District Institutes of Education and Training - Teacher Education

District Institutes of Education and Training: A Comparative Study in Three Indian States
Figure 9.1: The cascade tiers, Std. 1 training
Key Resource
Persons
Resource Persons
Master Trainers
Trainers
Trainers to teachers
25 KRPs, consisting of DIET staff in DPEP Districts where
books were piloted; SRG members; teacher experts in
specified areas e.g. TLM. KRPs had attended 2 training
programmes, had experience of training teachers in the pilot
Districts, and had 2 further training days in Palitana. (Not
observed by research team.)
160 RPs, consisting of DIET staff from all over Gujarat, Coordinators
from Block and Cluster Resource Centres, and
some primary teachers. They were given four training days
at Palitana by the KRPs. (Not observed by research team.)
About 1000 MTs, drawn from DIET staff from all
over Gujarat, Co-ordinators from Block and Cluster
Resource Centres, and some primary teachers. They
were also trained in Palitana, for four days by the
RPs. (Observed by research team.)
Each District selected their Trainers from among
primary school teachers (including CRCs).
Training took place in batches of 50 - 70, with a
ratio of 5 MTs to each batch of trainers, for four
days. (Two sessions in Baroda District observed
by research team.)
Trainers trained teachers in batches of 50 - 70
with a ratio of 5 trainers to one batch of
teachers, for 4 days. (Two sessions in Baroda
District observed by research team.)
A vibrant, enthusiastic and motivating atmosphere was created from the
inauguration of the programme where seniormost officials, the Education Minister
herself, teachers’ union leaders, NGOs, textbook writers, and many others were
present. Many of them were present throughout the Palitana training days, and this
facilitated interactions between primary school teachers and persons of high
authority and others involved in bringing about improvements in primary
education. It reflects a positive general trend in relations between officers of the
GoG and primary school teachers:
Till now, no officer used to go to teachers. They used to have a negative
approach to teachers. Now they have accepted the existence of teachers, and of
children too. That is why this work will be done very nicely. They just used to
see what time a teacher would come, that was all our duty was, but now, officers
praise teachers for whatever good work a teacher is doing. That encourages us
and because of that whatever work is going on is done nicely (RP, female
primary school teacher, Amreli District).
The continuous presence of the subject expert members of the textbook writing
team allowed Resource Persons’ and Master Trainers’ questions about the content
DFID 173