BENGALURU: The Kannada Development Authority (KDA) has asked the minister for school education and literacy to reconsider the continuation of the Nali Kali programme in schools.
A report by KDA says teachers at government primary schools have failed to utilise the 80-minute period each day meant for the Nali Kali project creatively. When the trained teachers retired, the guest teachers appointed in their place did not get the expected results as they did not receive appropriate training.
‘Nali Kali’ is a programme under which Class 1 to 3 children learn alphabets and Maths through various activities prescribed in the syllabus instead of rote learning under the guidance of the teacher.
It was first started in Heggadadevana Kote, Mysuru, in 1995-96 and expanded to all government Kannada medium schools in the state in 2010-11.
Purushottam Bilimalle, President of KDA, said, “Nali Kali is child-centric programme where teacher has to be alert to make it happen. Out of the total 80 minutes of class time, children should be engaged in group activities for the first 10 minutes. In the next 10 minutes, students should identify their learning position or ability, take the relevant colour cards and learning materials and use them appropriately. In the third 10 minutes, the teacher should guide the children in the right way.
If the teacher gives instructions in the right way, learning will continue effectively. In the next 40 minutes, the learning process continues through teaching. In the last 10 minutes, the child’s learning is evaluated.
The teacher should engage children through games, songs, stories, pictures and other activities.” He added, “Teachers have to continuously record and evaluate the progress of students which is a laborious task. Since teachers are already burdened with many other tasks, they have not been able to manage it effectively.”
In a total of 60 government schools surveyed by the KDA team across Karnataka, teachers have failed to form groups of children of Class 1, 2 and 3 by recognising their level of learning and ability to improve it. Thus, impacting the language learning and numeracy skills, the report stated.
The report also says that children who studied under the Nali Kali scheme up to the third class are finding it difficult to adapt to a different system in the fourth class. It has not improved the quality of language learning in primary education. The impact of this is clearly visible in the later stages of education especially in Class 4 to 10.
The department has also failed to supply sufficient learning materials (stickers, picture lists, charts, etc.) required to conduct classes. Failing to understand the importance of this programme and lack of teachers at schools, most parents have admitted their children to private schools resulting in the decrease of admissions in government schools, the report found.