District Institutes of Education and Training - Teacher Education

District Institutes of Education and Training: A Comparative Study in Three Indian States
Annex 1 Expansion and new directions in
elementary education
Provision of schools and teachers
Despite a policy discourse stressing the importance of elementary education, and
the constitutional commitment to achieving it, the elementary sector has
suffered from inadequate funding allocations. About 95% of the available budget
has been absorbed by teacher salaries, leaving very little over for even
modest ‘quality’ aspects (buildings, playground, teaching aids and books)
(Varghese and Tilak 1991). By 1997-98, 3.6% of GNP was invested in education
– a significant increase compared with the 1.2% of GNP in 1960-51, but still
well short of the Education Commission’s (1964-66) recommendation of
6% (GoI 2000).
By the mid 1980s the targeted expansion of the school network to ensure universal
access (i.e. a school within 1 km of place of habitation) was nearing completion.
Operation Blackboard (MHRD 1987) attempted, with varying success
(Dyer 2000) to lay down a norm of at least two room, two teacher schools.
However, in rural areas, where there are frequently two teachers to five classes,
multigrade teaching is common, and staff-student ratios continue to exceed
the policy norm of 1: 40 (6AIES 1996). Further scrutiny of the access
scenario in the mid 1990s revealed that this norm was not adequate to ensure
all children could reach a school; this prompted the Education Guarantee
Scheme / Alternative Schooling system pioneered in Madhya Pradesh, which
obliges the state government to respond to a community’s request for a
school if one is not available. Alternative Schools are generally staffed by a parateacher.
Box A1: Para-teachers
By the late 1990s, teacher shortages, fiscal crises, the continuing problem of
teacher absenteeism, particularly in rural areas, prompted a search for
alternatives to formal teachers.
Following initiatives from the Shiksha Karmi programme in Rajasthan and the
Education Guarantee Scheme in Madhya Pradesh, para-teachers appeared to
offer a reasonable alternative to expensive, certificated teachers. The para
teacher should be a Std. 10 pass where possible, Std. 8 if female and be local,
which should obviate problems of dialect and lack of interest or sense of
participation in the local community.
Unlike the two year, content intensive pre-service preparation of regular
teachers, with a very limited teaching practice component, para teachers work
in schools with occasional intensive periods of ‘on the job’ training.
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