Initiatives and Strategies and Reporting:
Following NPE 1986, efforts have been made to
develop institutions like DIETs, IASEs and CTEs for
providing in-ser vice education to primary and
secondary schoolteachers; 500 DIETs, 87 CTEs, 38
IASEs, and 30 SCERTs, have been set up, although
many of them have yet to function as resource centres.
DPEP also brought in the block and cluster resource
centres and made in-service teacher education and
cluster-level schools as the follow-up for the main
strategies for pedagogic renewal. In spite of the
widespread efforts and specific geographical areas
which have shown improvements, by and large the
in-service inputs have not had any noticeable impact
on teacher practice.
A major indicator of quality of training is its
relevance to teachers' needs. But most such programmes
are not organised according to actual needs. The
approach adopted has remained lecture based, with
little opportunity for trainees to actively participate.
Ironically, concepts such as activity-based teaching,
classroom management of large classes, multigrade
teaching, team teaching, and cooperative and
collaborative learning, which require active
demonstration, are often taught through lectures.
School follow-up has also failed to take off, and
cluster-level meetings have not been able to develop
into professional fora for teachers to reflect and plan
together.
Any curriculum renewal effort needs to be
supported with a well thought-out and systematic
programme of in-service education and school-based
teacher support. In-service education cannot be an
event but rather is a process, which includes knowledge,
development and changes in attitudes, skills, disposition
and practice — through interactions both in workshop
settings and in the school. It does not consist only of
receiving knowledge from experts; promotion of
experiential learning, incorporating teachers as active
learners, and peer group-based review of practice can
also become a part of the overall strategy. Self-reflection
needs to be acknowledged as a vital component of
such programmes. A training policy needs to be worked
out, defining parameters such as the periodicity, context
and methodology of programmes. But efforts to
strengthen quality and ensure vibrant rather than
routinised interactions would require far more
decentralised planning with clarity on goals and methods
for training and transfer. 'Mass training using’ new
technologies may be of use in some aspects of training,
but much greater honesty and bold creativity are required
for addressing the concerns of practising teachers
directly, including the deprofessionalised environments
in which they work, their lack of agency, and their
alienation.
Dissemination technologies can serve to build a
positive ethos for curricular reforms if they are used
as sites of discussion and debates in which teachers,
training personnel and community members can
participate. Teachers require first-hand experience of
making programmes themselves in order to develop
an interest in the new technology. The availability of
computers and linkage facilities remains quite inadequate
in training institutes. This is one reason why the potential
of the new communication technology for changing
the ethos of schools and training institutions has
remained inadequately tapped.
Pre-service teacher education
as well as in-service training must
build the necessary orientation and
capacities in teachers so that they
can appreciate, understand and
meet the challenges of the
curriculum framework. In-service
training, in particular, must be
situated within the context of the
classroom experiences of teachers.
DIETs, which have the
responsibility of organising such
training, should do so in a manner
in which both teachers and their
schools benefit from such training.
For instance, instead of the ad hoc
manner in which teacher trainees
are sent for in-service training by
the educational administration, it
would be better for a cluster of
schools to be identified and a
minimum number of trainees (at
least two, to enable some peer
sharing and reflection) invited
from each school to participate in
an in-service training programme.
DIETs, in coordination with
BRCs, could identify the schools
for this purpose. In order that
teaching time is not unduly
affected, and teacher trainees are
able to make the link between
theory and practice, the mandatory
days for training could be split up
over the course of the year to
include on-site work in their own
classrooms as well.
Training could comprise a variety of activities in
addition to contact lectures and discussions in the teacher
training institutions and include workshops in schools
in the cluster, projects and other assignments for teachers
in their classrooms. To link pre-service and in-service
training, the same schools can become sites for preservice
internship, and student teachers can be asked to
observe classroom transaction in these schools. This
could serve not only as feedback to teacher educators
for strengthening the training programme but can also
become the basis of critical reflection by teacher trainees
during the latter part of the training programme. To
take the process forward, there could be interactive
sessions with headmasters from the concerned schools
so that they can play the role of a facilitator in the
changes in classroom practices that the teacher trainees
may like to make. Systems for monitoring and feedback
must include SCERTs/DIETs /BRCs and CRCs so
that academic support can be envisaged in follow ups',
documentation and research.
