A N A N D S H A L A e n g a g e m e n t S T R A T E G Y
Envisioning Change in the Indian Education System
Quest Alliance is a not-for-profit trust that equips young people with 21st century skills by enabling self-learning. They work across the spectrum of stakeholders from learners and their families to teachers and institutions, to plug gaps in the education and learning ecosystem. Quest Alliance kickstarted the Anandshala Programme in 2010-11 under the School Dropout Prevention Pilot (SDPP) funded by the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) as part of a multi-country effort to test the effectiveness of dropout prevention interventions to lower school drop-outs. In India the programme was implemented in Samastipur, Bihar.
The programme started with direct engagement with over 300 schools in Bihar. With positive results for their efforts, the programme expanded to over 900 schools. However with the end of the 5yr long SDPP, and a subsequent cut in funding, the programme withdrew direct engagement with schools and started to focus training for education officials at the cluster level—the CRCCs (Cluster Resource Centre Coordinator).
The programme started with direct engagement with over 300 schools in Bihar. With positive results for their efforts, the programme expanded to over 900 schools. However with the end of the 5yr long SDPP, and a subsequent cut in funding, the programme withdrew direct engagement with schools and started to focus training for education officials at the cluster level—the CRCCs (Cluster Resource Centre Coordinator).
The CRCC focus came about as a shift in Anandshala’s philosophy. The idea was that by cultivating ‘Change
Leaders’ at the cluster level, Anandshala could empower CRCCs to improve the functioning of the schools under
them. The current model works as a Cascade model, where the key stakeholder is the CRCC who has to pass on training and knowledge to Head Teachers and Teachers.
Envisioned flow of information in the Anandshala Ecosystem
Our Involvement
The Anandshala team approached us with the intent of upgrading their existing content. They felt that the existing material was highly technical and formulaic and was the main reason stakeholders were unwilling to adopt their methodology.
At the same time, the team had started scaling up their programme in Jharkhand and felt it was important to pivot their engagement strategy more heavily on technology and digital means of communication since direct engagement was no longer a feasible option.
At the same time, the team had started scaling up their programme in Jharkhand and felt it was important to pivot their engagement strategy more heavily on technology and digital means of communication since direct engagement was no longer a feasible option.
Analysis
Initial study of the system and conversations with different stakeholders from the field revealed there were several problems we had to tackle, not just one.
1. The 'Why' for the programme was not really clear. Motivated educators didn't really need Anandshala interventions in the classroom, whereas for demotivated educators the interventions seemed like an added burden to there already huge workload.
1. The 'Why' for the programme was not really clear. Motivated educators didn't really need Anandshala interventions in the classroom, whereas for demotivated educators the interventions seemed like an added burden to there already huge workload.
2. In the current model, Anandshala was focusing all energy towards only one stakeholder. This was leading to a loss of information in transmission from one level to the next. There was a need to create new and robust communication channels that opened engagement with all stakeholders.
Eventually, the big question evolved to be –
How should Anandshala engage a diverse pool of stakeholders in a scalable, low-touch way, such that they willingly participate in the Program?
Anandshala needed a comprehensive Engagement Strategy that looked at the context of every stakeholder, their motivations, barriers, needs and challenges. With this deep understanding, this project needed to deliver a system of engagements that would address multi-stakeholder needs in a unified way.
Understanding the Ecosystem
The Anandshala Ecosystem in Bihar is made up of multiple stakeholders, each playing different but critical roles in ensuring the Program’s success. After studying different stakeholders and the roles they play within the system, we mapped their different responsibilities and relationships accordingly.
Using this structure we were easily able to map individual interaction scapes for each stakeholder. These helped in highlighting prominent gaps within the system. We mapped how interactions impacted Understanding, Planning and Action for every stakeholder.
Interaction Scapes for Individual Stakeholder Groups
At this stage we were able to more deeply understand the system and its needs. We also realised that previously the focus on cultivating 'Change Leaders' solely at the cluster level was limiting and failed to recognise and reward efforts put in by stakeholders at other levels. Lack of recognition was a major factor leading to the lack of motivation in the system.
We redefined the program's objecting to activate Change Leadership in all stakeholder groups.
Behaviour Change
To design an Engagement Strategy that could enable the Anandshala Team to activate Change Leaders at every level, in every stakeholder group, it was important to understand the mindsets of each stakeholder group, their behaviours, barriers to positive behaviours and their needs.
We mapped mindset around two things—how they feel about their job and how they feel about change. In the progression from Negative > Passive > Positive > Active > Leader, it was interesting to note that the two lines of thought began to merge as Leaders thought their primary duty was to create positive change in the system.
Creating these journeys was very helpful in creating a wealth of insights and visualising prominent patterns.
Sample Journey for a Stakeholder Group
Engagement Strategy
After creating Behaviour Change journeys for each of our stakeholders we had a wealth of possible intervention areas, a lot of which overlapped and could be clubbed. We began by creating umbrella themes for different engagement strategies that the Anandshala could pick, choose and customise from. This helped give structure to a very comprehensive strategy.
Engagement Themes with multiple Areas of Engagement that are linked to a comprehensive directory
Preview of Engagement Directory
The document we created is meant to serve a starting point for richer understanding of stakeholders within the internal team and equip them with frameworks to make more efficient decisions for the programme.
This project was done with Shreya Toshniwal and Umavanshi Kamble at Fold Labs.
