District Institutes of Education and Training - Teacher Education

District Institutes of Education and Training: A Comparative Study in Three Indian States
structural innovations met with little response; their benefit to these teachers was
not obvious. Teachers did however have a lot to say about the ‘Lok Jumbish
method’ which used a different textbook based on the ‘word method’ rather than
the alphabet method of the older textbook. This, for them, was Lok Jumbish; and
teachers stated that teaching could not be done by the LJ method - although one
of them claimed to have tried but stopped when she saw that children were not
able to retain it. No mention was made of any training in the new approach, and
none of the teachers was able to describe or demonstrate what the ‘word method’
was, or the difference between the two approaches. There was no evidence from
classroom observations of any attempt to implement the newer approach to
literacy teaching. Part of their reason for this was entirely logistical, but teachers
also had a weak belief in the appropriateness of the word approach:
Asha Now it is the end of September and we haven’t received books yet. When
these LJ people ask us to teach by this book they should have made it
available to us. We have only six books and how can we teach about 70
children from these six books? If in class 1 children are not taught the
letters of the alphabet then how can they learn words? This is the
foundation, if the foundation is left weak can anything be done? Now, can
you build a building without a foundation? It will definitely fall (Asha
22.9.99).
There was also annoyance at repeated changes of textbook: Ruchi said ‘we teachers
form the habit of teaching by a book, so we can’t keep on changing’. This remark
was qualified by Asha, who said, ‘we wouldn’t mind changing but the change
should have some meaning. In private schools also, this matra system runs [the old
system which is the one they prefer] and in Pol and Ara blocks, LJ books have been
boycotted, they are not improving the standard of education but making it
deteriorate’ (28.9.99). In the absence of a sufficient supply of the new textbooks,
with little understanding of the alternative approach to literacy or faith in the need
for change, these teachers ignored the innovation. They continued to use the
method they had become comfortable with over the years.
Literacy teaching and learning in Rajpur school
In Year One, teachers expected children to learn the letters of the alphabet, vowels
and simple two or three letter words, which they should be able to recite, write
and read by the end of the year. Formal literacy learning takes place from the
beginning of the school year. Teachers used a textbook that is not provided by the
Education Department but contains the method they like:
Look, in this book, vowels and consonants have been given separately. First
they are taught and then how to form two letter words is taught, then three
letter words, then one by one vowels are taken. All is done in a systematic way.
Each chapter includes only the examples that are related to that chapter so if the
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