1. Stepping Stones
Enhancing the quality of primary education
“School Chalein Hum”
Initiative By:-
“TEAM VAJRA”
ADITYA RAI
AJINKYA JAIN
MRIDUL VERMA
PARAG KANITKAR
ROHIT SAINI
“I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the
conditions in which they can learn.”
2. Incompetent primary education in India
Some Mind-boggling facts
•
Reading levels continue to be a cause for serious concern. More than
half of all children in Std. V are at least three grade levels behind
where they should be
In 2012 nationally, 53.2% of all children in Std. V could not read a
Std. II level text. This proportion has increased continuously in last 3
years.The percentage of all children enrolled in Std. III who cannot
read a Std. I level text is 61.3% in 2012, increasing continuously from
2010-12.
Across rural India, 48.9% children enrolled in Std. V could read
English words or more, and 22.5% could read simple English
sentences. Among all children enrolled in Std. VIII, 47% could read
sentences
India has an estimated 400 million children under the age of 18.
About 240 million of these are between the ages of six and 14.
Despite the fact that about 95% of these children are enrolled in
primary school, only 45% manage to finish their elementary
education.
Modern education in India is often criticized for being based on
rote learning rather than problem solving. BusinessWeek
criticizes the Indian curriculum, saying “it revolves around rote
learning” and Express India suggests that “students are focused
on cramming.” Preschool for Child Rights states that “almost 99%
of preschools do not have any curriculum at all.”
Enrollment in the 6-14 age group continues to be very high (96%).
But the proportion of out of school children has increased,
especially among girls in the age group of 11 to 14
Girls in the age group of 11 to 14 years are often the hardest to
bring to school and keep in school.
A study conducted by the Teamlease Services has revealed that
after the completion of primary level education, 11 per cent
student were not able to recognize anything, 14.1 per cent can
recognize only letters, 14.9 per cent can read a word, 17 per cent
can read a paragraph of a story and only 42.8 per cent can read
the complete story.
2012 proved to be a bad year for
arithmetic as the numbers rose
drastically as shown in both the
figures.
3. Reasons for Inadequate Primary Education
● 90% of our primary schools are run by government, most of which are situated in rural areas. Usually, they are way below than
the average criteria for quality education.
● The low learning achievement problem in India mostly due to the combination of following factors:
○ Government schools have poor infrastructural facilities.According to various surveys, 95.2% of schools do not meet the
RTE infrastructure indicators
○ Teacher:Pupil ratio is very less.
Why we have selected this problem?
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” ― Nelson Mandela
Education is everyone’s birthright. Educating children no matter where they are, is one of the biggest steps we can take toward ending
some of other major problems faced by our country like population, poverty,unemployment etc. India's improved education system is
often cited as one of the main contributors to the economic rise of India. Everything is linked and poor literacy rate is the root cause
which is generating many problems. Solving the problem of Primary education will definitely help us in eradicating all other problems
that are linked to it. It will help to build a better society which is more aware of the problems and solutions to solve them.
➔ In 2008-2009, on average, 45% of teachers working in primary schools across rural India
had not studied beyond the 12th
grade.
➔ In 2002-2003, 25% of primary-school teachers in rural India were absent on any given day
➔ Resource materials are never provided in adequate quantity.
➔ Socio-cultural factors like discrimination against the girl child, prevalence of child labour,
cast differences and poverty play a major role in hindering the access to quality primary
education.
➔ Funds are the major reasons of the Education problem in India. If funds are available, they
are not being used effectively.
4. Proposed Solution consists of two parts:
.
Live Classroom:
- The teacher who is teaching at a model school in a
nearby town will be in live contact with the students
in the village school via Video Conferencing.
- Students will be interacting with the teacher
throughout the period.
- This will enable students in rural areas to receive
equal level of education as being received by
students studying in urban areas
- This method will help students in rural areas to
have better understanding of the subjects as they
will learn the subjects from best teachers teaching
using modern education techniques.
Pre-Recorded Lectures:
- In the areas lacking proper internet connectivity
pre-recorded sessions, recorded in live classes of
model teachers (helps in clarifying the common
doubts), will be used for taking class.
- Weekly session for further doubt clarification can
be arranged with of Regional Nodal centers (model
schools) and NGOs.
- Live session can be taken or pre-recorded session
can be recorded by any willing person who is
certified by the regional nodal center.
Addressing the Present Day Education Problems :
Problem:
One of the major Problem that Primary teachers face today is that they have to teach students of multi grades. Each
classroom has children with different levels of learning achievements.
Solution:
- For lower primary class students (Class 1 to 3), who need one to one interaction, this solution will act as an aid for
the teachers. It will enable teachers to adopt better teaching methodologies while using minimum resources.
- For higher classes, more dependability on the live classes will not only help students, as they will learn better from
various live examples and teaching aids, but also help teachers to lessen their burden.
- With decreased burden on them, teachers can concentrate more on providing better education to lower primary
class students. Hence, increasing the overall quality of primary education.
Online classroom for students in rural areas
devoid of Quality Teaching
5. Merits of our solution in comparison to existing
alternatives
● Government of India has enacted Right to Education Act under which every child should receive
free and compulsory education. Still, some parents do not allow their children to go to school ,this
is because the quality of education in rural government schools is so bad that even after passing
out of the school, child helps his father in his business.Our solution is based on enhancing the
quality of education which will provide better future prospects for the student and also for the
family hence tempting parents to send their child to school.
● At present, many parents are unwilling to send their children to school. Instead they find it more
profitable to indulge their children into their family occupation so that they can contribute to
family income. To create an awareness of long term benefits of education an yearly online session
will be conducted in each and every village.These sessions will also focus on other problems which
affect the education system like the narrow-minded thoughts of untouchability, child labour and
discrimination on basis of gender.
● Since we are making internet available to the remote areas, it can be used for development of the
village.For ex. Farmers can use it to know about latest developments in agriculture.
● Proper monitoring of students is essential to measure the effectiveness of the solution. Yearly
tests will be conducted by state governments to ensure the quality of learning among students. If
performance of a particular school falls below a benchmark then proper action will be taken. On
the other hand students will get distinction for performing well. Teachers will also be rewarded for
the same.
6. Making the Dream Reality...
Resource
Generation
● Selection of Best Regional Teachers that will take the online courses.
● Generation of Database of Pre-Recorded Lectures that will be used in regions having no or poor internet
connectivity which would be created by these teachers as well as interested volunteers who seek to
contribute to the programme.
● Formation of Regional nodal centers (Model schools will act as these centers) for conduction of
activities.
Infrastructure
Establishment
● Providing Laptops, Projectors, Speakers etc to each school for conduction of video conference teaching
session
● Providing Internet connection for conduction of Live teaching sessions
● Providing Database of Pre-recorded Lectures to each school.
● Generators or Solar Panels in those villages which have electricity problems for conduction of teaching
sessions
Stakeholders
● Students- will receive quality education from good teachers with better understanding and better
practical knowledge.
● Teachers-
○ (taking online classes) -> would be recognised by the government for his/her efforts and could
receive incentives for better performance.
○ (present in school) -> will learn new methods of teaching and could increase their
knowledge themselves
● Parents - Educated children will help in the upliftment of financial and social status of the family
● Nation - Value of Human Resources will increase tremendously
Session
Conduction &
Evaluation
● One person per laptop will be provided for controlling the laptop while session.
● He will also monitor the class during the session.
● Evaluation :
○ Monthly assessment of students will be done by the teachers of the school.
○ Yearly assessment will be done centrally for the whole region by the regional nodal centre.
7. Cost Estimation and Funding
One time Investment ( Amount in Rs)
Laptop : 25,000
Projector,Speaker : 10,000
Per Year Investment ( Amount in Rs)
Electricity , Internet : 9,000 p.a
Salary Of Controller /Technician : 60,000 p.a.
Miscellaneous : 30,000 p.a.
( Including Repairs and Generator Bills)
Overall : 99,000 p.a.
Earlier
Teacher (average salary) : 1,20,000 p.a.
Saving : 21,000 p.a.
One Important thing to note in this cost analysis is
that we have assumed each teacher who was
employed to educate the children in villages are
given 1,20,00 p.a.
After applying our solution the government would
be able to save 21,000 p.a. per teacher after the
initial investment which could be used by the
government to improve the infrastructure of the
programme.
With the implementation of our idea the burden on
teachers will reduce, so we recommend that the
teachers who are found not taking their jobs
seriously, should be scrutinized accordingly and
should be paid as per their performance.
Moreover we can ask people to aid financially in
this programme and contribute towards the
development of the nation.
8. IMPACTS
Quality of education of students
will be enhanced greatly by using
this technique. Students will get
better teaching facilities without
going to far off places.
Learning will be fun. So
more and more students
would get enrolled in
schools and continue their
education to higher levels.
Sustainability:
Students learning from this method
have a better understanding of the
subjects. They can serve as teachers in
their respective villages after
completing their education, and hence
making the programme more effective.
Scalability of the solution is
tremendous and outcomes
seem very promising in the
long run. This can further be
extended to secondary
education and even to
college teaching.
Assessment Criteria:
Monthly tests conducted by school
and yearly examination conducted by
government will provide a proper
method of monitoring.
9. FAQs aka Challenges
Que : Availability of Electricity in villages ? And what about internet?
Ans : Non availability of Internet and electricity connection are the biggest technical challenge for the solution.
As a solution to the problem of electricity, we have devised the use of generators and solar panels. Running
cost for the same has been already included in the overall cost estimation of the method.
For addressing the problem of non availability of the internet, usage of pre-recorded lectures in place of live
teaching sessions has already been proposed.
Que : How the performance of students will be accessed?
Ans : Monthly assessment will be done by conducting tests on school level. Test paper guidelines may be
provided by the regional nodal centres for better assessment. Yearly examination will be conducted by the
RNCs on regional level.
Que : There might be some social issues of the villagers that may come in the way of their children’s
education like child labour, untouchability,discrimination against girls etc.
Ans : Online sessions would be conducted in order to create awareness among parents and to motivate them.
These sessions will be conducted by some famous personality so that their impact would be much stronger.
10. Future Aspects
● Use of Information and Communication Technology like video conferencing through
which public school teachers can learn about teach methodology from experienced
teachers from both private and public sectors.
● Absentee teachers from primary schools is a major concern nation is facing currently. This
problem may be solved by monitoring the daily attendance of the teachers with the help
of a photo based entry system on laptops.
● Many times it so happen that the students belonging to the linguistic minority groups
have to study in the language of the linguistic majority of the state or in English. We can
ask some personal belonging to the same linguistic community from nodal center/city to
teach the respective students.
● High absentee rates of primary students is observed, particularly in rural areas. To
encourage students for coming to the school, we can have educational games and
programs in the laptop.
● Curriculum of primary education hardly matches the surroundings of the students in
which they live. As a result, students often suffer from fish-out-of-water syndrome
leading to a high dropout rate. To avoid this situation, some vocational courses may be
taught to the students.
