The Challenge
Teachers matter most to student learning,
but teaching quality is poor in India.
Meet 9 year old Jiya,
a shy & endearing child.
She studies in Zila Parishad school in Musarne, a village in the Wada Block of Palghar District, around 150 kms from Mumbai. Her parents are farmers and own a small plot of land, that barely helps them to eke out a decent living. Jiya’s teacher, Pinesh Jadhav says that Jiya’s parents work hard as daily wage farm labor to supplement their income. They have great hopes for Jiya and always take care that she is clean and dressed before coming to school. Jiya has to fill water, wash clothes and help in cooking before coming to school.
Students in Pinesh Jadhav’s class belong to tribal communities that have been fighting poverty and illiteracy for years. They walk 2 to 3 kms every day to come to school. The mid-day meal provided in the school is their only source of wholesome nourishment.
Pinesh Jadhav is the son of farmer parents – parents who saved every rupee to ensure that their son could complete his D.Ed to secure a job as a teacher. He has been a Zilla Parishad (government) school teacher for over 13 years. When Pinesh started to teach Jiya, she could read a little. But, she was unable to articulate and write her thoughts down coherently. She would rarely speak in class and lacked confidence.
The story of Jiya is not unique.
For the underprivileged, a quality education is the stepping stone out of the cycle of poverty - one that can enable their children a future with dignity and potential.
We know this, yet we continue to fail our children.
Over one in two 10- year olds cannot read a simple story; three in four face difficulty with basic math operations. According to the World Bank, if children do not learn to read by the age of 10, the doors of learning are most likely shut for them, forever.
Teachers matter most to student learning,
but teaching quality is poor in India.
Good teachers make a fundamental difference not just to students’ outcomes in school but over their lifetimes as well. Research from Harvard and Columbia Universities reveal that an effective teacher improves students’ lifetime earnings by $250,000 per classroom.
How does teacher quality fare in India?
Unfortunately, not well at all. One is 6 elementary school teachers is not professionally trained. In 2018, only 12% of teachers cleared the government eligibility test for teaching.
Even in the best classrooms of schools in underprivileged settings, teachers commonly teach textbook chapters through lectures, using chalk-and-talk methods. It is rare to see students learning through reasoning, discussion, enquiry, experimentation, application or collaboration. Students learn by rote, memorise facts for examinations and learn no meaningful knowledge or skills for life.
CEQUE seeks to change this status quo by providing quality teacher learning experiences.
Our experience shows that teachers are, by and large, motivated to adopt new pathways to teaching and learning. But, they do not know how. Existing opportunities for teacher learning are few and of very poor quality. We address this gap by providing high quality learning experiences and support for teachers in government and low income private schools to ensure that EVERY child receives the education they deserve.
