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Improving educational outcomes & reducing absenteeism
at remote villages with mobile technology and WhatsAPP:
Findings from rural India
Prema Nedungadi
1
&Karunya Mulki
1
&
Raghu Raman
2
Received: 11 October 2016 / Accepted: 7 February 2017
#Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017
Abstract Reduction of teacher and student absenteeism, together with consistent
teacher support and training, are critical factors in improving the quality of education
in rural India. As part of an ongoing project involving schools and educational centers
in rural areas spread across 21 Indian states, this study investigated how implementa-
tion of two simple, accessible technologies could not only reduce absenteeism but also
increase teachers’effectiveness and improve student performance. In addition to
students and teachers, key stakeholders included educational coordinators who provid-
ed support and monitoring regarding use of WhatsApp and two additional apps
designed specifically to support simple educational improvements. In our study we
coded and analyzed nine months of messages (n= 8968), both photographs and texts,
posted by 26 participants. The number of text messages related to attendance was
strongly positively correlated with frequency of interactions between coordinators and
teachers. Our approach resulted in increased teacher and student attendance, as well as
improvements in lessons and other planned educational activities. This model functions
well in rural settings where there is poor internet connectivity and lack of supporting
infrastructure. Remote schools can easily adopt this tablet-based model to reduce
Educ Inf Technol
DOI 10.1007/s10639-017-9588-z
*Prema Nedungadi
prema@amrita.edu
Karunya Mulki
ammaskarunya@gmail.com
Raghu Raman
raghu@amrita.edu
1
AmritaCREATE, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita
University, Amritapuri, India
2
Amrita School of Business, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita University, Coimbatore, India
teacher absenteeism, improve teaching techniques, improve educational resources, and
increase student performance.
Keywords Tele-education .WhatsApp .Rural education .School education .Teacher
monitoring .Teacher absence .ICT.Monitoring
1 Introduction
A major challenge for schools in rural Indian villages is the lack of quality teachers.
Most qualified teachers are not willing to move to the rural environment. Teacher
absenteeism and accountability (administrative, ethical, teaching, and reporting), are
serious issues in government schools that provide most of the education in rural areas.
Motivated and committed teachers are key stakeholders in improving the quality of
education for sustainable development. The teachers’subject knowledge and pedagog-
ical skills directly influence learning outcomes for children. Rural and remote schools
in lower socio-economic areas are characterized by a large number of teacher vacan-
cies, teachers with lower skills compared to those in cities and higher teacher absen-
teeism. Specifically, inefficient and sometimes complete lack of teacher monitoring and
accountability significantly contributes to lower quality education in poor areas of
developing countries.
Many schools, particularly primary schools, lack the required number of teachers.
The problem is exacerbated in rural primary schools with only one to four teachers; this
often results in reduced educational access and lower levels of learning that in turn,
discourage children from attending school.
Academic qualifications, in-service and pre-service training, satisfactory remunera-
tion and favorable working conditions influence the quality of teachers, and these
factors tend to be less available to teachers in rural areas. In situations where these
factors are at low levels, technology, applied wisely, has the potential to mitigate some
of the negative impact of these factors regarding education in rural areas. Furthermore,
technology provides flexibility and access and has significant transformational capa-
bilities to enhance learning and success of students from low socioeconomic status
(Devlin and McKay 2016). Some studies reveal that learning technology benefits are
even greater for students of elementary schools in rural areas than for students in non-
rural schools (Howley et al. 2011).
MIMs (mobile instant messaging) applications such as WhatsApp offer free or
inexpensive features to share information or download images, videos and audio clips.
Whatsapp like messengers also help to build togetherness through sharing of day to day
happenings (O’Hara et al. 2014). Whereas the traditional phone SMS system is more
formal, reliable and privacy-preserving, WhatsApp is more conversational, informal
and social (Church and de Oliveira 2013). Additionally, the functionalities of the
messaging apps can be accessed with any network, anywhere. Social media, if used
appropriately, can inspire pre-service teachers to collaborate and network to develop
new pedagogical skills by sharing experiences and ideas (Kabilan 2016). Social
networking sites used appropriately and purposefully can inspire the teachers to think
beyond the traditional ways of teaching and learning to develop constructively with
new pedagogical skills. In the case of teachers in remote villages, these technologies
Educ Inf Technol
have the potential to facilitate professional development opportunities that would
otherwise be unavailable.
The increase in smartphone and Internet users in remote and rural areas of
India substantiated the growing number of people showing interest in
possessing a smartphone and using social media, primarily WhatsApp, for
various types of communication such as entertainment and sometimes for
educational purposes.
This paper presents the AmritaRITE (Rural India Tablet Education) (Nedungadi
et al. 2017) monitoring methodology using WhatsApp along with other apps for
monitoring remote teachers and classrooms. The main objective of our research study
was to assess the ability of this methodology, using mobile tablet technology for
monitoring and supporting teachers, to reduce both teacher and student absenteeism
and improve student performance. In addition, we found that use of these technologies
encouraged teachers and coordinators to share resources and pedagogical suggestions
with each other, thus leading to decreased sense of isolation and increased sense of
empowerment among teachers.
2 Teacher accountability, absenteeism and monitoring
Absenteeism in public services has remained a concern in many parts of rural India,
especially in the health and education sectors (Banerjee and Duflo 2006). Major
concerns that affects education in rural India is both teacher and student attendance
in schools. The level of teachers’accountability, which is linked to teacher attendance,
has a major impact on student performance. Research on teacher attendance revealed
that the teacher absenteeism was high in many states in India. It is about 42% in
Jharkhand (Ramachandran et al 2005). Many criteria influence teacher absenteeism
such as gender, marital status, age, tenure at schools, social and political involvement,
etc. Compared to male teachers, for example, the rate of absenteeism of female teachers
is greater (Chaudhury et al. 2006). Local teachers are more likely to have an under-
standing and be involved in social matters of their locality as they live in the
community.
Similarly students in remote disadvantaged areas generally have lower attendance
(Govinda and Bandyopadhyay 2008). Student absenteeism may be influenced by the
level of education and socioeconomic status of the parents (Dreze and Kingdon 2001)
and by schools closed due to absent teachers ((Diwan 2012). These often lead to poor
student performance, and eventually increase in school dropouts (Pratichi India Trust
Kolkata 2009).
Attendance and performance of students in rural schools is another yardstick to
measure the accountability of teachers in those schools. Teacher absenteeism is
hard to monitor as accurate administrative records of both teachers and students
may not be maintained, and in some cases, may be falsified as teachers cover for
themselves.
A direct observation of teachers during surprise visits to randomly selected nation-
ally representative primary schools in India in 2002–03 showed a 25% absence rate
(Chaudhury et al. 2006). This was a conservative number as teachers were marked
present if they were in the school even if they were not teaching at the assigned
Educ Inf Technol
classroom. Teacher absence varied across states in India. Many studies worldwide have
shown that teacher absence affects learning gains and that absence is greater in poorer
and disadvantaged neighborhoods (Clotfelter et al. 2007; Duflo and Hanna 2005). A
longitudinal study in Andhra Pradesh, for example, indicated that teacher absenteeism
showed little change with the introduction of teacher incentive bonus payments
(Muralidharan and Sundararaman 2008). The fact that teacher salary does not seem
to be a factor in teacher attendance is significant since teachers in rural private primary
schools in India make one‐quarter to one‐fifth as much as government school teachers.
In one study, private school teachers in villages had absence rates one third lower
than those of their government school counterparts in the same villages, despite the fact
that private school salaries were only one fifth to one quarter of public school salaries
(Kremer, et al. (2005). A possible reason is that private schools will dismiss a poor
performing teacher, while government schools do not. In India, only one in 3000 public
school head teachers had discharged a teacher for excessive absence (Kremer, et al.
2005).
Vegas and Umansky (2005) define nine factors that can attract, retain and motivate
teachers and impact their performance. These include internal motivation, social
prestige, job stability, pensions and other benefits, professional growth, adequate
facilities, sense of mastery in the job, response to supervisors and salary differentials
between teachers and non-teachers.
Monitoring teachers, along with instigating consequences for unexplained absentee-
ism and failure to engage in teaching, are important in teacher motivation and perfor-
mance. However, monitoring teachers is challenging, particularly in remote, rural areas
that lack infrastructure and resources. The age-old practice of maintaining handwritten
logbooks is still used in many schools where the teachers have to sign in a register
when they enter or leave the school. However, this is not a reliable source as records do
not include exact time of teachers’arrival and departure, and sometimes absences are
not mentioned in log books at all. Furthermore, even when a teacher is present at the
school, it is difficult to ascertain whether the teacher is actually teaching in the class or
engaged in other activities.
Local monitoring by head teachers has been shown to improve teacher attendance at
a lower cost than automated methods, but this method risks collusion (Chen et al.
2001). Supervision of schools is another way of tracking the activities of teachers in the
school. Programs like BSarva Shiksha Abhiyaan^have introduced methods of
decentralizing supervision and monitoring of absenteeism in schools. This practice
involves parents and local communities observing the accountability of local teachers.
However, this method may be difficult to mobilize in remote, rural and poor villages
where parents and community members are illiterate and may neither understand the
value of education nor the benefits provided by the government under various
programs.
Automated monitoring methods, such as time-stamped cameras, can reduce teacher
absenteeism and improve student performance (Duflo et al. 2012). However, installa-
tion of cameras is expensive and subject to other risks such as theft, lack of consistent
electricity affecting functioning of the camera and the ability to capture and save the
video feeds. ICT-based techniques can also address the challenge of remotely moni-
toring teachers in rural areas, but computer labs are not a viable option due to lack of
infrastructure, consistent electricity and high bandwidth Internet in these areas.
Educ Inf Technol
However, mobile devices such as Android tablets with SIM cards and data plans
constitute a viable option and can be easily made available in these areas (Megalingam
et al. 2012). Android tablets, outfitted with apps to gather and send data, along with
mobile messaging applications such as WhatsApp, form a user-friendly platform to get
real-time data about the teachers’activity in schools.
3 Remote monitoring of teachers, students and classroom
The AmritaRITE methodology uses a multifaceted monitoring system that involves
cluster coordinators, central coordinators, teachers and technology. Cluster coordinators
support and monitor educational activities for a cluster of four or five villages. They
periodically visit the centers and sometimes conduct surprise visits to cluster schools.
On an average, about five village centers have a cluster coordinator and about 5 clusters
have a central coordinator.
The teacher tablets have a 2G SIM card, while the student tablets have local content
and connect to the teacher tablet for reporting activities. Teacher tablets are used to send
daily status data to the central monitoring team.
The remote monitoring methodology involves both physical site visits to villages
and village teacher travelling to centers for training, and online groups. The data
collection and analysis used in this paper is primarily via. apps, and whatsapp. This
is an ongoing project that has been active for three years. Only the whatsapp group and
the AmritaRITE app data for the villages in the state of Uttarakhand are used in this
paper. The netnography approach studies the behaviour and evolution of communities
as they communicate online.
A goal of the study was to understand whether using online apps to monitor, support
teachers and monitor active engagement of community by the teachers helped atten-
dance and or performance on both teachers and students.
There were 3 distinct types of WhatsApp groups (Fig. 1) in the system.
Systematic collection and analysis of data improves the efficiency and effectiveness
of the implementation. Benefits of using the AmritaRITE methodology of having
• Ensure reporting in all Whatsapp groups
• Follow up based on reports from cluster
coordinators
• Share best practices among clusters
Central Coordinators group
• Report on village visits and center activities
• Report on meetings with village committees,
Panchayats, Schools
Central Coordinators +
Cluster Coordinators group
• Monitor daily attendance, assessment reports
• Read and respond to photos and text chats
• Provide peer feedback
Central Coordinators +
Cluster Coordinators +
Village Teachers group
Fig. 1 Major groups and roles
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teachers use the tablet apps and WhatsApp for monitoring and evaluation of both
teaching and attendance include:
&Making teachers active partners in monitoring and evaluation
&Real-time access to data for further analysis (e.g., monitoring quality and progress.
&Tablets have short set-up time and immediate data access.
&Mobile messaging app allows multilingual typing and supports transliteration.
&Method for simultaneously measuring teacher and student attendance.
One coordinator is appointed to take charge of schools in a particular area,
distribute the device for WhatsApp communication to each school, collect infor-
mation from each teacher or school and make necessary decisions. Each staff
member of the school will be accountable for care and maintenance of their
devices.
An additional advantage to the AmritaRITE approach is that, unlike other
methods that use external groups or technology such as cameras to monitor
teachers, we empower and actively involve teachers in reporting and account-
ability. Teachers use the apps to send daily attendance reports of students along
with periodic performance reports. In this process of remote monitoring, the
teachers take a time-stamped photograph of themselves, along with their stu-
dents, at the beginning and end of class and send these to their cluster coordi-
nators using WhatsApp (Fig. 2). Teachers also keep a record of what was taught
in class each day. Photos and records can be logged every day for every class to
keep track of teacher attendance and accomplishments. Teachers who are regular
in their attendance and sending daily reports are also given certain monetary
incentives.
Fig. 2 Learning and activities
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3.1 Teacher support with technology
Besides monitoring, our approach has the potential to provide additional substantial
benefits to teachers. The tablets also support ongoing training of teachers as well as
sharing of content and experiences. The central coordinator helps plan lessons, sends
lesson plans and short instructional videos and also provides feedback on teaching and
learning in the classroom after watching class videos. The fact that teachers play a
critical, active role in monitoring, combined with the accessible, tailored in-service
benefits they receive, contribute to a sense of empowerment.
In addition to providing support to teachers, AmritaRITE has the potential to provide
direct support to students. As noted by Devlin and McKay (2016), technology provides
flexibility and access and has significant transformational capabilities to enhance
learning and success of students from low socioeconomic status. In line with this,
AmritaRITE educational apps were specifically developed to be multilingual and
culturally appropriate for Indian rural contexts and hence address real life needs of
students (Nedungadi et al. 2014). Such apps, along with videos, are sent to teachers
through WhatsApp to be used in the classroom. WhatsApp has enabled learning by
providing a platform for easy communication, exchange of information and entertain-
ment (Mudliar and Rangaswamy 2015).
4 Methodology
This paper presents the combined use of AmritaRITE apps and WhatsApp as a possible
solution for effective monitoring and mentoring of teachers in rural areas. While
ethnography studies beliefs and behavior in groups with similar culture (Creswell
2007), ‘online ethnography’(Markham 1998) and ‘netnography’(Kozinets 1998)
extend this to online groups and communities. Netnography evolves with online
communication within groups and hence is no longer bound by geographical
boundaries.
Ethnographic practices differ in face-to-face situations v.s. netnography, when using
online media (Kulavuz-Onal and Vásquez 2013). The type of communication technol-
ogies used impact data collection, fosters dialogue. In this paper, we study the change in
teacher collaboration, classroom monitoring and improved reporting using a commu-
nication group of teachers and coordinators.
Data for this study is part of a larger program in rural India to empower over a 101
villages by strengthening literacy and reducing dropouts with focus on girls and the
underprivileged. There are currently over 54 educational village centers, that are
actively using this methodology, though the data used is for 18 centers in Uttarakhand.
The study includes monitoring of centers in the state of Uttarakhand, which is one of
the furthermost states, situated at a distance of more than 2000 kms from the central
monitoring team.
There were 19 teachers, 5 cluster coordinators with two central coordinators in the
Uttarakhand villages and the data used in this study is limited to the communication
and reporting from this group (Table 1).
The central coordinating group is in all the whatsapp groups and also receives the
data from the apps installed in each individual teacher and coordinator’s mobile device.
Educ Inf Technol
The data analysed is for a period of 9 months where 8968 chats from this group were
coded and analysed.
AmritaRITE uses a model of remote teacher monitoring and support using a
combination of two specially-designed apps for attendance ad student assessments,
along with WhatsApp to send photos and text regarding daily attendance, assessment
records, activities like yoga, community services etc. (Fig. 3).
Tab le 1 Whole population v.s. Uttarakhand
#Centers #Teachers #Coordinators #Central Coordinators
Study group Population 18 19 5 2
Whole Population 54 69 12 5
Fig. 3 Communication between various stakeholders
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The data analysed is for a period of 9 months where 8968 chats from this group were
coded and analysed.
AmritaRITE uses a model of remote teacher monitoring and support using a
combination of two specially-designed apps for attendance ad student assessments,
along with WhatsApp to send photos and text regarding daily attendance, assessment
records, activities like yoga, community services etc. (Fig. 3).
Tab le 1 Whole population v.s. Uttarakhand
#Centers #Teachers #Coordinators #Central Coordinators
Study group Population 18 19 5 2
Whole Population 54 69 12 5
Fig. 3 Communication between various stakeholders
Educ Inf Technol
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
Originally, the project involved various pedagogical apps and tools in nine Indian
languages, and WhatsApp was initially used only as a communication tool among
educators, coordinators and remote tutors. It was then enhanced as a classroom
monitoring tool, as an outcome of the difficulties faced in the early phases of the
project in teacher accountability. Additional apps, such as an attendance app, and
pedagogical elements such as small modules to train teachers, lessons were also
incorporated into the mobile based framework. The messages in the groups are in
English, Hindi or transliterated.
Teachers were trained to use WhatsApp installed on their tablets. All teachers in
each geographical Bcluster^were added on a WhatsApp group, with the Uttarakhand
teachers being one such group. The teachers were asked to send daily attendance counts
by gender and a photo of the entire class to verify the counts.
Assessments taken by the centers along with student grades from the local schools
were also sent by the teachers. In addition, when a certain center needed particular
learning materials for the class, we made these available to teachers through WhatsApp.
The teachers could download the material on their tablets and show it to their students
(Fig. 6). In addition, we could watch videos of how individual teachers teach a concept
and could then provide supportive feedback to either improve their approach or confirm
that they have the right approach. This intervention helps in continuous assessment and
provides closed loop feedback.
5 Discussion and findings
Our analysis used data from both WhatsApp chats and from AmritaRITE monitoring
apps, along with GPS data for location. After deleting identifying information, the
WhatsApp chats were coded and then categorized mapped to three overarching objec-
tives (Table 2).
Tab le 2 Project objectives and categories of chat messages
Objective Categories of chat messages
Teacher empowerment Audio/video training modules
Peer Discussion among teachers
Support from Coordinators
Setting Goals/Planning/Calendar of Events
Teacher Recognition
Focused feedback
Monitoring teacher and student attendance,
adherence to acitivites and performance
Daily Attendance
Assessment
Numeracy, Literacy,
Sustainable Development
Arts (Drawing, Music)
Yoga & Meditation, Awareness & Value Programs
Promoting Community Engagement Activities that involve partners, parents, villagers, school.
Mentoring Adolescents and youth to promoting Gender
Equality and reducing substance abuse
Medical Camps
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Some chats contained transliterated text while others included icons and im-
ages. Next we combined related topics to a higher order category. Finally, cate-
gories were placed under the broad three objectives. Chats that did not fit into any
of the broad objectives were put in a separate heading called others (n=91, 1%).
Though various chats may vary in importance and relevance, each chat was given
equal weight.
The WhatsApp photos and text related to monitoring student performance were
cross checked with data received in various other apps related to attendance and GPS
location to confirm the authenticity of the data submitted. In case, the attendance app
data contradicted the whatsapp data, a query was raised as to the reason followed by
updating with the correct information. WhatsApp groups are closed and moderated, and
only images of project activities of the education center activities were encouraged to
be posted. Permission from parents and teachers was taken when joining the programs
to share images of activities. All personal information was removed from the chat logs
before analysis.
During the study, 26 participants sent a total of 8968 posts with Photo accounting for
57% (n= 5092) and Text accounting for 43% (n= 3876). Teachers accounted for the
most of the chat messages (n= 8073, 90%) sent using WhatsApp (Fig. 4).
Chats related to Monitoring Student Performance objective was the most common
(n= 5823, 65%), followed by Teacher Empowerment (n= 1932, 21%) and finally
Community Engagement (n= 1138, 13%) (Fig. 5). More often, an image would have
information about learning and attainment activities and could also help in monitoring
attendance. Generally, the text message would be more specific and relate to specific
categories of activities.
As WhatsApp data sent by one teacher is visible to all others in the group, there is a
peer pressure to perform well, and a healthy sense of competition is developed.
Teachers get new ideas based on reports by peers. Problems faced by the teachers are
posted to the group for feedback and guidance. While in the early stages the guidance
came from the coordinator, eventually other teachers offered their input based on
experience.
A few enhancements were made to the technology based on the evidence of
tampering with the tablets. Some of the apps have enhanced security modes, and
cannot be modified by the coordinators or teachers.
85%
9%
1%
95%
3%
1%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Teacher
Cluster Coordinator
Central Coordinator
Teacher
Cluster Coordinator
Central Coordinator
Text Photo
Fig. 4 Chat types (Photo or Text) mapped to participants
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In one case, a teacher was found to have sent the previous day’s photographs of
student attendance on a day when there was no class taught. As a result, an enhanced
app for photographs with timestamp as a watermark was deployed to ensure compli-
ance to accurate reporting. Once a month, each teacher posts videos of one class or
activity that they conducted. Coordinators and other teacher view this, with interesting
discussions leading to improved pedagogical strategies.
Teachers, who were once isolated in a small school in remote and rural India are now
able to communicate with teachers in other villages. Occasional face-to-face training is
now supplemented by on-going mentoring using tablet technology.
Cluster coordinators keep the central coordinators informed. This data is cross
verified with the teacher chat data and information from apps to determine the
authenticity of teacher reports. Attendance and assessment reports of students are
analysed by the central coordinators and feedback provided to the centers on the
list of children who are at risk of dropping out and failing. Coordinators use this
information to provide intervention during their scheduled visits to the rural
center.
A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the association
between objectives of the study and type of chats sent by participants. The results of
the Pearson chi-square test indicate that the association between these variables was
significant, X
2
(2) = 955.35, p< .05. This suggests a significant association between
objectives of the study and type of chat sent (Photo or Text) (Fig. 6).
The majority of text and photos shared are related to monitor student activities
during the classroom (Fig. 7). Note that photos of various activities were used to
veryify both adherence to the activity and the attendance. Other text communication
includes queries from the teacher or coordinators. Photo shares also include participa-
tory learning activities such as sustainability education, value education, yoga and
community engagement that raise the social and health awareness among parents and
community members.
The number of chat messages related to attendance and the amount of interaction
between coordinators and teachers were strongly positively correlated. (r = .79, p = .02).
Teacher
empowerment
21%
Monitoring
Students
(AcƟviƟes,
AƩendance and
Performance
65%
PromoƟng
Community
Engagement
13%
Others
1%
Fig. 5 Percentage of chats mapped to project objectives
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This indicates that higher the interaction between coordinators and teachers, more will
be the number of chats for attendance.
Messages from the central coordinators include directions and reminders to cluster
coordinators regarding visits to villages. To encourage teachers to post without inhibi-
tion, coordinators are encouraged to praise in public. Where warnings are concerned,
the first two are given to the teacher privately, after which it is in the public group.
Of the 8968 total chats, about 22% (n= 1932) corresponded to providing guidance,
motivation, assistance, pedagogical content, and problem resolution, which suggests
that the AmritaRITE environment is conducive to promote a positive and supportive
environment.
Training and building a process for teacher monitoring and accountability has
resulted in better attendance of both teachers and students and more streamlined and
predictable execution of planned activities.
17%
80%
2%
1%
25%
53%
21%
1%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
SupporƟve for teachers
Monitoring
Community Engagement
Others
SupporƟve for teachers
Monitoring
Community Engagement
Others
Tex t Photo
Fig. 6 Categorization of chat type (Photo or Text) mapped to Objectives
1259
2711
1073
673
3112
65
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
SupporƟve teacher environment
Monitoring student performance
PromoƟng community engagement
Tex t Photo
Fig. 7 Chat type mapped to objectives
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6 Conclusions
While mobile technology is now accepted as a transformational tool in improving the
quality of education for rural children, it has not been used in monitoring and mentoring
teachers. Compared to current methods of monitoring teachers in rural India that use
external committees or technology such as cameras, AmritaRITE’s incorporation of
mobile technology puts reporting in the hands of the teacher, empowers them with
more information and best practices and enables immediate feedback and intervention.
Though many programs use whatsapp for sharing and communication, this
methodolgy is unique in that it uses an integrated monitoring system with a set of
android apps and whatsapp to implement a process that tracks both teacher and student
attendance, adherence to planned activities and encourages peer learning. Hence, the
online communication is designed with the specific goals of improving teacher and
student attendance, improving the quality of teaching through remote support of
materials, adherence of planned activities and monitoring student performance through
the assessment apps.
Our objectives of classroom monitoring, supportive environment to teachers and
community engagement improved with the integration of monitoring apps along with
social media tool WhatsApp. The majority of app-related communications focused on
monitoring class activities followed by providing support to the teacher. Community
engagement was generally limited to once a week and hence this had the minimum
communication. Participants were very comfortable using WhatsApp with minimal
training and more often they used photo than text to communicate.
The AmritaRITE method has increased teacher attendance, peer learning and ad-
herence to planned activities. Feedback suggests that it boosts their interest and
engagement in teaching as they can share new learning resources for the students with
the aid of technology. This helps teachers improve performance by receiving learning
modules from experts, getting immediate answers to their queries and sharing ideas
with peers, thus providing both pedagogical knowledge and classroom strategies.
An unexpected benefit of the monitoring systems was a reduction in the frequency,
and thus cost, of field visits. The monitoring methodology that included structured
teacher and coordinator systems, along with proprietary monitoring apps and
WhatsApp together allowed multiple layers of cross-verification so as to more effec-
tively monitor the classroom.
Though there was some initial resistance to the daily monitoring as it involved more
work, teachers started valuing the online support as it improved the teaching and
learning outcomes. Though the monitoring is for the entire classroom activities, the
teacher attendance is automatically tracked as the teacher sends multiple reports each
day, along with weekly reports by visiting coordinators. As achievement at each center
was acknoledged to the entire group, teachers reported an increase in motivation.
Our policy recommendations for small government schools in rural India include
actionable consequences to teachers based on teacher accountability and absenteeism.
As parents are worried that raising issues will negatively impact their child, there
should be easy methods for anonymous input of teacher performance from community
and parents. A multi-pronged school monitoring policy that includes mobile technol-
ogy, along with monitoring, support and feedback from heads of schools, teachers,
parents and local community committees would be highly effective. Multiple low-cost
Educ Inf Technol
channels for rural classroom monitoring that include customized apps, social media
such as WhatsApp, along with periodic planned and surprise field visits, can help
enforce accuracy in reporting and accountability, empower teachers, and improve the
quality of education overall.
Acknowledgements This work derives inspiration from the Chancellor of Amrita University, Sri Mata
Amritanandamayi Devi. We are grateful for the support from the AmritaCREATE and AmritaRITE teams at
Amrita University.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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