This officer’s journey has been inspiring from working at the top level in government to starting an organization from ground zero. Dhir Jhingran was one of the most outstanding Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers. He has demonstrated that officers can not only perform while in service, they can pursue their passion and make a difference outside it as well. His passion was primary education. This passion made him give up the IAS and set up Language and Learning Foundation (LLF) in 2015. His work in the school education sectors spans over 30 years, with almost 22 of those years of work within the government at the state and national level. He made a difference everywhere
The focus of LLF has been on improvement of foundational learning among young children from preschool until grade 3. Strong early language and literacy skills are the basis of all future learning in school. LLF has been working on and implementing a variety of professional development opportunities for teachers, teacher educators, and other stakeholders in the realm of early grade student learning, with a specific focus on language and literacy.
The severe learning crisis in India is well known. A pragmatic approach is essential to launch the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) Mission across states having multilingual habits. Despite increased access to education (with 97% children enrolled in schools), recent learning assessments reveal that many children are leaving school unequipped with even foundational literacy and numeracy skills.
LLF’s intervention models are thus based upon such investigation and research into the conditions of foundational literacy in primary education. It not only focuses on continuous professional development of teachers, but also puts emphasis upon system reforms and school-level intervention to create an invincible and sustainable model of accelerated teaching-learning methods.
LLF has been successful in establishing strong partnerships with various state governments during that past six years to revamp the foundational literacy skills of children studying in government schools. Most of these children often come from disadvantaged backgrounds. With Dhir’s guidance and vast experience of working within and outside the government, LLF has brought a new dimension in boosting foundational literacy skills in government schools through a blended teaching-learning model. It has had an exceptional track record in delivering learning outcome-based programs in Haryana and other states.
The NGO currently operates in seven different geographies running a variety of Early Language and Literacy (ELL) and Multilingual Education (MLE) Programs. Besides this, its technical support and school-level interventions have been instrumental in bringing much-needed behavioural changes within schools themselves.
LLF OPERATES KEEPING THESE FOUR PRINCIPLES IN MIND:
1. Strong foundational literacy skills are the basis for all later learning in school.
2. Children’s home languages need to find a place in early-grade classrooms.
3. Many teachers are willing to learn and bring about a change in their classrooms.
4. LLF’s work should be at a reasonable scale, for which we need to work with the public education system.
LLF strongly abides by the belief that efforts to establish foundational literacy should be at a reasonable scale and in close collaboration with the public education system, especially with that of the state governments. LLF’s capacity-building programs have been strategic in transforming teaching-learning in early grades in government schools. This will ensure that children’s learning outcomes improve, and they are able to read with advanced comprehension and higher order thinking skills.
Children’s primary or home languages also need to be recognised and utilised in early-grade classrooms. This is one of the most crucial aspects of LLF’s work, which has also been emphasised greatly in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. LLF has been implementing high-quality sustainable programs for improving children’s foundational learning at scale, with the firm belief that strong foundational literacy skills are the basis for all later learning in school.
LLF has also adopted an ‘Equity Oriented Approach’ by shifting focus on the tail, through revision, spiralling, and differentiated instruction for disadvantaged children. Another key feature of this approach is using school-based assessments as a metric to create differentiated learning opportunities, along with active engagement of all children.
LLF has been working tirelessly to improve foundational learning outcomes in underprivileged children of several states in India by working with the national Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) Mission. LLF has also attempted to clarify many misconceptions regarding the use of children›s mother tongues and has given a clear roadmap for implementing multilingual teaching under the new education policy.
LLF has been conducting a large-scale foundational literacy program from 2017 in the State of Haryana. These involved teachers, teacher educators, district officials, local leaders, and CSR partners. This program was the foremost Development Impact Bond (DIB) that was based on an outcomes-based financing model. These outcomes were in line with the FLN Mission, in tandem with the goal set by NEP 2020 to achieve foundational literacy for all grade 3 learners by 2025.
Owing to the onset of the pandemic, this program was then pivoted into a home learning program. The initiative HarGhar School – meaning ‘a school in every home’ – is ensuring that every child can build strong foundational literacy skills, by facilitating constant student-teacher interactions and parent-teacher interactions to ensure and engage in learning development during the pandemic. The program began in August 2020 with 16,087 students to enable learning at home, and rose to an estimated 53,126 students in Haryana in December 2020. The program was conducted until March 2021 with the support of volunteers.
LLF has also launched a number of online courses and training as a COVID response for the capacity building of teachers and teacher educators, such as the 5-week online course on early language and literacy (ELL) development, the online capacity building program on ELL, and an online course and training on multilingual education (MLE).
LLF works with various state governments and has been recognized as a domain leader in language and literacy learning and multilingual education. It is also implementing India’s first CSR-funded education DIB through its Learning Improvement Program in Haryana. Its work has garnered support from leading education philanthropies including Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Central Square Foundation, Tata Trusts, HT Parekh Foundation, and UNICEF.
LLF is currently carrying out a large scale FLN initiative in one of India’s largest states, Uttar Pradesh. It has been closely working with the state education department to provide state-wide technical assistance, capacity building training programs, development of remedial packages, and demo intervention models to the state under Mission Prerna.
With the support of various CSR partners, LLF now works with the governments of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, and Delhi in various capacities to design and deliver state-led foundational learning programs.
From a one-member team in 2015 to 140+ members across seven offices in 2021, LLF has come a long way. Here is a look at our cumulative impact:
• 5,000+ teachers and teacher educators trained through professional development courses
• 3,10,000 students benefited from improved learning experiences
By 2023, LLF will influence the classroom practices of 8,00,000 teachers and teacher educators in collaboration with state governments. This has the potential to benefit the learning experiences of 30 million children.
This former civil servant, Dhir Jhingran has proved that one can contribute to social development from outside the government as well and in partnership with it. It didn’t really matter to him where he was. He made-it-happen everywhere on account of his passion, commitment and vision. He could take people along with him and build teams in pursuit of his dream.
Anil Swarup has served as the head of the Project Monitoring Group, which is currently under the Prime Minister’s Offic. He has also served as Secretary, Ministry of Coal and Secretary, Ministry of School Education.