District Institutes of Education and Training - Teacher Education

District Institutes of Education and Training: A Comparative Study in Three Indian States
work this way, or shown how to work in teacher training college, how to work
with teachers.. they went to a school for 2 hours inspection, prepared files and
came back. That’s why in the beginning I adopted this type of strategy
(GUJ/SUR/P 18.1.01).
Lok Jumbish had put much effort into developing Master Trainers though joint
meetings between DIET staff, Lok Jumbish representatives, and teachers. For this,
a point system was developed (Box 5.2):
We felt that it was really necessary to find out in a person which 4-5 good
characteristics are there, which weaknesses there are, so that in the coming 2-3
years we can minimise those weaknesses. So the person on whom we are
spending so much money becomes useful. For that we decided 8-10 points.
They also said that people who are weak should be dropped. If we can’t find
out a weak person and we send him to give some training at a particular place,
he won’t be able to do it and our programme will fail. How to recognise a weak
person? We developed points like someone who observes time, expression,
delivery… If they have important things like that, they will be fine. If a person
has more than half the weaknesses he is not useful to us. That’s what we decided
after the rating. We also asked teachers who will take the training what type of
person they wanted. They said someone who takes us along with him. So the
point of participation was raised, who can make us understand properly - means
a person should have a grasp of the subject – a subject expert. All this came from
them, what we should see in our MT, so it becomes successful
(RAJ/MAS/TT07 19.7.1999).
Box 5.2: 10 desirable points for a Master Trainer, Masuda DIET
1. Participatory approach
2. Punctuality
3. Capacity to take initiative
4. Knowledge of content
5. Knowledge of skills
6. Presentation of chapter
7. Expression, oral
8. Expression, written
9. Retention in sessions
10. Attitude/outlook
It is interesting, however, that this trainer interprets what teachers are saying as a
need for content expertise. An alternative interpretation might be that teachers are
requesting trainers who are competent in the pedagogy of training, and able to
relate training messages to teachers’ understandings and aspirations.
DFID 99