At Akshara every programme has a definitive goal, a vision built in at the design stage, of children learning better and acquiring the foundational skills for academic progress. Our Research and Evaluation team enters the picture to gauge how programmes perform and whether end results have met the expectations on which they were founded. Data, children's test scores, classroom observations, teachers' feedback and field notes pass through fine scrutiny to convert into research papers on programmes and their effectiveness. It is stepping back and taking an objective, open-minded look at learning strategies, establishing successes, while pointing to shortfalls and areas for improvement.
Behind the scenes are the quiet, back-room labours that support programmes - training, developing content and formulating assessment tools. The team plays a significant part in the nationwide canvas of ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) every year, anchoring its surveys, enquiries and learning assessments in Karnataka.
Larger engagements such as advocacy, a push for reform in education, status reports to government with analysis and direction-markers, position papers, presentations and dissertations, are all work-in-progress for the Research and Evaluation team.
Behind the scenes are the quiet, back-room labours that support programmes - training, developing content and formulating assessment tools. The team plays a significant part in the nationwide canvas of ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) every year, anchoring its surveys, enquiries and learning assessments in Karnataka.
Larger engagements such as advocacy, a push for reform in education, status reports to government with analysis and direction-markers, position papers, presentations and dissertations, are all work-in-progress for the Research and Evaluation team.
Karnataka Learning Partnership’s Reading Support Programme: Background and Methodology, 2007
The Karnataka Learning Partnership began by supporting teachers in implementing a Bangalore-wide accelerated reading programme. By focusing efforts on the children who cannot read in primary school, KLP’s reading programme seeks to bridge a crucial learning gap between these children and their peers, facilitating further learning.
Making Math Fun: A remedial Math intervention programme in Bengaluru’s government schools, 2010
An assessment of student outcomes in India has demonstrated that a large proportion of students in government schools is not at grade level in basic reading or Mathematics. Results from the 2008-2009 data show that Akshara’s remedial Mathematics programme was very successful in improving students’ Math skills. Data also shows that on average, student learning levels increased by 20%, and the variance in learning outcomes decreased dramatically.
The Effects of School Libraries on Language Skills: Evidence from a Randomised Controlled Trial in India, 2013
A randomised controlled trial was conducted on Akshara’s school library programme. Overall, it was found that the programme had no impact on students’ scores on a language skills test administered after 16 months. Although all of the libraries functioned as expected and were utilised by a large number of the students (81 percent a month on average), we find no overall effect on students’ language skills.
Educating A Minority: A case study of Government Urdu Schools in Bengaluru; Silicon city, 2012
The paper presented at the British Educational Research Association reveals major findings of the survey conducted in Bengaluru on government Urdu schools regarding the issues of access and quality in elementary education within the broad framework of public provisioning. Though most of the issues raised in the paper may reflect the situation of the mainstream schools in Bengaluru, the issue of minority has been neglected either due to sensitiveness attached to the issue of due to lack of voice and statistics to back.
Creating an Ecosystem for Effective Engagement with the ICDS System - Akshara Foundation’s Preschool Education Programme, 2014
Akshara has implemented its preschool programme : as an action-research project in non-notified slums in Bangalore; in independent balwadis being run by women entrepreneurs; and through a third worker model2. However, the largest reach has been in anganwadi centres in collaboration with the Department of Women and Child Development (WCD) and is the focus of this paper.
Educating the Urban Poor: Case study of running pre-schools in Non-notified Slums of Bengaluru, 2013
In the paper, we describe an informal preschool program that Akshara Foundation administered over 12 months in a set of non-notified slums in Bengaluru. The intervention is particularly noteworthy because it involved starting a system from scratch, as the area was not recognized by the local government, and therefore was severely under resourced.