Page 79 - Magazine Department of B.Ed. 2015
P. 79
ervention to make Education Better
An intervention is the act of inserting one Megha Kumari
thing between others, like a person trying
to help. Often, an intervention is intended to outcomes may be the weak governance of
make things better. This article is an attempt education system and limited efforts on the
to analyze the important interventions part of teachers and administrators to improve
undertaken to make education better in our student's learning level. The most striking
country in the past decade symptom of weak governance is high rate of
teacher absence in government run schools.
The most important components of education
spending in the past decade have been on Therefore it is essential to reflect on the
improving school facilities and infrastructure, possibilities to improve the situation. Making
improving teacher salaries and training, learning outcomes an explicit goal of primary
appointing more teachers to reduce student- education policy and invest in regular and
teacher ratio and expenditure on student independent high-quality measurement of
benefits such as textbooks and mid-day meals. learning outcomes may be one of the measures
Analysis of both administrative and survey data to have regular feedback on the progress at
shows considerable improvements in most this level. Launching a national campaign of
input-based measures of schooling quality. supplemental instruction targeted to enhance
But a research of the past decade finds very the current level of learning of children
little impact of these improvements in school delivered by locally-hired teacher-assistants
facilities on learning outcomes. Infrastructure with a goal of reaching minimum absolute
by itself is unlikely to have a significant impact standards of learning for all children. The cost-
on improving learning levels. Similarly, while effectiveness of this intervention also makes it
there may be good social reasons for mid-day easily scalable.
meal programs, there is no evidence to suggest
that they improve learning outcomes. These Whilegapsinenrolmentbetweendisadvantaged
stark findings most likely reflect weaknesses groups and the population averages have
in pedagogy and governance which are key reduced, there is a considerably larger gap in
barriers in translating increased spending into learning levels, which exist at the point of entry
better outcomes. into the school system and continue to grow
overtime. Thus the gains of the past decade
The fault in pedagogy is that teachers do pay made in terms of reducing inequities in primary
emphasis only on completion of syllabus but school enrolment will be at considerable risk,
they don’t focus on the understanding level of if urgent attention is not paid to the crisis in
students. Completing the textbook does not learning outcomes with a mission-like focus
reflect the learning level of students in the on delivering universal functional literacy and
classroom who considerably lag behind the numeracy that allow children to ‘read to learn’.
level where the textbook expects them to be.
Beyond pedagogy, another explanation for the Paying urgent attention to issues of teacher
low correlation between increase in spending governance including better monitoring and
on educational inputs and improved learning supervision as well as teacher performance
measurement and management is another
area of significance for the purpose. A
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.
62
An intervention is the act of inserting one Megha Kumari
thing between others, like a person trying
to help. Often, an intervention is intended to outcomes may be the weak governance of
make things better. This article is an attempt education system and limited efforts on the
to analyze the important interventions part of teachers and administrators to improve
undertaken to make education better in our student's learning level. The most striking
country in the past decade symptom of weak governance is high rate of
teacher absence in government run schools.
The most important components of education
spending in the past decade have been on Therefore it is essential to reflect on the
improving school facilities and infrastructure, possibilities to improve the situation. Making
improving teacher salaries and training, learning outcomes an explicit goal of primary
appointing more teachers to reduce student- education policy and invest in regular and
teacher ratio and expenditure on student independent high-quality measurement of
benefits such as textbooks and mid-day meals. learning outcomes may be one of the measures
Analysis of both administrative and survey data to have regular feedback on the progress at
shows considerable improvements in most this level. Launching a national campaign of
input-based measures of schooling quality. supplemental instruction targeted to enhance
But a research of the past decade finds very the current level of learning of children
little impact of these improvements in school delivered by locally-hired teacher-assistants
facilities on learning outcomes. Infrastructure with a goal of reaching minimum absolute
by itself is unlikely to have a significant impact standards of learning for all children. The cost-
on improving learning levels. Similarly, while effectiveness of this intervention also makes it
there may be good social reasons for mid-day easily scalable.
meal programs, there is no evidence to suggest
that they improve learning outcomes. These Whilegapsinenrolmentbetweendisadvantaged
stark findings most likely reflect weaknesses groups and the population averages have
in pedagogy and governance which are key reduced, there is a considerably larger gap in
barriers in translating increased spending into learning levels, which exist at the point of entry
better outcomes. into the school system and continue to grow
overtime. Thus the gains of the past decade
The fault in pedagogy is that teachers do pay made in terms of reducing inequities in primary
emphasis only on completion of syllabus but school enrolment will be at considerable risk,
they don’t focus on the understanding level of if urgent attention is not paid to the crisis in
students. Completing the textbook does not learning outcomes with a mission-like focus
reflect the learning level of students in the on delivering universal functional literacy and
classroom who considerably lag behind the numeracy that allow children to ‘read to learn’.
level where the textbook expects them to be.
Beyond pedagogy, another explanation for the Paying urgent attention to issues of teacher
low correlation between increase in spending governance including better monitoring and
on educational inputs and improved learning supervision as well as teacher performance
measurement and management is another
area of significance for the purpose. A
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.
62
