Teaching profession is undoubtedly above all other professions and it may not be wrong to call it the mother of all other professions. The way, the importance is attached to this profession, it would be absurd and insanity to take it for granted. When a fresh teacher gets recruited, an induction training programme for freshers is being conducted so that the recruitee gets acquainted with the new job and it’s demands. Moreover he or she has to keep abreast with the latest syllabus in the concerned subject. After getting into this profession, the teacher undergoes different training programmes from time to time, through different agencies like SCERT,DIET and at times through different NGO’s like Pratham etc. The motive of all these programmes is to keep a teacher updated with the innovative trends and techniques so that he or she may efficiently deliver the content at the grass root level through relevant techniques and make the learner capable of achieving the set competencies. Furthermore hard spots if any confronted during the teaching learning process are also recorded and taken up for review by the experts to reach out their solution. Department of Education always remains on toes to equip the teaching professionals with modern pedagogical skills and spend a huge chunk of money on these trainings. It will be apt to quote a view point about teachers, articulated by Rabindranath Tagore,” A teacher can not truly teach unless he is himself learning” A teacher has to remain acquainted, updated and in touch with the latest trends, techniques, methodology, pedagogical skills etc. Let’s have a look at the role of different institutes pertaining to in service teacher training.
Role of NCERT (National Council for Education Research and Training)
1.NCERT is concerned with all the problems of school education in the country and endeavours to improve such education through developing various programmes of research, publication, extension training.
2.Development of National Curriculum Framework(NCF)
3.Organize in-service and pre-service training of teachers
4.Develops and disseminates innovative educational techniques and practices.
5.The NEP 2020 aims to set the National Professional Standards for teachers(NPST) to determine all aspects of teacher career management, efforts for professional development etc. NCERT will undertake an in-depth study of an international pedagogical approaches and integrate their findings for NEP teacher training.
Role of SCERT (State Council of Education Research and Training)
Recently SCERT was established by merging State Institute of Education J&K. One of the assignments envisaged to SCERT is to enable the department to train 134 lakh in-service teachers through various professional trainings, capacity building programmes, induction courses, content enrichment and contemporary trends and techniques for ensuring quality education. Also SCERT provides academic and resource support at grass root level and functions through existing DIET.
Role of DIET (District Institute of Education and Training)
1.Sole purpose of DIET is to conduct different kinds of training programmes to improve the quality of basic education and create a desirable environment with in the district and to ensure high literacy percentage. Diet’s have an academic faculty with high qualification who simultaneously work as Zonal In charges especially to supervise the ongoing different schemes of education and guide the teachers to implement it in an effective way.
2.Training of pre-service and in-service elementary teachers.
3.Induction level and continuing education of non formal and adult education instructors and supervisors.
4.Training and orientation of heads of institution in institutional planning and management.
5.Academic and resource support to the elementary and adult education system at district level.
6.Action research and experimentation to deal with specific problems.
7.One year regular programme for D.El.Ed.(Diploma in Elementary Education) course for untrained undergraduate teachers.
The current practice in vogue is whenever any training programme is to be conducted, a list of teachers as Master Resource Persons by the concerned DIET’s through respective ZEO’s, is framed who receive training from experts from SCERT. These Master Resource Persons then pass on the expertise to the teachers on ground. After all the teachers receive training in a particular field, they are then supposed to deliver that in actual classroom and the concerned DIET’s monitor the implementation of the particular training through out the year.In this regard, one day we were talking remarked that these programmes are conducted only to utilise the money that is sanctioned for the purpose. But these are the speculations and perceptions of about these training programmes conducted for teachers, one of my comrades said that it is simply old vine in new bottles. The other day another friend of mine a lay man that may not be true and the reality is something different. Looking at the procedure of these trainings,a thought strikes ones mind that no doubt the teachers selected as Resource persons are either well qualified and dedicated in the zone or are interviewed first for the selection but whether these programmes achieve cent percent success in achieving the set target as per the set guidelines or not? Do these trainings involve the concerned stake holders in the process? Do they get hands in experience to deliver the best in actual class room transaction? These are the questions that need to be pondered upon. “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn” asserted Benjamin Franklin. As all of us believe that when we get involved in any activity or assignment we come out successful in performing that task. What if a model school as teacher training institute in each educational zone of the UT is established where children are actually studying. Whenever any training programme is to be conducted by the concerned agencies, the resource persons who receive trainings from the SCERT/DIET experts, first implement those techniques, trends, methodologies, skills etc in that particular model institution. There after the teachers of that particular zone will receive trainings and practically hold the classes there in the model institution under the supervision of the RP’s and receive feedback on the spot for modification if any. When the teachers get involved in the actual classroom transaction before the experts, this would bring practicality and expertise in the field and thereby teachers get well equipped with the desired skills. And they become capable of implementing all the skills in their own schools in an effective way.
(The author is a freelancer. The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
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