A Trigger for Change in Primary Education: An Evaluation of ABL in Tamil Nadu, 2009

R. Akila
Evaluation commissioned by Government of Tamil Nadu and conducted in cooperation with SSA, Tamil Nadu

A Trigger for Change in Primary Education: An Evaluation of ABL in Tamil Nadu, 2009

R. Akila

Foreword Written by

M. P. Vijayakumar
Honorary Advisor, SSA, Tamil Nadu

Evaluation commissioned by Government of Tamil Nadu and conducted in cooperation with SSA, Tamil Nadu

* All the photographs used in this Report are downloaded from websites

Foreword
ABL is a child-centric teaching-learning methodology, and an innovative quality initiative that the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Tamil Nadu has been implementing for Classes 1 to 4 across more than 37,000 schools, engaging more than 40,00,000 children, and with the cooperation of more than two lakh enthusiastic teachers. However, there has been no in-depth and thorough evaluation of this programme until the Government of Tamil Nadu by Order (GO Ms 92 School Edn C2 dept dt 1.4.2009), commissioned a state-wide evaluation. SSA, Tamil Nadu invited Independent Education Consultants, Dr. R. Akila and Mr. Subir Shukla to conduct this Evaluation to provide an objective and analytical understanding of ABLs status, processes and outcomes, so that the lessons learnt from it could help to plan the next steps of ABL. Mr Subir Shukla could not be available until completion, and SSA requested Dr. Akila to present a comprehensive Evaluation Report. UNICEF, Chennai supported this work. Under the effective leadership of Mr. R. Venkatesan IAS, State Project Director, SSA, TN, the Evaluation was conducted in all the districts in a most well-organised manner. Based on the workshops conducted by Mr Subir Shukla on capacity building and tool construction, a core team of select BRTEs from all districts trained more of their colleagues in their respective districts to participate in the conduct of the evaluation process. Dr. Akila designed the different tools of evaluation, and selected a systematic sample covering the entire State. The tools were standardised after pilot-testing in few schools in Chennai. The district-level SSA staff supervised the meticulous data collection process, fed the entire sets of data from the different evaluation tools into the customised date-entry formats, and sent it in record time. A number of meetings were also held with ABL administrators and teachers in the different districts, for gathering information on content, process and relationships in the ABL implementation. Mr. V. Expedith coordinated the entire evaluation process. Mr. Dharma cleaned the data and prepared the data analysis in consultation with Dr. Akila, who has authored this Report. The major strength of this large-scale Evaluation is the lesson that the author has drawn from Classroom Observation. The observation tool has helped to gather indepth understanding of what actually happens in more than 3,000 ABL classrooms covered here, and has thereby facilitated in testing the hypothesis that there could be a direct relationship between classroom processes and outcomes of children, in terms of their achievements in learning through the activity method. This processoutcome approach has afforded greater scope to understand Tamil Nadus strides towards better quality of education. It has also helped to characterise a replicable model for other States to learn from, as many of them proceed to implement the method in their own States. In so far as there has been no such prior evaluation of a quality improvement programme to this scale in primary education in the country, with academic rigour as well as engaging all the key stakeholders in it, it is hoped that this Evaluation Report would open up newer directions for enhancing the quality of primary education through further research, elaboration and fruitful improvements for young children. M.P. Vijayakumar
Honorary Advisor, SSA, Tamil Nadu

Contents
Title Page No.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Chapter 2 Tables

Summary of Evaluation Method and Findings

11

District-wise sample distribution of schools Sample schools based on size of enrolment Distribution of children across different milestones in M3, T3, E3 Proportionate distribution of low, middle and high scorers among children who took the tests in M3, T3 District-wise performance of students in MTE3

13 14 22 23 24

Chapter 3 Tables

Achievement Tests Analysis of Childrens Performance in Mathematics

23

Children in M3 by their Completed Milestone Position Community-wise completed milestone position of children in M3 Completed milestone position of children in M3 by type of school Completed milestone position of children in M3 by size of school Distribution of children by the number of correct answers by girls and boys in M3 Distribution of children by number of correct answers in M3 by community status of children Status of performance by correct answers in M3 by type of school Proportional distribution of correct answers in M3 by size of school Proportional distribution of number of correct answers in M3 by class of the children Childrens performance in general question in Ladder 2 math Children with correct answers to general question in Ladder 3 math Distribution of children by scores and ranking of districts based on high performance in M3 Distribution of high performance schools by proportion of children scoring high in them in M3 Distribution of high, middle and low performance schools by proportion of childrens scores in M3 Proportionate distribution of schools and children in M3 Completed milestones Vs total scores in M3 Completed milestones vs scores among SC-ST children in M3 Diagrams Completed Milestone Position of Girls and Boys in M3 Community status of children by completed milestones in M3

29 30 32 33 35 36 37 38 38 40 43 46 49 50 52 55 56

30 31

Title

Page No.

Completed milestone position of children in M3 by type of school Proportion of High, Middle and Low scorers in M3 Children by the number of correct answers by girls and boys in M3 Scores among children in M3 Childrens scores in M3 by type of school District-wise performance status in M3 Proportioal distribution of high, middle and scorers in M3 across Tamil Nadu Proportional distribution of high scorers in different schools High, middle and low performance schools by proportion of childrens scores in M3 Distribution of high, middle and low performance schools by proportion of childrens scores in M3 LLB usage in high performance and low performance Math classrooms Status of binding wire displays in high and low performance classrooms Teacher-child interactions in Math classrooms (High vs Low performance classrooms) Group 6 Activity in Math classrooms (High vs Low performance classrooms) Achievement chart marked by teachers in high and low performance Math classrooms

32 34 35 36 37 47 47 49 51 53 59 60 62 64 65

Chapter 4 Tables

Achievement Tests Analysis of Childrens Performance in Tamil

67

Sex-wise completed milestone position of children in T3 Community-wise completed milestone position of children in T3 Completed milestone position of children in T3 by type of school Completed milestone position of children in T3 by size of school Distribution of children by the number of correct answers by girls and boys in T3 Distribution of children by the number of correct answers by girls and boys in T3 Distribution of children by number of correct answers in T3 by community status of children Proportional distribution of number of correct answers in T3 by the Class in which the children studied Children in T3 by their ability to form a meaningful sentence with 4 given words Children in T3 who could complete a given Tirukkural from memory

68 69 70 71 72 73 73 74 77 78

Title

Page No.

District-wise performance of children in T3 (Districts ranked by proportion of high scorers to total) Distribution of high, middle and low performance schools by the proportion of childrens scores in them in T3 District-wise distribution of schools with low scoring children in T3 District-wise distribution of schools with middle scoring children in T3 District-wise distribution of schools with high scoring children in T3 Distribution of high, middle and low performance schools by number of children in them in T3 Completed milestones Vs Total correct answers in T3 Diagrams Sex-wise completed milestone position of children in T3 Community-wise completed milestone position of children in T3 Completed milestone position of children in T3 by type of school Distribution of children by the number of correct answers by girls and boys in T3 Distribution of children by number of correct answers in T3 by community status of children Proportional distribution of correct answers in T3 by the class of children District-wise performance of children in T3 State performance of children in T3 State picture of childrens scores in T3 High, Middle and Low performance schools and number of children in them in T3 Proportionate distribution of children within low, middle and high performance schools in T3 Comparative effectiveness of LLBs in high and low performance classrooms in T3 High and low performance in T3 by availability of graded reading material in classrooms Children engaged in drawing, colouring etc., in high vs low T3 classrooms Use of binding wires in high and low performance classrooms in T3 Group 6 activity in high vs low classrooms in T3 Teacher attention in high vs low performance classrooms in T3 Achievement chart marked by teachers in high vs low classrooms in T3

80 84 85 86 88 89 92

68 69 70 72 74 75 81 81 89 90 91 94 95 95 96 98 99 100

Title

Page No.

Chapter 5 Tables

Achievement tests Commonality in Childrens Performance in Math, Tamil and English

101

Status of children who commonly took M3, T3 and E3 by their completed milestones in M3, T3, E3 Proportionate distribution of low, middle and high scorers among children who took the tests in M3, T3 and E3 District-wise performance of schools and students in MTE High and MTE Low Consistently high performing and low performing districts by schools and students Total variance explained for ABL material and use in high performance classrooms Rotated component matrix for ABL material and use in high performance classrooms Total variance explained for student activity in classrooms Rotated component matrix for student activity in classrooms Total variance explained for teacher activity in high performance classrooms Rotated component matrix for teacher activity in high performance classrooms Diagrams Status of children by completed milestones in Math, Tamil and English Status of children by completed milestones in M3, T3, E3 Proportionate distribution of low, middle and high scorers among children in M3, T3 and E3 Distribution of low, middle and high scorers in M3, T3, E3 Children who commonly wrote M3, T3 and E3 Performance of students in MTE in Tamil Nadu MTE high and low students and their schools across Tamil Nadu MTE low schools and students across districts Status of logos not pasted on the ABL-tray in MTE high vs low classrooms Status of ABL cards arranged in the tray according to class-wise in MTE high vs low Status regarding whether the same ABL card is used by 2 or more than 2 students in MTE high vs low classrooms LLB not in usage in MTE high vs low classrooms Inaccessibility of LLB material to students in MTE high vs low classrooms Inadequate LLB space for children in MTE high vs low classrooms (Are LLB divided according to class strength)

103

105 110 114 141 141 142 143 144 145

104 104 106 108 108 109 111 112 119 120 121 122 123 123

Title

Page No.

No evidence of using LLB interestingly in MTE high vs low classrooms Status of availability of graded reading books in MTE High vs Low Classrooms Status of students moving from one group to another in MTE high vs low classrooms Status of students writing as the words are in the ABL cards without understanding in MTE high vs low classrooms Status of students writing without understanding in MTE high vs low classrooms Status of students writing in their note books work books after using the low level board MTE High vs Low Children engaged in drawing, colouring and other activities in MTE high vs low classrooms Students approach the teacher without fear in MTE high vs low classrooms Childrens participation in peer group work in MTE high vs low classrooms Students peer activities in MTE high vs low classrooms Status of students in the higher ladder helping those in lower ladder - MTE high vs low Classrooms Students seeking teachers help whenever they require in MTE high vs low classrooms Children showing their work voluntarily to the teacher in MTE high vs low classrooms Students not afraid to approach the evaluation/test cards in MTE high vs low classrooms Status of teacher sitting in groups to help children in MTE high vs low classrooms Teacher moves across to all groups and gives individual attention MTE high vs low classrooms Teacher gives special attention to late bloomers (slow learners) in MTE high vs low classrooms Teacher maintains eye contact while talking to the students in MTE high vs low classrooms Teacher encourages students to interact freely in MTE high vs low classrooms Teacher does not threaten the students to obey in MTE high vs low classrooms Teacher maintains files for every student status in MTE high vs low classrooms Teacher marks the achievement chart in MTE high vs low classrooms

124 124 125

126 127 127 128 128 129 130 130 132 132 133 135 135 136 137 137 138 139 139

Chapter 6

Lessons and Next Steps

147