Attaining foundational literacy and numeracy for ALL children is both a state and national priority. Carrying out regular student assessments to measure learning levels of children is essential to tracking progress towards achieving this goal.
In light of the latest Annual Status of Education 2024 Report (ASER) and anticipation of the upcoming National Achievement Survey (NAS) results, this op-ed has 3 main goals.
First, this piece highlights key learning outcomes a child should be able to master by grade 3 in both language and numeracy that would enable them to transition effectively from ‘learning to read’ phase to ‘reading to learn’ phase. Experts recommend this to be necessary towards setting up children for future academic success.
Second, it provides a quick overview of the current efforts to measuring student learning outcomes, particularly for students in classes 1-3 in Tamil Nadu (such as NAS, ASER, State Led Achievement Survey (SLAS), Madhi Led Assessment (MLA)); we further triangulate recent results and articulate salient observations from them.
Finally, the piece identifies limitations to existing assessment approaches and calls for support towards more regular, relevant, representative and rigorous assessments geared to inform current programming efforts around Foundational Literacy & Numeracy in the region.
Foundational Literacy and Numeracy: Building blocks for success
Mastery of foundational literacy and numeracy skills by grade 3 is crucial for a child’s future academic success. This ‘learning to read’ stage sets the foundation for the subsequent ‘reading to learn’ phase, enabling children to effectively engage with more complex academic content.
Recognizing this importance, the Government of Tamil Nadu has launched initiatives like the Ennum Ezhuthum mission. This program aims to address learning gaps in the foundational years, ensuring all government school students attain these critical skills by 2025.
A non-comprehensive summary of essential competencies that experts believe is necessary for a child to master by the time they complete Grade 3 are below:

Foundational Literacy
Foundational Numeracy

Listening Comprehension
Oral Vocabulary
Sound Identification
Recognize letter
Decode words
Familiar and non- familiar word reading
Oral Reading Fluency
Demonstrate comprehension
Identify Numbers
Perform basic arithmetic (addition/ subtraction)
Understand patterns
Compare Numbers
Solve problems
Familiarity with 3 digits Numbers
Understand Place values

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). (2022). National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage 2022
“Foundational literacy and numeracy should be treated as non-negotiable milestones, requiring a comprehensive policy focus and regular progress monitoring.” (FLS 2022)
Assessments: the GPS for tracking progress on learning outcomes
Carrying out regular student assessments to measure learning levels of children is essential to tracking progress towards achieving the urgent need for mastery of foundational skills by ALL children. Measurement of learning outcomes builds awareness of the status quo and is critical to guiding policy decisions.
Think of a child’s education as a long journey by car to a distant destination. The car represents the education system, the child the passenger, the first milestone destination being the mastery of foundational skills, regular student assessments are alike to GPS check-ins during the journey. Periodical measurement allows for tracking progress, course correction, estimating arrival and creating awareness.
Given that true learning levels are undisputedly the ‘vital signs’ necessary to closely monitor the success of our programs, these are critically measured through a few different representative student assessments.
Assessments geared towards measuring learning outcomes
Various assessments aim to measure student learning outcomes in frequent intervals including the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), National Achievement Survey (NAS), State Learning Achievement Surveys (SLAS), and Madhi Foundation’s own assessments for impact measurement (MLA).
These assessments cater to different objectives and populations, offering complementary insights. For example: “ASER’s household-based design allows for a broader understanding of out-of-school children’s competencies, while NAS offers detailed, curriculum-aligned data.” (Johnson & Parrado, 2021).
The table below summarizes key features of these periodic assessments.

Feature
ASER
NAS
SLAS
MLA

Frequency
Once in two year
Periodic (Every 3 Years)
Varies by state
Annual

Grades Covered
1-8
3,5,8,10
Varies by state
1-3

Sample Covered
Rural households
Schools (National/ State)
State Schools
Schools within selected 4 districts in TN

Focus Area
Reading, Arithmetic
Curriculum based performance
State- specific curriculum
Foundational Literacy and Numeracy

Year Started
2005
2001
2019
2022

In addition to the above periodic assessment, one-off assessments such as Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Study of 2022 (FLS 2022), State Educational Achievement Survey (SEAS) have been conducted in the past to evaluate the foundational literacy and numeracy skills of students across India.
Given that both periodic and non-periodic assessments are time and resource-intensive efforts, it becomes critically important to allow for some standardization in these assessments & synthesize learnings across these studies. This synthesis is crucial for meeting their intended purpose of informing programmatic shifts aimed at addressing learning gaps.
Making sense of the results in Tamil Nadu: A tale of progress and persisting challenges
The data from various assessments conducted between 2021 and 2024 tells a story of incremental progress but also highlights the monumental task that lies ahead in achieving universal foundational literacy and numeracy.
The good news first: we’re seeing consistent improvements. Both the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) and Madhi Foundation’s assessments indicate an upward trend in literacy and numeracy levels among grade 3 students in government schools in Tamil Nadu. ASER 2024 reports an 18.3% jump in numeracy proficiency to 27.6% compared to 2022. ASER reports an increase in literacy proficiency from a dismal 4.7% in 2022 to 13.2% in 2024. Similarly, Madhi’s assessments show literacy indicators improving from 27% to 36%. These gains, while modest, are significant considering the setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the stark reality is that these improved figures still paint a grim picture. When only 13.2% of third graders in Tamil Nadu can read at grade level, the long road to mastery of foundational skills stretches far into the horizon.

Measure
NAS 2021
FLS 2022
ASER 2022
MLA 2024
ASER 2024

Literacy:
% of Grade 3 students in sample being able to read paragraph/
grade 2-level text.
62%1
20%
4.7%
6%
13.2%

Numeracy:
% of grade 3 students in sample being able to do 2-digit subtraction/basic arithmetic.
52%
23%
9.3%
34%27.6%

Adding to this complexity is the variation in results across different assessments. How do we reconcile the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 showing a 62% literacy rate with ASER 2022’s 4.7%?
It’s important to recognize that these assessments use different methodologies and serve different purposes, making direct comparisons challenging. Such discrepancies underscore the challenges in educational assessment and the need for standardized, reliable measurement tools.
Areas of improvement to current approaches
While the periodic assessments are useful dipstick for understanding learning levels of student, extra efforts need to be made in how the results are interpreted given a few limitations recognized by experts. The absence of standardized methods across different assessments further complicates cross-comparison and analysis.
A few salient limitations include:
Limited scope of assessment: The most common criticism of some of these approaches has been that the tests focus on floor-level reading and math levels, which may not provide a comprehensive picture of a student’s overall learning abilities.
Inconsistencies Across Tools: Variability in sampling and methodology leads to data discrepancies. For example, a study by Johnson and Parrado 2021 found that changes in state averages in one year are often reversed in the following year, indicating potential reliability issues in year-to-year comparisons
Resource Constraints: Reliance on volunteer enumerators and limited funding to conduct the assessments hampers quality.

The path forward: strengthening assessments to drive change
To ensure assessments serves as a catalyst for educational outcomes in Tamil Nadu, a more cohesive and collaborative approach is needed. Here are a few recommendations:
Collaborative Efforts: Foster partnerships between governments, NGOs, and schools to align goals and interventions.
Enhanced Methodology: Standardize frameworks across studies for consistency and reliability.
Transparency and Accessibility: Simplify results for policy makers and communities to drive informed action.
Leveraging Technology: Use digital tools to improve data collection and analysis.

Call for Support: Enhancing Assessments for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy
As we aim to strengthen educational outcomes and bridge learning gaps for children across Tamil Nadu, it is vital to recognize the transformative potential of robust assessment systems in achieving foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN). While several assessments—such as ASER, NAS, SLAS, and Madhi-Led assessments—have contributed valuable insights, there is room for improvement in effectively addressing students’ needs. Further efforts are needed to enhance these frameworks, ensuring they can better adapt to the evolving challenges in education and provide more tailored support to students.
References:
Johnson, D., & Parrado, A. (2021). Assessing the assessments: Taking stock of learning outcomes data in India. International Journal of Educational Development, 84, 102409.

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). (2022). National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage 2022. https://ncert.nic.in/pdf/NCF_for_Foundational_Stage_20_October_2022.pdf

Ministry of Education, Government of India. (2020). National Education Policy 2020. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/nep/TS10_1.pdf

Foundational Learning Study 2022 https://dsel.education.gov.in/sites/default/files/FLS/National/National_Report_on_Benchmarking_for_ORF_and_Numeracy.pdf

National Achievement Survey (NAS) – Key Facts and Objectives.” Testbook, https://testbook.com/articles/national-achievement-survey.

RISE Programme. (2023). Focus to Flourish: Five Actions to Accelerate Progress in Learning. https://riseprogramme.org/publications/focus-flourish-five-actions-accelerate-progress-learning.

Times of India. (2023). Tamil Nadu’s learning outcomes plunge. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/tamil-nadus-learning-outcomes-plunge/articleshow/101586369.cms

The Hans India. (2023). ASER survey shows reading skills of Tamil Nadu students affected by pandemic. https://www.thehansindia.com/tamilnadu/aser-survey-shows-reading-skills-of-tamil-nadu-students-affected-by-pandemic-778387

Times of India. (2022). Tamil Nadu school students’ learning outcome below national average. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/tamil-nadu-school-students-learning-outcome-below-national-average/articleshow/91822925.cms

Institute for Competitiveness. (2021). Report on the State of Foundational Learning and Numeracy. https://www.competitiveness.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Report_on_state_of_foundational_learning_and_numeracy_web_version.pdf

Institute for Competitiveness. (2024). Panel Brief: The Challenge of Foundational Learning and Numeracy. https://www.competitiveness.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Panel_Brief_Day2_The_Challenge_of_Foundational_Learning_and_Numeracy.pdf.

Annexure:
Tracing the Evolution of Key Educational Assessments in India

Approach
History
Purpose Purpose
Key features & Evolution

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)
Launched in 2005, ASER has been conducted annually to assess the status of education in rural India.
It began as a grassroots initiative by Pratham and has grown to involve various stakeholders.
To Provide a comprehensive picture of children’s learning levels in rural areas, focusing on basic reading and arithmetic skills.
Evolved from basic assessments to include detailed indicators of learning outcomes and school infrastructure.
Expanded coverage and refined methodology over time.

National Achievement Survey (NAS
Initiated by the ministry of Education, NAS was first conducted in 2001, but it gained prominence with its structured approach in 2017.
Conducted every three years.
To evaluate the effectiveness of school instruction across different grades and provide insights into educational quality at a national level.
Transitioned from periodic to systematic assessments, aligning with international standards
Emphasized competency- based evaluations, with a recent focus on foundational literacy and Numeracy.

State Level Achievement Survey (SLAS)
Introduced as part of a broader educational assessment strategy, SLAS aims to evaluate state specific educational outcomes since 2019
To assess students learning outcomes at the state level, providing data to inform policy and improve educational practices.
Developed state- specific methodologies aligned with national standards.
Focused on improving local educational frameworks and addressing unique challenges.

Madhi Led Assessments (MLA)
Established in 2022by the Madhi Foundation to address foundational learning gaps in Tamil Nadu, particularly after the disruptions caused by COVID-19
To assess foundational literacy and Numeracy skills in Grade 1-3 to inform targeted interventions like “Ennum Ezhuthum “mission
Utilize one- on- one assessments for precision in Tamil, English, and Mathematics.
Developed using a cross- referencing methodology aligned with TNCF, EGRA, and EGMA.
Focus on critical skills: reading fluency, listening comprehension, vocabulary, and number operations.
Highlight gaps between local and global benchmarks in foundational skills to inform interventions.

Overview of Current Efforts in Measuring Student Learning Outcomes in Tamil Nadu (Classes 1–3)
Tamil Nadu employs several assessment tools to gauge student learning outcomes in early grades. Below is summary of the most recent results from these assessments:

Assessments
Key Findings

National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021
NCERT conducts the National Achievement Survey (NAS).
Last survey in November 2021.
Tamil Nadu students performed below national averages.
Particularly low in science and mathematics.
Learning losses attributed to the pandemic.

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)
ASER is a household-based survey.
Latest report shows challenges in Tamil Nadu.
Struggles with basic literacy and numeracy persist.
A substantial 42.7% of children aged 14-18 cannot read simple sentences in English, and 26.5% cannot read a Class 2-level textbook in their regional language.

Madhi- Led Assessment (MLA)
Lower-order skills, like listening comprehension, showed more progress.
Higher-order skills, such as reading comprehension, showed minimal progress.
Tamil reading fluency improved in Grade 3 (2 to 12 words per minute).
Still below the global benchmark of 50 words per minute.
Only 25% of Grade 3 students could perform grade-appropriate subtraction.

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Every day, we navigate a series of roles, each tailored to fit the social and professional spheres we inhabit. From the clothes we choose to the language we adopt; each act is a performance tailored to the audience before us. It’s as simple as wearing a bindi when we go to a wedding but a blazer at an interview or swapping an “aama” for an “achha” with that one friend from Delhi. Daily, in interactions with different people in various places, I manoeuvre in and out of roles and corresponding personalities. I adopt codes of clothing, speaking, and moving with ease, barely breaking a sweat juggling “who I am.”

Except when it comes to work. I work with the Communities Enabling Foundational Learning project at the Madhi Foundation, which aims to support parent engagement in foundational learning and to enable parents to demand quality primary education in the ecosystem. By equipping parents with essential tools and fostering their agency, the foundation seeks to create a demand for improved foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes. I believe this community-centric model not only aims to elevate educational standards but also to build a sustainable ecosystem where parents are empowered to actively participate in and influence their children’s learning journey.

My work involves regular travel for visits and conversations with parents, local leaders, community members, and our field team. On travel days, picking out aversion of myself isn’t without a moral debate. The task of aligning my personal identity with my professional role becomes a dance of authenticity and perception. The certainty of my role wavers: Who am I going to be today? Who must I be to connect, belong, and, most importantly, make a meaningful difference?

I pick from a set of cheap cotton Kurtis and pants, a dupatta that deliberately doesn’t match and wear no kajal. I prepare myself for entire conversations without using a word of English and consciously avoid mentioning where I live, how much I make,
and whether I’m married or have kids to hide my reality of being an urban-bred “modern” woman. Ironically, I also prepare myself to come off as less private or reserved than I usually am in an attempt to be accepted or listened to. Yet, despite all my efforts to supposedly “fit in,” on certain occasions, I stuck out like a sore thumb. My ankle-length pants were discussed for missing two inches; it was assumed that I would have a problem walking in the sun or sitting on the floor, and I constantly heard, “You wouldn’t understand.” The personas I donned didn’t seem to fit physically or culturally!

I received a lot of well-meaning advice at the time that to work with communities, I had to be a “part” of the community. However, I wasn’t sure what that meant, especially when I didn’t have the option of physically relocating to live there. Not to mention, I was working with six different communities. There was no handbook for me at the time prescribing that I had to undergo this process of creating an alternate identity to work with communities. Yet, somehow, it was a deeply ingrained belief—I had to hide parts of myself. Despite doing this knowingly or unknowingly in other parts of my life, here, it didn’t feel okay.

This feeling of standing out, despite my best efforts, highlights a broader challenge identified by Miu Chang Yun. Yun’s exploration of cultural tensions in social work practice delves into the complexities between social workers, clients, organizations, and society. He observes that “the cultural tensions caused by cultural similarities and differences between workers and their clients may be the most complicated and critical tensions that social workers encounter in their daily practice.” These tensions can arise from differences or similarities in ethnicity, age, gender, language, race, socio-economic class, caste, religion, nationality, and more.

In my case, I am walking a fine line between differences and similarities. On one hand, sharing the same nationality, language, and gender can create a sense of mutual understanding or shared experience. On the other hand, differences in caste, socio-economic class, age, and the urban/rural divide emphasize the underlying disparities. It can sometimes be difficult to navigate my own understanding of where our shared experiences end and the differences begin. This also makes it challenging to identify the blurred boundaries between personal and professional interactions.

However, there is more to this cultural tension than meets the eye. The paper “Social Worker Identity: A Profession in Context” highlights a simple truth—the nature of social work involves engaging with communities or groups that are often marginalized or oppressed. Organizations typically work with groups oppressed on the basis of race, caste, class, gender, religion, and more.

Yan also finds that social workers are hardly culturally neutral due to their embodied socio-organizational and professional cultural baggage, as well as the nature of their work with communities. Extrapolating from this thought, we begin to see cultural tensions not as merely personal but as deeply rooted in the very construction of my role and the profession itself. Having agency over organizational resources, stepping into communities with a predetermined program objective and design, and assuming the role of an “expert” inherently carries a paternalistic attitude.

Yan’s insight regarding the inherent lack of cultural neutrality among social workers resonates deeply with my experiences. Reflecting on my position in relation to the parents I work with, notions of creating empowerment and agency have begun to feel flimsy. In our drive for professionalization, we have replaced moral superiority with professional expertise, while retaining the power to define the client, the reality, and the therapy (Hartman, 1993). With all this baggage following us in every conversation, is wearing a dupatta really what makes me more “the same”?

Cultural tensions require a high level of sensitivity for social workers to reflect on their own cultural positions. Therefore, it is not surprising that cultural awareness becomes a key requirement for social work practitioners (Yan, 2008). One must engage in critical self-reflection about their own cultural positioning and the arising tensions before beginning to navigate and address the cultural tensions that emerge when interacting with the communities they serve.

Recognizing the need for heightened sensitivity to navigate cultural tensions, I turned to Lum’s formative work Culturally Competent Practice for guidance—a framework in which cultural awareness is a key component, and “professional self-disclosure” is a skill Lum believes all social workers must possess. This skill involves taking the initiative in building a relationship with the client by disclosing a mutual area of interest—not pretending to have something in common, but genuinely finding common ground. In hindsight, this seems obvious, as relationships are built on honesty and transparency just as much as on relatability. Beyond that, why do we underestimate people’s ability to be receptive to others who are unlike them?

Some of Lum’s suggestions, which I found useful were:

Approaching every interpersonal helping practice relationship with an awareness of who you are as a cultural self and what you have to offer as a helping person. This helps remove any disillusioned notion of being culturally neutral and identify one’s own agency and limitations. Find out what is similar and common between you as the worker and the person as the client, but also explore differences, respecting them and learning from them. Reflecting on Lum’s suggestions, I found parallels with my earlier dilemmas regarding authenticity in interaction. His advice prompts a reconsideration of my approach, moving away from superficial adjustments. This can look like
engaging in an honest conversation about why I haven’t got married yet or being honest about not wanting to discuss it. We’d also bond over our experiences with the children around us—my students and nieces/nephews and their children. Through these conversations, I’ve received feedback from community members that they feel more comfortable being themselves around me.
Understanding and respecting how each of us constructed and shaped our multiple identities and how social, political, and historical forces have impacted and caused us to be who we are today. The goal is for the client to be empowered, not for me to be an empowerer. I’ve approached this by co-creating elements of the core project design with community members, constantly asking for feedback and implementing it, and being honest about what is within my locus of control. To me, this is a step towards creating shared agency and sustainable change.

In the ever-evolving landscape of social work, the pursuit of cultural competence demands both professional and personal commitment. Reflecting on our daily interactions, we must ask ourselves: How do our cultural backgrounds and biases shape the way we engage with those we aim to serve? This question, though potentially unsettling, should inspire deeper introspection and learning.

We must know ourselves and be ourselves, having faith that clients can accept and work with us even if we are different, as long as we share the same goals. Additionally, we must understand the structures and constraints of the institutions we work in, acknowledging that these institutions can contribute to problems as well as solutions. Most importantly, we must accept that a client may not always find us the best person to work with, and in such cases, we should help them find who or what will work best

With the policy focus on foundational learning and increased emphasis on data-based decision making, the debate has shifted from ‘To assess or not to assess’ to how to utilise assessments to drive learning (Chan et al, 2021). This piece aims to introduce the different approaches to assessments and the purposes they serve using the Government of Tamil Nadu’s flagship Ennum Ezhuthum programme (EE) as an exemplar. 

Assessments are often classified broadly into two types: school-based assessment and large-scale standardised assessments. The difference between the two modes of assessment has been succinctly captured in this table from Wesolowski (2020): 

 

Figure 1.1: Table reproduced from Wesolowski (2020)

 

Prior to the launch of EE, regular practice in government schools was for teachers to put together the question papers and the overall performance of students not being tracked (except within the school). Assessments served an extremely limited purpose as it did not inform instruction or provide insights for teacher training or curriculum design. While comprehensive and continuous evaluation (CCE) was deemed integral through section 29 of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, the mandate needs to be contextualised and implemented effectively. The EE programme seeks to build on this mandate by focusing on interdisciplinary learning, experiential learning, and 21st century skills (as defined in Joynes et al, 2019). Hence, the themes referred to in CCE are fine-tuned, contextualised and made tangible, visible and achievable at scale through the EE programme. It builds upon the Constructivist Learning Theory which states that learners construct knowledge for themselves instead of taking in information passively.

Upon the launch of the EE programme, three types of assessments have been taking place in government schools since 2022: two types of Formative Assessments and a Summative Assessment. Formative A refers to assessments wherein students are assessed based on the projects or activities that they do; while in Formative B, students are assessed on the content that they have been taught. Formative B happens every week, wherein the idea is to test the students on topics covered in that particular week. Summative assessment refers to an assessment where students are assessed at the end of the term (quarter) on the entire portion taught in that term. An interesting lens to understand the role of these different types of assessments is Stobart’s (2008) assessment for learning (AfL) and assessment of learning (AoL). In their study on assessment in the digital age in the early childhood classroom, Neumann et al (2019) equate AfL with Formative Assessments while AoL is equated with Summative Assessments. As per Neumann, the assessments are meant to serve different purposes and the distinction between AoL and AfL is further elaborated upon below:

 

Through the EE programme, the benefits of both school-based assessments and large-scale testing are sought to be leveraged by conducting large-scale, teacher-led testing in classrooms for students in grades 1, 2 and 3. This assessment includes components of AfL and AoL by virtue of the fact that both summative and formative assessments are carried out. As the digital tool is utilised for testing, learning outcomes from the weekly formative assessments can be used to make modifications to lesson plans and even provide student-specific insights to assist teachers. 

For example,  below is a snapshot of the learning journey chart as envisaged for the EE application to provide an example of the usage of data collected by way of Formative assessments. Through data collected on performance in formative assessments as illustrated in the figure below, the teacher may draw an inference that Student 4 needs to focus on LO4 or that the entire class has performed poorly on LO 5 which may need remediation. 

Figure 1.2: Table contains fictitious data, for illustrative purposes only

 

Summative assessments, on the other hand, can be used to glean larger insights, gauge performance and track progress overall. The programme focuses on level based learning wherein Arumbu equates to learning at the level expected of a Class 1 student, Mottu equates to that of a Class 2 student and so on. The student workbooks are designed in such a manner that students use workbooks suited to their level irrespective of their class. Progress between levels is gauged from one summative assessment to the next. The adjacent graph has been created using sample data for illustrative purposes only which does not reflect actual data. It is assumed to be representative of the performance of students in Class 2 in two different subjects. From the graph above, we can draw inferences pertaining to the effectiveness of the methodologies, teacher learning materials, and books wherein Subject A may be assumed to be performing better than Subject B on the basis of progress made from Term 1 to Term 2. 

 

Figure 1.3: Table contains fictitious percentages, for illustrative purposes only

This action of collecting data at a large scale involving over 37,000 government schools with tests being administered by approximately one lakh teachers is a massive undertaking in itself involving multiple challenges. The intersection of technology and assessment is an exciting field where new inroads are being made with researchers experimenting on new and innovative methods of test administration and assessment design. While assessments cannot be deemed a silver bullet that can solve all the challenges impeding foundational literacy and numeracy, it can nevertheless help in guiding instruction and remedial intervention at the school level and evidence-based policy making at the systems level. 

 

References

    Cecilia K.Y. Chan; Nai Chi Jonathan Yeung, (2021), To assess or not to assess holistic competencies – Student perspectives in Hong Kong, Studies in Educational Evaluation, ISSN: 0191-491X, Vol: 68 c.f. DOI:10.1016/j.stueduc.2021.100984

     Joynes, C., Rossignoli, S., & Fenyiwa Amonoo-Kuofi, E. (2019). 21st Century Skills: Evidence of issues in definition, demand and delivery for development contexts (K4D Helpdesk Report). Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies

  Neumann,Michelle M.; Anthony, Jason L.; Erazo, Noé A.; Neumann, David L., (2019) Assessment and Technology: Mapping Future Directions in the Early Childhood Classroom , Front. Educ., 18 October 2019, Sec. Assessment, Testing and Applied Measurement, Volume 4 c.f.  https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2019.00116

   Schildkamp, Kim & van der Kleij, Fabienne & Heitink, M.C. & Kippers, Wilma & Veldkamp, Bernard. (2020). Formative assessment: A systematic review of critical teacher prerequisites for classroom practice. International Journal of Educational Research. 103. 101602. 10.1016/j.ijer.2020.101602. 

  Schildkamp, K., & Kuiper, W. (2010). Data-informed curriculum reform: Which data, what purposes, and promoting and hindering factors. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 482–496 c.f. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2009.06.007

    Stobart, G. (2008). Testing times: The uses and abuses of assessment. London: Routledge

 Wesolowski, Brian. (2020). Validity, Reliability, and Fairness in Classroom Tests, c.f. DOI:10.4324/9780429202308-5 

The United Nations defines capacity-building as “a process of developing and strengthening the skills, instincts, abilities, processes, and resources that organisations and communities need to survive, adapt, and thrive in a fast-changing world. An essential ingredient in capacity-building is a transformation that is generated and sustained over time from within; transformation of this kind goes beyond performing tasks to changing mindsets and attitudes”. In the context of schools, capacity building plays a critical role in the learning and development of school leaders, teachers, and students to adapt to the changes in the learning ecosystem.

Challenges in the Indian Education System:

In India, there are 1.5 million schools and over 8 million teachers, yet educational quality is dismal due to inadequate infrastructure and a shortage of qualified and well-trained educators. Teacher training is essential for quality education, influencing both pedagogy and technology. 

Ennum Ezhuthum Mission in Tamil Nadu:

With the vision of enhancing the quality of foundational education, the Department of School Education, Government of Tamil Nadu, initiated the Ennum Ezhuthum Mission, focusing on improving foundational learning among primary school children. This project, introduced in the academic year 2022-23, aims to ensure that by 2025, all students aged eight can read and write with comprehension, and acquire critical basic arithmetic skills. One of the key components of this multi-faceted programme is providing in-service teacher training. 

Structured Teacher Training Programs:

The Ennum Ezhuthum Mission impacts over one lakh primary school teachers across grades 1, 2, and 3. To ensure effective teacher training, the School Education Department adopts a cascaded training model conducted at State, District, and Block levels. The Academic Resource Group of Ennum Ezhuthum Mission is responsible for designing teaching-learning materials and conducting training programs at the State level. Following a substantial refinement of curricular materials under the Mission, the focus shifted to orienting teachers on the content. This approach facilitates the dissemination of content to a large, geographically dispersed group of primary teachers within a compressed time frame of 2-3 days.

Data-Driven Evaluation:

The effectiveness of the training programs is rigorously evaluated through a tiered data collection model. Observation forms, participant feedback, and quizzes are used to assess the facilitation quality and content absorption at all three (district, block and cluster) training levels. This data-driven approach allows for effective diagnosis of breakdowns and enables course correction.

Addressing Content Dilution:

A significant challenge in cascaded training programs is the potential dilution of content quality as it reaches the last workforce level, where its impact is most crucial. To maintain uniformity across the three levels and address facilitation capacity gaps, a video covering essential knowledge and skills is played at each training centre. Yet, it’s essential to recognise that the video’s ability to influence teachers’ mindsets depends on the quality of subsequent activities, demonstrations, and discussions. State and district-level participants, serving as resource persons for the next level, significantly impact the learning experience through their facilitation skills. Fostering mindset changes and skill development hinges on their ability to pose impactful questions, moderate discussions, and facilitate reflection. In this transformative journey, the question arises: can we build the capacity to instigate attitude and mindset changes?

Building Mindset Change and Skill-Building:

Shifting teachers’ mindsets to align with new classroom learning approaches is imperative. Hence, honing pedagogical skills tailored to such learning is crucial. For instance, cultivating a growth mindset through effective feedback can boost student motivation and create a positive learning environment. While the teacher handbook outlines activity procedures, teachers excelling in subject-specific competencies enhance learning by understanding the rationale behind these steps. Skill-building sessions, incorporating learning, discussion, application, and reflection, can significantly impact the quality of instructional delivery in the classroom. Orientation to better understand the use of teacher handbooks and student workbooks is vital, especially in a state-wide mission where changes are continuous during the first few  years of mission roll-out. Striking a balance between orientation and attitude building is key.

Continuous Improvement through observations:

Observation data serves as a lever for identifying effective execution strategies, and training administrators play a key role in this process. Developing a quiz that evaluates the absorption of knowledge, depth of understanding, and application skills is essential. In cases where feedback data and observation form data diverge, the quiz results can provide valuable insights into areas for improvement. Administering prework to participants before the training program, based on the session’s subject, reduces the need for extensive guidance, allowing more room for practice, reflection, and planning. Designing spaces for teachers that encourage group or individual learning rather than just instruction ensures effective processing and application of the training inputs. The utilisation of Cluster Resource Centres can play an active role in creating this conducive learning environment.

By adopting a holistic approach to teacher capacity-building, the Ennum Ezhuthum Mission in Tamil Nadu exemplifies a transformative initiative. Emphasising continuous improvement, data-driven evaluations, and a focus on changing mindsets, this program sets a benchmark for effective teacher training in the Indian education system. Through strategic interventions and a commitment to professional development, the Ennum Ezhuthum Mission aims to bring about a positive and lasting change in the landscape of primary education in Tamil Nadu.

‘Enjoy English’: An innovative Ed tech project
How did we learn our mother tongue, our first language? Did we learn the ABCs of it and how to form words and then read, write and speak the language? Were we taught ten new words every day and asked to repeat them? Quite contrarily, we acquired it through constant exposure in a given environment. We heard others speaking in our home and neighbourhood; we started experimenting with the language ourselves. Mimicking was our first attempt at communication. When this is the natural way a language is acquired, why should the process for learning a second language be any different?
The idea of ‘Enjoy English’ stems from the same belief: that students need to have contextual and regular exposure to the oral language to help them recognise and acquire the language. Hence, the programme prioritises oral development through exposure to real experiences, before moving on to the script of the language, and insisting on grammatical correctness.
The vision of project ‘Enjoy English’ is to offer a solution to the problem of poor English literacy among early first generation learners of English who have little to no exposure to English in their immediate environment, through significant focus on oracy (listening-speaking skills). The programme aims to build all the 4 necessary language skills in children (listening, speaking, reading and writing) but with a greater emphasis on laying a strong oral and aural foundation.
A multifaceted approach to Oracy-Centric Curriculum
With the vision of the oracy-forward curriculum in mind, the team tried to include as many different components as possible that would provide the students exposure to the language. Exposure was given through animated videos with a storyline, rhymes, audio-visual inputs to introduce phonic sounds, short stories to expose them to the communicative form of the language and finally, this was enhanced with a range of games, quizzes and activities on tablets.
Unveiling the thought process: A behind-the-scenes glimpse into the
content creation
Making it contextual:
A lot of animated videos can be found online, like ‘Dora the Explorer’ and ‘Sesame Street’. But the challenge in using something like that, in a government school classroom in Tamil Nadu, is that some depictions, characters, objects and accents may be utterly alien to the students. We wanted to ensure that our content was rooted in the child’s environment. So we decided to produce the animated videos, ensuring the characters and scenes were contextual and also had an element of surprise to make it more interesting.
It was also made such that the same characters got repeated week over week and the students became intensely familiar with the adventures of Chikku, Chinni, Lola the parrot and Lee the alien – the characters that carried the programme through.

All the animated videos revolved around these 4 main characters: ‘Chinni’, ‘Chicku’, ‘Lola’ and ‘Lee’.
Not only were the animated videos contextual, but the images in the activities and other stories were also created to make the students feel like they were part of the story.

An image from a story where children are eating vada as an evening snack.

Since the project was piloted in government schools of Tamilnadu, the images were also made contextual by replicating the government school uniforms of the state.
Pathway to mastery:
We created the overall progression after observing well-known curricula worldwide and modifying them to fit our context. The themes for each week’s lessons followed the progression from ‘Knowing myself’ to ‘The world through my eyes’, then ‘My neighbourhood’, and finally ‘My Earth’. This progression was thought through such that there was a steady development in what the students learn, beginning from
themselves, then their immediate surroundings and finally moving on to the larger world. The weekly vocabulary and sentence structures were also designed to follow the same progression. The sentences and actions the children would use daily, describing themselves, people and things in their neighbourhood, were introduced first, followed by sentences based on their experiences.
Even the sounds and letters introduced were based on a well-accepted phonic progression (slightly modified) starting with letters a, t, p and n, which ensured that they were first introduced to the sounds most common and those that could be made into words, rather than following the alphabetical order. On a similar note, we consciously ensured that any word introduced for learning was only based on already introduced sounds. For example, on a day when the sound of the letter ‘n’ was introduced, the words used would be – nap, pan, ant and so on instead of ‘nest’, which has ‘e’ and ‘s’, which hadn’t been introduced yet. This was to ensure that there was a steady shift from ‘known’ to ‘unknown’, an extremely effective way to lower children’s affective barriers.
Inclusivity:
The characters and scenes for every single content were thought out carefully to ensure equal representation across gender, religion, colour and disability. The main character of the animated video is in a wheelchair, and there are scenes which we have intentionally removed for stereotypes, to normalise different situations and actions.

Chicku, Chinni and Lola the parrot playing a board game to meet their alien friend Lee.

Lee the alien friend and an alien Postperson in alien land.
From inception of the characters on a storyboard to the final output
Accessibility:
All the content created needed to be accessible to students in all possible ways because if it weren’t, all the efforts wouldn’t reach the intended outcome. This was not just physical accessibility but more nuanced factors, like the number of words that would be the ideal length for the content’s intended audience. The sentence lengths and the total number of sentences and words for each story created were
limited as the exposure to the English language would have been limited, and the intent was not to let students feel overwhelmed with large chunks of incomprehensible parts in the lesson.
We noticed that the animated videos played as part of the lessons, though engaging, did not reach its intended purpose. We realised that since the whole video was in English, the students could not follow it entirely and were frequently distracted. To tackle this challenge, we introduced bilingual videos summarising the stories and instructions for the activities to support students with comprehension. This improved the students’ interaction with the videos and encouraged them to follow the story keenly.
We further ensured that the activities aligned with the students’ skills pertaining to their development stage. There was a steady flow from known to unknown contexts so what they saw and learned in the classroom was not wholly alien but a balance of new contexts to aid learning.
And of course, fun and entertaining:
We kept the content simple and short so students could handle all the new information they received in a new language and made sure that each piece of content was engaging. We included a mix of games and actions throughout each section of the content to help students get a variety of activities to do in one class. Considering each piece’s engagement factor, it was always varied and explicitly designed. It also gave opportunities for students to practice dialogues and conversations.
A glimpse into the impact of the content:
At the end of the day, after all the care and effort put into each piece of content, it is worth it when we see students interact and engage with the content excitedly. The students could identify the characters and would look forward to the adventures of Chikku, Chinni, Lola and Lee. They loved being transported to the alien world and following along on the adventure while learning new words and sentence structures.
Learning would happen so naturally that the students never felt stressed about these classes but looked forward to even the assessments on the tablets. While the focus was an oracy-forward curriculum, we still ensured that reading and writing skills were also introduced during the course to promote holistic language development among the students.
As a cherry on top, the data collected from a set of control groups and the group that was part of the Enjoy English treatment showed significant improvement in learning among all indicators, including Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. However, a combination of factors contributed towards these numbers; the way the content was designed; keeping the student as the central focus undoubtedly played a role in the improved performances.
Children in ‘Enjoy English’ classrooms performed more than 2x better in speaking and expression of the language as compared to their peers in the control group. This is a testament to the careful and thoughtful planning of the experiences to ensure every child is a fluent speaker of the language.
The graph below shows the % of improvement observed in students performance across the 4 learning indicators

Source: Enjoy English MEL Report
Though on first look the content for the classroom might seem like just a few different items each week, the thought and work that has gone behind each of it is a lot more than what meets the eye at first.

It’s been two years for me as an Associate for Content Development and Capacity Building at Madhi, and in this time I have had numerous opportunities to create grade, context, and level-appropriate content for children across Tamil Nadu, but I have had only one opportunity with respect to capacity building. This was as a resource person at the Tamil Nadu Education Fellowship in Hosur. The Tamil Nadu Education Fellowship (TNEF) is an initiative undertaken by the School Education Department for the efficient implementation and delivery of all critical educational initiatives through people with diverse backgrounds and experiences.

I still remember the day we were told about this. I never imagined that I would get to facilitate sessions for about 160 fellows. It was a great opportunity for me to interact with people of all ages, from 25 to 60 years with backgrounds not just limited to the educational and social sector. It gave me a new perspective into the kind of work that people do, and how the experiences that they have in very different situations can all come together to understand and reform the one major cause we are all working towards- ensuring basic literacy and numeracy for all our children. It all happened unexpectedly fast. The TNEF fellowship is a government initiative, and Madhi’s role here was to plan, organise and deliver a strong induction program for the Fellows. I had volunteered to help out the organising team at Madhi who was hosting this fellowship in, Mathakondapalli Model School at Hosur, an industrial city located in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu. I was to observe other facilitators take sessions along with helping out the planning committee with any support that they required. It was then that I was asked to facilitate a few sessions during my stay there.

I still remember the anxiety, nervousness, and stress that I was surrounded by. I definitely had doubts as to what kind of job I’d do. I wanted to give my best, but since I had no prior experience as a facilitator, I couldn’t understand what a facilitator’s best practices looked like. It was then that I began to observe sessions taken by other facilitators.

I was able to pick some of their best practices to engage the audience, such as coming up with interesting and new attention grabbers every time they address their audience, summarizing the points shared by the participants once they are done sharing to close the learning loop, keeping the participants on their toes at all times by asking them questions, giving them opportunities to lead a few tasks and most importantly, how to bring the audience back to the session after a serious and engrossed discussion or debate. Each of these practices was best shown in the styles of different facilitators. These were a few tactics I learned that helped me hook my audience on the essence of the session and ask guiding questions in order to make the interaction more reflective in nature. I knew I couldn’t exactly do as the previous facilitator, but I got a strong sense and idea of how I could mold it to best suit my style and presentation skills. And voila! Just like that, I found my inspiration. I knew exactly what I had to do. I walked in with confidence, planning, preparation, and resources, and borrowed ideas to facilitate my first session- the spectrum activity.

This activity contains questions for a deeper discussion or reflection among the fellows to critically analyze their past week and learnings. Here the facilitator asks about 5-6 questions that help the audience think and reflect. Once they do, they have to place themselves on a scale of 1-10 on where they stand. They also get to share their insights with a large group.

It was safe to say that I did a good job. I could extend the discussion above and beyond the given questions in this activity for a much deeper analysis. I was also able to bring the audience back into the session wherever it felt like the discussion was going off track. One such instance was when the audience was asked about how they felt about the sessions being organised for them. The discussion started off on the right track but strayed in the middle when the Fellows began to jump to topics that were outside our discussion. I collected all the pointers and brought back the discussion to the focus point which was- the Fellows’ reflection on the sessions organised for them.

Facilitation for adults came naturally to me. I was also able to constantly engage with each and every Fellow, and create spaces for individual, small group, and large group sharing in each of the sessions I took with the experience I had as a teacher to 7th and 8th graders. Every time I came out of the hall, I used to feel powerful. There was a sense of power, pride, and satisfaction I used to walk out with. I used to think that having prior experience or training by a professional for capacity building was extremely necessary. It definitely would have helped (there’s no denying that!) but I also realized that observation, self-reflection as well as understanding one’s meaning of best practices was extremely important to be a good facilitator.

The biggest takeaways from my own Fellowship experience were the quick thinking that I could apply in unfamiliar situations like addressing technical questions related to the fieldwork that I did not have much clarity on, strong reflections with other colleagues as to how else can I make the sessions more meaningful for the Fellows, what kind of research do I need to do in order to be able to clarify as many doubts as possible or individually to look back at what I did in each session, what could have been better and what I would do going forward, willingness to participate by volunteering to pitch in wherever necessary even if it meant improvising and learning on the go, and asking for feedback that I saw everyone present there- Fellows as well as facilitators exhibit. It taught me the most important aspects that I would need going forward to keep improving professionally.

I honestly don’t think I could have learned how to be a facilitator better anywhere else. I always thought having a fixed framework and medium of instruction is what makes a capacity-building session wholesome. It definitely provides a ground for the work to begin, but it is so much more than that. It is a culmination of what you see, hear, and practice on an everyday basis along with technical support like structures and references to go back to when in need. Kudos to the entire organising team as well as the facilitators and the participants for creating a wholesome environment for new learners like me and actually giving us an opportunity to learn and exhibit at the same time.

What are some risks that the government seemingly overlooks while collaborating with a non-state partner? As non-state actors, what can we do to quell apprehensions and make the engagement purposeful and beneficial to society?

A typical conversation that I have in any social gathering goes like this:

Someone: “What do you do for a living?”
Me: “I work with the school education department”.
Someone: “So, you’re a government employee?”,
Me: “No, I work for a non-profit that strengthens public education systems. We support the government in areas like curricular reforms, teacher training, conceiving technology solutions…”
Someone: “But if you do what the government does, what are the government employees doing?”

And that’s how the role of non-state actors is most commonly confused, contorted and misunderstood. As the recently published report1 by UNESCO says, ‘apart from building and running schools, non-state actors also provide supplementary services such as textbook publishing, content creation, teacher training, Mid-Day Meal (MDM) preparation, support for Information and Communications Technology (ICT), managerial inputs, and overall policy support, among other things’.

Along similar lines, an article2 by Ms Yamini Aiyar critically examines the increasing involvement of consultants working with the Union and State departments. While she states that “Crucially, consultation, engagement, innovation and dialogue in policymaking are an essential democratic act and, in a limited way, the “consultant” is part of this democratic process”, she also carefully looks at the “risks it poses to the goal of building State capacity and bringing evidence and innovation in policy.”

Both the report and the article raise some legitimate concerns about the ownership shown by the government in building a welfare state. Is the state being let off the hook by collaborating with consultants? Are we downplaying the importance of state capacity building by opting for quick fixes over deeper, more sustainable transformation? Is the larger goal of equity traded off for a unilateral focus on efficiency? This article aims to shed some light on practical strategies that can be opted to allay these concerns.

Equity versus Efficiency
Efficiency is producing quality work with optimal resource utilisation. It is a long-held belief in economic theory that efficiency comes at the cost of foregoing principles of socio-economic equity. The report states, ’While non-state participation, especially the engagement of the private sector, brings with it some resources, the culture of functioning that is focussed on efficiency and the achievement of outcomes, comes with a price. The price is equity.’

Some economists have also held that efficiency is a means to an end, not the end unto itself. While focusing on socio-economic upliftment, efficiency cannot be an outcome or the end goal. Equity should be an outcome that a state strives to achieve. From policy formulation to project implementation and evaluation, a robust end-to-end project lifecycle should be enforced to promote efficiency in the government to realise the goal of equity. Non-state actors can contribute effectively towards improving the efficiency of service delivery. For instance, in a project currently run at Madhi Foundation, focusing on providing opportunities for higher secondary school students to enter institutes of academic eminence, we look both at process and engagement outcomes (Timely issuance of Govt. Order/Department. Circulars, Attendance of training etc.,) and impact outcomes (Number of students across various categories who successfully enrol into premier institutes) – keeping efficiency as a means to attain the larger social goal of equity while tracking success indicators for both.

Augmentation of capacity
The role of a consultant need not be seen as a ‘replacement’ to the department personnel. In a Conclave organised by Madhi Foundation, Ms Pooja Kulkarni IAS., the current MD & CEO of Industrial Guidance and Export Promotion Bureau (GUIDANCE), Tamil Nadu, stated, “Complementarity will come if the private partner’s project implementation can improve the government’s resource. The expectation is that nonprofits have the capacity to improve the capacity of government resources, not replace them.”

As an organisation, Madhi Foundation strongly believes in augmenting the state’s capacity rather than supplementing it. Working with the state resource personnel to achieve a common goal through co-creation and co-design is hard but not impossible. Sharp roles and responsibilities with a clear vision of what the programme intends to achieve can make capacity augmentation a reality. For instance, when Madhi was a part of the curriculum revision process in 2017-19, we supported the resource group of the state to conduct reviews, track progress, and conceive ideas. The subject matter experts of the state shared ideas deeply rooted in the context of the teaching-learning realities of the system. We provided targeted tracking mechanisms and shared best practices from across the world. This experience was an eye-opening exercise for the organisation – it showed us how to leverage the state’s institutional knowledge while working on projects at scale. Being open to learning and adaptive also helped us build trust and credibility with various stakeholders.

Power dynamics
Where there are people, there is politics, and it is true in any social set-up, whether family or work. Age, experience, and qualification contribute to the hierarchical dynamics in a state’s machinery. The power struggle between department personnel and consultants is a known risk. As mentioned above, the department personnel have a wealth of institutional knowledge critical to envisioning any policy reform. Leveraging the strengths of each team member in the project, be it the state personnel or the consultants, will help achieve a common goal. Most importantly, rooting all conversations in empathy – be it the personal secretary of an officer or the officer will build trust that can also reap dividends in the long run.

Accountability
Ms Aiyar, in her article, also puts forth a two-pronged argument – one being ‘doing the job of the State lets the State off the hook’ and the second being that the private player and the government are each accountable to different parties.

The state’s job is to formulate policies promoting public welfare. The consultant’s job is to support the state in maximising its capacity towards achieving that outcome. In a functional democracy, a state can never be left ‘off the hook’ because the government is answerable to its people.

In cases where the government has hired a private player to provide services, they are expected to produce detailed work reports. They have personnel salaries linked to meeting certain success criteria defined by the department. Additionally, private or non-profit organisations also have a reputational stake in any government engagement that encourages them to work with diligence.

Sunset clause
What are non-state actors doing in their capacity to ensure the sustainability of their intervention? In a country like ours, where policy reforms are long-drawn and complex, adopting a sunset clause is yet to see the light of day. As a country, we have not reached a point where sunset clauses are effectively promulgated. Much little can be achieved by organisations which are minuscule in scale compared to governments to bring life to this clause.

As a collective, over the course of their engagement, non-state actors should commit to ensuring that strengthening the state’s capacity is a priority area, if not immediately, atleast over the horizon.

Understanding the context
We’ve had an officer who jokingly remarked that consultants come with a cure for headaches when the ailment is stomach ache! Elaborate diagnostic tests and needs analyses will allow contextual interventions to evolve. The non-state actors should align their projects to the needs of the state and work towards targeting quality benchmarks set by the State and the Union.

Government is a gargantuan machinery, and any private entity is a mole-hill in comparison. There is no doubt that the government can successfully roll out welfare schemes without private players – the RTE’s success in ensuring access to schools across most states, implementation of the mid-day meal scheme, and eradication of polio are stellar examples of the same. However, with social problems becoming complex and multifaceted in a world reeling in the aftermath of a global pandemic, the need of the hour is to ensure urgent redressal through sustained efforts by both parties. The onus on the state is to legitimise the role of consultants after carefully evaluating their service to work together for the larger good. Innovation, creativity, and efficiency should go hand in hand. It is the collective responsibility of society to hold the state accountable towards ensuring that the last mile citizen is centric to its development.

References

REGULATION OF NON-STATE ACTORS IN SCHOOL EDUCATION IN INDIA, 2022
Government by ‘Consultant’ can hollow out the State, December 2022
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-12-S1-S3

This article was written under the aegis of the Centre for Education Research in India (CERI). CERI, an initiative powered by Madhi Foundation, is a digital repository and think-tank catering to policymakers, practitioners, and academics in the education sector and the larger community, to catalyse reform in the education ecosystem in India.

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What could have been an exhausting experience ended up being most fulfilling, packed with exuberance and high morale, leaving me with a profound sense of accomplishment. I was on cloud 9 for the first time in a long time.

I remember the first day we started to travel to the training location. It was a 310 km journey (a 6 hour drive, approximately). Five of us were sitting inside a car that was designed for four people. And not to forget the car trunk, it was packed like a jigsaw puzzle with stationery and our luggage. Initially, we were adjusting to each other and the environment, but within the first hour of travel, we had completely forgotten that we were in an uncomfortable place and an unfamiliar setting. Instead, we heartily discussed life, love, and Illayaraja[1] . If I have to think back about what made the transition from awkward to comfortable, I have to say it was the people.

The one-of-a-kind residential Fellowship program

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller. I never gave this quote enough thought before experiencing the Tamil Nadu Education Fellowship (TNEF) training induction program that happened in September 2022. The Department of School Education, Tamil Nadu, India, launched a 2-year Fellowship program across the state. The program is a one-of-a-kind government initiative that provides paid work experience for individuals who wish to contribute to the larger community, especially in the education sector. A total of 24,412 applicants from across the state of Tamil Nadu applied to be a part of this initiative. 140 candidates had been selected from 38 districts to support the district-level Government officials in implementing various programs launched by the Department of School Education. The selection process had four levels that spanned two weeks each cycle – screening call, pre-work screening, two face-to-face interviews, and the finalisation of the candidate based on their overall performance.

I was fortunate to be included in various elements of the selection & training process such as face-to-face interviews, drafting official letters and circulars along with the department, and other critical on-field activities such as facilitating 3 sessions on diverse topics, planning and coordinating with the school management, state officials, Fellows, and Madhi team members with day-to-day requirements.

The training was for a duration of 16 days. The organising team was engaged with the planning in the preceding five months. I joined the planning and execution team towards the very end, just as the training was about to begin. Despite the shorter timeframe, the perks of being a part of the planning and execution team, I suppose, is that you get to experience the pre and post-training moments. I witnessed how we, human beings function and thrive despite the curveballs thrown at us.

To think about planning, organising, and coordinating a residential training for nearly 160 people who are from 38 different districts with stark differences in experiences, outlooks, and expectations, for 16 days is tiring. You’d have to consider numerous and diverse factors such as logistics, food (thrice a day with refreshments in between), ensuring safety and security, providing consistent power supply, and, the most critical function of all, preparing and executing training sessions from sunrise to sunset that is packed to the brim with knowledge and skill development. The cherry on top was that it fell to us to keep the morale of the Fellows up as well. (Deeeeep breaths – I told myself every time something seemed overwhelming).

Despite the long travel, we somehow had the energy to kick-off the discussions and on-field preparations for the training immediately after reaching our destination. With much excitement and anticipation, we had nearly 150 fellows reach the venue the next day, all prepped for their 16-day training. It was the day of registrations, and despite having little sleep, we woke up the next morning full of energy for the registration process. From then on it was round-the-clock coordination and execution. It was at this point I recalled a famous quote by Charles Darwin, “It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

I can’t agree more with Darwin’s quote! It was beautiful for me to see that at every point in time, people drew energy and inspiration from one another – I believe that is what makes teamwork a success. As human beings, we depend on each other to build each other up, no matter how independent our thoughts or actions are[2] , we thrive on social connections, and it is hardwired within us to be social[3].

Learning and Growing together

What made the journey interesting was that it was residential training. I had the opportunity to observe the people, their work, their approach to life, and their sheer zest for life. Each team took up various responsibilities and executed them, like the team of cooks from the school who cooked and served food every day. Just watching them start their day at 4:30 am and end it around 10 pm (every day) while also ensuring the quality of food for all 160 people was fascinating. It motivated me to ensure quality in my own work at all times.

I drew inspiration from every single team member — some motivated me to be more prepared and well-planned, some inspired me to look at challenges as opportunities, others brought out my creative side, and others built my perspectives. Amidst all this, we made time to sing, dance, and star gaze. We built resilience as a team by leaning on each other for support and encouragement, which provided enough mind space to plan and execute the next day’s training activities seamlessly.

I remember having conversations with some of the fellows during the initial days – their levels of interest and connectivity was drastically low when compared to the days nearing the end of the residential training. While trying to understand the motivation behind the higher levels of interest, they had expressed about how their group members and hostel buddies played a vital role in inspiring each other. An interesting research on the influence of residential training communities talks about how students developed a higher sense of interest and, critical thinking, vested in their educational path, and were always learning from each other because of sharing the same physical environment for their learning journey[4] .

In her blog post, Jessica Everitt[5] talks about how a team member’s high morale plays an essential role in determining their productivity at the workplace thus directly translating into the impact that they wish to create. Especially for members working in the social development sector which inherently “means investing in people”[6] . It was fascinating how a couple of us started a morning routine which involved some stretches, running and games. Watching this, other team members, although not into running in the morning were willing to just join the group on the field. Within two days they restarted some of their old morning routines like yoga, breathing exercises, praying and playing an instrument. Starting our mornings doing something that energised us increased our morale and allowed us to be more invested in the day’s activities. An environment that creates high morale will create a high impact on the social development sector.

In conclusion

It is not a secret that working together as a group can bring about radical shifts in any environment. Some of the famous movements in India that sustained and brought drastic changes were Chipko Movement, 1973[7] , Narmada Bachao Andolan, 1985[8] , and Save Silent Valley, 1973[9] which were all led by ordinary people who worked together in their own communities. Bigger the movement, the bigger the challenges, the stronger the bond, and the stronger the impact. Being a part of the social development sector is not always easy in this consumerist world, but finding people who believe in the same cause and trust each other to build and work towards that cause will lead to changes in a ripple effect.

Every time I look back at my experience at TNEF, what I will remember and cherish most are the people – how dynamic, unique and complex we are and, despite our complexity, have the ability to come together and work as one towards attaining one dream. I can only imagine what massive changes and movements we can bring about if we continue to trust and be trustworthy with each other for something greater that will create an equitable society. A state of togetherness and collective action would be the first step toward a larger change in the system.

References

Know your Raja
Harvard Business Review – Communities at Work
People need people
Investigating the Influence of Residential Learning Communities on Student Experiences
Project Manager & Blogger
What is Social Development by New Brunswick in Canada
Chipko Movement
Narmada Bachao Andolan
Save Silent Valley

This article was written under the aegis of the Centre for Education Research in India (CERI). CERI, an initiative powered by Madhi Foundation, is a digital repository and think-tank catering to policymakers, practitioners, and academics in the education sector and the larger community, to catalyse reform in the education ecosystem in India.

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