ABSTRACT
Against the backdrop of the recent focus on improving learning levels, the chapter discusses two reforms in Karnataka. The two leading factors influencing learning outcomes at the foundational stage lie at the opposite ends of the spectrum – the teacher and the taught. The chapter analyses effectiveness of the reforms in these areas. The first set of reforms relates to improvement in teacher management in the context of vested interest, inordinate delays, and corruption in teachers’ recruitment, deployment, and transfers. The second examines the effectiveness of the state’s Nali Kali (learning through play) programme, the child-centred pedagogy employed in the foundational years. We have chosen to study these reforms for their scale, sustenance over a long period, and their importance, as lessons for other states.
The analyses and recommendations are based on stakeholder consultation, observations from school visits, extensive literature review, discussion with educationists, information gathered from the state education department, and from the author’s field-level experience. Specifically, the effectiveness of Nali Kali is examined through independent and state-level evaluation studies on this pedagogy in the state and elsewhere, interviews with teachers and headmasters, and discussions with civil society and officers of the education department.
Reforms in teacher management covered in the chapter are in two related aspects. The first is establishing and institutionalising a transparent, merit-based, efficient system for teacher recruitment. The second set of measures relates to the deployment of recruited teachers, their further deployment, postings, and transfers.
Nali Kali was introduced as a pilot in 1995 and now covers all the 43,000 primary schools in the state. A key initiative has been the introduction of English Nali Kali from class I itself, introduced in response to the parental aspiration that their children gain proficiency in English.
The assessment of reforms in teacher recruitment and deployment show government’s success in ensuring merit and transparency in teacher recruitment. Teacher deployment and postings are both teacher-friendly and give primacy to the needs of schools. A noteworthy feature of the reforms has been survival despite several changes in government and offer a replicable model for other states. While it is difficult to quantify the impact of this set of reforms on the quality of schooling, evidence suggests that system improvements and governance reforms play an important role.
The key finding of Nali Kali is that it is based on sound pedagogy and has a large degree of buy-in as it was developed by primary schoolteachers themselves. The analysis of its impact on learning levels in the state, along with the experience in other states, shows that learning at the foundational levels has been low because of the weaknesses in critical enabling conditions and slackening of efforts in recent years.
The chapter also documents the experiences of other states in teacher management and activity-based learning. Based on the findings of the two reforms, the chapter spells out the next steps. In teacher management, it notes the situation in other states and the learnings from Karnataka. About the Nali Kali programme, the chapter identifies the learnings relevant to other states as well and identifies the measures for addressing the shortcomings through strengthening institutional capacity, aligning support personnel with the teacher workforce, reviewing programmes rigorously, increasing flexibility to teachers and resource persons, strengthening teacher training with a focus on activity-based principles and practical content, and designing a transition plan for the traditional textbook approach. To improve learning outcomes in the English Nali Kali component, the chapter, inter alia, makes specific recommendations for expanding the cadre of English teachers and strengthening teacher training.
