Government of Andhra Pradesh to scale up ‘Teaching at the Right Level’ with Pratham and J-PAL South Asia at IFMR

TaRL training by District Education Officers, with Pratham, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh

On November 16, 2015, the Government of Andhra Pradesh signed a three-year partnership with Pratham Education Foundation and J-PAL South Asia at IFMR to scale up the ‘Teaching at the Right Level’ (TaRL) program for improving student learning levels in the state. The evidence-based program aims to improve basic reading and numeracy skills in primary schools by re-organizing children according to ability instead of age or grade, and providing focused, tailored instruction.

The program will be introduced in over 1,600 government schools in the district of Anantapur, reaching over 56,000 students in grades three, four and five.

As per the Annual Status of Education Report 2014, more than half of all children in India had not acquired basic literacy and numeracy skills by the end of their primary schooling. While Andhra Pradesh performed better than the national average, significant gaps in learning outcomes remain. TaRL scale-up in Andhra Pradesh will seek to address this gap by drawing from the rigorous testing of Pratham’s pedagogy by J-PAL affiliated professors through six randomized evaluations.

"We at Pratham are very happy to have the opportunity to work closely with the state government of Andhra Pradesh and J-PAL for improving basic learning. We strongly believe that this is a step in the right direction. We hope that the work in Anantapur goes well and provides the basis for a much larger scale-up," said Rukmini Banerji, CEO, Pratham Education Foundation.

Government teachers will implement the program during school hours and government cluster level staff will provide them with regular in-school mentoring support. Pratham will provide training, learning material for each school, and field staff for on-ground pedagogical support. J-PAL South Asia will introduce a monitoring system to review processes and outcomes to inform plans for further scale-up across Andhra Pradesh.

 

Pratham is a core partner to J-PAL. Watch Rukmini Banerji speak about this collaboration.

 

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Established in 2007 at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) in India, J-PAL South Asia seeks to improve the effectiveness of poverty programs by providing policymakers with clear scientific evidence.

For more information on this partnership, please contact J-PAL South Asia Senior Policy Manager Gautam Patel.