Impact Assessment on Primary & Upper Primary School Development To find innovative solutions to existing problems, analyze the progress of current projects and build a bridge to connect different administrative nodules for the upliftment of primary education in the rural settings by keeping all the stakeholders under one umbrella of inclusive development.

1. Impact Assessment on
Primary & Upper Primary
School Development
Banda District, Uttar Pradesh, India

2. Table of contents:
1) Acknowledgements
2) Acronyms
3) Background & Introduction
4) Objective of the Project
5) Purpose of Impact Assessment
6) Users of the Study
7) Methodology used
8) Evaluation findings
9) Other suggestions
10) Conclusions

3. Acknowledgements
To begin with, I would like to thank Mr. Heera Lal, District Magistrate who invited me to do an
assessment study of their district. I appreciate Mr. V P Singh, Basic Shiksha Adhikari of Banda
district, for being cooperative throughout the study.
I would also like to thank Ms. Samina Bano to let me represent the RightWalk organization in
conducting the study; Ms. Shipra Shrivastava in doing the small bits of opening a communication
channel between Banda and Lucknow.
This field study was foremost made possible because of the noteworthy assistance of a number of
teachers and students from 52 villages over a period of 16 days. They have taken their valuable
time in helping disseminate information which otherwise would have been impossible to get.
I would also like to thank Mr. Alakh Tiwari from Tindwari, Mr. Ramprakash from Bisanda, Mr. Om
Prakash from Kamsin, Mr. Zafar Ahmed from Naraini, Mr. Santosh Kachhvah from Jaspura, Mr.
Shivdutt Tripathi from Mahua, Mr. Kailash Singh & Mr. Shafeeq Ahmad from Baberu and Mr.
Sanjeev Kumar from Badokhar; without whose insight and incredible knowledge of the geography
of the region, it would have been difficult to reach every nook and corner of the district.
A small note to my driver, who was always happy to push the accelerator to the limits in letting me
reach my destination on time!
And I would finally like to come down to the important person to whom I can’t express my
gratitude enough, Mr. Arvind Asthana. He was my eyes, ears and vision in setting up meetings,
connecting with different stakeholders in the field, to taking care of my accommodation in
surroundings I had hitherto never been before. It was my immense pleasure working with him and
understanding the education sector of rural Uttar Pradesh.
Thank you all for making the research a success down to the minutest of details.

4. Acronyms:
DMO – District Magistrate’s Office
BSA – Basic Shiksha Adhikari
BRC – Block Regional Committee
BO – Block Office
PTA – Parents Teachers Association
SMC – School Meeting Committee
GOUP – Government of Uttar Pradesh
GOI – Government of India
SSA – Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan
RTE – Right to Education

5. Background
With the GOI’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) initiative in mind, the DM of Banda district, wanted to
improve the standards of education in a region where it has traditionally been neglected over the
years.
Taking the mantle in his hands, he wanted to implement certain programmes which will benefit
both the students and teachers in improving their productivity at academics, sports and extra-
curricular activities. Thus, he prepared a set of 22-points for the overall development of rural
schools at the primary and the upper primary level of education. These 22-points are beneficial for
alumni, teachers, students, and parents (details are given in evaluation section). These activities
were supposed to be executed with the help of various development committees of the district
administration, the village councils and school councils present in eight different blocks of the
district.
The points were first introduced to 2036 primary & upper primary schools through multiple
meetings held in the month of September and October. Subsequently, a feedback on the
development was taken in the months of November and December by arranging meetings with
various stakeholders. The results were diverse in its nature and the impact untenable in the short
run.
Therefore, it was paramount to have a short study on gauging the progress made by every local
institution in implementing the above points in their schools. The origin of the study thus
emancipated from the need to bring accountability and transparency in digesting policies beneficial
to the development of attaining the goal of educating all youngsters in the district.

6. Objective of the project:
To find innovative solutions to existing problems, analyze the progress of current projects and build
a bridge to connect different administrative nodules for the upliftment of primary education in the
rural settings by keeping all the stakeholders under one umbrella of inclusive development.
Purpose of the impact study:
i) Analyze if all the 22-points mentioned by the DM have been implemented in all the
schools in the district.
ii) To talk to the teachers, headmasters, students in understanding their perspective of the
implementation, challenges and future plans of the 22-points.
iii) Try to find reasons for the non-implementation if there are any; accordingly connect
with their problems and try to search for a long-term solution.
iv) Trigger improvisation mechanism in schools, where underutilization and poor
implementation of initiatives has taken place
v) Chart out a strategy or a plan for primary school development in the immediate-run,
short-run and long-run based on the national education narrative.
Users of the study:
Final findings and recommendations are aimed at the DMO, BSA and the BRCs in different blocks,
who are the majority stakeholder in implementing the research points.
Methodology used:
Through random sampling, schools were selected for visits. Such a technique made sure that none
of the schools visited were pre-informed on the visits to be conducted. Thus, the surprise factor of
visits remained intact.
Before entering on the field, extensive literature analysis of Banda was done to understand socio-
economic-cultural aspects. Secondary data was collected from local newspaper articles, online
research and academic papers. Afterwards, most of the research was done on the field and the
outcomes are based primarily on semi-structured interviews, focused group discussion with the
teachers and students. Moreover, observational study of the school, students and teachers were

7. conducted. The primary data was collected by doing semi-structured interview with the teachers,
students, headmasters, village elders and administrative officials of each block in the district.
For impact assessment, 65 schools were visited to understand the status of the key pointers of
school development. A close observational analysis was conducted to obtain information on current
status of the school and initiative. Unstructured interviews were conducted with 155 school
teachers. During the assessment study, 4860 students were interviewed to know the status of the
DM’s initiative from the students’ perspective.
Given below is the number of visits and interviews conducted for the Impact assessment:
Elementary schools in the district 2036
Total number of schools visited 65
Number of villages covered 52
Total numbers of teachers met 155
Missing number of teachers 82
Boys/girls ratio interviewed 2106/2754
Actual number of students 9203
Evaluation Findings
The below assessment of every point is measured on a rating scale from 1 to 10; with 1 being the
least progressive and 10 being the best. Each point equals to 10% of the progression.
1) Alumni Association Meetings
Current Progress:
About 85% of the school visited during the study, activity participated in holding talks between ex-
students and current students in their respective schools on a bi-monthly or a quarterly basis.
Almost 70% of the ex-students have settled outside their community centers and hence their
experiences of the outside world are vital to shape the mindsets of the current students.
Problems or Hindrances:
Since most of the alumni live outside the village boundaries, it becomes a cumbersome effort to call
all of them together for general meetings. Hence a lot of them give alumni meetings a miss, sighting
time and travel issues.
Recommendations:
Teachers could break down alumni meetings into two parts.

8. i) The first one covers ex-students who stay closer to the village periphery. They could be
invited at least once in a month for a talk, usually on the last day of the working week.
ii) Secondly, the alumni living away in major cities or towns away from the villages could
be invited quarterly depending on a public holiday or a festival when they would have
an incentive to visit their ancestral homes in the village too.
iii) Felicitation of alumni during meetings would keep them motivated, along with taking
care of their meals, travels within the village, if possible. This would inspire the alumni
to think, their ex-educational institutions care for them too.
Final assessment:
8.5/10
2) Alumni Register
Current progress:
An equal number of schools, i.e. 85% of them had maintained a meticulously prepared alumni
register. It contained all the personal details of the individual.
Recommendations:
Talking of small margins- It would be helpful if the teachers could also write the professional
qualifications and details of the alumni for better individual identification.
Final assessment:
8.5/10
3) Educational visits
Current progress:
Each and every school has made a conscious effort to take their students for field excursions in
their vicinity to help them get a realistic perspective of the institutions they study in their books.
With the efforts of the teachers, for the first time many students in their lives have been able to go
outside the boundaries of their villages. Hence it is an initiative diligently implemented by all the
schools.
Problems and hindrances:
The basic difference of an “excursion” and an “educational visit” is lost on the teachers. An
excursion is usually a fun-filled activity, whereas educational visits are purely learning activities.

9. Teachers understood this difference while discussions were held. However, they lack resources and
education institutes in the vicinity to hold such educational visits.
Recommendations:
i) If it is possible for the local administration, minimum funds should be allocated to
schools at least once each quarter to enable them to visit places with higher-educational
value besides the usual field excursions.
Final assessment:
Field excursions – 10/10; Study visits – 1/10
4) NGO partnerships
Current progress:
Only about 50% of schools have invited NGOs to perform activities in their campus. On an average
activities taken places are- menstrual health & hygiene, female infanticide and anti-child marriage
education; to highlight a few.
Problems and hindrances:
Activities by NGOs in schools have been a mixed bag so far. There has been a lack of coordination on
the part of both NGOs and schools. Due to the remote location of some schools, a few NGOs are
hesitant to come there. On the other hand, there have been a few schools which haven’t contacted
NGOs at all. Lack of will is evident here.
Recommendations:
i) Schools should clearly chart out their expectations before calling an NGO to its premises.
It helps both the NGO and school to uphold education standards.
ii) Considering the lack of non-profits in the district and the remote location of certain
schools, it would be wise to call NGOs on a quarterly basis rather than every month.
Final assessment:
5/10
5) Education Calendar
Current progress:

10. Every school has maintained a diverse education calendar in alignment to the syllabus. A number of
schools have invented creative teaching techniques complimenting the existing calendar; especially
in the field of science and arts.
Final assessment:
10/10
6) Grading in schools
Current progress:
Grading of papers in school was an initiative initiated only this academic year. The after-effects of
grading have been quite helpful according to the teachers. It has helped the students come out of
the age-old practices of writing long answers to newer pastures of marking boxes in the new
system. It saves time, makes student indentify objective examination practices which would help
them in the future and keep them motivated to study for a positive exam outcome.
Recommendation:
i) It would be of great help if such grading techniques can also adopted by Upper Primary
School students, because they are currently limited to only primary students.
Final assessment:
10/10
7) Grading of schools
Current progress:
Absolutely none of the schools interviewed and visited knew about the criterion of awarding and
appreciating the top 40-schools in the district who excel overall with the progress of their students
and health of their institutions.
Final assessment:
1/10
8) Future responsibility of grade 8th
pass-outs
Current progress:

11. About 70% of the schools from the Upper Primary Section, who cater to the students between 5th &
8th grade take the onus on themselves to guide children on their future. The efforts have been
excellent where parents are simultaneously informed on the path their wards should choose to
make excellent careers.
Problems & hindrances:
The biggest challenge has to be the lack of mentoring ability among the teachers. During the survey
it was observed that most of the teachers did not know the difference between asking questions
and creating projections. Career pathways are charted not by asking questions but giving a detailed
presentation on the vision of a child. This basic pitch delivery of vision and mission was lacking on
the part of teachers.
In a simple sentence, it is not what you say, but the impact of your speech which moulds a child;
that aspect was missing.
Recommendations:
i) Teachers should be coached formally on mentoring aspects of school and personal
management. It is the investment on teachers which would eventually lead to the
progress of the students.
Final assessment:
Based on the comparison of the initiation of the above point and its unplanned implementation, an
appropriate score would be- 6/10
9) Preparing GO guard file
Current progress:
Every single school had maintained a detailed guard file.
Final assessment:
10/10
10) Sending data for publication of articles at block level
Current progress:
Half the schools interviewed had sent the creative data of their students and teachers to the block
level offices for publication in the form of a magazine.
Problems & hindrance:

12. The problem was purely a will issue. Laziness and ignorance on the part of the staff in accumulating
the data was rampant.
Recommendation:
i) Teachers should be told the importance of inspiring students through activities such as
publication of their work.
Final assessment:
6/10
11) Parents Teachers Meetings
Current progress:
Coming to the most important part of the survey, a very turnout of parents for such meetings was
observed. An average presence of 50% was calculated from a survey of 65 schools.
Problems & hindrances:
i) Each and every school gave me the same excuse that parents work in the fields, are
illiterate and unaware of their responsibilities. Hence they tend to avoid attending
meetings regularly.
ii) Poverty is rampant, which means they have to migrate to different states for
employment. In effect, reducing their chances to be present physically in the village.
Recommendations:
i) The village administration should nudge the parents to attend meetings in the school.
ii) Activities should be planned by the school to keep the parents motivated to come for
regular meetings. This can vary from school to school.
Final assessment:
3/10
12) SMC meetings
Current progress:
All schools have received a healthy participation from the 11-designated members of the
committee. Meetings take place punctually every month and wide-ranging issues pertaining to
student development, help for teachers and community contributions are discussed.

13. It was noticed that a few schools have a low turnout of participants, but that is purely due to the
multiple tasks members do in their daily lives.
Final assessment:
8/10
13) Skill recognition of students
Current progress:
The teachers have informed they identify the weaker students and build special cells for them along
with the smartest students to get on even terms academically. Moreover, talented students are
especially encouraged to enhance their natural gifts by getting involved in multiple educational and
extr-curricular activities.
Problems & hindrances:
The above observation is rather contentious. Identifying strengths and weaknesses of each and
every student is a challenge in itself. Hence the amount of work put in by teachers, although being
impressive, isn't smart. A few schools have worked on recognizing talent while others have
completely ignored it.
Recommendations:
i) Mentoring teachers to deal with progressive student development is quite critical. That
should be the aim of the local administration in the short term. This particular
recommendation would hold true to almost 3-4 points out of the 22 listed throughout
the document.
Final assessment:
6/10
14) Mid-day meals
Current progress:
Meals of really good quality and are adequately served to the children. Being a visitor I used to eat
those meals frequently too and I can highly appreciate the efforts taken by all the stakeholders
involved in the distribution and preparation of the meals to maintain such good standards.

14. There were a couple of schools which had minor issues like the quality of Dal was of low quality, but
those cases were immediately taken care of.
Final assessment:
9.5/10
15) Distribution of Uniforms
Current progress:
About 60% of the schools around the district had received a pair of uniform, school bags, shoes,
stationary, etc, as a part of their yearly school-cycle. Secondly, sweaters were received 100% by all
the schools on time too.
Problems or hindrances:
Students from non-BPL families haven’t received their pair of clothes. The number stands
approximately at 40%; that is quite a high number. The reason given to me was the non-availability
of funds from the state to buy those clothes. On the other hand, only ₹90 were received by all the
schools out of the allocated ₹200 for purchasing sweaters.
Recommendation:
i) The distribution committee should take care of distributing clothes in two rounds. In
the first round they should give away only one pair of clothes and the second round the
other pair. This way all students would have at least one pair instead of some having
two and some getting none.
Final assessment:
7/10
16) Contact with award-winning 17-teachers all over the state
Current progress:
Half the schools during the interview accepted that they have not contacted the award-winning
teachers, simply because they did not put in the efforts or did not feel it was an urgent need to do so
right away. Moreover, almost 90% of the teachers have contacted just one person out of the 17, that
being Mr. Ramesh Singh Rajput from Banda district, who won the award for yoga.
Problems & hindrances:
Most of the teachers were of the opinion, contacting these teachers wasn’t going to bring about a
change. Also it was impossible for the award-winning teachers to talk to thousands of people just to

15. give advice. Whenever the teachers from Banda tried to contact them, they did not have the time to
talk or the time to give suggestions.
Recommendations:
i) While it is true that 17-teachers throughout the state cannot talk to the thousands of
teachers in the district. So instead of contacting these teachers over the phone, how
about finally making the use of an internet forum? The local administration should help
the 17-teachers create a helpdesk to write their suggestions and advice as a part of an
internet forum where everybody can access it at any time without any hassles.
Final assessment:
5/10
17) Innovation Cells
Current progress:
All schools have attended the workshop on innovation and start-up at the Banda medical school.
They were supposed to be inspired and enact teachings in the classroom. Teachers have done
excellent in initiating creativity among students. Most of the students use craft as a means of
creating since innovation projects. Recycling of old materials is also observed in half the schools
during the visits.
Problem & hindrances:
Most of the schools though, struggled to come to grips with changes because teachers aren't
qualified to implement innovative transitions to begin with. Moreover, the teachers could not
answer many questions about how would they live to develop innovation cells in their schools.
Recommendation:
i) Implementing teacher’s training forms a huge part of improving the standards of
innovation practices anywhere in the world. Thus it would be wise to equally enable the
teachers to attend another workshop where they learn how to transit learning into
deliverable goods.
Final assessment:
4/10
18) Annual Day
Current progress:

16. Every school has implemented annual day successfully and with a renewed vigour. They have
followed the guidelines and all participants like students, teachers, parents, villagers, local
administrators have been present in droves. It has been a wonderful initiative and has helped the
village to knit into a tight community for the cause of elevating child education.
Final assessment:
10/10
19) One-day collective meetings
Current progress:
This particular initiative hasn’t got the desired response because a lot of schools felt they did not
have the time or the required feedback from the parents to organize such meetings. So, only about
10% of the schools have been able to hold such meetings in the past 6-months so far.
Problems or hindrances:
Since parents do not attend the PTA regularly, imposing on them another meeting would be a task
too far-fetched. The response from the SMC members was most the time lukewarm too.
Recommendations:
i) Instead of holding such meetings once a month, they should be held once in 3-months.
Thus it will be a win-win situation for both the schools and the parents. Everybody will
have enough of time to sort out their schedules and make way for to talk about their
child’s future.
Final assessment:
2/10
20) Improvement in student communication skills
Current progress:
I am consciously including this point under the aegis of urgency because every teacher told me they
have contributed to the development of communication for every student. However the ground
reality is starkly different. Except a handful of schools I could not visibly see the contribution of
teachers to student development.
Problems & hindrances:

17. Students were unable to converse with me both in Hindi and in English. I could not see them being
fluent or confident in having a conversation.
Recommendations:
i) In case of the above scenario the only possible thing one could suggest is, to make the
teachers understand the importance of teaching communication skills to the students
on a regular basis. Without their efforts, the students are going to find it difficult to even
speak two words with strangers once they pass-out from their schools.
Final assessment:
Since I felt most of the teachers were telling me a ‘yes’ just for the sake of it, I cannot help but give a
low score for this particular initiative.
4/10
21) Implementation of Yoga
Current progress:
A good 80% of schools did Yoga regularly and were students were super enthusiastic about such
practices too. A few schools which missed out on Yoga did not have the personnel who could teach
them, but they were trying their best to learn from other third-party sources.
Final assessment:
8/10
22) Help of ex-military servicemen
Current progress:
A lot of retired personnel came to the school regularly to share their experiences with the students.
It was observed that about 70% of the schools had a one or two military men who were ready to
talk to keep in touch with the teachers as well.
Final assessment:
7/10

18. Other suggestions
1) Lack of adequate staff in schools
This was a persistence issue which the teachers spoke to me and wanted to highlight to the
authorities. Almost all schools were working to less than half of its actual staff quantity. English
schools in particular were in dire state, as some of them had only one teacher or no teacher at all for
students with strength of minimum 100.
It is understood that this dearth of teachers is due to the lack of recruitment at the state level,
however I felt it was necessary to highlight the problem to make everyone understand the urgency
of the issue.
2) Hygiene in the school premises
The conditions under which students sat in most of the schools were of very low standards. Flies
hovering around food-grains, unwashed toilets and unclean premises were often observed.
While this is the responsibility of the schools to maintain strict standards of hygiene, it would be
very helpful if the block administration takes strict action on maintain certain standards in the day-
to-day running of the schools under their umbrella.

19. Conclusion
Finally, coming down to the most important part of the study, evaluations were synergized by
harnessing the credibility factor of the following parameters:
i) Current progress of the 22-points on the ground and their impact in improving the
standards of education among students.
ii) Problems and hindrances encountered in implementing the points. Usual implications
of mismanagement, underutilization or non-allocation of resources, external or internal
factors leading to teacher dissatisfaction, physical & mental health of students,
contribution of locals in school building, effects of surrounding atmosphere conducive
to learning, etc, were some of the points held accountable for.
iii) Recommendations were suggested taking into consideration the sum average of the first
two parameters. These recommendations are to shed light on the need to mix village
realities with the DMO vision for each and every school. It would help for a better
functioning of the education machinery in the oncoming academic years.
iv) Lastly, scores are allocated to each and every point to observe flexibility, applicability
and development on a score of 1 to 10.
Turning the page to the benefits of the 22-point agenda of the DMO, both positives and negatives
are highlighted to give a comprehensive understanding of the mindset of students and teachers,
who form the core of any change to be observed in the district.
It is well understood that 65-schools make only 3.5% of the total number of elementary schools in
the district. However, this study emphasizes on creating a platform for other schools to replicate
the benefits of the 22-point initiative and discard practices harmful for the growth of the school
community throughout the district.
The 22-points implemented by the DMO have been a general success except a couple of points on
which schools haven’t attention at all. The above calculations were based on a percentage scale of
100, with three groupings of 0 – 50% being the least effective, 50 – 80% implying average
effectiveness and 80 – 100% implying complete success.
Similarly, on a point-rating scale, 1 – 5 implied least progress, 6 – 8 average progress and 8 – 10
highlighting maximum progress.
Out of these groupings, let us then look at the success-rate of each point.
Points Least
successful
Averagely
successful
Mostly
successful
Alumni Association Meetings
8.5

20. Alumni Register 8.5
Educational visits/Field visit 1 10
NGO Partnerships 5
Education Calendar 10
Grading in schools 10
Grading of schools 1
Future responsibility of grade 8th pass-outs 6
Preparing GO guard file 10
Sending data for publication of articles 6
Parents Teachers Meetings 3
SMC meetings 8
Skill recognition of students 6
Mid-day meals 9.5
Distribution of clothes 7
Contact with award-winning 17 teachers all
over the state
5
Innovation Cells 4

21. Annual Day 10
One-day collective meetings 2
Improvement in student communication
skills
4
Implementation of Yoga 8
Help of ex-military servicemen 7
Final outcome on 22-points
 Least progress on : 7 initiatives
 Average progress on : 5 initiatives
 High progress on : 10 initiatives

22. Author
This report has been prepared by RightWalk Foundation under the leadership of District
Administration Banda. Credentials of the study go to the RightWalk Foundation based in Lucknow,
for their keen interest to work for the upliftment of the government education sector in the state of
Uttar Pradesh. Please find below the people involved in the inception, initiation and execution of
the project.
Akshay Chalke
As a freelance impact assessment consultant, Akshay worked on the field for a month to understand
the nerve of the project. He is a professional in the field of international relations & impact
assessment, having completed his masters in the field of public policy from Germany. His core work
falls under the environmental and socio-economic developmentsector, with a focus in the regions of
South & Central Asia, along with Central & Eastern Europe. He has previously worked with
Greenpeace in the capacity of a fundraising & campaigning strategist for project expansion in India
& the Far-East. With over four-years of experience helping non-profit and private organisations
grow, he plans to conduct research on migration & environmental economics for a sustainable
future.
Shipra Srivastava
Shipra can be called the heart of the study in the literal sense of being the communication channel
between different stakeholders both in Banda and in Lucknow throughout the month of project
implementation. She works as the project director of inititiaves pertaining to child education and
impact assessment RightWalk dwells intself onto. In a remote field study, it is vital to know the
pulse of the people on the ground, this is where Shipra contributed in making the project a success
by smoothly transiting communication lines between the field team and the DMO.
Shipra is a MBA gold medalist, having 6 years experience in education sector. She is a UPSC
aspirant.
Sabeela Siddiqui
Sabeela is the editor of the report. She is a Public Policy and Governance graduate from Azim Premji
University, Bangalore. She was a Maharashtra CM Rural Development Fellow. She has around 3 year
experience in research, rural development and education.