Case study name City Category

: Gyanshala : Mumbai : Government/ Low Income

1. Why this organisation/case study has been chosen? Education Support Organisation (ESO), an Ahmedabad based charitable organisation, has conceptualised an educational programme called Gyan Shala, currently running in urban slums of the city (under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which is a Central scheme), in order to create conditions for universal access to good quality and effective basic education for children from poor families. The SIG is currently supporting this initiative in urban slum locations in Ahmedabad city and in rural areas in some districts of Gujarat.

Gyan Shala project focuses on a model that emphasises learning-based education instead of teachercentric learning. Gyan Shala has a strong backend design and management team to support its relatively low-skilled teachers. The pedagogy, which is the core process of any educational institute, has undergone extensive reengineering to provide education delivery that is built on highly standardised elements.

2. What they had set out to do Gyan Shala project has three objectives. First, it would evolve a system of education that ensures high quality on a mass scale, at a moderate cost, affordable in India. Second, Gyan Shala would develop institutional model and capability to run a large number of classes for poor rural and urban slum children, and demonstrate the functioning of its approach in a credible manner. In the process, it would offer the best possible value for money to its donors. Third, having established that the approach works on a significant scale without any loss in effectiveness, GyanShala would promote large scale adoption of its approach through partnership with the governments and other stake holders.

3. Elements of their approach Gyanshala presents one of the most advanced technologies in multimedia and is the only interactive 3 dimensional academic content with text, sound, voice, video, graphics and 3D animation. The content has been designed and developed after much research and study of the learning patterns of the average child. The product is developed specifically for the Gujarat student audience. Every Gyanshala is a technology Learning Center equipped with multimedia computers connected to high-speed network infrastructure. Dedicated servers store the vast resource of academic multimedia content, which can be accessed from each of the multimedia computers on the network. The content covers Math and Sciences for all grades 1 to 12 in the English and Gujarati medium. Shortly, every city and town of Gujarat shall have one or more Gyanshala to serve students in its locality. Each Gyanshala is professionally managed to provide quality services to the learner. Facilities included teacher assistance, topic study, grade groups etc. The Gyanshala also encourages parents and teachers to share the experience. One computer is allotted to each individual on an hourly basis.

4. The challenges they faced To deliver quality, primary and secondary education at affordable prices to a large poor population.

5. What they were able to achieve Gyan Shala made a modest beginning by starting primary school-classes in ten slum locations in Ahmedabad in June 2000. Around 255 classes, covering both the slums and rural areas, were functioning in 2005-2006. This number rose to 300 in 2006-07, and is expected to rise to around 500 in a couple of years. In Gyan Shala design, each group of 500 classes covering around 14000 children would act as a decentralised, self-contained and autonomous education unit, which can be replicated to cover larger number of children without any deterioration in quality or increase in cost.

Case study name : Naandi City : Hyderabad Category : Government/ Low Income 1. Why this organisation/case study has been chosen? Naandi foundation is a non-profit organisation that focuses its efforts on 3 main verticals: Child Rights, Safe Drinking Water and Sustainable Livelihood. The foundation has a variety of programmes for providing services including clean drinking water, mid-day meals and quality education options to the economically backward. Naandi works in collaboration with 1724 schools in the urban and rural areas of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu to improve learning levels of children under the ECL program. The Nanhi Kali Project, in partnership with K C Mahindra Education Trust, works to provide 10 years of formal school education to girl children with the aim to ensure that they gain competency in math, science and language. Under its Total Support approach, Naandi provides exam fees, uniforms as well as other social and academic support to the concerned girls. 2. What they had set out to do Their objectives for their education program were as follows: To provide academic support to under privileged children and tracking their learning levels. To provide support to the teaching staff by providing in-classroom support, teaching assistance for hard spots in teaching and by providing Teacher Learning Materials (TLM) to equip teachers to groom children better. To mobilise the community being operated to give value addition to the lessons already taught in the school. To galvanise more public opinion and action on the way the government schools perform, Naandi wanted to get corporate involved in the project by adopting a school.

3. Elements of their approach Naandi provides focussed academic support, or tuition, to children in Grades 2 to 5 in government primary schools in five Indian states (Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra), using a new learning template involving young facilitators and grade-specific lesson plans that enable hundreds of thousands of children to improve their skills. The teaching methodology includes the extensive use of original teaching tools and activities, such as storytelling and group games, which make learning not only meaningful but also playful. The material kits are ceremonially handed over and include uniforms, school bags, shoes and socks to enable the girl children to go to school with dignity.

4. The challenges they faced

To improve the education scenario for the less privileged children in 9 states. To implement innovative educational practices in the rural areas.

5. What they were able to achieve Learning levels improve by 25-30% annually, many students receive top grades in competitive exams, and attendance rates increase by 30-40%. Naandi Foundation has taken over part or full responsibility for providing educational input for children in over 1,700 government schools and ensures that all children including marginalised minorities, Dalits and tribals actually learn. The project now reaches out to 100,000 beneficiaries across India.

Case study name : Prathams Read India Program City : Delhi Category : Government/ Low Income 1. Why this organisation/case study has been chosen? Prathams flagship program, Read India, helps to improve the reading, writing and basic arithmetic skills of the children in the age group of 6-14 years.

Read India seeks to catalyze existing resources and energize structures to strengthen childrens learning. The campaign is being executed with the help of school teachers, anganwadi workers and volunteers, who are mobilized and trained by Pratham teams. While the school teachers work inside their schools, volunteers and anganwadi workers work with children and their mothers outside school. Partnerships have been forged with 11 state governments for the implementation of the program. 2. What they had set out to do Read India was therefore launched on a national scale in 2007 to help achieve the following objectives: * All Std I children know at least alphabets & numbers. * All Std II children can read at least words & do simple sums. * All Std III-V children can at least read simple texts fluently & confidently solve arithmetic problems.

3. Elements of their approach Read Indias CAMaL (Combined activities for Maximized Leaning), Prathams teaching methodology evolved as a result of the various stages of work on learning in different locations through Learning to Read (L2R) and Reading to Learn (R2L) methodologies. It combines reading, speaking, doing, writing in a variety of ways to enhance and accelerate the learning of the child.

Read India is implemented on two levels the Block Excellence Program (BEP) and the District Resource Center (DRC). The BEP is a strategic Block (100 villages) where an intense program is carried out to bring about substantial learning level improvement, implemented and monitored by Prathams strongest team members. The BEP staff is responsible for mobilization of village volunteers, training and program monitoring throughout the year. The aim of the BEP is to create a 100 village unit that will demonstrate to the Government and other

stakeholders that rapid improvements in learning levels is possible at a low cost by following Prathams child-centric activity-based Combined Activities for Maximized Learning (CAMaL) teaching methodology.
4. The challenges they faced To provide children in the age group of 6-14 years with reading and writing skills in rural areas where children are barely educated.

5. What they were able to achieve

In 2008-09, the campaign reached 33 million children across 19 states. It covered 305,000 out of the 600,000 villages of India and mobilized 450,000 volunteers. Over 600,000 teachers/ officials/ government workers have been trained. The proportion of children able to read simple sentences is up by almost 20%. Read India has moved from their previously used model of short-term large-scale learning campaign mode to a longer, more sustained presence in the villages that they work in, in order to bring about a deeper more permanent impact.

Case study name

: Santosh Kumar Bisen: Winner of Microsofts Innovative Teachers Leadership Award City : Hyderabad Category : Government/ Low Income 1. Why this organisation/case study has been chosen? Santosh Kumar Bisen is a recipient of the prestigious Innovative Teachers Leadership award given out by Microsoft for his work in his school, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, to innovatively teach science to students of class 8 and 9.

Mr Bisen had introduced the concept of innovatively teaching concepts of science for children in Class 8 in his school Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Chhattisgarh, with the use of 2D comics. He uses comics to teach the syllabus of classes 6 to 8 as per the NCERT guidelines. 2. What they had set out to do Santosh Kumar Bisens objective was simply to simplify the lessons for the students for class 6 to 8s science syllabus. His intention was to find a way to make it easier for students to grasp the lessons in science. 3. Elements of their approach Creating simple 2D comic books for the students to read and understand concepts like global warming and deforestation. Inviting students to create their own comics based on the understanding of whatever was taught in class. The school has collaborated with many international organisations to create a global inflow of educational materials for the students to use.

4. The challenges they faced The main challenge faced was to get the people to accept and adopt this method of teaching. As an off-beat method of teaching, the acceptance and adoption would take time.

5. What they were able to achieve

An award winning program that is now creating spawns across the country. Children feel its more interactive and helps them learn better Set up a website (www.edugenes.com) for people to contribute and collaborate with the method.