Use data-based solutions to improve learning levels

It has been abundantly clear for some time now that India has been facing a huge learning crisis and that the gap between schooling and learning is widening. There has been some progress towards recognising this problem and a few Indian state governments have initiated reform efforts focused on achieving foundational learning skills for children by Class 3. The Indian school education landscape is an extremely diverse one, with children in the same classroom having grown up with different home languages and having disparate learning levels. For example, assessing whether the programme methodology is appropriate for a student’s age and learning processes; is the programme being implemented as intended; to what extent are the support systems, such as curriculum, teacher training, monitoring and onsite support, effective in improving classroom practices; what are the major unintended outcomes of the programme; and, lastly, what were the factors which facilitated or inhibited the intended implementation of the programme. ASER data has highlighted the pressing problem; we now need to move to the next step and focus on using data and evidence to inform and implement the solutions that can help achieve the goal of foundational learning and set up our children for future success.