The Lesson

If children are able to have the best and the most challenging time of their day inside the classroom learning by doing, every child in the community regardless of girl or boy, background and ability attends, stays and achieves in school.

700 Schools, 130,000 Learners & Other beneficiaries

GSS with its 700 primary schools for disadvantaged children in the remotest parts of Bangladesh is widely acknowledged as one of the best models in active teaching learning in the developing world. It is a comprehensive programme addressing children’s differentiated learning needs and incorporates curriculum and material development, teacher education and development, classroom teaching-learning, learner assessment, supervision, monitoring individual learner performance and research. GSS provides an institutional base that would help not only with its sustainability but also in building capacity of other providers. It has already helped the government of the Maldives and is in the process of influencing both teacher education and teaching learning inside mainstream school classrooms in Bangladesh.

The beneficiaries include the 130,000 children who attend the GSS schools and their communities. The NGOs who seek teacher education and training from GSS, the INGOs who have expressed interest in partnerships; and finally, the government whose ROSC and PEDP II might create opportunity for GSS to participate in the mainstream schools. Some of the regional programmes such as those in Nepal and Maldives who have had collaboration with GSS are also potential beneficiaries of the organisation’s Quality Education Programme.

Key elements

of the Model

Contact hour

700 for grade 0 (Infant)- grade II, and 935 for grade III – V active contact hours per year.

Learner-Teacher ratio

Learner-Teacher ratio: 30 : 1

Pedagogy

Teaching learning focuses mainly on (i) time management, breaking down literacy hour, and math hour, and science activities into smaller units of time slots letting each learner to be actively engaged in learning by doing, facilitated by a teacher; and (ii) lesson planning based on continuous assessment of the individual learner allowing each to progress according to her/his ability and pace.

Learning environment

Activity based classroom organisation creating opportunity for children to learn by doing and interact and work in small and large groups as well as individually;

Teachers

Teachers are generally women (89%) from the community with higher secondary level education and trained by GSS;

Curriculum

Focuses on key competencies in language development, math and science divided into age appropriate units broken down into levels combining a range of activities for each level. Curriculum also includes strengthening of content & development of appropriate learning and instructional materials.

Teacher Development

This includes training integrating hands-on experience in active learning classroom environment so that the teacher is able to transform her/his own classroom and create the desired learning environment without much difficulty; also includes supervised teaching, studying and some research.

Supervision

Supervision focuses on (i) continuous teacher capacity building; (ii) Ensuring that the key elements of teaching learning are in place inside the classroom and children are learning; and (iii) encouraging the teacher to think, be creative and build on the innovation.

Monitoring

Individual learner performance is monitored quarterly. The decentralized EMIS helps policy decisions creating space for appropriate intervention both at the central and local levels.

PERFORMANCE

of the Model

Inclusiveness: Every child attends the Community school

Every child in the community, each girl, each boy and every excluded child (ethnic minority, disabled or drop-out) in the 5 – 11 age-group attends the community based GSS schools known as the Anandaniketon primary school

Efficiency: Attendance, Drop out and Repetition

Unlike the UNESCO norm, efficiency measures in GSS include number of learners acquiring age/grade level competencies, skills and knowledge. As for the norm indictors, overall attendance in GSS schools is 92%, drop-out less than 6% and Repetition non-existent.

Taking the model to scale

The GSS model was scaled up to 700 full primary schools across the country between 1996 and 1998 following recommendations of the donor consortium. More recently during 212 – 2014, the model was adapted to the mainstream framework by Shamse Hasan, Director Education, GSS and also the creator of the model, following a request from the development partners and the Government.

Learner Achievement

In under two years following enrolment –

87% of the learners are able to read independently, enjoy reading and develop a keen interest in books;
93% of the learners are able to do creative writing expressing themselves in writing;
84% are able to tackle mathematical problems in real life situation;
Almost all the children are able to draw, paint, sing, dance and role play in theatre.

Cost

US$ 37 per child/year.

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Sponsor a child

You can help a child attend GSS school for as little as $3 a month or $37 dollars a year. You can also help a child complete the primary cycle and graduate to secondary school