NalandaWay Foundational Learning - 5 (FL-5)

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a harsh impact on education because of the school closures through the last two academic years. A 2021 Azim Premji University study has highlighted the huge loss of foundational learning for children during the period of school closures due to Covid-19. With several months of school closure, children not only missed new learning, but they also regressed back and forgot what they had learnt previously. (The Loss of Learning for Children due to Pandemic, APU, 2021).

The key findings of the study are that 92% and 82% of children on average have lost at least one specific foundational ability from the previous year across all classes for language and mathematics, respectively. Children acquire foundational abilities in language and mathematics during primary school that forms the basis of further learning in all subjects.

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) data collected over the past decade shows the learning levels for Foundational Literacy have been persistently at a low level with very marginal improvements for primary grade children. The % of children in Std V who could read Std II level text stood at 50.3% and the % of children who could subtract stood at an abysmal 24.5% during the year 2018 and it has since considerably worsened during the last three years due to the prolonged closure of schools caused by the pandemic.

It is not merely the learning lost in the past 2 years that is worrisome, but the fact that inflation and diversion of state funds to covid relief has resulted in limited education funds as well. Given the scenario, the need of the hour is to look for solutions that are both innovative and cost effective. And this is where one would be required to look for tech-based solutions that have the potential to beat all odds and help the children and system arrive at a steady state of consistent well-rounded learning.

Our goal is to help children gain the foundational abilities as they have just returned to schools after a prolonged closure. With the aid of our proven Fundango solution that combines technology with engaging storytelling, complemented by custom designed workbooks, we will strengthen the foundational literacy and numeracy skills of children in Class 5. The solution brings together technology, the art of story-telling and custom curated art activities which stimulate, channelize and develop the child’s natural abilities. 

Fundango is a technology led educational service, which overcomes teaching learning gaps in low resource classrooms through storytelling and creative projects thereby improving foundational learning in children.

The following are the components of Fundango:

1. Fundango Cloud - stories, lessons, and activities in audio/video for every age, class and subject based on Rhythmic Education pedagogy
2. Teacher Notes - Guidelines and lesson scripts to teachers. Courses to enrich subject knowledge
3. Workbooks for Children - Read-along and activity books for children which they would follow along with the stories
4. Assessment - activities and assessment tools for test of learning
5. Dashboard for Administration - dashboard and intelligent reports on progress, completion of lessons, teacher feedback and rating

Students will learn the subjects of English and Math through our custom curriculum modeled along Cambridge Curriculum Framework and the learning outcomes of the state syllabus and the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT). Anderson’s Taxonomy of learning is applied. Students are encouraged to progress from remembering and understanding concepts to applying knowledge in a new situation and analyzing for better clarity. Evaluating options and creating new knowledge are encouraged too. 

The pedagogy involves using a mix of the government provided textbooks supplemented by NalandaWay’s custom curated workbooks, activity sheets, art activities, audio stories and songs which will strengthen the foundational learning abilities of children and ensure that they attain grade appropriate learning outcomes. The progress of each child will be closely monitored and tracked using custom built Monitoring & Evaluation tools. Assessments involve a mix of ongoing formative assessments and summative assessments including Baseline and Endline Surveys to measure the outcome quantitatively. 

The lessons are delivered by our trained Teaching Assistants who transform into student-centric facilitators of learning in a joyful classroom environment, thereby enabling students to gain mastery over subjects. 

The combination of a custom curriculum, Teaching Assistants trained to deliver the sessions in a student-centric manner, engaging stories and creative art activities, robust and ongoing continuous assessments enables a joyful and fun learning process for children thereby strengthening their foundational learning.

The target population is students in Class 5 across the states of Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar and Jharkhand. in India. Children are affected by multiple stressors due to fears and overwhelming news about Covid-19 infection and the need to continue their education without the usual support from schools. Vide the report by the Institute of Competitiveness (IFC) in 2021 referring to the studies conducted by ASER, states like Kerala, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have performed relatively better in both literacy and numeracy skills as compared to children in Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand that are among the lowest performing states.

The situation for the girl child is even worse, who seems to be at a noticeable disadvantage when compared to her male counterparts. As per the NSSO data, while for the nation as a whole, the literacy rate for males is 84.7 percent, the same for females is as low as 70.3 percent.

Approximately 42 percent of government elementary schools have only one or two teachers for the elementary grades (NUEPA, 2016). A critical result of such a scenario is that there exist no designated teachers for early grades, where the focus needs to be maximized. This naturally results in a multi grade scenario where one teacher is expected to teach all grades simultaneously in the limited time she has during the day. This naturally results in poor quality in the teaching learning process.

Besides, there are several challenges with respect to the availability of quality children’s literature at the ground level. Firstly, there are not enough quality and age-appropriate books available for primary grade children in their own language. There exists a shortage of such books even in the language of instruction.

Also, the learning for most of the children in primary grades, whether government or low cost private schools, focuses on rote memorization and being passive recipients of ‘knowledge’. The children in the garb of ‘discipline’ are expected to be quiet in the class, not ask questions and ‘learn’ the chapters from the textbook ‘by heart. 

There is excessive pressure on the teachers to finish the syllabus ‘on time’, irrespective of whether the children are learning anything or not. Discussions beyond the ‘syllabus’ are not encouraged. The entire process is restrictive and does not encourage real learning to take place. It is critical to ensure that our schooling system is geared towards human development, and the same can not be achieved through the existing classroom practices.

Our solution comprehensively and systematically addresses the above challenges by enabling a student-centric joyful learning environment that employs a scientific pedagogical approach to foundational learning complemented by high quality teaching learning materials and trained and motivated teaching professionals. The solution makes use of a simple and intuitive low cost technology that is truly scalable. Our pedagogy emphasizes an inclusive teaching learning approach that takes into account the socio economic backgrounds of children from underprivileged communities and those with special needs.

NalandaWay has a rich experience of positively impacting the learning levels of more than a million children in primary and secondary grades over the last 15 years. We have extensive experience of working with children from disadvantaged backgrounds from the poorest districts in India, helping them raise their voices and issues through theatre, visual arts, music, dance, radio and films. Over 50,000 children are benefited every year. Our interventions have helped them become creative, learn life-skills and build self-confidence to create the lives that they truly want to lead.

Our Fundango based foundational learning solution has been implemented at more than 40 primary schools in the states of Tamil Nadu and Haryana covering a population of 3000+ children in primary classes. During the extended closures of schools over the last two years owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, our Teaching Assistants had conducted lessons for our children over the phone and ensured continuity for these children in the learning process. With the implementations over the last 4 years, we have gained an immense amount of learnings, focused and specific feedback from the education department officials, school heads, teachers, parents and students. Our curriculum and pedagogy design team has studied the implementation results extensively and have refined the solution to better suit the needs of the most disadvantaged children and children with special needs. Our intuitive and easy-to-use design of the Fundango solution is based on the usage patterns of the device at several low-cost primary schools by our teaching specialists.  With continuous refinements guided by the inputs and takeaways from the successive implementations, the solution is now ready to be scaled across several states. 

Solve can help us refine our technology solution to make it truly scalable and minimize the need for deploying our trained teaching professionals. The solution should make it easy for the teachers in the government school system to make use of it on an everyday basis in the classroom, which could be monitored by our pool of teaching assistants. This will enable the deployment of the solution at thousands of schools across several states at an optimal cost.  Also, the solution needs to be cloud and SAAS enabled for it to be providing real-time analytics on the usage patterns and learning levels of children across the classrooms.  

Additionally, Solve also provides us direct access to key players in the change ecosystem the world over. This will enable cross-cultural learnings, effective collaborations, resource sharing and bring in global best practices to our project. We will also have the opportunity to share our learnings and findings with individuals and organisations alike in the ecosystem.

We are keen to tap into the MIT Solve ecosystem of grants, funding support, peers from whom we could take inspiration and guidance and join the powerful network of impact-minded leaders across industries and sectors.

Access mentorship, coaching, and strategic advice from experts, as well as the Solve and MIT networks will be of great help to us as we scale our solutions. Receiving monitoring and evaluation support to build an impact measurement practice will go a long way in strengthening our M&E practices and approaches.

The combination of technology, pedagogy, content and direct delivery to students in the form of local language stories is NalandaWay's proprietary innovation. Storytelling by its nature is a ‘High ceiling and low threshold’ creative activity. A low threshold ensures access to learning for the most struggling learners and enhances their participation levels. High ceiling ensures the most able learners stretch their learning abilities.

The solution is cost effective and scalable. It will yield results in even the remotest of areas without depending upon the internet, projectors, TV screens, expensive headsets, etc. It moulds the teaching method and delivery to the current generation of children and their intuitive learning abilities.

In a classroom of children with varying learning styles and expectations, the one person who can make it or break it is the teacher. Every child sees the subject through the teacher or sometimes as the teacher. A.N Whitehead’s ‘Rhythm of Education’ talks about the three stages of learning as romance, precision and generalization. To engage and turn apathy into interest is the key role of the teacher, where a transaction of enthusiasm from teacher to student is possible at the stage of ‘Romance’.  Once a teacher is able to spark that romance, the rest follows suit. Fundango as a device is designed to create that romance through a persona and the charisma of storytelling.

When the children’s listening skills are high, their natural intent to learn also increases. This progresses to the stage of ‘Precision’ in which there is addition of knowledge and formulation of structure in the child’s mind to analyze and acquire new concepts and facts. Fundango at this stage carries children by narrating stories and explaining concepts. Generalization, the last rhythmic element of the learning process, is the incorporation of romance and precision into a general context and application of ideas. This is exercised through a workbook provided with Fundango. The activities are designed in a manner where children can apply and understand newly acquired ideas through creative activities. This pulls them back to the stage of romance to be thrilled to learn again, making it a ‘cyclic process’. 

We aim to scale the solution to all children in Class 5 (approximately 150,000) across 14 Districts and 44 Educationally Backward Blocks in the state of Tamil Nadu in the next one year. Our goal is to reach 20 million plus children in 5 years across many states in India. This we plan to achieve through a collaborative partnership with the Education Departments of respective state governments.

The primary indicator we use for measuring progress is the % of children from the target population attaining grade specific learning levels in foundational literacy and numeracy by the end of the academic year.  Additionally, their attainment levels in Social Emotional Skills and Cognitive abilities are also measured. The progress will be measured on a continuous basis through the implementation with the help of the following Monitoring & Evaluation tools:

1. Baseline and Endline Surveys for children

2. Ongoing comprehensive formative assessments and classroom observations by the Teaching Assistants

3. Focused group discussions with teachers and students

4. Classroom observations by project oversight team

5. Case Journals

Our Fundango led Foundational Learning is an innovative Art meets Tech program that utilizes the digital platform and learning through art and storytelling to strengthen foundational learning skills in children. Strengthening the foundational education of children has a direct influence on their psycho-social, nutritional, health and educational development. Research studies have shown that quality elementary education enhances literacy skills, child’s ability to learn, to communicate ideas and feelings and to get along well with others. (Qadiri and Manhas, 2009). Multiple studies and research across the world have established beyond doubt that people who complete their secondary or higher secondary school education earn better than those who do not. Better earning capacity of the population contributes to significant gains in the GDP of a country. A study by Hanushek et al (2008) found that an additional year of schooling can increase a person’s earnings by 10% and an average GDP by 0.37% annually. Similar results related to an increase in wages were found in a cross-country study by Psacharopoulos and Patrinos in 2004.

Our key demographic is the children from disadvantaged sections studying in Class 5 in the states of Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana. The entry point to reach our target audience would be Government run and trust run educational institutions. The goal is to remove fear and bring joy into their learning while creating safe spaces. The approach is to be responsive to disadvantaged children, sensitized to their marginalization and accordingly design our intervention to meet their cognitive, social, emotional, and creative needs. To that end, we look at whole-child development, approaching each dimension through an art-based model. The solution would provide holistic education to children and enable age appropriate attainment of developmental milestones by bringing together the following  – 

     o   Curriculum and Teaching Learning Materials based on scientific       principles of learning

     o   Pedagogy – art integrated and play based, comprising of art, play and storytelling using our custom built Fundango solution

      o Trained facilitators – fully equipped to enable outcomes in students with extensive training on curriculum, pedagogy, teaching learning materials and holistic development of children 

      o Assessment – competency based formative assessment that promotes learning and assessment of higher order skills, 360 degree holistic report card for each child

      o Capacity building of parents and  teachers

The following steps will be taken to ensure that our project outcomes are met: 

1. Refining our learning framework, curriculum and lessons along with creative content such as audio stories, songs, inter-activities such as games, puzzles etc. 

2. Creating a team of Teaching Assistants and providing extensive training on our curriculum and Fundango led pedagogy

3. Partnerships with state governments in implementation of the solution at scale

4. Robust Monitoring & Evaluation of the program implementation and comprehensive 360 degree monitoring of progress made by children 
5. Baseline, Midline and Endline Surveys - to quantitatively measure the achievement levels of children pre, during and post the intervention 
6. Focus Group Discussions and art projects by students that demonstrate the abilities acquired by children

The measurable outcomes of the project are as follows - 

• The attainment of age appropriate learning levels in at least 80% of the target children along the following domains of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, Social Emotional Development and Cognitive Development

• Improved engagement and participation of teachers and parents in the holistic development of children

• Reduction in dropout rates of children as they transition from primary school to middle school (Grade 5 to 6)

• Custom curriculum and pedagogy rooted in the local context of the State where the program is being implemented

• Deeper collaboration and partnership with other NGOs, Govt. agencies, academic institutions and Ministry of Education in the respective states

These outcomes will lead to the following long-term impacts - 

• Multiple studies and research across the world have established beyond doubt that people who complete their secondary or higher secondary school education earn better than those who do not. Better earning capacity of the population contributes to significant gains in the GDP of a country. A study by Hanushek et al (2008) found that an additional year of schooling can increase a person’s earnings by 10% and an average GDP by 0.37% annually. Similar results related to an increase in wages were found in a cross-country study by Psacharopoulos and Patrinos in 2004.

• Research shows that early grade literacy helps prevent crime, thereby reducing the cost that a nation would have to incur in running the courts, prisons and managing the mounting pile of cases. Additionally, the preventative benefit of literacy helps save the intangible cost including loss of happiness, psychological distress and quality of life. Numerous studies today prove that access to quality primary education contributes to reducing the likelihood of today’s young children becoming tomorrow’s violent adults.

• Low literacy levels have been found to lead to poor health outcomes, both directly and indirectly, which further leads to an effect on individual wages and income of a nation. Hence, improvement in literacy levels is found to be directly associated with improved incomes via health benefits.

• Focus on mental health and holistic education of children in a systematic way in the foundational years goes a long way in avoiding a direct and indirect loss to the economy in terms of low productivity arising out of mental issues, violent criminal behaviour and quality of life of these children in adulthood.

• The India Innovation Report 2020 identified the correlation between Literacy and Innovation and showed a positive correlation with an R-Square of 0.133, that 13 percent of changes in innovation scores can be explained by literacy rates. Thus the strengthening of foundational learning abilities provides a push to an innovation-driven economy. 
• Strengthening the foundational learning abilities of children has the force to increase tolerance and resilience in children; enables them to make more environmentally sustainable choices; leads to improved health and hygiene, and ensures greater civic participation
• 28 per cent of 5-11 years old who are in child labour have a very high chance of dropping out of school even before they can complete their secondary education. This severely impacts their prospects for reasonable earning capacity in adulthood and reduces the overall quality of life. Our intervention goes a long way in preventing dropouts from the school system

Fundango is a technology-led educational solution that aims to overcome the teaching-learning gap in low resource classrooms through storytelling and creative arts methodology in order to enhance foundational learning amongst children of class 5.

The core technology components of the project have been enlisted below:

• Fundango Device - plays audio/video stories, enables video calls, access to Amazon Alexa and records learning progress
• Fundango Cloud - stories, lessons, and activities in audio/video for every age, class and subject based on Rhythmic Education pedagogy
• Teacher Notes - Guidelines and lesson scripts to teachers. Courses to enrich subject knowledge
• Workbooks for Children - Read-along and activity books for children which they would follow along with the stories
• Assessment - activities and assessment tools for test of learning
• Dashboard for Administration - dashboard and intelligent reports on progress, completion of lessons, teacher feedback and rating

NalandaWay is deeply committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. We are an equal opportunity employer with a large % of women occupying senior leadership and managerial positions. Two of our four senior leaders and two of our three trustees are women with high levels of accomplishment.  Six of our eight project managers, two of our three location heads and all our three Practice Leads are women. Our workforce comprises people from varied socio economic backgrounds, multiple ethnicities, rural and semi urban origins from across the nation. We use a mix of languages in our operations across the country to cater to the needs of our employees, associates and the communities we serve.  

All qualified applicants to our organization receive consideration for employment and are not discriminated against on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age or national or ethnic origin. We actively enable equitable environments to all our employees and ensure that those from underrepresented or marginalized groups are not at a disadvantage. Our Field Coordinators and Teaching Assistants are largely selected from the communities we serve. Furthermore, our extensive training and orientation emphasizes the principles and practices of creating an equitable, inclusive and diverse workplace. Our Projects reflect the same value set-  programs and solutions are designed to promote equitable and inclusive access to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged segments. From the curriculums and teaching learning materials we develop and the pedagogies we design to the delivery of our interventions to the last mile beneficiaries, we are truly sensitive to the needs of a multiethnic, multilingual and diverse population.  

Our Fundango based Foundational Learning is an innovative solution to strengthen the foundational learning levels of children and curb the dropout rates in various districts and states of India. The solution is implemented in the classrooms across government and low resource private schools in partnership with the Education Departments of State Governments and private school managements. 

This project opens itself up to various stakeholders namely, corporates, public entities, government, non-profits and social enterprises who can also be partners through financial, technical and administrative support. The formal partnerships include implementing the entire program with its technology, creative content and custom teaching learning modules while the supporting institutions get visibility and good optics. A CSR model will be followed in it promotionals for those who support the program. Additionally, a mentoring volunteer platform will be made available to those who would like to undertake paid internships/volunteering for teaching assistant roles after due vetting process. 

Thus, the business model includes generating funds from  

1. CSR Grants of large corporates and global grant giving organizations such as UNICEF and World Bank
2. Seed grant and Scaling up/extension grants
3. Grants and subsidies from Education Departments of State Governments for large scale implementation covering all the primary schools in a State

As a not-for-profit organization that has its core mission in delivering quality education through art and creativity to marginalized communities, Nalandaway Foundation can only operate with the generous donations, funds and grants from corporates, institutions and agencies that share the same mission as well as endeavours to contribute back to society. 

The sustainability of the project depends on the following components:

1. Initial Funding arrangements: We hope to attain the initial investment through MIT Solve so as to use the seed funding to launch the project and all its components.
2. Partnerships with Corporates: Post the initial investment and implementation, the Foundation will reach out to its core partners for support in terms of technical, financial and scaling up.  
3. Partnerships with the Government: With proven evidentiary support, the Team will leverage its connection with state governments to financially undertake a portion or all of the project while the Solver team remains the implementing/tech partner.  
4. Extension Grants: The Team will also look out for extension grants that offer continuous support to innovative and scalable projects. 

NalandaWay Foundation, in the year 2021-22 crossed over a million dollars in revenue, a growth from the past few years. Over the 15 years of the organisation, we have forged long term partnerships with global grant giving organisations like UNICEF, The World Bank, CitiesRise, etc; as well as corporations within India through their CSR grants like Ford, HCL Foundation, Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives, etc. A large number of these are repeat grant givers, a testament to the impact of the projects with the beneficiaries. 

It may also be noted that during the Global pandemic, we forged partnerships with five state governments in India, and grew exponentially in terms of the quality and quantity of projects, team and resources.

We hope to leverage these partnerships with multiple stakeholders in the ecosystem to take forward the proposed solution.