The learning guarantee programme is planned on a pilot basis in Sabarkantha and Banaskantha districts in the state of Gujarat under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Mission in collaboration with Azim Premji foundation, Bangalore. There are a total of 4623 schools from both the districts. Out of the 500 schools are expected to participate voluntarily in the programme. It is planned as a voluntary programme for schools with classes 1-4 in both the districts. The planned phase is planned for two years up to 2008

The primary objectives of the Learning Guarantee Program are:

• Assess learning outcomes of children in Government schools through evaluation that tests the understanding, analysis and application of knowledge versus the traditional memory or rote based learning.

• Provide detailed feedback to schools on learning outcomes that would help the schools and education functionaries to evolve relevant interventions and actions including transformation in classroom practices.

• Build accountability among schools, teachers and the education functionaries for the learning outcomes of children.

• Motivate state Government to address the issue of examination reforms that would focus on measuring the understanding, analysis and application of knowledge and thereby initiate reforms in teaching learning practices.

Key elements of the programme

• Voluntary participation of Schools – a signal of preparedness for accountability.

• Assessment of understanding and application of knowledge versus traditional rote / memory based examination.

• Credible and transparent evaluation.

• Recognition for performance.

• Research and analysis of factors that help or hinder performance.

• Feedback for improvement to every school. 

• Assessment results to guide reforms in classroom practices and culture.

Criteria for a “Learning Guarantee School”

The three criteria have been selected specifically to ensure that equity and quality are both fulfilled. No school can stake claim to providing learning for every child unless it demonstrates that every child is enrolled, attending regularly and has attained learning outcomes in the independent evaluation. Equitable excellence is thus the guiding spirit to identifying the criteria. The programme has deliberately not listed criteria that cannot be objectively assessed or criteria that may not be within the control of a school. Every child is tested through oral and written tests for competencies. 

Implementation of the Programme: Some key processes:

• Communication about the program to schools, community members and education functionaries.

• Evolving evaluation tools with inputs and advice from a panel of national experts.

• Schools come forward to participate in the program and understand the way they will be evaluated.

• Training of identified evaluators and independent members to evaluate schools and children on competency based tests (both written and oral).

• Analysis of evaluation and announcement of results.

• Feedback to every school on their results including handing over the assessment papers.

• Replacement current mode of examination system with competency based assessment.

• Discuss and evolve plans and strategies to take cognizance of the assessment results and implementing actions / interventions in schools to enhance the quality of all children.

The programme so far ……

The programme is planned on a pilot basis in two districts: Sabarkantha and Banaskantha districts in Gujarat under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Mission. It is planned as a voluntary programme for schools with classes 1-4 in both the districts. The planned phase is planned for two years up to 2008.

A core academic group is constituted for the design of assessment tools for the programme. This group consists of teachers, CRC coordinators, BRC coordinators, OIC Teacher training, and DIET lecturers from both the districts. The assessment tools are designed for the subjects, Maths, EVS and Gujarati.

Design of communication material for the programme is in process. 

Cluster and block level meetings have been conducted to provide basic orientation about the programme.

Educational initiatives, Ahmedabad is giving academic support by giving periodic feedback on assessment tools.

The first workshop on assessment tools was held on 6th October, 2005. The teachers prepared question papers before hand and brought them in this workshop. The best questions from these papers were selected and made to form a question paper set for all classes and for EVS, Maths and Gujarati.

Second workshop was held on 23rd – 25th November, 2005. A question bank was prepared in each competency for each class. In this workshop the questions were prepared such that they test beyond knowledge to test the understanding, application, analysis and synthesis of learning gained in classroom. 

The third workshop that was conducted was basically to edit the content created in the second workshop

In the fourth workshop, a model question paper was created based on the question bank. They precisely worked out questions that are tested on major competency in each class. The time for written test for each class is 120 minutes and for oral its 15 minutes.