On October 5th, 2023, Schools and Teachers Innovating for Results, India (referred to as Centre for Intrinsic Motivation, or “CIM”), signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Samagra Shikshana-Karnataka (SSK). This agreement establishes a partnership with a shared vision of strengthening the education system in Karnataka. The primary goal is to ensure that every teacher is intrinsically motivated to enhance classroom efforts and practices, thereby supporting students in becoming lifelong learners. CIM will work closely with SSK and the Department of State Education, Research and Training (DSERT) to demonstrate that teachers are central for achieving better learning outcomes.

The partnership aims to create an enabling environment for teacher collaboration and development at various levels, including school, district, and state. CIM’s focus is on building a motivated and skilled cadre of district officials who will mentor teachers effectively, aligning with state priorities. This will be achieved through behavior change processes and capacity-building programs.

We started working in Karnataka in 2016, in partnership with DSERT. Initially the work was restricted to few districts and later expanded to all the districts in the state.  During Covid-19, we have supported education officials at block and cluster levels with virtual training and coaching sessions.  We also offered online tools for teaching and strategies for connecting with students. Later in 2022-23 which had been declared the learning recovery year by the Department, we supported the implementation of program at District, Block and cluster levels in all Primary and secondary schools. We co-designed review meetings, we developed an end-to-end monitoring process for the program including data collection, regular review meetings and evaluation activities.

The key objectives outlined in the new MOU include building the motivation and capacities of district and block officials to mentor teachers and promote quality education in schools. The program, co-designed with the education department, emphasizes behavior change strategies and establishes a behavior Nudge Unit within DSERT and SSK. This unit will drive positive changes in education quality across all stakeholders, ultimately creating intrinsically motivated lifelong learners in Karnataka.

“We are grateful to the state for placing their trust in us and believing in a long term vision of building official and teacher motivation. We think of motivation primarily in terms of behaviour, because meaningful changes in motivation lead to meaningful changes in behaviour,” shared Swaha Sahoo, Director, CIM.

Some of the outcomes we hope to see are as follows:

• Children are attending class, actively participating and are happy and engaged.
• Teachers are trying new classroom practices, treating children with respect and actively participating in and seeking opportunities for professional development?
• Officials spend time in schools supporting teachers, and have autonomy to allow teachers to focus on teaching rather than admin work.