| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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While in Gujarat there has been notable focus and effort on enrolment which have brought a fare share of success for primary education, learning outcomes and quality provided in primary education remained a concern. There was a need to assess the quality of education and to further improve it on a child to child basis.
This was the primary objective of the UID based child tracking project – To be able to track each and every child and collect details ranging from their social class, personal details and enrolment details to details regarding their performance and learning outcomes.
As a part of the strategy, the first step was to identify how children will be tracked individually. Taking inspiration from Aadhar, the Education department decided to use the system of unique identification of children to individually track all children and their education life cycle.
After studying the requirement, the department came up with an 18 digit unique number which can be allotted to each child. This number could be linked to enrolment and academic records for comprehensive tracking.
Digits 1 – 11 ---->School Code
Digits 12-13 ----->Admission Year
Digit 14 -------> Gender
Digits 15-18 -------> Serial Number
The next part of the strategy was to understand how the unique ID can be utilised for tracking and what are the various parameters which can be captured. To capture all data comprehensively, the UID was linked to student details such as Name, DOB, DOA, gender, social class, BPL/APL category, performance in various subjects etc. To actually make this initiative productive, the information on learning outcome of each child was provided to Gunotsav which is again an Education Department initiative to strengthen the quality of learning. In Gunotsav, the students are assessed and the assessment is shared back to the respective schools of enrolment. The feedback is used to conduct remedial classes for children to address their weakness. This is done at a state wide level thereby providing a very personalized experience for each child.
Now that all students and their education lifecycles were being tracked, it was also possible to understand how many students have benefited from various government schemes and how many of them remain uncovered. This helped to focus efforts on the beneficiaries which were not covered and also helped to reduce duplication of efforts.
One of the biggest parts of the overall strategy was that such comprehensive database of the students was being utilised for effective policy formulation at the state level. Since child wise data was available, trends in data could be identified to formulate policies and draw a roadmap for the department. To cater to this portion of the strategy, several MIS modules were made to provide information based on different criteria.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The project has been conceptualized and implemented under the guidance of SSA-MIS , Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Gujarat Council of Elementary Education.
Initially, data of 87 Lacs students was collected through Cluster Resource center and School user as nodal point for data entry.
A central interface team also called as District Team & Block Team (DMIS/BMIS) were reeponsible for monitoring the data entry work at CRC (Cluster Resource Co-coordinators).
Involvement for Implementation:
The following team members have participated for successful implementation of the System:
1.State Management Information System (MIS) Team – It has all rights with summarized reports for all districts
2.District MIS Team – Responsible for Monitoring Block/CRC/School Level work progress.
3.Block MIS Team and Block Resource Centre (BRC) Coordinators - Responsible for up gradation and monitoring of end users ex. Cluster Users and School Users.
4.Cluster Resource Centre (CRC) Coordinators - Responsible for performing data entry of every child under all schools.
Following are the users of the application:
1.Education Department
2.State Project Office, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Gujarat
3.26 District Project Offices and 4 Corporation Project Offices
4.26 District Education Committees and Municipal School Boards
5.239 Block Resource Centers
6.4268 Cluster Resource Centers
7.42,394 Schools including Pvt Aided/Unaided having Elementary Section
8.Educationalists, Researchers, Social Workers, NGOs and any layman who are able to check existing facilities under Elementary Education
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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GCEE, SSA has implemented the Child Tracking System with the help of its own project team that has been working with SSA for quite some time.
The following team members have participated for successful implementation of the System:
1.State Management Information System (MIS) Team
2.District MIS Team
3.Block MIS Team and Block Resource Centre (BRC) Coordinators
4.Cluster Resource Centre (CRC) Coordinators
SSA maintains an in house team of programmers who have been given the responsibility of designing and developing this system. So no additional finances are required by SSA. The maintenance of the system is also the responsibility of this team and they continuously monitor and update the site.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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1.Child wise records captured with details like student name, parents name, birth date, address and incentives/benefits received from Government
2.A database of 87.0 lac students generated through web based application “Aadhaar Enable DISE” by assigning unique identification to each student
3.Self Assessment imparted using OMR sheet pre-printed with student name
4.The efforts put in by the SSA based on the information available through this system has led to a decrease of absenteeism and drop outs
5.Maintaining student's database online with quick & easy access across all schools (under tribal & govt. schools) by linking the facility with enrolment and academic records
6.Comprehensive tracking of learning outcomes and learning needs of every child and focusing on efforts needed to strengthen their learning outcomes.
7.All students under elementary schooling system covered under system
8.Dealing with core objectives under elementary education like restricting fake enrollment, Dropout, retention and universalization of elementary education
9. Child wise records captured with details useful for impact assessments and planning
10. Self Assessment has been executed using OMR sheet pre-printed with student name and unique ID. The progress of each child is tracked using the learning outcomes and based on them, fresh measures are taken to provide more trained teaches and better facilities.
11.Unique identification number for the students moving inside or outside the Education System
12.Planning for the interventions based on personal identification; considering who will be benefited or who was benefited before to reduce duplication of efforts.
13.Exact estimation for critical educational indicators possible through accurate child wise data available instead of vague numerical figures
14.Comprehensive database equips the department with a powerful tool to formulate policies and make better decisions.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The project was monitored by the MIS team which is based out of Gandhinagar under the leadership of the State Project Director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
A central interface team also called as District Team & Block Team (DMIS/BMIS) monitors the CRC (Cluster Resource Co-coordinators) & Schools to track schools including the facility, academic records and helpdesk operations form distribution across all the schools.
The stakeholders are trained adequately to handle system maintenance, data collection, compilation & updation. They are also being reviewed constantly on regular basis based on report utilities and facilities of the system and other source of data available i.e. DISE available for verification. Toll Free Help Desks are also playing a vital role for monitoring
The tools that are used for monitoring the project progress are listed below:
1. Query Builder Report allows user to create reports of student details as per their own requirements
2. Age Wise Enrollment Summary is summarizing every school with overage and underage student details.
3. Class Wise Enrollment Summary for all academic year.
4. Social Category Wise Enrollment Summary for all academic year.
5. Religion Wise Enrollment Summary for all academic year.
6.Incomplete reporting from schools - The information is being shared through Newspaper Advertisements for awareness regarding the system and mandate of Right to Free & Compulsory Education Act 2009. So, the Unique ID was made mandatory in all educational documents of the Students including School Leaving Certificate, Migration Card etc. vide Government Resolution No. PRE-1414-4191-K dated 21.11.2013.
7.Untraced Children - Records are being updated for students transferring from one school to another and large number of them are being traced whether they are enrolled as per update entry of parent school as a result of mandate of Unique ID, its acceptance and continuous consultations - reviews with stakeholders.
8.Duplicate Entries - Leaving Certificate with Unique Id and database with primary key constraints on various field like Date of Birth, General Register No. etc.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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Although system has incorporated systematic mechanism to map all Elementary Schools in GIS environment, there were few issues addressed during implementation.
1.Incomplete reporting from schools
As the records are being updated since the last two years, it was found that some children are not reported / updated in the system although schools were reporting their students. The information was shared through Newspaper Advertisements for awareness regarding the system and mandate of Right to Free & Compulsory Education Act 2009. So, the Unique ID was made mandatory in all educational documents of the Students including School Leaving Certificate, Migration Card etc. vide Government Resolution No. PRE-1414-4191-K dated 21.11.2013. This obstacle was overcome by the focused efforts of the Government.
2.Coverage - lower response from Pvt. Unaided / Aided Schools
Initially, a large number of Pvt. Aided and Unaided schools were not reporting their students' records. Through Press Notes, schools were warned that their recognition would be cancelled if they fail to comply with this system. Moreover, the Government Resolutions aided the mechanism of institutionalization of Unique ID in all authentic documents. This helped in overcoming these obstacles.
3.Untraced Children
During the second consecutive year of implementation, it seemed that records were not updated for students taking a transfer from one school to another and/or a large number of them could not be traced at all. This issue was resolved due to mandate of Unique ID, its acceptance and continuous consultations - reviews with stakeholders.
4.Duplicate Entries
Earlier, the students who were transferred with Leaving Certificate from parent schools were enrolled again as a new entrant at the receiving school instead of their records being updated in the entries made by their parent school. It was overcome after making Unique ID mandatory in Leaving Certificate.
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