The Open University has received a £953,523 grant from Kusuma Trust UK to develop teacher professional development programs in secondary science and English in the Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh, India. The project will provide training and educational materials to all science teachers of classes 9-12 through practical classroom activities delivered via mobile phones and in-person training. The funding supports the first phase through June 2013 and will produce customized materials and programs for science and English, with the goal of training all teachers of these subjects if additional funding is obtained.

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Date: EMBARGOED UNTIL MONDAY 16th APRIL 2012
OU receives £953,523 from the Kusuma Trust UK for teacher
professional development in Indian secondary schools
The Open University has received a £953,523 grant from Kusuma Trust UK for
Teacher Professional Development in Secondary Science and English in Hardoi, Uttar
Pradesh, India.
The project builds on the OU's work in the award-winning English in Action programme
in Bangladesh and the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) programme.
It is based around practical activities for teachers to carry out in their classroom
practice, which drive professional development and improvements in student learning.
Low-cost materials, including audio-visual ones, will be made available through mobile
phones, and teachers will also receive face-to-face training and support, provided as
part of the Hardoi implementation of RMSA*, the national strategy for improving the
quality of secondary education.
The Kusuma Trust’s grant supports the first phase of the project, which runs through to
30 June 2013, reaching all Science teachers of Classes 9-12 in Hardoi, and will
produce fully bespoke materials and programmes for Science and English. Subject to
funding, subsequent phases will train all teachers of Science, English and Mathematics
(Classes 9-12) in the Hardoi district.
Dr Balwant Singh, CEO of Kusuma Trust UK, said: “Education has the power to
transform lives and every child should have the opportunity to grow and develop as an
active and productive citizen. Our main priority is to support interventions that improve
education outcomes for young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds,
enabling them to realise their potential and break the inter-generational cycle of
poverty. By supporting the OU to train teachers and develop educational materials, we
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2. intend to help students receive a better quality secondary education and progress to
higher education”
Martin Bean, Vice-Chancellor of The Open University said:
“Using the power of technology to unlock great learning outcomes lies at the heart of
this project. We have already proved that this approach works with our award-winning
English In Action programme in Bangladesh and our Teacher Education in sub-
Saharan Africa (TESSA) which improves teaching in 12 African countries. Here, we are
taking that expertise into secondary education, helping more Hardoi students get the
grades they need to participate in Higher Education.”
Although the project targets the Hardoi district, the resulting programmes and materials
will have the potential for much wider uptake. The project outputs will ultimately
contribute to a national network of Open Educational Resources (OERs) under a
Creative Commons licence, enabling free access, use or adaptation, in programmes
across India.
ENDS
Media contact: Paula Feery, 01908 652580 / 07540 668 963 / p.feery@open.ac.uk
Notes to Editors
1. *The project supports the district and state implementation of Rashtriya Madhyamik
Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), the national strategy for improving the quality of secondary
education; and the implementation of the National Council for Educational Research
and Training (NCERT) national curriculum and examinations frameworks for science
and mathematics.
2. Kusuma Trust UK is a UK-based philanthropic trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Dr
Soma Pujari, and it supports interventions, innovations, research, training and advocacy
to improve education and employment outcomes for young people in secondary and
tertiary education. For more information, visit www.kusumatrust.org or contact the
CEO, Dr. Balwant Singh, at balwant.singh@kusumatrust.org
3. English In Action (EiA) is a major Department for International Development-funded
programme initiated by the Government of Bangladesh. The OU is working with
international management firm BMB Mott MacDonald, BBC World Service Trust and
local partners, to improve English language skills for 25 million people in Bangladesh.
Following a successful initial phase from 2008, a further three-year contract for EiA was
signed in 2011. The OU is leading in two areas of the project which are 1) primary and
secondary teacher training delivered through school-based professional development,
enhanced with mobile technologies, including mobile phones, and 2) cross-project
research, monitoring and quality assurance. http://www.eiabd.com/eia/
4. TESSA – Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa – is a pan-African network of
teacher educators working to improve teacher education and training in Africa using
Open Educational Resources (OERs). The Open University is a founding member of
TESSA. More than 300,000 teachers, many working under highly disadvantaged
circumstances, have benefited from TESSA resources. The TESSA network has
developed an extensive range of high-quality multilingual, audio and text OERs to
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3. support improvements in teachers’ classroom practice. The resources are designed for
all teachers, including those with little or no formal training. http://www.tessafrica.net/
5. The Open University (OU) is the largest higher education institution in the UK and a
world leader in flexible distance learning. Since it began in 1969, the OU has taught
more than 1.7 million students and has more than 264,000 current students, including
20,000 overseas, learning in their own time using course materials, online activities and
content, web-based forums and tutorials and through tutor groups and residential
schools.
The OU has been highly rated for teaching quality, and has been at the top of student
satisfaction rankings in the National Student Survey since it was introduced in 2005.
70% of students are in full-time or part-time employment, and three out of four FTSE
100 companies have sponsored staff to take OU courses.
The OU supports a vibrant research portfolio and in the UK's latest Research
Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008), the University climbed 23 places to 43rd, securing a
place in the UK's top 50 higher education institutions.
Regarded as Britain’s major e-learning institution, the OU is a world leader in
developing technology to increase access to education on a global scale. Its vast ‘open
content portfolio’ includes free study units on OpenLearn, which has had more than 11
million unique visitors, and materials on iTunes U, which has recorded over 31 million
downloads. The OU has a 40 year partnership with the BBC which has moved from
late-night lectures in the 1970s to prime-time programmes such as Life, Bang Goes the
Theory, James May’s Big Ideas, Can Gerry Robinson Save Dementia Care Homes?,
Saving Britain’s Past and The Money Programme.
Visit www.open.ac.uk
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