The Field Institutes are vibrant, high quality centres located in rural districts and state capitals of select Indian states. These institutes play a leading role in an institution led approach to catalyzing social change and offer on the ground support in different aspects of school education.
Field Institutes are currently present in 44 districts across six states and one union territory. The focus of our work is professional development of teachers, head teachers and government functionaries. In addition we also work at the state-level to create enabling conditions for change. This is through building capacities of senior administrative and academic leaders, curriculum development, support for in-service teacher education processes and policy related work.
Our work in the field directly leverages and builds upon the rich experience gained through grass roots level engagements for fifteen years. All our work in the field has close linkages with the University to ensure a strong two-way connection between theory, research and actual practice.
District Institute
The purpose of each District Institute is to improve the government school education system at the district level. The ultimate aim is to improve learning levels of children by focusing on building professional capacities of key stakeholders i.e. teachers, head teachers and functionaries. This is facilitated through multi-modal engagements - informal learning groups, short discussions, Teacher Learning Centres, workshops, school visits, exposure visits etc. The curriculum of engagements covers perspectives (aims of education, education and society, how children learn, knowledge etc.), content (content areas in subjects like language, science, mathematics) and pedagogy in an interlinked manner. Towards this we are building up qualified teams with capacities in these areas in each of our districts. We also provide teachers and others proximate access to resources like books, teaching and learning materials, computers and internet connection, laboratory equipment and material through our wide network of Teacher Learning Centres.
Our Presence
Geographically we are present in six states and one union territory - Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttarakhand.Our presence extends to 44 districts. The districts have been chosen so as to establish bunched presence in under-developed pockets (e.g. North-East Karnataka, South-West Rajasthan). In addition, we have a District Institute at state capitals too. We also have a one-off presence in Sangareddy, earlier part of Medak (in Telangana, focused on Early Childhood Education) and Puducherry.
States |
Districts |
| Chhattisgarh |
Dhamtari, Raipur |
| Karnataka |
Kalaburagi, Mandya, Yadgir |
| Madhya Pradesh | *Bhopal, Khargone, Sagar |
| Puducherry | Puducherry |
| Rajasthan |
Barmer, Rajsamand, Sirohi, Tonk |
| Telangana | Sangareddy |
| Uttarakhand |
Almora, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarkashi, |
* Seeding Districts (Refer to smaller team presence. We intend to grow our teams and scale our work in these districts in the coming years)
Teacher Learning Centre
The idea of the Teacher Learning Centre (TLC) evolved from long years of the Foundation's experience in teacher professional development. The basic idea is to improve quality of education and provide a better learning experience for children in government schools through improving the capacities of teachers at multiple levels:
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Teachers’ perspective on education and the role of education in society,
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Content knowledge in different subjects
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Appropriate pedagogic approaches that work given the child’s context and developmental stage.
This requires regular academic engagements with teachers and head teachers and this cannot be achieved just through training or workshops alone. In fact it necessitates being closer to the teacher and creating an environment of regular academic engagements through multiple modes (workshops, discussions, seminar, melas etc.). The Teacher Learning Centre is one of the spaces that can enable this to happen. The idea is to have a space which, other than being conveniently accessible to teachers (which in most contexts means closer to the residences of the teachers), also has:
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The space and materials required (books, teaching learning materials, laboratory equiment etc) which enable academic engagements with teachers
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A team that is regularly working in and around the TLC to achieve the following
a. Enable/facilitate academic engagements
b. Build relations and actively mobilise teachers to visit and participate regularly -
Over time has developed processes that enable regular and quality engagements – calendar of activities, regular informal events etc.
The goal is that such a centre will have participation from a large number of teachers residing close to the centre (2-3km radius) who regularly visit, utilize the resources available and participate in the activities at the centre. Over time this, along with other avenues of mobilizing teachers and multiple modes of engagements (like discussions, reading and sharing sessions, workshops etc), will enable professional development of teachers.
Azim Premji Schools
Azim Premji Schools have been set up in six districts to demonstrate good school level practices at costs and constraints similar to that of rural government schools. These schools are not intended to supplant or supplement the government school system in any way – but to help in local capacity building and awareness creation for “quality education”. As of August 2016, our schools are operational in the following states (districts): Uttarakhand (Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarkashi), Rajasthan (Tonk, Sirohi), Karnataka (Yadgir) and Chattisgarh (Dhamtari). Visit the Schools page to know more.
