The initiative aims to improve basic numeracy among primary school children, with mothers and teachers taking an active interest in the program. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Chitradurga district has emerged as the top performer in implementing Ganitha Ganaka, an evidence-based initiative by the state government to improve basic numeracy among primary school children.
Ganitha Ganaka is a distance tutoring program in which public school teachers conduct weekly one-to-one tutoring over the phone for Year 3, 4 and 5 students focusing on basic numeracy.
As part of this initiative, parents are actively involved in the learning process, as tutoring takes place after phone calls in the presence of caregivers.
In Chitradurga district, 2,400+ trained teachers from 1,586 schools in 151 clusters actively participated in the 1st cycle of the program and engaged around 9,000 students.
As part of this initiative, each student received four structured tutoring challenges over a six-week cycle in addition to sensitization and assessment challenges.
After starting the first cycle ahead of other districts, Chitradurga is now also the only district in the state to have started the second cycle in the current academic year, according to authorities.
According to the teachers, the initiative brought several surprises.
The teacher found that the usually quiet child in the class opened up during tutoring and responded very positively to telephone support.
In some cases, teachers have moved on to teaching three-digit operations once students have demonstrated mastery of two-digit operations, even though it is not mandated in the program, officials said.
While in one case Principal Ranganath H. of GLPS Chigatanahalli School in Challakere Block coordinated and arranged a mobile phone for a student who had no means of communication, in another case parents voluntarily purchased additional phones for tutoring purposes.
According to officials, the initiative has led to a significant increase in parental investment and support for their children’s learning, and parents, especially mothers, show great interest by being present during tutoring. Teachers also save time outside of school hours to support and improve their children’s learning.
“All parents appreciate the dedication of the teachers and educational institutions in Chitradurga for their collective efforts in strengthening basic learning outcomes through Ganitha Ganaka,” Chitradurga Zilla Panchayat CEO S. Akash said.
Profit from learning
Data analysis revealed a significant learning benefit for the children. According to the data, the proportion of students who were able to solve two-digit division problems increased to 22% from 2%, reflecting a net gain of 20%. On average, students mastered 2.3 new mathematical operations during the six-week tutoring cycle.
The administration has engaged the State College for Teacher Education (CTE) program implementation. As many as 86 B.Ed students supported teachers in large schools and tutored over 300 students, resulting in nearly 45% of these students achieving divisional level understanding.
In this academic year, the B.Ed. Students are expected to support an additional 300 students.
Published – 18 Jan 2026 18:25 IST