primary school teachers the twists and turns of ... - ERU Consultants

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalBlackboard was introduced in 1987 to improve the overall infrastructure of schoolsand to ensure that every school has at least two teachers. As recommended by the1968 National Education Policy (NEP) and reiterated in the 1986 policy, GoI agreedto pay for the additional teacher in single-teacher schools and funds were also madeavailable for TLA.On the ground, the uneven implementation of this policy is clearly perceptible. Atone end are Kerala and Tamil Nadu where the school buildings look fairly neat andclean, there is an adequate number of classrooms, a boundary wall and drinkingwater. Maharashtra and Rajasthan come next where the availability of buildings andbasic amenities is fairly good except in remote or interior areas and in tribal villages.West Bengal is a picture of decay and neglect—the buildings are old and oftencrumbling, they look as if they have not been painted in decades and the overallenvironment is depressing. Similarly, if we were to focus on the number of singleandtwo-teacher schools or on the academic infrastructure (the availability of libraryand reference books, charts, maps, basic science equipment and so on) there is againa huge difference between states. Overall, at the ground level theprimary/elementary school is nothing like what our policy makers conceptualise asan ideal school environment.Although the environment in which a school functions affects teachers, whether welook at infrastructure, at the availability of TLA, or at the number of teachersappointed, it is equally true that teachers in turn influence the overall learningenvironment. It is a two-way process. What then determines whether this two-wayprocess produces a positive, creative learning environment or a negative spiral ofindifference and decay?Case studies of exceptional government schools suggest that a highly committedhead teacher and teachers can make a big difference. In 2004, Sandhan (Jaipur) didin-depth case studies of 10 schools in Rajasthan as a part of a larger quantitativestudy covering over 660 schools. The overall understanding that emerged throughschool observation, community dialogue and teacher interviews is revealing:- If teachers are hard working and sensitive towards the students, it ensurespositive community support for the school.- Mutual understanding and coordination among teachers within a school has apositive impact on the overall educational environment of the school.- If teachers are creative and committed, they always find a way out even indifficult circumstances.- If teachers are sincere, the budget allocated by the District Primary EducationProgramme (DPEP) is optimally utilised.- The teacher-student ratio affects the educational environment and students’learning achievement. This one thing is beyond the control of teachers.We are confronted with this reality: regardless of the ‘system’ there are alwaysteachers and head teachers who are able to elicit parental and community support toimprove the overall learning environment in the school. Equally, notwithstandingthe best programmes and high budget allocations, a group of indifferentadministrators, head teachers and teachers becomes a stumbling block in improvingthe learning environment. The agency of the head teacher and teachers at theschool level and that of the administrators who directly supervise the schoolemerge as critical factors.12
Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalWhy are most teachers unable or unwilling to provide this leadership? The crux ofthe problem lies with what the ‘system’ expects from the teacher. Let us revisitMalati’s story. When she joined the school she did not have any induction workshop,no one told her what she should do in class or what was expected of her. The fewtimes when she did interact with her superiors, all they wanted her to do was to fillout forms and to take the textbooks; later she was asked to do a household survey.When she wanted to know what she should do or how she should tackle a particulareducational situation or problem, she had nobody to turn to. In this situation, Malatihad no way of judging whether she was teaching well or whether she could helpstudents learn more by doing things differently. Nor did she have any reason to evenbother to think about it.Discussions with teachers in the five states we visited confirm Malati’s experience.Academic support institutions in Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (TN) wereengaged in some degree of academic monitoring and support, although these werefor the most part designed to ensure teachers’ compliance with predefined tasks andprocedures, rather than to encourage them to analyse their teaching practices in thelight of their students’ learning outcomes. In Rajasthan and West Bengal, on theother hand, the signals from the top were often contradictory and limited toadministrative matters and data collection. Let us take a quick look at these twostates.In West Bengal, primary schools are ‘managed’ by a number of different bodies.Teachers are appointed at the district level but come under the administrativecontrol of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE), their training andsupervision comes under the Directorate of School Education (DSE) and DI ofSchools, the funds are controlled by the DI of Schools. Under the Sarva ShikshaAbhiyan (SSA) fund flow, monitoring (data gathering) and training is handled by theSSA directorate and its district wing. The District Primary School Council (DPSC)and the panchayat do not speak in one voice: the DPSC is partly nominated and thepanchayat, an elected body, has no administrative role in schools.These various bodies were created at different points of time for specific reasons.According to the DPSC Chairperson we interviewed and the SSA coordinators at thestate and district levels, the existence of multiple chains of command essentiallyimplies that the teacher is at the receiving end of instructions from all but effectivelyaccountable to no one in particular. The ‘school’ also comes under different bodiesand therefore there is no coherent/coordinated body that takes care of all aspects ofschooling. No one can be held responsible for this sorry state of affairs and everyonepasses the buck. Organisations like the Pratichi Trust working in the state say that asa result there is no effective support or supervision and the schools are in a state ofdecay.Said Kumar Rana of the Pratichi Trust: ‘…Pratichi Trust’s strategy is clear. Webelieve that teachers are a huge resource and they can contribute a lot and only theycan break the cycle of poor quality and high drop out rates. We need to demandinvolvement of teachers in policy-making and in formulation of curriculum andtextbooks. Simultaneously we need to list what the teachers can do and what theycannot do. This could be followed by a series of workshops on teaching methods,English and science teaching. We can see visible change in Bribhum and some workhas also started in Malda, Jalpaiguri and Gopiballabganj’ (interview, July 2008). In13
Page 5 and 6: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalIWhy
Page 7 and 8: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalThis
Page 9 and 10: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalIISh
Page 11: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalwant
Page 15 and 16: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalallo
Page 17 and 18: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalfor
Page 19 and 20: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalHeal
Page 21 and 22: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalcomm
Page 23 and 24: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalLet
Page 25 and 26: Version 20 Oct 08, edited final(two
Page 27 and 28: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalThe
Page 29 and 30: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalIIIW
Page 31 and 32: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalstat
Page 33 and 34: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalunde
Page 35 and 36: Version 20 Oct 08, edited final- Th
Page 37 and 38: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalIVBe
Page 39 and 40: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalOver
Page 41 and 42: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finallate
Page 43 and 44: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalNotw
Page 45 and 46: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalwas
Page 47 and 48: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalacco
Page 49 and 50: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalscho
Page 51 and 52: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalVTra
Page 53 and 54: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalques
Page 55 and 56: Version 20 Oct 08, edited final1994
Page 57 and 58: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalimpr
Page 59 and 60: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalBox
Page 61 and 62: Version 20 Oct 08, edited finaladmi
Page 63 and 64:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalTrai
Page 65 and 66:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalhelp
Page 67 and 68:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited final(Kin
Page 69 and 70:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalinst
Page 71 and 72:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalfund
Page 73 and 74:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalCrea
Page 75 and 76:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalBIBL
Page 77 and 78:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalDe,
Page 79 and 80:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalGove
Page 81 and 82:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalKuma
Page 83 and 84:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited final____
Page 85 and 86:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalSyno
Page 87 and 88:
Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalSC:
show all

primary school teachers the twists and turns of ... - ERU Consultants

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?