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1. Introduction of MLLs in primary schools and NFE centres in the country will require a carefully worked out strategy with necessary phasing. The overall implementation plan may be divided into three or more phases. In the first phase this curriculum plan may be introduced in only a few selected districts or blocks in two or three states after making a thorough preparation. In this phase, a few innovative centres and ongoing reform projects may also be encouraged to follow the MLL approach in order to raise the standard of achievement. Even some individual specialists working in places like teachers' colleges and universities may be encouraged by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to introduce MLLs in selected schools and NFE centres.

2. The chief purpose of this phase should be to understand how the proposed MLLs function in both formal and non-formal delivery systems, what kind of orientation and aids are needed for the teacher in order to achieve the desired level of mastery by the students, what kind of modifications and adaptations are needed in the existing textbooks, how exactly should the system of evaluation and monitoring be evolved and made genuinely functional in different settings, and what other administrative and academic measures would be required to succeed in attaining the ultimate goal of enhancing the quality of learner achievement. The second and third phases should aim at further refinement of MLLs and other related aspects, and systematic expansion of the implementation programme.

3. It is proposed that in the first phase the number of blocks of different districts and states be kept as small as possible, say, about 4 to 6. However, all schools and NFE centres in the block concerned should be selected for implementation. For comparison purposes, matching samples from neighbouring blocks or districts may be taken. In any case, pre-testing must be carried out to establish benchmark data. Appropriate preparatory steps for making this phase most effective should be taken with full participation of local authorities including teachers, headmasters, supervisors and community members. The district level authorities including the office of DEO, DIET (where established), and other concerned agencies should take the responsibility of organizing, coordinating, implementing and evaluating the programme together with local agencies in charge of both formal education and NFE centres. The district should ultimately be treated as a unit of operation for this innovation and for carrying out various tasks involved at

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the stages of preparation, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and further expansion in cooperation with local authorities on the hand, and state agencies including SCERT and State Education Department as well as national authorities on the other.

4. In the ultimate analysis, every district should ensure that the minimum essential standards of achievement laid down at the national level in terms of MLLs as a basic and common criterion of reference should be attained by all as early as possible and even go beyond. Different districts and schools within them may need different time frame and resources for obvious reasons and may set their own intermediate phases for moving towards the standards set by the MLLs. However, within the time span of a few years, to be determined locally, all districts in a given state, and all states of the country must ensure the achievement of at least the minimum levels of learning for almost all children. In certain special programmes and projects such as those launched or being planned in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, entire districts may be selected to introduce the MLL approach and intensive efforts be made to produce transactional and evaluation materials, etc. from the resources available for these programmes.

5. In order to assist the teacher, who will play the most central role in this programme, it will be necessary to prepare teachers' handbooks in different curriculum areas. The handbooks should provide all explanatory notes and illustrative material relating to MLLs and their effective use in teaching and testing. The handbooks should also indicate how existing textbooks could be used to achieve MLLs until such time that the textbooks are revised, if necessary, in relation to this approach. Suggestions for the use of supplementary textual materials, teaching-learning aids and activity-based methods should be made in the handbooks such that student learning becomes meaningful, effective and cheerful. Besides the handbooks for teachers of primary schools and instructors of NFE centres, those for supervisors and other local functionaries should also be prepared to improve the efficiency of their respective tasks in the context of the MLL approach.

6. While the draft MLLs are laid down nationally, they allow full flexibility for the use of local illustrations, materials and environment for the purpose of establishing their relevance and functionality in the local context. This particular aspect should be clearly shown in the handbooks so that the process of decentralization operates maximally within the national curricular framework. Moreover, this aspect should be sufficiently stressed in the training and retraining of teachers organized on the basis of MLLs. In course of time, integrated instructional materials may be produced which would include textual material, pupils, worksheets, unitwise evaluation exercises and reinforcement materials, on the basis of specific competencies indicated in the MLLs. It should be worthwhile to examine, in this context, the primers produced under the IPCL programme of adult education.

7. As proposed separately, a continuous and comprehensive scheme of evaluation should be made an integral part of the MLL approach to quality

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control right from the first phase of implementation. Teaching and evaluation should be intertwined in various ways including the incorporation of diagnostic testing, remedial teaching, mastery learning and criterion-referenced evaluation including pre-testing and post-testing for monitoring the progress. For these purposes, a large pool of test items, unit tests and other evaluation instruments such as those for vocabulary tests, dictation exercises, mental mathematics and application tests should be prepared and thereby teachers should be given further concrete help in making her/his work optimally efficient and effective. Supervisors can also use this pool of test materials for spot check of student achievement and district level agencies can utilize them for conducting criterion-referenced testing for the comparison of standards and other such purposes.

8. Based on MLLs handbooks, textual materials and item pools, appropriate orientation of teachers should be organized before Phase I begins, and should likewise be repeated before launching Phases II and III under the expansion programme. Similar orientation should be provided to supervisors and other concerned personnel in relation to their respective responsibilities. For all these functionaries a systematic plan of recurrent orientation during the entire implementation programme should be meticulously followed. The recurrent training should be of short duration and should be functional and task-oriented.

9. Efforts should be made to involve the local community in a variety of ways. Where local education committees exist, their cooperation and active participation should be sought, cooperation of those parents (among others) whose children do not attend school regularly should be sought by establishing contact with them and regular attendance of their children ascertained so that they do not lag behind in attaining the expected mastery of MLLs. If there are voluntary agencies or individual volunteers in the community or neighbouring communities who can provide guidance and support to the school especially in regard to raising the quality of education, their involvement and participation should also be explored. Such agencies and individuals may include, among others, retired educators or other professionals, personnel from a primary or secondary training college nearby, and officials of health department and other such agencies in a village who are motivated enough to extend a helping hand to the school or the NFE centre from time to time. In brief, full utilization of human, physical and even financial resources available in the local environment (whether village, town or city) should be made for effective implementation of MLLs.

10. Similarly, for the purposes of getting internal support and mutual reinforcement, networking of neighbouring schools may be introduced where feasible. Such school-clusters or complexes, as proposed by the Education Commission in the sixties, could work cooperatively for sharing experiences and materials, solving certain problems of instruction, evaluation and monitoring among themselves, reducing time and cost by producing tests, remedical materials, etc. cooperatively, and thus helping one another in

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improving the quality of the learning process. If the networking or clustering approach is followed, it should be seen that the size of these groups is kept manageable, say, clusters of some 5 to 10 schools in a compact area within a block. Teachers and headmasters may form their councils to run the networks and set agenda and targets for their cooperative work in the light of their felt needs.

11. The implementation strategy, to be effective, will need a sound monitoring system accompanied by a resource support system. This should be established at the district level. Sufficient preparatory work should be carried out at the initial stage, a detailed design of implementation charted out, and necessary financial provision made so that the implementation programme once started moves further with full steam and necessary help in the form of training, materials, evaluation instruments for pre-testing and stagewise assessment surveys, etc., the motivation and enthusiasm of all concerned is sustained, and any unforeseen obstacles and bottlenecks are removed in time. This system should also be responsible for the review of MLLs, etc. at the end of Phase I of the implementation programme.

12. At the national level, the Department of Education of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, should continue to play a leading role at the implementation stage together with NCERT, NIEPA and NEO (National Evaluation Organisation, when established). It is recommended that the MHRD may undertake the following responsibilities, among others :

(i) It should coordinate the task of ensuring quality with equity in close cooperation with the state and district level authorities as part of the national programme of universalizing elementary education and providing 'Basic Education for All'. The MHRD should mobilize resources in cooperation with various agencies, motivate the people concerned and ensure political will for implementing the initial and subsequent phases of MLLs in all primary schools and NFE centres in the country as a time-bound programme.

(ii) It should periodically review and monitor progress of implementing this programme at the national level and introduce modifications so that eventually the ultimate goal of quality education for an children is accomplished. Towards this end, it should conduct achievement surveys, especially in the language, mathematics and basic concepts of general or environmental studies (social, civic and scientific aspects) and take follow-up action on their findings leading to a drastic reduction, if not elimination, of unjustifiable disparities in the standard of achievement at the primary stage that exist between states, among districts within states, between urban and rural areas, and between boys and girls. For carrying out this work NEO may be established as early as possible.

(iii) Once the task of laying down MLLs for the primary stage takes shape, the MHRD should immediately undertake a similar exercise

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for the upper primary stage comprising Classes VI to VIII without which the work done for the first five classes will remain incomplete and will have less chances of success. In fact, this exercise should be extended in course of time up to the end of general education which includes Classes IX and X as well.

(iv) The NCERT, NIEPA and pertinent agencies in the states should be involved in the implementation of MLLs while the MHRD should continue to play its vital role as an initiator, catalyst and cooperator with regard to resource mobilization and monitoring of results. The NCERT may set up a special unit for organizing different phases of implementation, for orienting teachers and other educators, for developing handbooks and other instructional materials aligned with MLLs, for producing pools of test materials and remedial exercises, and for several other such purposes. The task of achieving quality coupled with equity for millions and millions of children who are expected to receive primary education through formal or non-formal delivery systems is by no means easy. Keeping in view the magnitude and complexity of the task, MLLs Implementation Unit should have a sufficient number of competent and dedicated people representing subject specialities such as language, mathematics and general studies as well as pedagogical specialities such as teacher training, preparation of handbooks and other materials, instructional processes, evaluation and monitoring.

13. After examining the experience of Phase I and introducing necessary changes in MLLs and other related aspects, Phase II may be launched to include the whole district or clusters of districts for implementation of MLLs in selected places. If the experience is positive and resources are available, this programme may be introduced in about 50 districts chosen from different states. All important steps such as those indicated in the previous paragraphs of this chapter should be taken in order to ensure that the ultimate goal of raising the quality of learning to the mastery level for practically all children in these basic subjects of study is in no way compromised. Again, after analysing the experiences and outcomes of the second phase and making necessary modifications in the MLLs as well as the implementation strategy, Phase III may be launched to extend the programme to all districts in every state/UT in the country. Needless to state that on the basis of the experience thus gained improving quality and enhancing equity in primary education, further cycles of reform should be undertaken periodically in the light of new needs and developments at the local, national and international levels.

14. A comparative analysis of competencies included in the curricula of literacy and post-literacy programmes of adults may also be carried out to understand the extent to which basic parity exists between different delivery modes all of which are aimed at basic education. Such an analysis may ultimately lead to establishing a common or comparable set of minimum learning competencies for all adults and children in the perspective of lifelong learning.