1. 1 1 icfi.com | Odisha Impact Study: ECE Pre-test Findings Funded by: Bernard van Leer Foundation Conference on Early Learning: Status and the Way Forward Session III: Challenges of Multilingualism and Home-School Divide – Role of Early Learning September 25, 2013

2. icfi.com | 2 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Topics Covered in Presentation  Importance of Mother Tongue  The Context and the Study  Research Design and Sample  Study Findings Related to: Languages used in the ECE settings Parental Involvement

3. icfi.com | 3 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Importance of Mother Tongue in Early Years  Home-school continuity is enhanced when same language is used in both contexts.  Academic performance and self esteem were enhanced among 6 – 8 year old children educated in their mother tongue (Ball, 2011)  Reading, learning outcomes, school enrollment and retention were improved in settings using mother tongue (Pflepsen, n.d.)  Mother tongue education reduced social inequalities such as poverty, gender, race/ethnicity, caste or religion (UNESCO, 2006)

4. icfi.com | 4 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Why Mother Tongue?  Approx 8.1 million tribal population in Odisha (Census, 2001)  There are 62 tribal groups including 12 primitive tribal groups in Odisha with 22 tribal languages (Mohanty, Panda & Pal, 2009)  1.4 million tribal children under the age of six years in Odisha (BvLF, 2013)  Language barrier and exclusion of mother tongue and culture at ECE centres and school (Ball, 2011)  Poor school learning, high push out rates, high rates of school failure, capability deprivation and poverty among tribal groups (Mohanty, 2008)

5. icfi.com | 5 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Study Objectives  To measure the impact of the mother tongue based interventions by tracking children right from the ECE centres till they complete Class II with respect to their enrollment, retention and performance.  To examine children’s progress as a function of differing early exposures ­ Experimental group: PREM, ICDS+PREM centres and Control group: ICDS centres  To analyze the interventions in terms of process / strategy.  To suggest measures to enhance the impact of the interventions. Expected Outcomes for BvLF  Increased awareness about the need for the quality preschool education among policy makers, educators and media; and  Policy makers and others will access and use the research data to advocate for policies on early childhood and native language in preschools.

6. icfi.com | 6 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Study Area: District and Blocks  Kandhamal - Daringbadi block, Raikia block (KUI language)  Rayagada - Gunpur block, Padmapur block (SAORA language)

7. icfi.com | 7 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Sample Frame and Selected Sample of ECE Centres DistrictsBlocksPREMICDS+PREMICDS Total Sampled Centres KandhamalDaringbadi 93 (21)28 (4)240 (15)40 Raikia 10 (2)3 (0)98 (6)8 RayagadaGunpur 53 (13)20 (2)108 (8)23 Padmapur 17 (3)8 (1)76 (3)7 Total 173 (39)59 (7)522 (32)78 Sample Frame and sample in parenthesis

8. icfi.com | 8 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 A Glimpse of the ECE Centres

9. icfi.com | 9 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Research Design and Methods  Quasi Experimental Research Design  Mixed methods: Quantitative and Qualitative

10. icfi.com | 10 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Findings: ECE Pre-test

11. icfi.com | 11 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Enrollment of Children  Enrollment rates was the highest for ICDS (22.7) and lowest for PREM centres (14.6)  Mean number of children absent was highest in ICDS (6.7) and lowest in ICDS+PREM centres (3.0)  Highest mean enrollment was for girls in ICDS+PREM centres (12.6) and lowest for boys in PREM centres (5.4)

12. icfi.com | 12 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011  Majority of the children were from Scheduled Tribes in all the three types of centres  Highest percentage of Scheduled Tribe (ST) children were in PREM centres (86.6%) and lowest in the ICDS centres (66.3%)  ICDS centres had a heterogeneous representation of social classes among children Social Class of Enrolled Children

13. icfi.com | 13 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Languages Used by Children & Adults in the Household  The mother tongue of the highest percentages of children (37.5% and 39.7%) and adults (36.4% and 40.2%) was Kui and Saora.  Odiya was the most commonly spoken language by children (85.7%) and adults (78%)  Only 11.3% of children and 33.1% of adults could understand but not speak Hindi. Children Adults

14. icfi.com | 14 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Mother Tongue of the Facilitator/ AWWs and Helpers  75% of AWWs from ICDS+PREM and 72% from ICDS reported Odiya as their mother tongue.  PREM facilitators were more likely to report Kui (53.8%) and Saora (38.5%) as their mother tongue.  All PREM helpers and half of the ICDS+PREM helpers reported Kui as their mother tongue while the highest percentage of ICDS helpers reported Odiya as their mother tongue.

15. icfi.com | 15 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Spoken Languages Recorded during Observations  Nearly 86% of the ICDS centres spoke Odiya for the majority of the day.  The highest percentage of PREM centres spoke Saora (42.2%) and almost equal percentages spoke Kui and Odiya (28.7 % & 28 %) for the majority of the day.  In ICDS+PREM centres, the top two percentages of centres spoke Odiya (51.1 %) and Kui (32.6 %).

16. icfi.com | 16 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Training and Materials for Mother Tongue Approach  71.4% of facilitators from PREM centres had received training in the mother tongue approach compared to 58% from ICDS centres  62.9% of facilitators/AWW from PREM and 66.7% from ICDS+PREM reported using flash cards in mother tongue. 63.3% of facilitators/AWWs from ICDS centres reported books/story books.  Between 33-37% of facilitators/AWWs provided examples of other materials, namely, posters, mud toys, pictures.  Interestingly, the top reasons for job dissatisfaction reported by facilitators/ AWWs were inadequate/ irregular salary, inadequate play materials and insufficient resources.

17. icfi.com | 17 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Opportunities for Parent Involvement  75-84% of facilitators/AWWs reported having weekly/monthly meetings  26-50% reported offering opportunities for voluntary services  21-50% organizing fairs/ festival celebrations  12-16% mentioned no opportunities for involving parents.

18. icfi.com | 18 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Opportunities for Community Involvement  50-71% reported that community encouraged parents to send their children to centre  47-75% reported community advising on issues of the centre  38-75% reported providing volunteers for the centre  29% from PREM centres only reported providing space for centre  25-32% reported support from community in developing aids

19. icfi.com | 19 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Stakeholders Views on Mother Tongue  Unanimous support across functionaries for mother tongue based education along with focus on learning other languages.  Many of the staff shared the intervention program challenges in making mother tongue approach acceptable, training their facilitators and getting resources in mother tongue  Government functionaries were not very aware about the approach, or regarding any policy provisions  Mixed responses from parents and community on mother tongue education.

20. icfi.com | 20 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Recommendations  Programs should continue to ensure that staff speak the languages of the families and children served  Programs need more access to mother tongue based educational materials.  Programs could consider creating materials from inexpensive and indigenous materials, developed/donated by community members.  Additional training and refreshers on the mother tongue approach needs to be provided to centre staff so that it is implemented with fidelity and can have the maximum positive impact on children.

21. icfi.com | 21 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Recommendations  Programs need to be aware of parents’ interest in being involved in centre activities and continue to encourage and strengthen this partnership.  BvLF and PREM should continue doing more outreach about their work especially with Odisha government functionaries.

22. icfi.com | 22 Company Sensitive, Internal Use Only—Updated December 2011 Questions For further details contact: Dr. Anubha Rajesh ICF International anubha.rajesh@icfi.com