Category: General

Testing Spoken English Skill Evaluation of Government School Teachers in Ramanagara District Karnataka: Survey.

Posted on admin

With 58 English medium schools in the district, there was a need to foster an English-speaking environment within classrooms. In response, DIET-Ramanagara collaborated with Caring with Colour to assess the needs of teachers and improve their spoken English skills.

In light of our findings, the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) – Ramanagara reached out to us to identify the needs of the teachers and help improve the Spoken English skills of the school teachers.

Based on the scores obtained during our evaluation, it was identified that there are primarily three categories of English-speaking skills among the teachers:

 ElementaryCan understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases. Can introduce him/herself and others. Can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact using simple phrases provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.
IntermediateCan understand sentences and frequently uses expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate using simple phrases during a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.
AdvancedCan understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

We observed that  75% of the chosen government school teachers had only an elementary level of spoken English proficiency. These teachers have yet to acquire the skills required to initiate conversation in English. We noted that the optimal growth path for these teachers should start with comprehensive spoken English basics. Among the group, 22% of teachers had an intermediate level of spoken English proficiency. These teachers can respond to questions in English but will require conscious practice to initiate and sustain a good-quality conversation. Optimal Growth path for these teachers includes an intermediate to Advanced spoken English course. Only 3% of the Teachers had an Advanced level of spoken English proficiency. These teachers have a mature and advanced spoken English level and therefore are ideal candidates to be developed into English Resource Persons (RP) who can train and support other teachers.

Testing Teacher’s Utopia: A step towards a perfect education world!

Posted on Rajeev Annaluru

The Indian school education system is one of the largest and most complex education systems in the world with over 1.5 million schools, two-third of which are run by the government. According to a 2018 Annual Status of Education (ASER) report, one in four students in Class VIII cannot even read a Class II text. The quality of education in government run schools is a major problem. This crisis has worsened in the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic.

So, what can we do?

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 says that experiential learning can be one of the key tools to improve the quality of education. Experiential learning involves students directly in the teaching-learning process by encouraging activity-based learning. While this sounds like a proven effective way to improve the quality of education, implementation is a huge challenge. Teachers are not trained efficiently and appropriate content is not available to use.

We, at Caring with Colour, have come up with a technology-based solution for this challenge and launched our mobile app named Teachopia.

While the app serves students, parents, government functionaries etc, teachers are the focal point in the design of this solution. As the name indicates, it is a utopia (an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect) for teachers.

Testing Key Reforms in School Education: NEP-2020

Posted on Ganhdali Sewak

A new National Education Policy has been approved and published in July 2020 for the Indian education system. This policy revisits various policies which were present in the Indian education ecosystem for the last 34 years.

Vision – The National Education Policy 2020 envisions an India-centric education system that contributes directly to transforming our nation sustainably into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society by providing high-quality education to all.

The Draft NEP was 484 pages. The process involved a rigorous consultation and feedback in formulating the draft policy: “Over two lakh suggestions from 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, 6,600 blocks, 6,000 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), 676 districts were received.”

The NEP 2020 has introduced several reforms in school education. Here is all you need to know about the new education policy reforms for students, teachers and schools.

Key reforms in school education:

  • Schooling will start at the age of 3 years
  • Earlier, schooling was mandatory for children between the age of 6 and 14 years. However, under the National Education Policy (NEP 2020), education will be compulsory for children between 3 and 18 years.
  • 5+3+3+4 curricular and teaching structure
  • The new National Education Policy aims to shift from the decades-old 10+2 format to a 5+3+3+4 system, keeping a child’s development and capabilities in mind.
  • Emphasis on mother tongue as medium of instruction:
    The National Education Policy lays emphasis on a child’s mother tongue as the medium of instruction. However, The NEP only recommends the mother tongue as a medium of instruction; it has not been made compulsory. The policy states that children learn and grasp non-trivial concepts more quickly in their mother tongue.

According to the policy:
Wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language, mother tongue, local language or the regional language. Thereafter, the home or local language shall continue to be taught as a language wherever possible. This will be followed by both public and private schools.

  • 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio
    It aims 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in school education by the year 2030. **NEP 2020 promotes an Open schooling system by bringing 2 crore out of school children back into the mainstream through recognized open schools. **mother tongue/ regional language to be taught till class 5th at least
  • No rigid separation between Science, Arts and Commerce streams
    Under the National Education Policy, there will be no stiff separation between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities, and between vocational and academic streams. Students can select subjects of their liking across streams.

    The Committee proposes an equal emphasis on all the subjects – science, social sciences, art, languages, sports, mathematics with the integration of vocational and academic streams in school.
  • Internships and vocational education from Class 6
    The National Education Policy also seeks to align vocational occupations with international standards prescribed by the International Labour Organisation. To overcome the situation of social stigma attached to the vocationalisation of education, the NEP recommends:
    1. The integration of vocational education programmes into mainstream education in all educational institutions in a phased manner which would lead to emphasizing the dignity of labour and importance of various vocations involving Indian arts and artisanship.
    2. The teaching of vocational courses from class 6, mostly in the form of internships and practical activities, to ensure that every student studies at least one vocational course.
  • Focus on attaining foundational literacy and numeracy
    Foundational Literacy and Numeracy refers to building adequate literacy and numeracy skills during the foundational stage of school education. These are the first 5 years of education up to class 2 when the child is between 3 – 7 years.

    The goal is to enable children to form concepts related to the world around them through direct experience and interactions with the physical, social, and natural environment through language, mathematical thinking, and environmental awareness.
  • Board exams to have low stakes
    Board exams for Grades 10 and 12 will be redesigned and a new National Assessment Centre, Parakh (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), will be set up as a standard-setting body. The changes in the board structure, which seek to make the exams a test of core competencies will be implemented from the 2021 academic session.

    The new NEP 2020 seeks to test the students of Classes 3, 5, 8, 10 and 12 based on their cognitive skills.
  • Education of gifted children
    In addition to the regular education, emphasis will be given to socially and economically disadvantaged groups (SEDGs), which include gender, socio-cultural, and geographical identities and disabilities. This includes setting up the gender inclusion fund and special education zones for disadvantaged regions. The policy states that children with disabilities will be able to attend regular school from the foundational stage to higher education, with the support of educators with cross-disability training and technology-based tools tailored to suit their needs.