In-service teacher training is an integral part of the teaching profession. Every year; both, public and private schools conduct in-service trainings for their teachers as it has been made mandatory by the NCTE (National Council for Teacher Education)- the regulatory body for teacher education in India.
For years, it was also observed that this was just an eye wash and had become a mere ritual, which needed to be performed. Mostly, in the public education sector, it was becoming irrelevant by every passing years. There have been several studies which have proved the insufficiency of these in-service training programs. The situation was perceived as unchangeable and thus was left to die. It was also found that at state-level, institutions such as SCERTs and DIETS which were supposed to playa key role in imparting these trainings had also become dysfunctional.
But this piece that I write brings to light the recent efforts made by the Delhi government to revive the public education system and how these efforts have started bringing the much-needed impact on the revival of these institutions and ushered in a qualitative change in the in-service teacher training program for Delhi government teachers.
What has changed?
The first step has been to bring the teacher training out of the ritual mode and integrate it with the teaching-learning process. Several steps have been taken to realise this.
Introduction of the mentor-teacher program has been the part of this policy. I have already written about this; this piece would focus on what has changed in the annual in-service training program offered by SCERT.
Meticulously Designed programs- As a teacher attending the previous training workshops, I would be left feeling that how these programmes lacked planning and quality. Resource persons were called randomly and they would be ill-equipped to deliver those trainings. But, now, one can experience a shift in this delivery, with more emphasis on planning a session and the focus is on designing the training according to the needs and gaps experienced and observed. The planning for the training session begins months before the actual training starts.
In-depth Training of Facilitators- The resource persons are not called randomly from a pool of ‘experts’. Whosoever the experts maybe, the department ensures that all the facilitators go through an intense training before they further impart training to the teachers. Most of the resource persons are from the pool of mentor-teachers. These are trained by experts and with the help from NCERT. These MTs go through rigorous trainings- they discuss, debate and problematize ideas which they are supposed to share with the teachers. It only after so many months of preparation that the mentor-teachers take the work of training in their hands.
Feedbacks through E-mails- Teachers teaching in Delhi have their login ID and through their personal login ID they can submit their feedback regarding their experiences in those trainings. This serves as a robust platform as the electronically collected feedback is easy to access, readily available for analysis and helps create a database from where information can be accessed anytime.
On-ground support for facilitators- The training sessions are being conducted by two facilitators accompanied by 1 academic coordinator deputed from the nearby DIET. The team of these 3 experts handle most of the queries of the teachers and apart from this, if the need arises, there is a dedicated team at NCERT to extend the help to the facilitators at the training centres.
Need-based training- The facilitators don’t come and deliver a lecture on random topics unlike previously. Here, I would like to share we take the example from a social science workshop. In the 4-days workshop, for the first day, the teachers were encouraged to share the challenges they faced in teaching and discussed the idea of education expressed in National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005. They also discussed chapter-wise learning outcomes. For the next three days, teachers discussed the content of Social Science textbooks of class 6th, 7th and 8th. Teachers were divided into groups and they were allotted with the chapter and were asked to come with unique ways of teaching the chaptersand find out the required learning outcomes. This process exhibited the belief and trust in the teachers’ subject knowledge and their ideas for delivering the contents. This also benefitted the fellow teachers. The facilitators did not impose their knowledge to sound superior. Moreover, since the facilitators were one among us, they were equipped with an understanding of our context.
A long road ahead…..The changes that need to be ushered
Firstly, I feel that the social science teachers need to extend the boundaries of knowledge; there is a need to incorporate various strands of knowledge and alternative perspectives around a topic or issue. Why only talk about binaries such as male and female when it comes to the issue of gender? Isn’t there a need to acknowledge, read and deliberate with the children, the alternative realities of gender such as transgender, the queers etc.? Why not bring into discussions, several myths surrounding the interior of Earth when discussing interior structure of the earth? These several myths are part of the children’s social life and thus need to be given space in the discussion for further reflection.
We need to think that how can we use the scientific information against the prevailing myths in the society. I feel that we need to move from presentation to contemplation at least in the training sessions.
Teachers view facilitators as someone who knows about the education policy and who have access to influence the education policy. This is the only opportunity when teachers interact and want to know that why are certain changes not taking place at the policy level. They feel that it is the shortcomings in policy, which is hampering their classroom practices. In this regard, two changes that need attention in my opinion, are – 1. The facilitators should be honest and upfront in their articulation and admit in case they felt inept to guide, us teachers on the policy front. Why not be transparent and courageous enough to admit that they do not have any idea about education policies and neither any power to influence at the policy level. 2. The facilitators should be trained in a way that they answer the queries of the teachers as someone who really knows education policy and who may convey the suggestions from the teachers to the policy makers. I feel that the second option is more appropriate because the teachers have all the rights to know that what is going on at policy level.
Having said that, I must express that the efforts to revive the established training institutions is praiseworthy. The strong public institutions such as NCERT and DIET are not only going to help public education but the education in general. I hope that people, various stakeholders and the responsible citizens take note of these initiatives in the direction of improving the public education system in Delhi.
DelhiEducationRevolution#MentorTeacher#SCERT#NCERT#TeacherTraining#Public Education#socialsciences#Gender#Geography#Educationpolicy#NCTE#DIET
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