A ground analysis about the support mechanism offered by Shikshana foundation to the under served Government schools in North Karnataka region.

1. SHIKSHANA FOUNDATION
AMAL. K
October 2013

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Priyanka, -a 7th
Standard student of Devikoppa School, Kalghatagi- wearing a golden star on
her chest stand up to the envy of everyone in her class- She had been selected for a 10 day
long educational tour to Delhi-being organized by Shikshana Foundation, a Bangalore based
NGO working in Kalghatagi Taluka, Dharwad. “Two students from this school attended a
block level written test conducted by Shikshana last week and Akshata-another student
from the same class- lost by One and a half marks” Said S.D.Sidhapur, Head Master of her
school. Akshata also stood up. Pain of losing an opportunity by one and half a point was
evident on her point; “I have a chance next year- I will not let that go by” iterates a rather
determined Akshata.
Mr. Sidhapur adds “Shikshana foundation has been working with us since last 2 years. Their
operation has helped bring in many positive changes in the students here. Here in a village
school like ours, most of the students will have only one note book for all the subjects. They
write notes of all the subjects in that book only and once the pages run out, students simply
stop coming to school since they have no note book to write their class notes. Their parents
go to market once in every week. If they happen to bring a new notebook they may come
back to school after some days. If they don’t, then there is chance that they drop out… Once
Shikshana started giving away books and papers, students started staying back for long.”
This situation may sound strange for many from non-rural India; not having a second
notebook can also be a deciding factor for a primary school student’s future! A situation
In the test conducted on 4
th
August, 2012, 434 students representing 217
schools participated. A Scene from the test day

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Shikshana Foundation chose to deal with in 535 schools they work with in Northern
Karnataka Region when they started their operation in the region in 2009.
The issue is much deeper that can be solved with more notebooks and work sheets per
students. Government schools in the Northern Karnataka region has much more to add
what would probably be common to the rural schools in many parts of the country-
Inadequate infrastructure, cramped class rooms, skewed student-teacher ratio, Absence of
laboratory... the list goes on. The result- “Not even 30 % of the 7th
Standard students
possess basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills. “We tested more than 6000 7th
standard
Government School students in Hubli-Dharwad for their Basic academic skills and the result
was shocking. Only about 30% of the students could clear the basic skill test which we call
OBALE(Pronounced O-Baa-Ley)” Said Prakash Dharmadhikari, who is in charge of mentoring
students from 26 schools around Hubli Municipality. “OBALE is the Short form for ‘Othu
Baraha Lekka’ Kannada translation for Read, Write and Calculation.” Said Prakash.
OBALE is Shikshana’s version of Annual State of Education Report (ASER)1
, a national level
assessment test for the school students which tests the basic language proficiency and
arithmetic skills of the primary and secondary school children.
Following is the report card of the organization for the OBALE test before and after the
intervention if Shikshana foundation in Schools-
1
Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), India’s largest NGO-run annual survey, has been
conducted by Pratham since 2005 to evaluate the relevance and impact of its programs. Findings are
disseminated at national, state, district and village levels, and influence education policies at both
state and central levels. Ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratham

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The score card does not in fact tell you the complete story. Problems that the primary and
secondary schools face are far more complex which culminate into poorer service delivery.
Words of Salma Jorum, Teacher, Sangameshwara Upper Primary School, Kalghatgi explains
one of the key reasons why students fare poorly in the test- “We have classes up to 7
standard here with a total strength of 286 students. There are five teachers in total, include
the Head master who is overburdened by the administrative works. One teacher is on leave
since last 2 months and the remaining staff has to handle the entire students across seven
standards.”
The situation was no way different in urban school in Hubli, the district center. HPS Tarihal,
where 3 teachers are posted to teach 140 students of 3 Upper Primary Classes. “It is
impossible to give any personal attention to students” said M.S Ammigeri, a teacher
handling mathematics and Science for all the three standards.
“I insisted for help from Shikshana foundation and they are sending a teacher for three days
a week” Said P B Sumagar, Head master Sangameshwara Upper Primary School. “School like
ours desperately require support systems. Our teachers are over- burdened and that is the
reason why they fail to give personal attention to the students. Moreover, our students see
us every day and it is nice if someone come from outside tell them how to improve in their
studies” Sumagar added.
THE OUTSIDER EFFECT:
The effect of ‘someone coming from outside and telling students’ was visible in other
schools also. Students of HPS Gokul in
Hubli are eager to show their progress
book to Prashant, the Shikshana mentor
once he entered the class. They rushed in
to show documentary evidence that they
had completed the tasks given to them last
week.
Students of HPS Gokul ,with their progress diaries

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Prashant is in charge of twenty six schools in Hubli and
other mentors like him will have twenty six to thirty
schools under them. Every mentor visits three to four
schools every day and spends around one and a half hours
in each school. Every mentor visits school under him for
one to three times a week depending upon the academic
level of the students in the school.
“We organize summer vacation classes at selected schools and students attend in good
numbers” Said Sharanappa, Program Manager, Hubli. “The vacation classes are different
from regular classes and we follow activity based learning in the class and cover all the
subjects along with special sessions on essay writing, general knowledge and singing. It is
seen that these students like these class very much. Students who doesn’t do well in OBALE
test are given special care”
Many teachers testified that preparatory classes are helping students get a fair
understanding of the subject and this is making their teaching easier.
Actual scenes of students reciting multiplication table till 20 and solving problems requiring
critical thinking after attending the summer camp are indeed more striking testimonies of
the effectiveness of those classes.
Progress diaries lists out
instructions for students to follow
at home as well as in schools. It
gives round the clock schedule for
students so that they utilize their
time in the best way possible.
Students learn the basics of time
management and teachers feel
there is obvious difference in the
overall performance of students
once they start following the
progress diaries. Every student has
to get their daily completion
certified from their parent by
getting signature from their parent
in the designated page.

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SHALA HITESHI:
Shsala Hiteshi, is the grass root level volunteer who will work closely with 11-12 schools and
visit 2 schools a day. He spends more time with the students than what mentors do and
work closely with students who were identified as lacking in reading, writing and arithmetic
skills. As a temporary support arrangement, Shala Hiteshis are at times requested by the
teachers to take up teaching of actual syllabus for shorter durations- especially when the
school faces acute shortage of teaching staff-. Many schools find this arrangement
extremely useful, particularly in situations where replacement of teachers takes longer
periods to happen in the official system.
A DIFFICULT TERRITORY:
Shikshana indeed is working on a difficult territory- The government primary schools. Their
challenges are many- long list of inadequacies coupled with overburdened and frustrated
school teachers, and hundreds of other reasons which contribute to the poorer service
delivery at school level. Shikshana work with the present system realistically, accepting all
the inadequacies and offer solutions which are simplest to the core. They are putting the
best of their efforts to make the system slightly better and thus helping the young ones in
our Government Schools to fare better in their studies and teachers to improve their
pedagogical skills.
Reciting multiplication table of 19 is not a big deal for a seventh standard
student from HPS Bhairedevar Koppa

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Shikshana Foundation has a unique recipe for bringing in positive changes in the
Government schools- introduce a spirit of competition in the class rooms. They give away
spot prized for every right answer, every task completed and every improvement made. The
idea worked well in the pilot schools. Once the spot prize system generated a new spirit of
competition inside the classes, Shikshana felt now they require introducing a fresh system of
rewarding and thus came the idea of awarding stars to the students. Every student was
given an activity diary which they are supposed to follow religiously. The diary sets round
the clock schedule for the students. They need to complete tasks like home works, class
reading, news paper reading and extra readings. A student needs to get signature from her
parent every evening in the form an undertaking from the parent that the student had
actually completed the required tasks.
They will also have to attend the classes without fail and there are periodical tasks and tests
that they have to complete in time. Completion of these tasks helps them gain Golden.
Students winning highest number of stars were them on their chest.
Wearing golden star is considered as a matter of pride by the students and they compete
with each other to complete the tasks better and stick to the daily schedules to earn more
stars. At the end of every term, the students can redeem their stars for prizes and start
collecting stars again from next term.
Abhishek (Left) of HPS Gokul is wearing golden star; and Jainab (Girl raising hand) is his toughest
contender

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S D Sidhapur testifies effectiveness of this model- “We never thought the spirit of
competition can bring in this kind of a change in the students. My students (Government
Upper Primary School Devikoppe School) are much more organized in their studies and
other related activities after Shikshana mentors started visiting the school. The students get
stars not merely based on their performance in the (academic) tests. They need to perform
well in other activities also- like essay writing, music and sports....here every student get a
chance to win stars and every one can actually compete with each other. Last year the
students used to get prizes for everything what they do. As teachers we don’t have
resources to run programs like this. Thanks for Shikshana for running programs like this.”
TEACHER TRAINING:
Teacher training is another important component of the intervention by Shikshana
foundation. Selected teachers are advised to attend training at District and State level and
they are given training in hands on teaching, kinaesthetic teaching and other attitudinal
aspects. B.Y Chelwadi of Devikoppe School was excited after attending 5 day training in
Kanakpura, Bangalore. He said “Ours was a 50 member batch and we had senior teaching
staff having 30+ years of experience. Initially some had inhibitions about the new teaching
methods. They were telling initially ‘what they will change after teaching in one
methodology for 30 years’. But by the end of the session those were the ones who were
charged up the most. The total program was an absolute delight.”
While Mr. Chelwadi could make it for the training, others like Salma Jorum of
Sangameshwar failed to attend as she had to attend the state entrance test for B.Ed course
and others like Ammigeri M S, of HPS Tarihal simply couldn’t get a break from school since
the School couldn’t find a week’s replacement for her.
Two best performing teachers from last month’s batch was selected for a 15 day all paid
educational tour to Belgium this year. Somashekhar Kumtakar from Madhihonahalli,
Kalghatgi got the opportunity to explore Belgium and interact with teachers this year.

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A SUPPORTING HAND:
Each mentor in Shikshana foundation works closely with the teachers and students in 7th
and 10th
standard. They engage the students in meaningful learning exercises and play a
complementary role in the teaching and co-curricular activities in the school. Carefully
designed activity based learning tools and exercises help students engage more actively in
the learning process.
The high impact model of action in Shikshana has proved that the existing schooling system
can bring in great changes if a slight support is provided to it.
Shikshana foundation has been engaging themselves with more number of schools year on
year. Deshpande foundation is supporting the program in 322 schools, helping the
organization reach out to 53810 students. Other funding agencies like Michael Susan Dell
Foundation is another key organization helping Shikshana reach out to larger number of
students.
SL No. Year No. of
School
No. Student Block
1 2010 60 9354 Kalghatgi
2 2011 136 21145 Kalghatgi
3 2012 535 107579 Dharwad
District
THE SCAFFOLDING ROLE:
Educators and policy makers across the countries are realizing the role of formal, non formal
and informal institutions in scaffolding the formal system of education. Civil society
organizations in India is indeed playing a critical role in developing a series of scaffolds to
best support the formal system, especially the primary and secondary educational systems.
Policy makers are realizing this role and making relevant interventions to incorporate the
activities of these organizations into the formal educational system. These non-
conventional actors, with fresh ideas and open approaches can bring in notable changes

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especially in the delivery part of education. Shikshana foundation is playing a very important
role in this context. They are bringing in a fresh impetus to the whole system of incentive
less educational system by inculcating a strong sense of competition among students. As a
model, working very much in align with the formal education system, whereby by providing
the most critical hand holding to the primary schools in the Sand box region in a purely
demand driven mode, Shikshana has been quite successful in creating an important space
for itself in the education sphere. The resource poor Government Schools in Northern
Karnataka region were quick to accept the opportunity offered by Shikshana and practically
all the schools approached by Shikshana has been working closely with them. The
organization still has a long way to go- by reinventing themselves and their approach and by
finding a sustainable way to scale up and thus serving larger number of Schools thus helping
larger number of students to improve their learning process in schools.