District Institutes of Education and Training - Teacher Education

District Institutes of Education and Training: A Comparative Study in Three Indian States
Box 5.1: Planning for MLL training, Masuda DIET, April 1999
DIET TT1 Today, one thing to be discussed is the programme for post-5
training.
MLLi/c1 Last year, training for post-5 was not at all effective. Resources
were not good; in P.. 50 were called and only 4 came.
DIET V-P Also to be taken in consideration is what new can be done for the
teachers who have been attending the training for the last 5 years
– can any new thing can be added for them.
MLLi/c2 Yes, in the TLM workshop, teachers can be taught to make new
things.
MLLi/c3 Puppet shows..
MLLi/c3 Drama, theatre education be included.
DIET V-P Yes, for cognitive subjects, these can be used; these things help in
making the subject lively and engaging.
MLLi/c1 For non-cognitive subjects, anything can be used.
DIET V-P It seems teachers do not pay attention to the competency of
children, they only worry about completion of the prescribed
course.
MLLi/c1 But teachers have no other alternative.
MLLi/c2 Yes in 75% of schools, only a single teacher is working, and the
whole responsibility is on him/her for course completion.
Planning in Masuda DIET was comprehensive for the Lok Jumbish programmes:
administrative officials and Master Trainers were called to organise logistical details,
such as date, duration and venue of the training; and to identify potential aspects
where teachers might need particular support (see Box 5.1). A core group was
formed to supervise and evaluate the training and would meet before, during and
after the programme. However, the DIET staff did not follow these procedures for
their government programmes. DIET staff did not see any anomaly in this, and
rather than seeing these quality mechanisms as a generic good practice for universal
application, said they were not a requirement of government programmes.
Another aspect of the intensive in-service activities in the DIETs was these took
precedence over pre-set, so if there was any staff shortage – for example because so
many programmes were running at once – the in-service programme would take
priority: ‘It happens many times most of the people are out, at that time I and 2-3
others who are there have to run classes. At that time, I have to take classes for 2 hours.’
In this way, the pre-set course also suffered disruptions and cancellations, and
students felt that their course work suffered; this was acute in DIETs such as Dhar,
Masuda and Surat where there was shortstaffing, but it occurred in all DIETs.
96 DFID