“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”
― Malala Yousafzai
Challenge: Low quality of education in public and small private schools due to lack of training of teachers
"Can teachers be made as empathetic and motivating as mothers?"
Since the passage of ‘Right to Education’ Act 2009,
target to improve the enrollment of children in schools has been largely met
with 97% enrollment. There has been an improvement in infrastructure as well like
availability of books, separate toilets for girls, etc. which could be
attributed as one of the reasons for improving enrollment. But we have
overlooked an important aspect which links everything related to education,
teachers. Training of teachers and the quality of education remains one of the
most neglected sectors of India’s education system. The focus is on completing
the syllabus, teachers usually just teach the minimum required in the class
without making sure if all the students have understood or not.
We must start at the bottom, make
learning more inviting and motivate both teachers and students towards
education to have a real impact on our society.
Proposed Solution:
Training programme for teachers followed by an assessment
Vision: The Indian education system now
needs to shift its focus from quantity to quality of education, there is a need
to prepare teachers to be able to provide quality education. Instead of just
focusing on completing the syllabus, gaps should be identified in the current
understanding of students. For example, more than 50% of children in class V
cannot do basic arithmetic operations. The focus needs to shift here and for
this adequate training needs to be provided to teachers to be able to identify
such gaps and work on them.
Storyboard:
Before
teacher training
After
teacher training
Step-wise
solution:
First step will be to identify the major parameters
on which quality of education can be measured like student’s understanding of
concepts, student outcomes, teaching practices (interactive teaching, personal
focus), evaluation of teachers etc. This will be done using a low-cost
experiment (detailed below) with 1-2 schools to understand their problems, whether
they would be interested in such training programme and identifying concrete
quantifiable parameters to test quality of education.
Second, based on the inputs from the experiment,
design a training module for teachers. Conduct regular workshops for all
teachers in a school to make them realize the importance of understanding the
problems of their students. Completing the syllabus is necessary but not at the
cost of students not understanding the concepts. Workshops will cover how
teachers can modify their teaching practices to provide a better learning
experience to students.
Third, after training, teachers will be monitored in
class to see if the improved teaching practices are employed correctly. They
will be assessed based on that and unless satisfactory workshops will continue.
In long term (say after a month), students’ performance will be measured via
tests to see if there are any visible improvement in their marks and
understanding.
Once few teachers are trained in a particular school,
same model will be replicated in next school. In the previous school, trained
teachers can continue training rest of the teachers and new teachers joining to
maintain the best teaching practices. Surprise checks will be conducted for
following few months to make sure that workshops are running smoothly, and
students are showing improved performance.
Target:
Target schools will be low fees, small
private schools where underprivileged people admit their children thinking the
quality will be better than government schools, but this might not always be
the case.
Looks
like prototype:
Layout of the workshop which will lead to development of an ideal teacher
Low
Cost Experiment:
Hypothesis:
Better teaching practices can largely help
in improving student performance
Experiment details:
For a 1-day experiment, I’ll visit a
school and talk to the principals to understand the current situation of schools
and conduct a 2-hour workshop for a few teachers sharing best practices for
teaching. Post that I’ll take feedback from the teachers as well as principal
to know their views on the idea and whether this will help in improving the
student performance. Based on this discussion we will define the parameters on
which quality of education should be judged and design a plan for training
workshops (one week plan) which they would be willing to employ in the school.
Once a school is on board with the training
plan, workshops will be conducted in the school for a week. Post this both
teachers will be monitored in the classroom to any improvement in their
practices and later a test will be conducted for students to see if their performance
has improved.
Steps to be followed:
- Talk to the principal and teachers to understand the existing problems in student’s performance
- Layout a short training programme for teachers to discuss practices like how to make the class more interactive and interesting, give personal attention to weak students instead of ignoring them, extra classes for weak students, increase their motivation level which in turn can boost motivation in students etc.
- Conduct a week’s training for a small set of teachers on the above mentioned topics with the help of volunteers from NGOs like 'Teach for India' who are already working in this domain and YouTube videos
- Monitor the teachers and assess them based on parameters discussed with the principal
- Conduct a test for students after a month to see if there are any improvements in their understanding
Cost of the experiment:
Cost will be incurred only in travelling
to and from the school and some stationery which can be arranged from the
school itself. Although time taken will be higher to see concrete results as a
week’s training may or may not show the desired results.
Success Criteria:
- Teachers will be monitored and assessed based on how effectively they use the teaching practices in class. It can be measured on: improved participation of students in class, improved teacher as well as student attendance, improved handling of students’ doubts, giving extra time to weak students. This will be an ongoing assessment
- Students’ will be assessed via a test after a month of new teaching practices to see if there is improvement in their understanding and marks. Also, they will be encouraged to actively participate in class and ask questions/doubts
Great thought, Madhuri. I feel this is a very relevant problem plaguing the current education system in India and the solution proposed can be effective. I really like the idea of measuring student attendance, as a good learning experience is bound to increase the willingness of a student to attend school.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I feel that the assessment of the students should be done after 4-6 months instead of every month in order to correctly gauge the impact of the improvement of teaching quality on student performance.