Learning from Positive Cases - Teacher Professional Support for EGR in Nepal

• In Event: Learning Lessons from Positive Cases: Examining Enabling Conditions and Supports for Early-Grade Reading in Nepal

Proposal

This paper will present research examining the implementation of the “Teacher Professional Support System”, the approach for providing ongoing teacher support under Nepal’s National Early Grade Reading Program.

In 2017, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology’s Center for Human Resource Development developed and approved the Teacher Professional Support system. The core building blocks of this system includes three primary pieces: 1) Head Teachers (or Primary-in-Charge in the case of larger schools) provide pedagogical support through classroom observation and feedback to teachers; 2) Resource Persons at cluster level provide support to Head Teachers and periodic visits to schools to observe and provide feedback to both Head Teachers and teachers; and 3) Communities of Practice are established – that is teachers participate in meetings at school level to reflect on and discuss their practices, as well as at cluster level, where Resources Persons facilitate.

With the support of EGRP, MOEST began to take steps to roll out the TPS system in 2018, in preparation for expected full roll-out in the 16 EGRP districts in the 2019-2020 school-year. Information about the roles/responsibilities were distributed, and mentoring guides and training were developed. At the beginning of the 2019 school-year, Head Teachers were trained on mentoring for early-grade reading, including practice-oriented sessions on classroom observation and constructive feedback. During this same period, however, the education system was undergoing a major re-structuring, with a significant amount of power and authority devolving from the central to the local (municipality) level. This caused delays in the roll-out of the different pieces of the TPS model, while at the same time the position of Resource Person was officially dissolved by the central level.

Given these challenges, anecdotal evidence indicates, not surprisingly, that the take-up of TPS has been significantly lower than expected or hoped for.
At the same time, though pockets of success appear to exist, and there are indications that there is a growing recognition of the importance of ongoing support for teachers and a willingness to learn from the experience of TPS thus far. In order to inform effort toward fully establishing the TPS system, or a modified version thereof, EGRP is undertaking operational research examining the status of, and perceptions about, of TPS efforts. This research includes both a compilation of monitoring data that can demonstrate the level of take-up of the TPS model, as well as case-study exploration of cases where at least some of the TPS efforts have been successfully implemented. Findings from this research will be shared in this presentation.

Learning from these cases can help to inform both the improvement of the TPS system, and planning for sustainability and expansion in Nepal. Beyond applicability in Nepal and similar contexts, this study can also contribute to the body of research on approaches for coaching and other models for providing ongoing teacher support, as well as to provide an example of how mixed-method research can provide valuable information for design and planning.

Authors

• Gayatree Timsina, RTI International

• Sagar Neupane, RTI International

• Wendi Ralaingita, RTI International