ACADEMIC MONITORING & MENTORING : PROSPECTIVE

IMPROVEMENT IN NAS AND LEARINING OUTCOME WITH REFERENCE

TO KALAHANDI DISTRICT
Jayanta Kumar Pati
RP CRCC, Bhawanipatna,
Kalahandi

Indian education system is embedded with various problems; one of it

is the low achievement in learning outcomes by learners of elementary
schools. Learning outcomes is one of the important aspects of quality
primary education. It can be improved by implementing effective academic
monitoring and mentoring.
Academic Monitoring :
Academic monitoring is a system of pedagogic improvement which
seeks information and insight about the status and effectiveness of
curriculum implementation, learner’s progress & and achievement of
learning outcomes on various subjects and development of quality education
in a school. It helps to improve the quality of teaching and learning progress
of a school. It aims to resolve pedagogical problems and issues raised by
teachers. Main focus of it is the development of learners. It aims to improve
the skills of teachers and learning outcomes of students. It provides the
monitors better support to their academics and identifies teachers who
require mentoring. Through systematic approach academic monitoring
drives better learning outcomes in their schools. Aims of monitoring should
be shifted from fault findings to solution findings and monitors need to shift
from being inspectors (fault finders) to doctors (solution finders).

Mentoring : Meaning & Concept

Mentoring is a mutual learning program in which individuals
collaborately identify the problems, co-create the solutions through
purposeful conversations to reflect on experiences and providing emotional
support. Mentoring creates possibilities and providing guidance and support
to others in a mutual relationship of trust and confidence. It includes
facilitating, coaching, motivating, imbibe leadership values and enable
people to achieve the goals.
Mentoring as a concept
M- Manages the Relationship
E- Encourages
N- Nurtures the talents
T- Teaches
O- Offers mutual respect
R- Responds to the mentee’s needs
(Source; http:// Sydney.edu.au/sun/docs/choosing a mentor.pdf)

In educations sector, a mentor is an individual with expertise who can

work with teachers and headmasters to achieve the common goal of the
school. Now CRC-co-coordinators are working in the state of Odisha. Each
CRCC is entrusted with 10 to 18 schools of a cluster. They are acting as
academic monitor and mentor for the schools they are entrusted.

National Achievement survey (NAS)

National achievement of survey (NAS) has been conducted by NCERT
since 2011 with an interval of 3 years. It is one of the largest surveys of
world. Four cycles of NAS has already been successfully completed by
NCERT. The last NAS was conducted throughout the country on 13th
November, 2017 for classes 3,5 and 8 in government and government aided
schools .It has conducted tests on Mathematics, Language, science and
Social science.

The major objective of conducting NAS is to have a system level

reflection of its effectiveness. It helps to assess the educational health of the
nation and to find whether the inputs made into the elementary education is
appropriate or any change required for improving.

The survey tools used multiple test booklets with 45 questions in class
III, & V and 60 questions in class-viii. The test questions developed
according to competency based which reflected the learning outcomes
developed by NCERT. Govt. of India through amendment in RTE Act in 2017
incorporated Learning outcomes in the RTE Act. Besides test questions on
different subjects, questions were also included for students, teachers and
schools.

The NAS 2017 conducted in 701 districts of the country covering all
states and union territories. Over 2.2 million students from 1, 20,000
schools participated in this test which was held on 13th November, 2017.
This survey is unique in many aspects. The most important aspect is the
attainment of learning outcomes with reference to competencies assessed.
Hence, the score cards of the test depicts about the attainment of the
competencies by the students in different classes.

Reviews of NAS Report Card

The report card generated by NAS-2017 was based on district as a
unit of reporting. It included the tools which are competency based and
linked to learning outcomes of students. Analysis of the report card enables
the district to develop evidence based programmed to improve the quality of
education. It provides inputs on percentage of class wise and subject wise
attainment of learning outcomes ,identify the learning gap of students,
support class room interventions and teacher professional development.
NAS 2017 has shifted if focus from content learning to competencies
learning.
NAS-2017 IN KALAHANDI DISTRICT.
In Kalahandi district, for class-iii, 808 students from 58 schools
participated in NAS survey-2017. Average performance of students in EVS is
51.96% in language, 59.10% and in mathematics 52.44%. In class-v, from
61 schools 998 students participated in the survey. Average performance of
students in EVS, Language and Mathematics are 50.29%, 48.51% and
48.49% respectively. In class 8, 1158 students from 49 schools took part in
NAS 2017. Average performance of students in language, mathematics,
science and social science are 44.25%, 37.42%, 37.35% and 35.64%
respectively.
 Average performance of the district in class-3 is 55, in class 5 is 49
and in class 8 is 39. It shows that performance of students of all classes is
not up to the mark and specially very low in all subjects of class-viii.
Supporting through monitoring and mentoring:-
Academic monitoring and mentoring are the key aspects at ground
level to improve the performance of teachers to enhance quality education in
the schools. It also includes improvement of learning outcomes of the
students. At grassroots level, CRC- coordinators are the important field level
functionaries who are working with teachers as mentor for accelerate the
implementation of all educational programs in the schools.

All the CRCCs have already trained about their new role of CRCC and
how to monitor the school through school monitoring app.

OPEPA along with SATH team have organized workshop for CRCCs
and RP CRCCs for capacity building. They are also trained on NAS-2017 and
how to link learning outcomes developed by NCERT with the present text-
books. Teachers of respective clusters are accordingly oriented about the
learning outcomes, analysis of results of NAS 2017 and linkage of learning
outcomes with the text-books.

Impact of Mentoring and monitoring.

In any system, each element plays a crucial role and has an impact on
others elements and contribute to the effectiveness of the system. Similarly
in education system, all stakeholders are connected deeply to each other &
their actions have significant impact on others. Impact of CRCC as a mentor
and academic monitor on school system is tremendous .In the way he
monitors the schools and become the mentor of teachers of his schools
directly impact on the children of his cluster. The tools like school
monitoring app developed by the state an statewide training provided to
field functionaries on monitoring and mentoring and mentoring have already
achieved the objective of sensitization about the monitoring & mentoring
and its implementation at school level.
 The impact has taken place through the empathetic conversation,
non-violence communication and strong relationship with teachers, H.M.s.
and other stakeholders by the CRCC. They became mentor or coach of their
teachers and understand them, listen to them and support them for holistic
improvement of schools.

Perception of mentors or monitoring functionaries on teachers has

been changed from viewing them as a resource to talent, who is unique
individuals, has unlimited talent, should never judged, who wants to be
respected.

Role of monitoring and mentoring

Monitoring and mentoring intends to build capacity of teachers to
improve the learning outcomes of learners in the school. It acts as peer
group facilitators, capacity builders and evaluators.

As a mentor, he conducts school visits and monitors the school using

school monitoring app developed by School & Mass Education Department
of Odisha with the help of SATH-team. He influences the teachers, H.M.s
without authority.

It provides learning experience in small group of teachers in school

and resolves the problem in collaboration with them. Besides CRCCs, now
BRCCs, ABEOs, BEOs and district level officers are monitoring the school
through school monitoring app. Academic monitoring and mentoring provide
input not only to improve the self confidence and skills of teachers but also
to enhance the learning outcomes of learners. It will automatically improve
the result of NAS in the next cycle.

Conclusion and Suggestion:-

Academic monitoring and mentoring aims to identify the problems of
schools categorically in academic aspects and resolve the problems through
cooperative learning, sharing experiences and co-create the solutions. It will
bring a significant change in the quality of education including learning
outcomes of learner and result of National Achievement Survey.

Now the question is how we can link the monitoring system with the
learning outcomes of students. Process has already begun by including the
monitoring of remediation class. Now by taking following steps it can be link
with the National Achievement Survey:-

(i) All the monitoring officers and mentors should well equip with the
result of NAS 2017 of concerned district.
(ii) They should aware about the learning gap of students in different
subjects as per learning outcomes set by NCERT.
(iii) Find out the strategies to link the subject curriculum with the
learning outcomes developed by NCERT.
(iv) Teachers content knowledge needed to be improve for effective
classroom transaction.
(iv) There should be paradigm shift from complete based teaching to
learning outcomes based teaching on the part of teachers.
(v) There should adequate classroom observation too is to measure
teaching practices.