Ganitha Kalika Andolana Phase 2 – An Activity-Based Math Programme for Children in Standards 4-5 in

Government Primary Schools in Karnataka

Vision for School Mathematics

Math is a subject that is dreaded and revered at the same time in primary schools. It is widely believed to be a
‘foundational’ discipline upon which a lot of future learning in school depends. Yet, achievement levels of
students in primary school math are generally poor. Less than20% of children in Standard 5 can do simple
division (ASER). On the other hand, the National Curriculum Framework (NCF2005) calls for moving beyond
the ‘narrow aim’ of mathematics confined to numeracy to embrace a ‘higher aim’ “to develop the child's
resources to think and reason mathematically, to pursue assumptions to their logical conclusion and to handle
abstraction.” NCF2005 outlines the following vision for teaching of Math in schools:

• Shifting the focus of Mathematics education: Math teaching should move away from numerical
procedures and calculations to the ability to think mathematically to solve problems by building a child’s
capacity for logical analysis and handling abstractions. Children should be able to see patterns and make
connections between concepts within math as well as with other subjects and solve unstructured
problems from real life using math.
• Every child should learn math: NCF2005 also emphasise that “all students can learn mathematics and all
students need to learn mathematics”. Children should learn to enjoy mathematics rather than fear it and
teachers should engage every child in class with the conviction that everyone can learn mathematics. One
of the ways to do this is to use activities and concrete materials to introduce and develop math concepts.
Also, opportunities for children learning from each other helps in making learning of math less
intimidating. As children gain confidence and succeed through these activities, they can be offered more
challenging problems that develop their problem-solving abilities.
• Assessments should check a child’s ability to think mathematically and not procedures: A change in
emphasis of teaching math means that ‘what’ and’ how’ of assessments should change accordingly.
Instead of pen and paper assessments at the end of the year, assessments can be ongoing and through
observing children’s activities. Since every child is unique and learns in a different way and at a different
pace, teachers need to be aware of each child’s progress in each concept to be able to help them better.
Such continuous assessment is one of the important ways to make sure that every child is learning math.
• A resource rich classroom and teacher support: Teachers need support in making this change both
through professional development as well as material and ideas that they can readily use in their
classrooms.

Akshara Ganitha Methodology

Akshara Ganitha was designed by Akshara Foundation with the NCF2005 vision in mind for teaching math in
Standards 4and 5. It is a support programme aligned with the math syllabus and math textbooks that teachers
follow. The programme uses four main strategies:

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a) Learning with fun and understanding: A child creates her own knowledge by engaging with the
environment while the teacher supports her in this process. The methodology introduces concepts in a
graded manner focussing on the higher vision of mathematics as described earlier. The focus is on the
child’s ability to think mathematically, see patterns and structures and handle abstractions rather than
rote memorisation or mastering procedures. Procedures often naturally ‘flow out’ of understanding a
concept. The TLM is used in early stages to build this understanding, but as the child gains confidence she
is encouraged to work on her own.
b) Co-operative Learning: Learning in peer groups has a positive impact on the learning. The Akshara
Ganitha methodology involves co-operative learning in small groups of children (5-6 in a group) with
mixed levels of achievement. In these groups the students who are already familiar with the concepts,
deepen their understanding by teaching other and students who are having difficulties in grasping a
concept.
c) Continuous Activity-based Assessments: Every child can and should learn math. But they learn at different
speeds and in different ways. Assessments help teachers know the level of understanding of each child in
particular concepts so that they can help in advancing that learning. It also serves as a feedback to the
teacher so that she can focus on particular concepts that are not understood by many children in her
class. Akshara Ganitha uses ‘mini’ activity based assessments on an on-going basis
d) On-going Teacher Support: To make this change happen, teachers need substantial support over an
extended period of two to three years. Apart from providing TLM and training, teachers need in-school
support to help them with practical issues they face in their classrooms as well as build a community of
practice of teachers that supports each other. Akshara Ganitha programme engages teachers from the
very first step and supports them for a substantial time so that a long term change in the culture of
teaching of math can be achieved.

Pedagogical Approach

The pedagogical concepts are grouped in four broad areas: Numbers & Operations; Geometry; Measurements;
Patterns, Data Handling and Problem Solving. The key components and strategies for each of these are shown
below:

Standards 4 & 5
Numbers & Focus on place value and its connection with all four operations. Addition and
Operations subtraction flows from understanding of place value. Multiplication introduced
using area model of multiplication. Division is introduced through partial division. In
each case, procedures are derived through introductory activities and then
reinforced through practice. Introduction to fractions and multiple meanings of
fractions. Decimals are introduced by developing connections with fractions and
place value.
Geometry Geometry is introduced as a mechanism of structuring the 3D space using 3D and 2D
shapes. Introduction of formal properties of shapes. Focus on spatial visualisation
involving representation and transformations of 2D/3D shapes.
Measurements Introduction of standard measurements for length, weight and volume and their
conversions. Using this measure in real life situations and connecting them to the
four numerical operations with decimals. Reading of clocks and calculations
involving simple durations either through counting or by calculations.
Data Handling, Deepening the understanding of number and visual / spatial patterns. Introduction
Patterns & to data collection and representation and drawing inferences from that. Emphasis
Problem Solving on age appropriate problem solving technique for numerical as well as spatial
reasoning.

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Programme Components

- Akshara Ganitha Kit: Each school is provided with an Akshara Ganitha kit with multiple teaching aids that
cover all the math concepts for Standards 4 and 5. The Akshara Ganitha Kit has Teaching-Learning
Materials (TLMs) like the Abacus; Base 10 Blocks; Place Value Strip;Fraction Strips; Geo Board; Clock;
Protractor; Play Money Notes; Measuring Tape and much more.
- Teacher Manual & Training Videos: A Teacher Manual describes the way a concept can be progressively
introduced and mastered using TLM and with written practice using square line notebooks. It also includes
ideas for games, formative assessments and areas that need special focus. A set of training video modules
demonstrate how the concept can be introduced using the math kit material.
- Teacher Training: An introductory 3-day training for teachers covering all the lower primary school math
concepts; introduces teachers to the philosophy, methodology and the use of TLM.

The Ganitha Kalika Andolana (GKA):

In February 2014, in the Budget Speech the Chief Minister of Karnataka who also happens to hold the Finance
portfolio made the following comment:

107. Akshara Foundation has developed Akshara Ganitha kits to facilitate teaching of Mathematics in simple
way to enable the 4th and 5th standard students to understand Mathematics. These kits will be provided to
students of Government schools in Hyderabad-Karnataka area in the first phase, in collaboration with Akshara
Foundation utilizing the assistance from Hyderabad-Karnataka Development Board.

Akshara Foundation has been actively advocating bringing in effective teaching/ learning material (TLM) in
primary schools to teach math to children in standards 4 and 5 along with building capacity in the public
education system to sustain this over the long term. This commitment by the state to take our programme to
all the 46,000 government schools in the state in a phased manner is a booster that will go a long way in
enabling better learning outcomes of children in the state over the long term.

How Does It Work

This unique initiative has six important components

 Government Order - Government buy-in is essential if we are to scale up. Our efforts are supported
by Government Orders (GOs) and subsequent letters issued to education department functionaries by
the state SSA and DSERT.
 Pedagogy - We have strong methodology and curriculum that we have created along with teaching /
learning materials. Click (http://akshara.org.in/en/resources/akshara-ganitha-resource/) here to
download our free math resources.
 Teacher training - is key and training has been conducted in a cascade mode. Training is backed by
sharing all our training modules (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxWlHsIoCtrl-
k5zd33RYUgwcSNGs07GG.
 Monitoring - We have a simple but powerful SMS monitoring process that is put in place to collate
reports from each school on how the programme is being implemented. This system is cost effective
yet efficient to produce actionable analytical reports that can be accessed https://klp.org.in/gka/ by
any stakeholder.
 Assessments – This is one of the key components of GKA and assessments of children are done using
an Android-based application
 Community Engagement – This is an important component to ensure sustainability. We have done
some interesting work here which includes conducting a math contest hosted at the Gram Panchayat
level. Click here http://akshara.org.in/wp-content/uploads/GP-Contest-Report-low-res.pdf to read
this exciting report. Collecting inputs from parents, community members, SDMC members, elected

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 reps, etc. has been a large part of our effort and this is now being captured via an Android-based app
(available on PlayStore) called KLP Konnect . Click https://klp.org.in/stories/ here for survey results.

The Ganitha Kalika Andolana (GKA ) was launched in the six districts of the Hyderabad Karnataka Region in the
academic year 2015-16. To facilitate this programme, the state government had issued a formal Government
Order granting exemption under Section 4G of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act. GKA till
date has been able to execute as follows:

(a) As per the Memorandum of Understanding between Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Akshara Foundation,
7,522 Akshara Ganitha kits were delivered by Akshara Foundation to schools in the districts of the
Hyderabad Karnataka Region maintaining high quality, timely delivery and within budget.
(b) Akshara Foundation trained a total of 1280 Resource Persons of the State, who in turn have trained
7827 teachers in the schools of this Region.
(c) Akshara Foundation have developed training video modules for all the math concepts for grades 4
and 5 and have made this available through distribution of DVDs at Block levels and through Gram
Panchayats and government high schools; through the website of Akshara Foundation
(www.akshara.org.in).
(d) The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the state DSERT have commissioned assessment studies through third
parties.
(e) Akshara Foundation has also been maintained a field support team in all 32 educational blocks of the
six districts of the Hyderabad Karnataka Region for over 20 months at a monthly cost of nearly Rs 12
lakhs. This staff has been trained and is available to support teachers and Cluster Resource Persons
(CRPs).

In the state Cabinet meeting held in July 2016, the government approved taking Ganitha Kalika Andolana
forward to an additional six districts - Dharwad, Gadag ,Chikkaballapur, Chamarajanagar, Chitradurga and
Bangalore Rural - a total of about 6500 schools. To have received this endorsement twice in a row is very
encouraging for us and along with our partners; we hope to be able to cover all 46,000 schools in the state by
2020. GKA Phase 2 is now ready to be rolled out to additional districts in the state.

Ensuring Sustainability
Ensuring sustainability is a key design goal. The aim is to leave an enduring footprint, and Akshara is working
with the Department of Education, Government of Karnataka to institutionalise GKA in schools. This will
happen through large scale advocacy efforts that includes advocacy inside government, capacity building of
the teachers and education department officials in Karnataka, advocacy with elected representatives at all
levels, advocacy through mainstream & social media and community efforts.

For the GKA program to be sustainable as well as scalable it is important for us to continue to partner with the
government. By March 2020, it is our goal that GKA should be implemented across all government primary
schools in Karnataka with the state funding the bulk of the total costs.

Partnership with the State Government

The state government will take care of the following:
(i) Issue a formal Government Order to implement this programme in the districts selected and
mentioning the role of Akshara Foundation in the implementation.
(ii) Organize for the speedy execution of the process of procuring Akshara Ganitha kits and making
them available in all government schools in the selected districts. Delays in the procurement and
availability of kits in the schools will have an adverse impact on the programme.
(iii) Organize for all Cluster Resource Persons (CRPs) and Block-level resource persons to utilize the
IVRS / SMS-based tools developed by Akshara Foundation to report on the rollout of the

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 programme. Akshara, in turn, will generate reports based on this data and share them with CRPs
and block-level personnel as also with senior officials of the Education Department in the state.
(iv) Organize for the training of CRPs and teachers in the selected districts in a speedy manner.
(v) Instruct all Education Department officials on this implementation and requesting them to
support Akshara Foundation field staff in making this happen.

GKA – Technological Innovations

In the first phase of GKA, we ensured that the Akshara Ganitha kits were delivered to every school ; we also
managed to train all the state Resource Persons and they, in turn, have trained about 8,000 school teachers.
Now we should be able to ensure that this investment by all of us is actually making a difference to teachers
and children on the ground and therefore we felt the need to have some simple tools that will help us
understand the rollout of the programme and help us identify and focus on the weak areas.
1) SMS Based Process - In 2015-16, we tried a IVRS-based solution and we found that:

 Call cost was too expensive on a per call basis.

 Calls would drop in the middle of the response making calls invalid and costing money as well
 There were too many questions in the application.
 Since there is a need to get actionable responses we need to reduce the number of
questions.

The above were the deficiencies that need to be addressed. In addition, there has been a directive from the
state Government that all CRPs should also be using this process. The state is not comfortable with IVRS and
hence, based on the states as well as our needs we have now come up with a SMS based process. The use of
technology solutions in the project will improve the efficiency of the program.
With the data collected from this we can do the following:

 If there are untrained teachers in the schools (which can happen because of transfers etc.) we can
make requests for teachers to be trained by CRPs and trained Resource Persons.
 If the number of schools where we do NOT see math happening is high, then we can (a) change our
travel schedule to ensure we are in the schools while math is happening ; (b) find out why math is not
happening and see if there are possible solutions
 Wherever we see GKA TLM not being used we can flag those areas out to CRPs and BEOs on a regular
basis for correctional action by them.
 Wherever we see pedagogic principles not being used we can flag those areas out to CRPs and BEOs
on a regular basis for correctional action by them.
 The Resource Group can take this data on a monthly basis and show trends by District or by Block on
a quarterly basis. These reports can then be used by Akshara people to share with CRPs and BEOs and
express our concerns wherever the trend is not good.

2) Learning outcomes are evaluated the use of an in-house Android App. By equipping our field team with the
app installed on electronic tablets, we will be able to test children every month in the whole district. Children
will be randomly selected in a class and given the tab to individually solve a set of questions. These
assessments will help us understand how learning happens.

We thank you for your interest and look forward to your support in ensuring that Every Child is in School and
Learning Well.

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