India’s focus on improving Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) is essential. However, Holistic development—critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence—must be given equal importance. Education cannot solely focus on measurable outcomes like test scores. As critiques of standardised assessments, such as the ASER survey, have highlighted, learning is more than numbers. It’s about fostering critical thinking, creativity, and emotional growth. Given the critical nature of these outcomes, it is important to evaluate the approaches taken towards achieving these outcomes, not just from the perspective of achievement of outcomes, but also from the perspective of behaviour change.

As an example, the Ennum Ezhuthum program in Tamil Nadu shows that there may be several challenges in the implementation and focus of FLN initiatives that may need deeper attention. By embedding behavioural change principles, we can rethink how FLN interventions are implemented, ensuring they create lasting, meaningful impact.

Navigating Implementation Challenges

Many FLN programs, like Ennum Ezhuthum, adopt a top-down structure, prescribing methods, timelines, and assessments from the state level. This can lead to uniformity, but it also creates challenges. Teachers often report feeling constrained, unable to adapt teaching methods to suit the unique needs of their students or schools. A recent Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission study found significant inconsistencies in the time allocated for teaching subjects, with teachers struggling to cover the curriculum while managing multi-grade classrooms.

Another concern is how external evaluations, like appointing B.Ed students to assess outcomes, can be seen to diminish teacher ownership. Professional expertise is sometimes sidelined in favour of compliance with external mandates. Such compliance-driven culture stifles innovation, reducing teaching to a mechanistic execution of plans rather than a dynamic, engaged practice aimed at fostering genuine learning. Teachers must be viewed and empowered as professionals who can adapt to classroom realities, not simply as executors of policy.

Why Behavioural Change Matters in Education

For transformation in FLN, we may have to shift our focus from implementation compliance to nurturing behavioural change. According to decision theory, teachers’ actions may be influenced by three main factors: factual beliefs, personal normative beliefs, and empirical expectations.

1. Factual Beliefs: Teachers often know what is required of them in terms of FLN, but knowledge alone doesn’t ensure change. Teachers must understand the value of new practices in their own classrooms to integrate them effectively.

2. Personal Normative Beliefs: Years of experience shape teachers’ beliefs about effective education. Any new approach needs to either align with these existing beliefs or challenge them thoughtfully. Teachers across the country, for example, have long emphasised the need for flexibility in curriculum and pedagogy.

3. Empirical Expectations: Teachers are influenced by their peers. When they see colleagues successfully implementing new methods, they are more likely to adopt them. Peer learning communities, therefore, play a critical role in driving lasting change.

School Culture: A Critical Link

A supportive school culture is critical for driving meaningful change. Teaching, as a profession, is deeply embedded in cultural norms. As noted by an article by @krishnakalabaskaran in his post on the cultural factor, teachers carry with them beliefs about authority, pedagogy, and learning. In environments where hierarchical norms dominate, new, student-centred approaches may clash with deeply rooted expectations of what teaching “should” look like.

Teachers often feel overwhelmed by administrative tasks and external assessments, leaving little room for experimentation. The Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission’s study showed that multi-grade teachers struggled to balance curriculum expectations with the realities of diverse learning levels in their classrooms. Teachers who were part of the study also highlighted the need to give scope for them to innovate with pedagogy and teaching and learning materials as well as with the pace of learning.

Teachers need the freedom to innovate within their classrooms, but they also need support from school leaders to make that happen. Creating psychologically safe environments where educators feel empowered to experiment with new approaches is essential.

Moving Toward Adaptive FLN Implementation

1. Building Teacher Agency

A key barrier in current FLN programs is the lack of teacher agency. Prescriptive lesson plans and rigid activity schedules leave little room for creativity or adaptation. Teachers are sometimes forced to comply with strategies that may not align with their specific classroom needs.

• Proposed Approach: Rather than mandating a single method, offer teachers a variety of strategies and allow them to choose approaches that align with their students’ learning levels and classroom dynamics.
• Why This Works: Empowering teachers to make decisions increases their engagement and ownership of the program. It encourages innovation and ensures that teaching practices are contextually relevant

2. Reshaping Teacher Support Systems

Teacher Continuous Professional Development programs often comprise of trainings on content, pedagogy and assessments. These are followed by observations in the classroom during implementation. However, periodic training sessions and compliance checks are not enough. When there is a lack of a supporting cadre for teacher development or when the supporting cadre such as Head teachers and BRTEs are not equipped enough, teachers may feel less empowered and supported towards their growth. In addition, teachers benefit from ongoing support and opportunities to collaborate with peers through Professional Learning Communities (PLC).

Often, use of Whatsapp / Telegram groups by teachers to share ideas and classroom practices are seen as PLCs. This is mostly not true. According to UNICEF, the core elements of effective PLCs include fostering a collaborative culture, encouraging learning for all (both students and teachers), using inquiry to examine existing practices, and committing to action and improvement. These elements help create an environment where teachers are supported in trying new approaches and refining their skills, ultimately leading to better educational outcomes for students. The toolkit developed by British Council offers great insight into establishing, running and sustaining successful Communities of Practice (A form of PLC).

• Proposed Approach: Establish PLCs at the cluster level where teachers can discuss challenges, share strategies, and innovate together. These circles should prioritise genuine collaboration over compliance. The format and effectiveness of the cluster level meetings in their current form can be improved.
• Why This Works: Peer support networks create a culture of continuous learning. Teachers are more likely to adopt new strategies when they see them working in their peers’ classrooms. This also builds a collaborative, reflective teaching culture.

3. Monitoring for Growth, Not Just Compliance

Current monitoring frameworks focus heavily on ensuring that teachers follow prescribed methods, often neglecting the quality or contextual appropriateness of these practices. The collected data on compliance needs to be utilised effectively at various levels of the system to help teachers in their professional growth and not just remain in data warehouses where they neither serve the administrators nor the teachers.

• Proposed Approach: Shift from a compliance-based monitoring approach to one that tracks growth. Metrics should include how teachers adapt their methods based on classroom realities, as well as the quality of peer interactions and student engagement.
• Why This Works: Focusing on growth and adaptation provides a more nuanced understanding of how FLN programs are being implemented. It also respects teachers as professionals capable of making informed decisions about their classrooms.

4. Accounting for Time in Behavioural Change Interventions

Behavioural change in education takes time. Though at the outset it may look like FLN is an intervention towards improving student outcomes, it has a lot more to do with changes in behaviour, not just at the level of teachers, but also at various levels that support the teachers in their classroom journey. Policymakers and bureaucrats must recognize that the adoption of new teaching practices, and the changes in behaviour that enable the adoption, is a gradual process, requiring continuous support and adjustment. Expecting immediate results or rushing implementation leads to superficial compliance rather than deep, sustained change. Long-term planning that allows for iterative learning and adaptation is essential for success.

5. The Role of External Partners

While external partners, such as NGOs, bring valuable technical expertise, their involvement needs to focus on building internal capacity, not fostering reliance. Successful FLN programs should be geared toward empowering government systems rather than creating long-term dependency.

Proposed Approach: External partners should concentrate on transferring skills and knowledge, equipping government bodies to sustain and scale the programme once external support phases out. This ensures that the initiative’s core objectives continue well beyond the project lifecycle and not create dependencies.

Why It Matters: The longevity and success of FLN programmes depend on full ownership by the government as well as the various level of officials within the government. External partners must prioritise capacity building in the system and play the role of enablers and catalysts, and not act as primary implementors of interventions.

Conclusion

FLN programs need to move beyond a compliance-driven approach. Fostering a supportive school culture, encouraging teacher agency, and focusing on peer collaboration are all essential elements of effective FLN implementation.

By embracing behavioural change principles, we can create an education system where teachers are not only equipped with the right strategies but are also motivated and empowered to adapt and innovate. This shift will help ensure that FLN programs do more than improve test scores—they will help create holistic learning environments that nurture creativity, critical thinking, and emotional well-being in students.

References

• Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179-211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
• Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission. (2024). Study on Ennum Ezhuthum Program.
• Todd, P. M., & Gigerenzer, G. (2007). Heuristics for decision making.
• Nawani, D. (2024, October 14). ASER survey: The problem with reducing learning to absolute measurables. The Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/aser-survey-problem-reducing-learning-to-absolute-measurables-8393636/