This case study investigates how nongovernmental agencies work with the Indian government to implement education reform programs aimed at improving the quality of education for public school children. The project focuses on the K-12 government school system in Haryana, India, which is responsible for the education of over 2,200,000 students across 15,000 schools and employs over 100,000 teachers. Saksham Haryana — a state-wide education transformation program — was launched in July 2017 to transform school education across elementary schools in Haryana. The report finds that mentorship can improve pedagogy in government schools. Specifically, when key figures at the block level became “mentors” they became critical actors in delivering training and pedagogical support to teachers because they played the roles of auditors and mediators in enabling effective last-mile delivery of education services. However, their effectiveness depends upon the clear definition of their roles, the training offered to them, their qualities, and the relationship between the mentor and mentee (teacher).
Hard to Reach
The K-12 government education system in Haryana, India.
Key Takeaways
Mentors play a host of functions, making them critical in program implementation and furthering the state’s educational goals. The recommendations to strengthen mentorship in Haryana’s educational ecosystem include:
- Having a deeper understanding of the roles that mentors play in and out of the classroom is required to maximize their impact on teaching pedagogy.
- Training should be mandatory for all mentors.
- Because mentors need adequate time and resources to deliver on mentorship activities, their capacity must be considered when adding new tasks.
- Because of the importance of the mentor-mentee relationship, continued visits by the same mentor over longer periods may strengthen mentorship results.
- Governments should consider regularizing mentors in order to improve the program.
- Teachers’ capacity should refocus on teaching.
Researchers
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Avinash Kothuri
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Laísa Lima
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Hannah DeBacker
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Swathi Attavar Shailesh
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Kouta Ohyama
Mentors
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Maya Tudor
Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy; Director of Graduate Studies, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
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Akshay Mangla
Associate Professor of International Business, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Dr. Akshay Mangla, Dr. Maya Tudor, and the Reach Alliance team for their guidance throughout this process. We are grateful for the partnership of the Samagra team, particularly Aditya Chopra, Deepshikha Chhetri, Simran Bagga, and Soumya Gupta.