CHAPTER I[Concept and Content]
Literacy levels acquired by neo-literates during the short span of a literacy campaign are at best fragile.
There is a genuine danger that neo-literates may regress into partial or total illiteracy unless timely action is undertaken to consolidate their learning skills and make them
permanent. This is the rationale for post literacy. The National Literacy Mission has visualized the post literacy programme as an extension of the Total Literacy Campaigns in the continuum of life-long education. Each Total Literacy Campaign is followed by the Post-literacy phase of one-year duration, to be implemented in a mission mode. A post literacy programme envisages 40 hours of guided learning in contrast to 200 hours of teaching-learning during the Total literacy
phase. This is because post literacy is focused not merely on enhancing the learning skills of the neo-literates; its aims are broader. Post literacy seeks to ingrain the reading habit in the
neo-literate and to make him use his literacy skills in his day-to-day existence. It also serves as an umbrella under which a host of developmental activities are undertaken. Skill development forms a major component of post literacy and enterprising district collectors have been able to dovetail skill development with the on-going development schemes in the district very innovatively. Post literacy phase is also the time when linkages with other development departments and schemes are forged in right earnest. Health, Rural Development and Environment are some of the areas in which this convergence is sought. The Jan Chetna Kendras or 'clusters' are being used as an 'open window' for dissemination of information of other development departments and schemes. Many districts have brought out simplified booklets on development schemes for neo-literates that have enabled the neo-literate to make informed choices. A village library movement is yet another initiative that has been launched by the districts in the post-literacy phase. There is a great scope for creation of a pool of literature and districts are encouraged to hold writers' workshops and encourage local talent to write stories including folk tales in the local languages, apart from encouraging neo-literate newsletters and magazines. The post literacy programme also undertakes a 'mopping up operation' to enable those who had dropped out of the campaign or were unable to achieve the NLM norms, to attain them through remediation. In keeping with the belief that each district is unique and its requirements are district specific, the NLM has avoided offering a single model for post-literacy. Instead it has been left to the local genius of the Zila Saksharta Samiti to create a model which suits the specific needs of the district and its learners. To ensure that there is no time lag between the conclusion of the basic literacy phase and the start of post literacy activities which could result in
regression for neo-literates, NLM has laid a great deal of emphasis on the planning and launching of Post Literacy Programmes. These are sanctioned when 25% of the learners have completed Primer II. Thus the Total Literacy Phase and Post Literacy Phase overlap in most districts. A quick survey is undertaken at the launch of the post literacy campaigns as the target group of post literacy includes not only the
neo-literates emerging out of the literacy campaigns but other learners at different levels of literacy as well . A system of external evaluation has been envisaged to assess the achievements of the district in fulfilling the goals of post literacy, . Post literacy evaluation concentrates not merely on evaluating learning skills but also on other themes of post literacy including convergence with other development programmes, skill upgradation etc. In keeping with the NLM's thrust on transparency and objectivity, the agencies assigned to undertake the final evaluation are external to the state. Post literacy campaigns are successfully ensuring that neo-literates make a smooth transition from guided learning to self-learning so that they can proceed towards life-long education. MAIN FEATURESI. Is be treated as a preparatory stage for Continuing Education (CE)-Eventual dovetailing of PLP into CE to be constantly kept in mind.
III. TRAINING (a) KRPs to be trained by SRC only. (b) MTs to be trained by KRPs at district level only. (c) VTs (PRERAK) to be trained by MTs at Block , Mandal or Panchayat level. (To be taken up within 15 days of receiving funds from GOI). Day 1 - Orientation and motivation. New Features of PLP. Redefining role as prerak in PLP as opposed to role as VT in TLC. How survey and E.B. been conducted. Day 2 - What is mopping up and how to do it. Conducting Teaching/Learning of PI/PII/PIII and PL-1. Day 3 - Literature and role of SRC. How to run the library. How to organise training programmes. How to handle sales counter. Day 4 - Skill building components. Day 1 - Feedback and interaction. Day 2 - Teaching/Learning. Progress of up. Progress of PL-1 transaction. Review of Library activities. Stock-taking of receipt of books and titles. Day 3 - Full scale review of skill building activities. Review of dissemination of awareness about issues of development, empowerment etc. V. ACTIVITIES TO BE TAKEN UP IN A CLUSTER VI. ROLE OF PRERAK IN LIBRARY FUNCTIONS VII. NEO-LITERATE LITERATURE VIII. SKILL DEVELOPMENT XI. ROLE OF SRC X. PREPARATION FOR CE XI. NEW FINANCIAL PARAMETERS
CHAPTER II2.0 TOTAL LITERACY CAMPAIGNS2.1 SELF EVALUATIONSelf evaluation of learning outcomes of the enrolled lear4ners has been built into the body of the three primers used in the TLCs. Each primer contains three tests and it has been assumed that if a learner attempts these tests he/she will have a fairly reliable idea of his learning strengths and weaknesses. This self evaluation would enable the learner to perceive his own pace and progress of learning and should heighten his motivation. The terminal tests (T-3, T-6 and T-9) are used for the internal evaluation of the campaign. the records of completion of T-3 , T-6 and T-9 by the learners are supposed to be maintained at the
village/Panchayat levels. Beside the self-evaluation of the learners and internal evaluation of the campaign, every campaign districts is subject to two more evaluations namely 'Concurrent Evaluation' (process evaluation) which is carried out by the agencies within the State and 'Evaluation' (summative evaluation) which is carried out by agencies outside the State . The concurrent evaluation focuses on various activities in the process of implementation of the programme so as to detect bottlenecks, short-falls and deficiencies and suggest corrective measures to ensure optimum efficiency. Summative evaluation, which is normally executed at the end of the programme , mainly focuses on leaning outcomes success rate
vis-à-vis the target and the impact of the campaign on the social , cultural and economic environment of the Project are. This new approach of evaluation adopted by NLM is aimed at ensuring complete transparency and thus enhancing the credibility of the results declared. 3.1 A comprehensive and objective evaluation of each phase of the literacy programme has always been a part of the strategy of the National Literacy Mission to help the programme attain its objectives and obtain valuable feedback about its at the district level. It is thus only desirable that the methodology of such evaluations is standardized to lend them adequate comparability without which they lose part of their utility. However , such standardisation should be done separately for the basic literacy, Post - literacy and continuing education phases of the programme. This is because there are modifications in the immediate objectives of the programme as the programme
progressed form one phase to the next. Evaluation methodologies too therefore need corresponding modifications. One can, therefore,
specify the objectives of the evaluation of the post - literacy programme at two levels:- general objectives and specific objectives. To attain the above objectives, the evaluating agencies may split their study into two parts-Mid-term Evaluation and final evaluating in case of post literacy projects sanctioned for tow year duration . The Mid-term Evaluation will be undertaken after the programme has completed nearly half of its planned duration. Its purpose is not to pass judgment about the effectiveness of PLP , but to identify the shortcomings and bottlenecks and suggest corrective measures to the ZSS. It would essentially be a process evaluation. The Final Evaluation of PLP will be carried out at the end of the programme and it will be more or less and impact evaluation. In the case of Projects sanctioned for one year duration only , the objectives of the mid-term evaluation will be merged with final evaluation. Thus only one final evaluation will be undertaken for PL Programmes of one year duration and this will be towards the end of the programme. CHAPTER III4.1 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF MID-TERM EVALUATION The Mid-term evaluation, as mentioned before , is a process
evaluation. Therefore certain local variations in processes are quite likely. But one can easily identify the following dimensions as the specific as the specific objectives of the Mid-term Evaluation. 4.2 PURPOSE The Purpose and spirit behind the Mid-term Evaluation is to study the bottlenecks, difficulties, problems and obstacles and discuss them with the ZSS to enable them to improve the Programme. The role of the evaluating agency would be to help and guide. The evaluating agency is to be considered a part and parcel of the programme with the only difference that it is not there to 'cover up' but to "unearth", and thus to help ZSS and NLM to weed out obstacles and facilitate healthy growth of the programme. Every Post -literacy campaign is supposed to design and implement an effective Management Information System (MIS) which can generate useful information to facilitate effective decision making . An effective MIS clearly reflects the health of the programme. The success of failure of the literacy programmes may be attributed to factors such as motivation of learners, administration and supervision, environment building efforts, training of functionaries, conducting teaching/learning activities etc. The only way to ascertain the effectiveness of the activities or inputs essential for the attainment of the stated goal is to evaluate them during the process of implementation itself so that appropriate remedial measures can be taken at the right time .Thus , the mid-term evaluation of the activities becomes unavoidable and crucial in goal attainment. The brief report prepared by the agency after the completion of the mid-term evaluation should be submitted to the District Collector immediately. A discussion may then be held on the deficiencies noticed and corrective measures suggested to improve the implementation of the programme. (The evaluator may, however, modify this list depending upon the local specificities) A suitable database for attaining this objective will be a survey in the sample villages. Besides conducting the learners' tests, a supplementary questionnaire should be administered to the learners asking whether they have used their literacy skills in the activities/situations listed above. The ZSS may be requested first to furnish the details about the activities that it had undertaken in this regard. Both the list of activities as well as well as the duration, frequency and location of each vocational/skill development programmes should be provided. The ZSS should also furnish the details about the arrangements made to establish linkages with development departments such as DIC/ DRDA / DWACRA /TRYSEM / Health / Agriculture / Animal husbandry/Jan Shiksha Sansthans etc., in the sampled villages. The supplementary survey may be conducted to collect information directly from the learners about: Discussion with knowledgeable persons (both in the sample villages or elsewhere) may also yield valuable information about the extent and effectiveness of vocational/skill development programmes during PLP in the district Several indicators are available to assess the efforts towards empowerment of women. Some of them are: Both the ZSS and the responsible persons at the villages / district headquarters may provide the required information on all the above indicators. The evaluator should also collect information about the role played by ZSS , other NGO's , government departments and
Panchayat bodies in initiating or supporting such women empowerment activities . Selected case studies will also be of great relevance in attaining objective. The NLM provides financial resources to the ZSS for supplying adequate reading materials to the neo-literates during the PLP t help them retain and upgrade their literacy skills. The supplementary survey in the sample villages may collect information from neo-literates directly whether they have received such reading material and whether they had found them useful. Further , the ZSS may also provide the details about which books they had procured (along with the quantity) and the mode of distribution . Finally, a set of distributed reading materials might be examined by some experts (on preparation of literacy materials)
vis-à-vis their language style, content and other relevant dimensions.
This can be done by observing and examining the records of the books, magazines, news-papers/letters etc. which are available with the Prerak. The observation will include the number of the reading materials available, the number of persons making use of the library daily/weekly / monthly , the role of the Prerak in helping the users in locating and understanding the required material , and helping with further references if desired, display of books and other reading material in the library, upkeep of the library , adequacy of arrangements for the sitting of users, lighting of the reading room, library timings and its suitability to users, any sale facility available for popular reading materials, any sale done so far and the number of persons donating books, magazines , furniture, darries and money etc. to the library. The literacy programme in India , as envisaged by the NLM, is a long - term one and the primary agency entrusted with the responsibility of implementing the programme is the ZSS , a non - government organisation. The organisational strength of the ZSS is obviously
an essential pre-condition for the success of PLP (and later the CE programme). An evaluation of its organisational strength should therefore ideally be a part of the PLP evaluation too. A suggestive list of the markets of the organisational strength of any ZSS are as follows: The proposed survey of the sample villages for other dimensions of PLP evaluation would automatically provide an opportunity to the evaluator to assess the strength of the ZSS along the indicators mentioned above. For further information, the evaluator may have discussions with ZSS officials as well as examine the records maintained at the ZSS office. A third source of information about the activities and strength of the ZSS would be newspapers reports on the organisation. CHAPTER IV1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The National Literacy Mission has sanctioned some post literacy projects of two years duration in certain districts in the past. But currently the practice is to sanction post literacy programmes for one year duration only. Therefore , the time for the final evaluation of these two projects also differs. In the case of a project sanctioned for two years, the final evaluation will be undertaken during the 23rd month of the project. A project which has been sanctioned for only one year will be finally evaluated during the 11th month of the project. While the evaluating agency will evaluate, the sampled villages/learning centres and the ZSS will undertake the evaluation of the rest of the learners simultaneously. 2.1 The final evaluation will be carried out at the end of the PLP programme. This May also be called impact Evaluation / Impact study. It may be mentioned here that detail impact evaluation was kept out of the External evaluation of TLC for the primary reason that the agency would not have the time to carry out an in-depth study and that the impact of programmes such as literacy can only be seen after a sufficient lapse of time. By the end of the PL programme , however , the impact can be studied meaningfully . The isolation of the effects of a literacy programme is not an easy research task when, as we know , there are many other casual factors and programmes operating . It will
therefore, necessary to design appropriate tools by applying analytical methods and carefully out field surveys to bring out the impact scientifically. 2.2 The experience gained during the Mid-term Evaluation and findings of the same will be quite useful in planning the Final evaluation and the preparation of tools . since the evaluation agency would have made certain suggestions to the Zilla Saksharata Samiti during the Mid-term Evaluation, the actions taken and their effectiveness can also be studied. 4.0 METHODOLOGY The following methodology is suggested taking into consideration each of the objectives as enumerated above: 4.1 To study to what extent the corrective measures suggested during the midterm evaluation have been undertaken by the ZSS For attaining this objective, it will be necessary to dialogue with the ZSS functionaries at the district level and also at the block level about the application of corrective measures suggested in the report of the Mid-term Evaluation should be covered . The reasons, if any, for not taking steps for any of these corrective measures should also be reported. This can be assessed by taking 2% random sample of the re-survey carried out at the beginning of the PLP. The agency should obtain the resurvey records from the ZSS and randomly select 2% sample from these. The sample obtained can be crosschecked in the field. The information regarding the various environment activities carried out can be had from the ZSS functionaries and crossed checked at the field level from the formal and non-formal leaders, the key-resource persons and the
Preraks . After ascertaining this the impact of the most important activities on the community in general and on the learners in particular can be assessed by preparing the appropriate proformae for each of the selected activity.
4.4 To accurately estimate the success of the mopping - up operation The evaluating agency has to collect information by studying the records maintained by the ZSS regarding the number of non-literates enrolled during the TLC, number of dropouts during the TLC campaign period , number of the enrolled learners who have achieved NLM norms, the number of learners who could not achieve NLM norms and the number of new non - literate entrants because of the time taken at the TLC phase . The success will be estimated by taking the universe to be the number of non-literates who could not join TLC , the number of enrolled learners who dropped out during the campaign period, the number of learners who could not attain the NLM norms and the new non-literate
entrants. The next step is to determine how many of these have been covered under the mopping-up operation and how many have achieved NLM
norms. This has to be done on a sample basis taking 5% sample of the learners under the mopping -up operation and testing them as per TLC test papers for reading , writing and numeracy. This information will be available with the ZSS and can be cross checked from the files. This information would be available with the ZSS & must be cross checked at the learners' level. This would include those made literate in the TLC phase as well as those made literate in the PLC phase. The information would be available with the ZSS but must be carefully and accurately compiled. The details of the post literacy material can be had from the ZSS along with their distribution . A set of distributed materials must be examined by some experts
vis-à-vis their language style , content and other relevant dimensions. The extent to which these materials reached the learners, were appreciated and made use of by them must be assessed. The information can be collected by examining the records available in the libraries about the borrowing of books , observing the functioning of libraries and by interviewing the neo-literates about the above mentioned aspects. The evaluating agency could get this information by examining the records available with the ZSS , interviewing the master trainers, key
resource persons and the preraks/VTs and observing them in the filed situation. The main focus of the study will be assess whether the skill development programme have contributed toward economic advancement. Since there is emphasis on women's development , it should be studied whether additional economic opportunities were created for women with a view to achieve economic independence. self employment/income generating opportunities provided due to skill development programmes must be assessed . 4.14 To study the extent to which the learners in particular and the community in general are able to overcome the impediments which stand in their way of socio-economic development It is possible to identify various impediments/problems and find out the steps initiated to overcome them. The impediments/problems could also be analyzed by considering various structures, such as caste and community structure , market structure financial structure etc. In addition , there may be administrative and procedural impediments. Various issues/aspects need to be covered taking into consideration the local conditions in the district under study. 4.15 To study the impact of the activities initiated for the empowerment of women The first step would be to review the activities implemented in specified areas such as health, education, mother-child care, family welfare , thrift and savings , legal awareness etc. Activities on social issues initiated by women, such as anti-liquor movement , demand for drinking water, functioning of ration shops, etc. should be studied. It should be ascertained whether self-propelling groups of women were organised. Thereafter their functioning would need to be assessed. In addition to the inquiries with the ZSS , focus group discussions would be useful for this purpose. A number of items could be listed for studying the impact on the individual learners and a questionnaire could be listed for studying the impact on that basis which can then be canvassed to sample learners by the interview method. some indicative items are: The list could be enlarged by adding relevant items of special importance for the study - district. This is a crucial part of the final evaluation and a well designed questionnaire will have to be developed for the purpose. 8.0 CONSTRUCTION OF THE TEST PAPER A test paper to measure all the competencies (reading , writing and numeracy) at a somewhat higher level will be developed by the evaluating agency to test whether knowledge and skill have increased as compared to the TLC level. 10.0 QUALITY OF PL INDEX The Post Literacy Phase has a number of objectives. All of them have to be evaluated. But the importance of certain objectives is comparatively more than the other objective. Therefore , the quality of PL index has been suggested giving due consideration to the importance of the objectives. A scheme of weighted has been prepared (see annexure). It is a composite index based on the performance of a district in respect of the 17 listed objectives. Thus, by this method, districts can be compared on their performance. The study must be completed within 80-90 days after the signing of the contract and the release of the first installment by the ZSS. A calendar of activities with indicative time frames is placed at Annexure-II. Indicative budget for the final evaluation is Rs.3 to 4 lakhs depending upon the size of the sample and the terrain of the district concerned. CHAPTER VThe performance of the TLC districts were easy to compare as the main objective of the campaign was acquisition of 3 Rs by the learners. It is the foundation on which a neo-literate is to erect a structure of his/her own liking, based upon his / her left short-term and long-term needs. But during the Post-literacy phase (PLP) the objectives of the programmes are not easily measurable in terms of scores/percentages and aggregates. It is clear that certain objectives of the PLP are more important then the others. For example , acquiring a higher level of literacy, mopping up operation, preparation and procurement of reading material suitable for neo-literates, extending library facilities, undertaking the corrective measures suggested by the evaluating agency, estimating the number of neo-literates (TLC+PLC) ensuring the quality of the training programmes for preraks may be more important than the other objectives. Therefore, attainment of a more valued objective is to be appreciated more. It is therefore, obvious that if the achievements of the districts are to be compared with those of others, the objectives must be assigned comparative weights. In short , it is essential to suggest a common applicable methodology for reaching an objective assessment for the sake of making comparisons. Hence, it was decided to give appropriate weightage to all the seventeen objectives of PLP according to their importance in a given situation. The scheme for allotting the weightage to the objectives and then reaching a composite score for comparison has been suggested in the Annexure XII of text, (Quality of PL Index). The method has been explained along with the appropriate mathematical formula. The composite score of one distinct can be compared with the composite score of another to reach an objective conclusion. CHAPTER VI
- Amount sanctioned - Date of release of first installment - Target number of neo-literates as per survey - TLC qualified (as per NLM) - Could not achieve NLM norms - Drop out - Could not be enrolled under TLC - New entrants - Sample size - Target - Actual - Interviewed - Composite quality of PL index (Indicate number) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||