Niti Aayog report appreciates ‘Kalika Chetarike’ initiative of Karnataka

Bengaluru: The Niti Aayog has appreciated 'Kalika Chetarike', an initiative of the Karnataka government to address the learning gap created during Covid 19.

The programme redesigns classroom instruction for class 1 to 9 around clearly defined competencies rather than textbook-based syllabi, indicating a systemic shift towards competency-based learning (CBL),” a report of the Niti Aayog said.

The report is titled 'School Education System in India: Temporal Analysis and Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement'.

The report further mentions: “The initiative emphasises that classroom instruction be focused on attaining subject-wise, grade-specific learning outcomes through activities. Kalika Chetarike has successfully made academics more joyful for students and helped improve classroom engagement and learning levels.”

Due to the prolonged closure of schools during the pandemic, there was a huge learning gap among school children. The Department of School Educational Research and Training (DSERT) designed Kalika Chetarike, an activity-based learning to bring children back on the track. 

The activity books were designed by teachers through a series of workshops to cover specific learning outcomes aligned with grade-specific competencies. The programme promotes activity-based learning, encouraging active-participatory learning through group discussions, practical tasks and reflection-based learning in everyday classroom practice. It also includes a large-scale teacher training component undertaken by the DSERT. As many as two lakh teachers across the state were trained in activity-based learning, competency-based learning methods and assessment tools. 

Interestingly, the report pointed out broad decline in learning outcomes across the country. A cluster of states/UTs including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Delhi, Rajastan, Haryana, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu have reported reductions across subjects.

In contrast, a larger group of states such as Karnataka, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal recorded moderate decline, indicating that while learning levels fell, the extent of decline was less severe than the first group of states. 

Dropout rates

The dropout rates in secondary level is highest in West Bengal with 20%, followed by Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka with 18.3% each. 

Even the transition from secondary to higher secondary has reached 100% in Delhi and Chandigarh. High transition levels are also observed in Andaman & Nicobar Islands (92.5%), Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu (91.4%) and Lakshadweep (91.3%). 

However, transition rates remain lowest in Meghalaya (47.8%), followed by West Bengal, Mizoram and Karnataka. In Karnataka it is 62.5%.