only 50%
2
Just drafting RTE act will make
a difference?
Children in India are two or
more years below their
grade level
10 crore
7.95 lakh teachers who
appeared who appeared for
Central teacher ability test failed
Over 99%
Owing to the family pressure to
earn and children low interest
causes low enrolment rate
Students Enrollment
Quantity v/s Quality
Our every education initiative is
based on numbers rather than
imparting quality education
Teachers Motivation
India is lacking quality teachers
who are motivated to teach
especially in rural areas
Infrastructure
Lack of Infrastructure and high
students - school ratio is a main
reason for low enrolment
Problem
Identification
Though India is facing multiple challenges but we can’t afford to miss out on primary educationTeam Swadesh

3. The problem increases manifolds for girl education
3Special focus is required to change the mindset towards girl’s education
Reluctance
of parents
Parents in rural
areas are always over
cautious in sending their
girl child to school
School MotherTake home relationCycles
• Poor families can not spare
money for commute, or are
reluctant to let girls travel to
neighbouring villages
• Cycle can go a long way in
reducing drop out rates for
girls
School feeding and take
home food rations have
proven effective in some
countries in improving
enrolment and
productivity of girls
• They will support girls,
provide advice to parents,
and become a voice for
advocacy and support
• They would guide girl
students on issues of
health and sanitation
Team Swadesh

4. Develop
Infrastructure
to
aid teaching &
learning
• Hold a “Teacher Eligibility Test”
for motivated individuals without
degrees to teach in schools
subject to continual evaluation
• Change the salary structure from
current seniority based to
performance based system
• Provide additional remuneration
for other responsibilities
undertaken apart from teaching
• Bring avenues of additional
sources of income to interested
teachers through e-tutoring,
content creation, app creation,
creating multimedia content,
assessment creation etc.
• Make computer-aided learning an
integral part of teachers'
pedagogy and classroom process
• Ensure all-time availability of the
prescribed infrastructure and
hardware through tie ups with
ITC’s kiosks in rural India
• Develop devices operating on
solar power to combat the
electricity problem in rural India
• Engage students through games
which make them learn with fun
& also provide good quality
digital learning material
• Continuously train the teachers
through use of best in class
technology to upgrade their skills
• Use ‘Hub & Spoke’ Model for
training of teachers & utilize
contents from ‘MOOC’
• Have a transparent system for
transfers and promotions
• Reduce administrative
responsibilities of teachers to the
minimal
• Ensure that they don’t need to
double up as survey collectors
and Government campaign
administrators
• Recognize and reward
commitment to service,
punctuality and discipline
Motivate and
train existing
teachers of
primary school
Attract
appropriate
talent
to teaching
profession
What can be done to improve education level
4Problem resolution: The way forwardTeam Swadesh

5.  Design the compensation with 30% fixed
(decided on seniority basis) and 70%
variable(linked to performance)
 The variable pay shall be linked to the
timesheet entry and shall be remunerated
on the basis of number of hours entered
 The teaching hours would be recorded in
the timesheet through finger swipe in and
swipe out of the teacher. Without it entry
wouldn’t be created
 Promotion shall only be granted on the
basis of performance history of the
teacher
 Identify all kinds of administrative
functions within the school
 Design a daily timesheet entry system at
the school accessible through fingerprint
 Classify teaching hours & non-teaching
hours based on the above tasks and
remunerate accordingly with better
remuneration for teaching hours
Additional Income Avenues
 Identify activities related to the teaching
learning process which shall enhance
effectiveness of the process
 Some of the activities could be e-tutoring,
content creation, app creation, creating
multimedia content, assessment creation
etc.
 Identify individuals who are capable and
interested in the above activities and
provide them an opportunity to earn
more
 Train them appropriately to carry out the
identified activities efficiently
 Remunerate for each of the additional
activities in an appropriate manner
Teacher Eligibility Test
 Hold an All India level teaching aptitude
test followed by a probationary period
and later if found suitable induct him/her
to mainstream teaching subject to
performance appraisals
 Provide certification and appropriate
postings to candidates who clear the test
Change Salary & Promotion
Structure
Ways to
Implement
Remunerate Function Wise
Talent Development in Practice
5Develop Talent Motivate Talent Aid Talent through IT
Team
Swadesh

6. 6Develop Talent Motivate Talent Aid Talent through IT
Development of Intrinsic Motivation in Teaching Staff
Recognition and Reward System
•A reward system could be started wherein teachers would be awarded for their contribution in different fields
or for trying out new ways of teaching which helped improve results and reduce dropout rates
•The rewards should be standardized and promoted across the country so that the awarded teachers could
benefit in terms of better opportunities apart from being recognized
Clearly defined and limited responsibilities
•Identify the areas of expertise of various teachers and their willingness to take up the responsibilities
•Assign them clearly defined responsibilities
•Incentives those who are ready to perform extra task but make sure their already assigned responsibilities are
not hampered
•Proper monitoring mechanism should be implemented to make it a success
Transparent system for transfers and promotions
•Clearly defined standard guidelines should be in place regarding transfers and promotions
•A transparent system should be implemented so that nobody feels cheated
•Grievances, if any, should be addressed properly. A grievance redress cell could be formed at district level to
make this possible
Technology as skill enhancer
•Using IT develop, share and rank teaching material
•Enhance accessibility of teaching material by providing internet and portable devices
•Update curriculum timely with collaboration among teachers, students, academicians etc.
WaystoImplement
Team
Swadesh

7. Talent Aid
System
(TAS)
Developing
relevant
curriculum
Developing
educational
and training
material
Distributing
educational
and training
material
Developing
Infrastructure
• Tie up with experts and
a central board (CBSE) to
develop curriculum for
pan country government
schools
• The curriculum to be
developed should cater
to the students who cant
buy expensive books and
research materials
A system which encourages the mass participation of
experts and teachers in developing curriculum for the
schools participating in it
The TAS to have efficient educational and training
material (digital/paper based) to aid teachers to teach
the class
• Teachers can use this
materials to get
information/ lecture
notes of expert teachers
• The teachers can
write/request to edit the
material if they find
some errors
• Teachers can act as
discussant or facilitator
Distribution of material through a central repository
platform which can be accessed by teachers and
students
• Distribution of material
through internet to
ensure availability at all
times
• The number of times a
teacher accesses/
requests for
questions/edit can be
used to determine the
teachers performance
Developing the desired infrastructure by the use of
multinationals and support of local people
• Rope in companies like
ITC which have rural
penetration for resource
sharing
• Convince companies to
install solar panels in the
villages to tackle power
problem
• Convince companies to
invest as CSR activities
7Develop Talent Motivate Talent Aid Talent through IT
IT Enabled Talent Management
Team
Swadesh

8. 8
Post IT Implementation Scenario
Facilities With Dedicated IT set up Facilities With Shared IT set up
Enhanced teaching learning process with IT enabled system
A teacher wants to revise a topic for a
class next week but the school has no
computer
The teacher goes to a community center
in his village which has been integrated
with TAS to get the information
Finds a list of relevant materials which
is sorted based on the their review
ratings from past users
Also finds some videos ,teaching notes,
question papers etc. from other
teachers
Teacher prints the required material and
his feedback is taken to improve
content ranking
A teacher wants to revise a topic for a class
next week. There’s a computer in faculty room
along with a TV and CD player in every class
The teacher uses internet to access TAS and
searches for the required information
Finds a list of relevant materials which is
sorted based on the their review ratings from
past users
The teacher burns a CD of the videos and
plays them in class to augment regular
teaching
The teacher based on the classroom
experience adds feedback to the videos and
rates them accordingly for future references
Team Swadesh

9. 9
Implementation Timeline & Required Policy Interventions & strategic alliances for Proposal Success
Change in policy framework post implementation of the proposals critical to its success
Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov
Recruit new teachers
through teachers
eligibility test and
appoint helpers for
infrastructure
maintenance
Make changes in the
reward structure of
teachers along with
promotion & transfer
guidelines & effectively
communicate it to them
Install/hire computers
and other teaching aids
for rural and urban
schools as required.
Minimum 1 computer in
each village
Start the training
program of students and
teachers through
‘MOOC’ using a ‘Hub &
Spoke model’
Implement the Talent aid
system across schools
and train the users
regarding its usage and
advantage
Make the requisite
policy interventions &
strategic alliances as
outlined below to
support the change
initiative
Policy Interventions
– Make Learning outcome explicit goal
of education policy and focus on
accurate measurement measures
– Launch a campaign for supplemental
instructions targeted to minimum
absolute standard of learning for all
children
– Pay urgent attention to teacher
governance for better monitoring and
supervision as well as teacher
performance measurement and
management
Strategic Alliances
– Build alliance with like minded
NGO’s with similar vision for eg.
Teach for India for additional
qualified manpower, technology
and study material
– Alliance with companies like ITC
with good rural presence to
leverage on their infrastructure
– Alliance with IT & telecom
vendors to develop robust IT
systems & properly maintain IT
infrastructure to facilitate the
teaching learning process
Team Swadesh

10. 10
Financial Viability of our Proposed Solutions
This would impact approximately 25 lakh primary school teachers and help 7.5 crore
primary school students in exercising their Right To Education (RTE)
TotalFundingRequired
Technology Cost
Creating platform
Server Costs
Communication
Organizational
Cost
Logistics & Infra
Cost
Rural penetration
Solar panels
Additional
Teachers & Experts
Rewards &
Recognitions
Salary &
Remuneration
A well planned cost analysis will reduce the load of government as well as a common man
Hiring 300 teachers
and assistants
~7.5 crores
Yearly rewards to be
given region wise
~0.32 crores
~nearly equal
(since only structure is changed)
Introduce competitions
in big colleges
~ 10 lac
Tie up with BSNL to
provide network
~1 crore
~7.82
crore
Use cloud computing on
Google /use channels on
YouTube
~ 50 lac
25 supervisors
~50 lakh
Reaching 300 villages
without electricity
~ 1.5 crore
~2.00
crore
~1.60
crore
Team Swadesh

11. 11
Concept & Implementation Risks with Mitigation Measures
Concept Risks & Mitigation Measures
Implementation Risks & Mitigation
Measures
Successful identification of risks and mitigation of them almost ensures success of the proposalTeam Swadesh
Social
Political
Technological
Economic
PEST
Analysis
Social
Political
Technological
Economic
PEST
Analysis
States with different political
affiliation than the centre may
oppose the idea
States have to be brought
onboard by clearly
communicating to them the
benefits their respective
states would incur
Government may not find the
model viable to fund it
Government has to made
aware of how the benefits of
the program clearly outweigh
the costs in the long term
Existing teaching staff
might resist the
proposal
They need to be clearly
communicated that it would
allow them to focus on their
core competency and the
system would aid them in it
Unavailability of
adequate technology
& lack of its impact
assessment might
prevent the proposal
to take off
The right IT vendor has to be
selected and partnered with
and made to understand the
entire proposal before
implementation phase
Certain states might agree to
the proposal in concept but
due to adverse conditions
prevalent currently in the
state might want to
delay implementation
The implementation should
be done phase wise in states
& right time for each should
be determined before
embarking the process
The current economic state of
a state might prevent it from
implementing the proposal
Centre shall identify such
states in advance and allocate
its budget for this program
accordingly and help such
states implement the system
Old teaching staff
might stall the
implementation of the
program in the fear of
reduction of power &
authority
They need to be made aware
that they would have
assistance in carrying out
their duties & have an
opportunity to earn more &
do less of administrative jobs
Lack of basic
infrastructure in rural
areas may hinder
successful
functioning of IT
systems
Appropriate backup measures
have to be kept in place to
offset the disruptions due to
lack in infrastructure like
systems running on solar
power/batteries

12. References
12
1.) India’s Education Crisis - http://www.teachforindia.org/about-us/india-education-
crisis
2.) Annual Status of Education Report, 2012
3.) India demographics profile
4.) Primary Education in India needs a fix. Forbes India -
http://forbesindia.com/article/briefing/primary-education-in-india-needs-a-fix/35287/1
5.) Education’s primary problems - http://www.financialexpress.com/news/education-s-
primary-problems/948273/1
6.) Using evidence for better policy: The case of primary education in India-
http://www.ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=119
Team Swadesh