Teacher Training College - an observation

1 Background

The District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) of the current study was established in 1975 as a Teacher Training Institute. In 1988, as per National Education Policy it was upgraded as DIET. The pre service training program was run as a one year program until 1999, when it was modified as per National Council for Teacher Education’s recommendation to a two year teacher training course.

The key objectives of the exercise was to gain an understanding of the following
- The organization structure, it’s intended role and functions and the role and functions actually being performed
- Infrastructure available, usability and the actual usage of the same, thereby,
- Capacity building needs of the institute that would enable it to be more effective in supporting the teachers and the schools in the district

The study was conducted by having face to face interviews with the lecturers (10 lecturers, 1 retired lecturer), class room observations, informal interaction with the students and observation of the various physical infrastructure and facilities.

This document is part of a report of the study (never published, would never see the light probably) and is intended for understanding about DIET. Ramgopal K and Pradeep Kumar deserve the appreciation for their efforts in writing the original report. I have synthesized the report to suit it for a layman’s reading.

2 Observations

DIET is as a strong resource center responsible for capacity building in academic and pedagogical aspects for the district. But over the years the DIET has not played the prime role in any capacity building initiatives but has just been relegated to playing a more reactive role, being used only on an ad hoc basis by the Sarva Shikshya Abhiyan (SSA) and the district education administration.

The following are some of the important observations made during our stay at the DIET and through interactions with the people there, observation of the facilities available and its use.

2.1 Pre Service Teacher Education (PSTE)

Overview of the course
The pre service training is the predominant function carried out by the DIET. The PSTE department runs a 2 year pre service teacher training program. The intake to the program is through a state wide common entrance exam (DIET-CET) and the qualification to appear in the exam is a pass in the 10 + 2 with any electives. The program is run both Telugu medium and one neighboring state medium. The course has a mix of basic subjects, teaching methodologies and field practice. Given below is brief information on the same, for details please refer to the detailed Trainee calendar (each teacher trainee would have one!).

Basic subjects (First year) – Consists of 5 papers which include Education in emerging India, Educational Psychology, Elementary education planning, management and teacher functions, capacity building (Computer education, work experience, art education, health and physical education)

Methods of teaching (second year) – Method of teaching for Telugu, English, mathematics, science, social studies

Practicum - School Experience Program (SEP) is organized for 4 weeks in first year when the trainees are exposed to different kinds of schools (pre primary, primary, Non Formal Education system, alternative schools etc). During second year the students are supposed to undergo 80 days of field experience (40 days in primary school, 15 days to pre-primary, 14 days to Upper primary school and the rest in school activities related to child development). In addition the students need to submit 12 different records.

Key observations
- Significant numbers of the students seem to have entered the course not as a first choice but as a result of not being able to make it to other professional courses (engineering, medicine etc), so the course is treated by a lot of the students merely as a means of securing government employment. There is a lack of pride or identification with the teacher profession.
- The course is affected by poor planning due to whom class schedules are decided in a lot of cases at very short notice (1 day, or even just a few minutes before the class!). This is again solely based on the availability of the faculty on that particular day, this leads to poor planning or preparation in conducting the classroom. This is ascribed to the shortage of resources and the need to take up other ad hoc tasks that are assigned by external entities (District administration, state education department).
- While the course design provides for sufficient field exposure on paper to the students, in practice students use less than half of the prescribed days for the teaching practice. The staff support and guidance during this period is also inadequate – again supposedly due to the staff being called upon to service various ad hoc requests
- The accent of the course (for various reasons) is on completion of the text book syllabus and preparation for the examination. There is very limited (or no) opportunity for the students to engage in discussions, reflections on educational issues to build their own views. The institute’s effort while taking the students through the examinations does not seem to be influencing the students in their attitudes to education or teaching, or creating any zeal for the profession
- Use of other facilities like the library and computers is very low as the access to these facilities is controlled by the staff and is limited.
- While the program produces batches of students who successfully clear the examinations and secure government employment, it can probably still go a long way in instilling in the students a zeal for teaching, building their confidence and making them sensitive and critical thinking teachers who can weather all the cynicism that they are likely to encounter once they are in the field and still be good teachers.

2.2 Other Functions

The pre service training is the main program that the DIET organizes; besides this the services of the DIET staff are used for various other tasks by the government education department. These activities are not planned or decided by the DIET but primarily decided at the state level or in some cases at the district education department level. Some of this activity is detailed below

Trainings and workshops – The education department and the SSA program office plan various trainings that need to be delivered to the teachers as a part of the various programs that it implements from time to time. For this first training is given to a set of resource persons that usually includes lecturers from the DIET at the state level, these resource persons, in turn conduct trainings to the teachers at the district level. Some of the trainings that the lecturers were involved in the last six months are

- Ongoing trainings related to the implementation, say, Acceleration Learning Program (ALP).
- TLM preparation workshop – Training for teachers on preparing TLMs
- Mathematics methodology – Training on usage of self learning kits
- Open school training - Training for instructors at open schools
- HIV Aids awareness training
- Program for encouraging story writing by children for children. This also compliments the Acceleration Learning Program (ALP) for reading/writing skill improvement
- Multi grade training – The DIET lecturers were involved in multi grade kit preparation and training of teachers from various other districts

Key observations
- The DIET does not plan, design or conduct its own training programs but only lends its resource persons for trainings conducted by the SSA or education department. The prime reasons cited for this are firstly the more dominant role that the SSA has taken and secondly the remoteness of the DIET location because of which conducting in house training programs evinces very poor response.
- The lecturers do not have a visibility of the trainings that they are expected to attend/conduct until a few days (in some cases just a day before) the activity

School observation - Since about an year the DIET lecturers have also been assigned the task of conducting school observation to support the SSA’s implementation of Acceleration Learning Program (ALP). Each lecturer has been allocated 5 mandals (having about 80-90 primary schools, 1 – 7 classes) and the lecturer is expected to conduct school observations in that geographical region. Each lecturer is expected to visit 10 schools, 2 Mandal Resource Centres (Resource Centre), 2 Cluster Centers (Resource Centres for a cluster of 15-20 schools) in a month according to the SSA directive.

Key observations
- In the last 6 months the maximum number of schools visited by a single lecturer is less than 5; on an average they have visited 2 schools.
- Most lecturers prefer to visit schools that are closer to their place of stay as the only mode of travel provided for is the public transport system and it is very time consuming and strenuous. As a result schools away from the DIET, are largely ignored.
- Since the lecturers are experienced academicians and have teaching experience they are able to provide much better inputs than Mandal Resource Persons (Resource persons for a cluster of 15-20 primary schools, classes 1 – 7), they conduct demonstration classes, provide advice on handling difficult topics etc. They also have the advantage of not having to spend too much time on data collection activity.
- There is no time for following up on the same school to evaluate if the feedback has been implemented.
- The lecturers compile information on the observation and hand it over to the principal who in turn sends it to the district education department; however the feedback information is not effectively analyzed or followed up on.

Other miscellaneous activity
Besides the above activity the DIET lecturers are called upon to act as resource persons for various other activities that the government initiates in those areas, not all of them necessarily related to academic support. Some of the activities that the lecturers were involved in the last six months are
- Guidance and counseling for District Selection Commission at the DEO’s office
- Counseling for handling district staff transfers – The principal is involved in supporting the district education department to handle the transfers counseling.
- Text book writing – Two lecturers are involved in the preparation of a mathematics text book based on the National Curriculum framework
- Television and Radio based lesson development – Two lecturers are involved in creating the radio based lessons for the pre service course.

2.3 Infrastructure

The campus is located on a 15 acre area about 30 kilometers from the district head quarter; the campus has adequate number of buildings to house the various departments and the classrooms. The campus also has a model school that was built 2 years ago; however the school just has 5 students currently.

Library
Library has about 10000 books and journals. It was updated three years ago with some NCERT books. Most of the books are more than 30 years old; the books are not catalogued or shelved into categories for easy retrieval. A lot of the books in the library are damaged by pests. Most of these books are in English. There are limited books in Telugu and virtually none in Tamil. Librarian post is vacant since the inception of the DIET. Apart from books and journals, the library also subscribes to three vernacular newspapers.
A staff lecturer is given the additional responsibility of handling the library, it is kept open during the office hours only (10 AM to 4 PM), but the students are mostly in the classrooms during this time. The library is closed whenever the lecturer is on leave or away on office duty,
The library is not used very actively either by the lecturers or the students

Computer Room
The campus also has a computer room. The computer room has 11 systems and has internet access. They are all loaded with digital content.
However the room is kept under lock, the key for which is in the possession of the principal.
The students do not use it on a daily basis but only when there are demonstration classes.

Other teaching learning facilities
The institute is also provided with other teaching and learning facilities like a work experience lab, LCD projector, OHP projector, audio video teaching aids and material.

Recreation facilities
The campus has very good facilities for sporting activity which includes a cricket ground, volleyball courts, and shuttle badminton courts. There is an indoor game room also but it is not well maintained or used regularly. It could be run as an auditorium, currently used as language teaching classroom!

Key observations
- The institution has been provided with good infrastructure and facilities. However they are not being maintained, upgraded or even used appropriately due to various reasons. Hence they are largely in a state of disuse and in some cases like the library deteriorating
- Facilities like the library and the computer lab are controlled by individuals of the staff hence access to these facilities is dependant on the availability and free time of these staff members who are in charge. This discourages the students from using these facilities more actively.

2.4 Human Resources

The DIET team consists of some very highly qualified and experienced lecturers. Individually most of them are respected for their expertise and have contributed valuably to various educational efforts. But there is an evident lack of cohesion as a team and as an organization. Below are some key points that emerged from discussions with the individual lecturers

- There is a shortage of resources due to the number of vacancies that have not yet been filled. This puts a lot of pressure on the other staff and increases their work load. Recruitment has not taken place due to unavailability of qualified staff (post graduates with M Ed)
- The DIET has become largely a resource pool for the SSA and the education department to pick from for implementation of their programs and not an organization that defines and runs its own initiatives.
- Lack of planning and a defined agenda and the inability of the DIET leadership to assert its position results in the staff being pressurized to service ad hoc requests at short notice. This is done at the cost of the Pre service training which is badly affected by the lecturers frequently traveling away on duty.
- Most of the staff feels a lack of clarity in their role and expectations. Tasks are handed out to them and they are expected to carry it out unquestioningly.
- There is a perceived absence of space and opportunity for open discussions among the staff members. A lot of the lecturers feel there is a lack of consideration for their opinions and points of view.

3 Summary

The following is the summary of the observations in the form of a SWOT analysis

Strengths
- Good infrastructure
- Qualified and competent staff
- Has the reputation of having being an eminent institution
- Experience and expertise build over a long time
Weaknesses
- Shortage of staff
- Lack of organizational clarity
- Forced to play a reactive role
- Lack of visibility and low motivation of staff
- Remoteness of the location – difficult to access
Opportunities
- Potential to influence teachers entering the government schools every year
- Playing a more influential role in capacity building of teachers
Threats
- Sending under prepared teachers into the government school system
- Can slip into a being a derelict entity
- Further marginalization of its roles – which is a waste of its resources