Focus Areas of School Monitoring and Supervision –A Brief Prologue

The focus areas of school monitoring and supervision, as we all know, should be based on three level model of input-process-output. Equal focus at all levels is considered as the ideal condition for the better performance.

v Input Level Components

a. Availability of sufficient learners;

b. Provision of Infrastructure and Human resources, and

c. Provision of improved curriculum and teaching-learning materials

The learners (children) are the major input of education system which determines the utility of other input components of the system or the existence of the whole system. The infrastructure, human resources, curriculum and teaching-learning materials (TLMs) are subsequent requirement to initiate educational processes.

Therefore, the supervising officer should collect the information about the gender-wise, community-wise and age group-wise total children population of the particular school’s catchment area. S/he also needs to collect the gender-wise, community-wise and age group-wise children attending school. The records of out of school children in both the category viz. never enrolled and dropouts are to be maintained separately and the work plans should include the locality specific strategies designed to enroll these children in the school system.

The maintenance of Village Education Register in the school will provide catchment area-wise children population. It also provides the information about the number of specific age group children attending school and out of school. However, the concerned supervising officer has to earmark the school catchment area carefully to avoid duplication and isolation of any households. Hence, the supervising officer should ensure the maintenance of Village Education Register in each school of her/his jurisdiction.

The attendance rates of teachers and students are to be calculated periodically and feedbacks are to be provided to the teachers with a view to improve institutional performance.

The availability of infrastructure (blackboards, classrooms, furniture etc.) and the human resources (school head, teachers, pre-primary teachers etc.) in the school is to be reflected with the performance of the school. Records of infrastructure and human resources available in the school are to be maintained monthly and to be submitted to higher authority in the beginning, mid and end of every academic session.

We know that the curriculum should fulfill the aspirations of the civil society and the government. Thus the supervising official should collect the perceptions of the civil society on curriculum being followed in the schools and keep records of it to integrate in the subsequent curriculum frameworks.

Teaching-learning materials are of two types viz. readymade like globe, maps, models, charts etc and developed by the teachers using locally available materials. The locally developed TLMs are more relevant and content specific than readymade one (procurement procedure decides this). Thus the supervising officer should ensure the development and use of both types of TLMs in teaching-learning processes by the teachers.

The supervising officer should also ensure the maintenance of inventory of TLMs of both types alongwith the reference books and other assets available in the school.

v Process Level Components

a. Improved teaching-learning methodologies and classroom processes with emphasis on learner’s attainment levels

b. Enhancement of institutional capacities

c. Institutional assessment and evaluation

Process is the activities conducted by using inputs to obtain desired outputs. The process of education includes the improved teaching-learning methodologies, classroom processes and institutional assessment and evaluation as mentioned above.

The teachers always talk about the Learning Environment of the children in their family. It is true that the maximum numbers of children enrolled in the government school are from socially, educationally and economically disadvantaged households which generally cannot provide suitable learning environment in their family. In addition, we have not to forget that the learning of a child also depends on the pedagogical process in the classroom; teacher competencies and teacher behaviour.

So it is the duty of every supervisory official to observe the Learning Environment (learner-friendly, conducive and stimulating) provided by the teachers to students in the school and in the classrooms. The schools need to create conditions in which optimal learning can take place, conditions (climate or environment) in which children feel psychologically and emotionally secure and where meaningful interaction takes between them and the facilitator (teacher) and their peers.

The supervisory officials should observe the social quality of the school and classrooms and ensure whether the learning is taking place with minimum stress and maximum effectiveness or not.

Improved teaching-learning methodology means the shifting of teaching-learning methodology from ‘Chalk-Talk-Text’ to ‘child centered activity based’ methodology. It pertains to interactive and joyful teaching-learning process like cooperative learning, group work, questioning, exploration/discovery, project approach, self learning, role play, dramatization, excursions, etc.

The supervisory officer should observe the classroom teaching of teacher if felt necessary. This activity is rather challenging and decisive for the supervisory officer and the teacher. This may cause misunderstanding if the supervisory officer is unknown about the ground rules of Classroom Observation. Hence, following ‘Ground Rules for Classroom Observation’ [interested readers can refer Marmar Mukhopadhyay’s Total Quality Management in Education, p. 226] may be useful for supervisory officers to conduct Classroom Observation.

The supervisory officer should ensure that s/he is not observing the class in fault finding way. S/he should record both the strengths and weaknesses of the teacher. Harsh words should not be used to record the teacher’s weaknesses which egg on de-motivation. After observation, the teacher should be called for the meeting and tell her/him about her/his strengths first, appreciate her/his good classroom practices with appropriate examples that the supervisory officer has recorded during her/his class observation. At last cordially inform her/him about the corrections/updations required for her/his classroom teaching. Give some examples that need corrections/updations and suggest some remedies.

Further, the supervising official should observe how a teacher utilizes his opportunity time; whether it is planned as per the prescribed syllabi or not. The time utilized by the teacher in non-academic works on special government duty is to be recorded separately.

The ‘Process’ also includes the teachers’ need assessment on pedagogical issues and the issues related to content areas of the textbooks. Thus, the diagnosis and recordings on these subjects needs to be done by the supervising officials at their respective levels during their school visits conducting classroom observation.

The community ownership with community monitoring is the new concept included in the ‘processes’ of education in government sector to make it more customer-based. Thus, it is expected to observe the involvement of community in plan formulation of every educational institution (Annual School Development Plan). The frequency and attendance of SMC meetings, Parent-Teacher Meetings, Mother-Teacher Meetings, etc. conducted in the school shows the extent of involvement of community in the school processes. The supervisory officer should take note of the resolutions and focus areas of such meetings and suggest the major areas concerned for quality improvement if required.

Assessment and evaluation are important components of teaching-learning process. Hence the next component of ‘Process’ is the assessment and evaluation. The techniques of evaluation determine the achievement of targeted components at ‘Output’ level. It is of two types viz. assessment of learners’ performance and teachers’ performance.

As we know that assessment and evaluation of the student help the teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses of individual children and provide scope for remedy. It is important that the teacher should use both formative and summative techniques of evaluation. In addition, the assessment and evaluation should target both cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of teaching-learning processes. It is highly expected to evolve appropriate tools of measurement to collect the grade-wise outputs in the school by the teachers.

The supervising official should see the pattern of questions prepared by the teachers to evaluate students in the school. The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation is to be encouraged as it covers broader objectives of learning.

Assessment of ongoing classroom processes by conducting classroom observation with ample knowledge of teaching-learning methodologies and content areas of textbooks by the supervising official helps to promote school improvement.

In addition, the Performance Appraisal of Teacher is one of the best tool for the identification of levels of Teachers’ Performance Standard. It has following advantages:

ü Helps the teachers to recognize his own strengths and weaknesses;

ü Helps the teachers to improve his performance in a given role;

ü Helps the teachers in realistic goal setting;

ü Helps in creating desirable culture and traditions in the school;

ü Helps identifying teachers for the purpose of motivating and trainings;

ü Generates “significant, relevant, free and valid information” about teachers and their capabilities.

v Output Level Components

a. Number of graduates (effectiveness) and

b. Behavioural, academic and physical qualities of students and the graduates (efficiency).

Supervision is the activities that contribute to the achievement of preset goals of the plan targets. Thus the achievement of the goals by using inputs and processes is by and large called the output.

The number of children entered into the system clears all the grades of the level without repeating any of the grades with all the qualities indicated in (b) above is the required outputs of an efficient educational institution.

The following are the major key indicators of Outputs:

§ Grade-wise Net Enrolment Ratio;

§ Inter-grade transition;

§ Performance in curricular and co-curricular activities;

§ Selection of students in public examinations e.g. JNV Test, RIMC Test, Merit Scholarship Test, etc;

§ Level of ethical values in students’ behaviour.

The monitoring and supervision of schools are being done in Sikkim since the first inspector of school appointed in 1945. However, the modes and parameters for conducting supervision of schools are always been changing as per the change of educational concerns and perspectives. On the other hand, the effectiveness of monitoring and supervision always depends on its frequencies and follow ups. As such, the supervisory officers, if they are not school heads, should be equipped with feasible conveyance along with the capacity of conducting improved monitoring and supervision at their respective levels.

Namchi, June 2009

SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE AS ADDITIONAL LEARNING RESOURCES FOR TEACHING PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Now-a-days it has become a major concern for the educational administrators, teacher-trainers, school heads and teachers to ensure the attainment of required learning levels of the children at the end of every class after the enactment of RTE Act 2009 as Section 16 of the RTE Act do not permit any children to be held back in any class. On the other hand, their service decorum does not allow them to let the children be promoted to next higher grade without achieving the required learning levels. Many of the school heads and teachers complain that the children appear not serious on the study as they don’t have the fear of being failure. Further, ‘No Board Examination till the completion of Elementary Education’ stated by the Act in its Section 30(1) also added worries of the teachers. In fact, almost all the teachers before the enactment of the Act were following such classroom processes which allow detention of child in the same grade if the child could not attain the required level of competency for next higher grade. The detention policy in one way was taken as the weapon to threaten the students concerning their study.

Though the RTE Act is in force, some of the school heads and teachers opine to have a chamber somewhere in the system where they can detain the children who cannot acquire the required competencies. This kind of hassles among the educational functionaries shows that they are facing challenges to acclimatize in the new situations brought by the Act.

Whatsoever may be consequence; this has triggered the mind of the educational administrators, teacher-trainers, school heads and teachers now to think about the alternative/additional learning resources to supplement their efforts of attainment of required grade-end competency level among the children. Very often it has been found that the teachers and school heads are demanding Teaching Learning Equipment or support materials to cope with the present situation created by the enactment of the Act.

Many of the situations in our life crave introspection to innovate new ideas to manage the situation. The same situation is with us now for which we need to analyse every possibilities of the materials or funds available with us in the school which may help us to tackle the situation like this. The schools are getting `500/- per teacher every year as Teacher Grant. This can be used to develop low-cost teaching learning materials from the locally available materials. Every teacher is aware of the fact that the locally prepared content and context specific materials can enhance effectiveness of the pedagogical processes. Further, the use of inclusive practices in pedagogy will also minimise the chances of children falling behind in their study.

The aim of this article is primarily to suggest the ideas to develop the school infrastructure as the additional learning resources. It is anticipated that this article will benefit the readers especially those who are in the teaching profession.

We have infrastructure like school building block, toilet block, water reservoir, MDM kitchen shed, etc. in the school campus and the building block itself has lot of spaces other than classrooms like walls, stairs, columns, doors, windows, varandah, etc. In the same way, toilet blocks, water reservoir, kitchen shed, also possess empty spaces that may be developed as learning resources. We can develop such spaces as the learning resources in the following way:

a. Varandah Wall - In the buildings of hilly terrain, mostly three sides of the building are visible. Among these three, the varandah wall remains in the prime place. As such, the school can do maximum use of the varandah wall as learning resource. The lower level of the wall, up to the height of window sill, can be developed as ground level blackboard with series of letters and numbers at the top in a line. This will not only provide scope to the children of 6 years age (Class I) to be familiar with the letters and numbers but also provide them the spaces of free-hand writing practices. The upper part of the wall can be used for drawing content related pictures like water cycle, maps, parts of plant, parts of human body, use of water, use of plants, etc. in attractive colours.

Other two walls of the building can also be used for drawing the pictures of State Animal, National Animal, State Flower, National Flower, etc.

b. Classroom Wall – Classroom wall has high importance in making it as learning resources. This can be used for multiple purposes like hanging grade specific teaching learning materials, displaying children’s works created during activities, preparing classroom profile, displaying children’s achievements, etc. Many of the displays in the classroom wall will keep changing. It is not permanent display as in the case of varandah wall. Thus, the display in the classroom wall has higher implications than the display of other walls. This display not only supports the children for cognitive excellence but also nurture them to acquire balanced personality. The walls of the classrooms are to be painted with different colours. This will make the classroom inviting for the children and teaching about colours will be easy in such rooms.

c. Building Column – The column may be developed for measuring height as it stands vertical. Different side of the column can be used for different measuring unit like one side for centimetres, another side for inches and other foot or metre. This will facilitate the children to know different units of measurement. The side of the column facing toward front courtyard cannot serve for this purpose. The column can also be used for showing the size of the moon from new moon to full moon or vice-versa using four sides of the column in spiral way.

d. Corridor – Many of the higher category schools have corridor in school building. The corridor also can serve as additional support for learning if it is develop properly. This may be developed like dolls corner, mathematics corner, EVS corner, etc. The school also can display best works of the children created during learning activities.

e. Door – Door can be developed as learning resource to teach the children about Angle. The doors of our school can swing from 90 degrees to more than 170 degrees. The swing of the door starting from its closed state can be used for showing angles like 10 degrees, 20 degrees, 30 degrees, and so on up to last point.

f. Varandah floor – Like varandah wall, varandah floor is also a prime place for developing it as learning resource. This floor can be developed as learning resource by drawing geometrical shapes like circle, triangle, rectangle, square etc. The drawing of ludo board, chess board, etc. can also be a part of this space. This will help in mathematicization of school.

g. Toilet Blocks/ water reservoir – The wall of the toilet Blocks and water reservoir can be developed as learning resource. The drawing depicting healthy habits, importance of water, etc. will be best on these spaces.

h. Kitchen shed – Walls of the kitchen can be used for drawing pictures of the plant that gives us food, food habits of different local communities, table showing nutritional values of different food items, vegetables and related vitamins, etc.

These are very few examples which can make difference in children’s learning. There are several innovations we can do in the field of enhancing children’s learning. School campus development as learning-friendly ecosystem and use of display boards, grid boards, etc. are another area of making whole school itself as a learning resource. Everything is possible when you begin to think by your own brain and from your own heart.

[My tribute to all innovative teachers]

6^th September 2011

What is ADEPTS?

Tracking of teachers’ performance for quality teaching learning process is one of the most wanted agenda for the educationists across the ages since when the schools came into existence. In recent years several strategies and tools were emerged as a result of search for tracking teachers’ performance. These are like writing Annual Confidential Reports by immediate superiors, conducting Teachers’ Performance Appraisal and Classroom Observation by monitoring personnel, etc. However, none of the tools and strategies proved reliable to track teachers’ performance in all aspects as expected. In the context, ADEPTS is an attempt made recently in India to track teachers’ performance and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India is persuading every state for the implementation of ADEPTS from current academic session. It is the new development in the school monitoring and supervision system in India.

ADEPTS is the acronym of Advancement of Educational Performance Through Teacher Supports which strives on tracking teachers’ performances by using standard performance indicators. These standard teachers’ performance indicators were prepared by conducting various workshops across the nation, in the initiation of MHRD, Government of India and UNICEF in the year 2006 & 2007, involving academicians, pedagogues, educational administrators, college lecturers from various states and UTs of India. Before devising these indicators, the assumptions were made about teachers who need to achieve particular standards within the enabling conditions. The enabling conditions mentioned here are the facilities supporting teachers to conduct teaching activities like functional school building, classrooms with blackboard, teachers with acceptable Pupil Teacher Ratio, textbooks, curriculum, toilet, drinking water, etc. The assumptions were also made that the teachers are conducting teaching activities in a multi-level situations taking the children with diversity of background, levels, paces and styles of learning. This means that the standards have lot of spaces to accommodate all the situations that prevail in the Indian schools. However, the single teacher schools were not taken into account while devising these standards.

The Teachers Performance Standards prepared under ADEPTS programme cover four dimensions of school processes viz. Physical Dimension, Cognitive Dimension, Social Dimension and Organizational Dimension in four-step-ladder system. The steps of the ladder are 1, 2, 3 and 4 wherein 1 is the lowest and 4 is the highest which means a teacher who falls in ‘Step 1’ is the teacher with lowest performance standards and so on. For example, let’s take a performance statement –‘Teacher understands children’ and make Performance standards in four steps, it would be like this:

Teacher understands children
1	2	3	4
Understands background of children as well as their different academic levels.	Understands /identifies children’s individual strengths / weaknesses and talents [cultural and social issues emerging from their backgrounds].	Understands /identifies children’s individual strengths / weaknesses and talents [cultural and social issues emerging from their backgrounds], how different children learn / individual differences in learning.	Understands /identifies children’s individual strengths / weaknesses and talents, [cultural and social issues emerging from their backgrounds], how different children learn / individual differences in learning and how different children prefer to learn.

The standards indicated in the table above on ‘Teacher understands children’ show step-by-step sequence starting from step 1 to step 4 and the complexity of performance increases when we go up from ‘1’ to ‘2’, ‘2’ to ‘3’ and like-wise.

When we talk of teachers’ performance statements, I think it would be better to give a gist of dimension-wise performance statements as well for the reader which will definitely help them to understand more about ADEPTS standards of teachers’ performance. It is given in the list form below:

A. Physical Dimension

1. The teacher facilitates a clean environment

2. The teacher creates a conducive environment

B. Cognitive Dimension

1. The teacher understands children and relates with them

2. The teacher understands curriculum, content and prepares accordingly

3. The teacher generates effective learning experiences (Uses contemporary methods, with a focus on relationships and diversity)

4. The teacher uses materials effectively

5. The teacher ensures learning for ALL/Creates a classroom for ALL

6. The teacher communicates effectively

7. The teacher collaborates with children

8. The teacher creates conducive learning environment / relates with children

9. The teacher plans for enabling learning (Manages / organizes classroom to optimize learning)

10. The teacher undertakes assessment and evaluation, and uses outcomes to improve learning

C. Social Dimension

1. The teacher values Children, their cultural context, and relates with them in a non-discriminatory manner

2. The teacher promotes development of values and enables overall development of children

3. The teacher promotes Democratic processes

4. The teacher relates and works with colleagues and community

D. Organizational Dimension

1. The teacher displays Professional commitment/accountability

2. The teacher develops herself professionally (individually and as member of a team)

3. The teacher works with colleagues as a team, optimizes resources

4. The teacher undertakes Reflective practice

5. The teacher participates in Management and implementation

Every performance statement given above has more than one performance indicators in all four steps.

These standards are really helpful for supervising/monitoring officials (school heads and others), teacher trainers and teacher education institutes to diagnose the specific problem which is actually hindering a teacher’s performance and enable them to provide exact remedial treatment which ultimately leads to enhancement of teachers’ effectiveness. These standards help the monitoring officials and educational administrators as well to segregate the teachers in four categories on the basis of their competencies, identify the nature of academic supports required for each category of teachers and make rationale in recommending the teachers for Commendation, State and National Awards. ADEPTS standards are also helpful for the teacher themselves to know their own level where they stand and what are the scope of improvements.

The ADEPTS programme will definitely bring changes in school system and teacher effectiveness framework if it is implemented with proper planning. However, the State or UTs has to modify these indicators in state specific perspective before its implementation in the state. It is suggested to undertake following preliminary activities before implementing ADEPTS Teachers Performance Indicators in the state:

1. Formation of State and District ADEPTS Core Teams

2. Orientation of these Teams and distribution of available literatures to these teams

3. Identification and listing of state specific Teacher Performance Indicators from among the indicators focused upon by the MHRD for SSA and segregation of these indicators into 4 (four) levels. This will be used as base materials for field level consultancy meetings [this part may be done merging with Sl. No. 2]

4. Initiate participatory activities to make personnel from different levels well versed with these indicators - Hold consultation meetings with and orient key stakeholders, institutions resource groups, Block Resource Centre Coordinators (BRCCs), Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators (CRCCs), school heads, teachers, on the identified performance indicators [these meetings may refine/review these indicators]

5. Preparation of support materials like Enabling Tools, Observation Tools, Booklet/ manual for Teachers, CRCCs, BRCCs and DIETs, instructions for District Teams, etc.

6. Conduct survey to understand the status of Block Resource Centres (BRCs), Cluster Resource Centres (CRCs) and review of present/existing standards of teachers

7. Plan for the implementation of ADEPTS – selection or phasing of Indicators out of already identified list of indicators giving specific timeline, strategies for its achievement and tools for its monitoring.

It is expected that this new strategy will definitely brings differences in Teachers’ Performance Tracking and helps in starting new era of quality school monitoring.

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