as a student of political science, i understand that rights and duties are hand in hand. however when it comes to school and learning, teachers are blamed for everything. do they really have any rights or only responsibilities or none. i may not provide conclusive answer to this intellectual debate. however as a partner in helping teachers, i would certainly provide scope for discussion. everytime i visited school (it is been six months, i have not visited government school, living in urban place), my heart would ponder, wow, my teachers are doing an excellent job. pessimist would always question this. and one should always question, provided an answer in mind. yes, i stand by my statement. what's tpr ratio in any given govt school, it is 1:40; children with varied backgrounds, with varied needs (hungry, sick, with sibling etc); teachers with distances to travel to school and back home; improper facilities for teacher (drinking water, toilets), even for the child - can you think of not going to loo for 8+ hours; am i raising silly question? it is basic human right, isn't it?
given the conditions to work, how many of us work in this kind of situation. NONE. at least not my own friends, who crib on teachers, for not doing their duties. then what am i asking for teachers or teaching community.
let me put it this way. somewhere i read, "engineers build houses, doctor cures diseases...teachers makes all these". then why is that we do not encourage a forum for teacher support. yeh, what's that i am talking about?
teachers have good salaries, training, support structure, respect in the community, political backing, they are demi gods - is it so?
good salaries: which one of our rural government teacher gets a good pay, yes, if he would be the heighest in the village but not, in comparison to our class IV employee in state secrateriate.
training: teachers are taken for granted. they are trained for what not, but not for classroom transactions, some of you reading this wonder, what's happening in the name of training. please visit one of the training session. i would challenge, if you can bear the crab that is transacted. it under estimates teachers, assumes has no capacity... none of the trainings have scope beyond that session, lack vision of the education system, undermines teacher capacity, demotivates to attend any trainings thereafter.
support structure: there is something called induction in corporate world, for civil servants, clerks in our own government offices, for doctors, teachers have no induction program. yes, they have a degree. i hate not the system but people in the system who, ignore and ill treat teachers. there are structures in place for teacher to help but none do the needful. every one tries to bully the teacher.
here i propose, as an alternate to the existing structure a resource centre for the teacher, a place for
- need to show and make them feel being respected as adults (that is unlike where they are expected to huddle into classrooms that are designed for children [sic]).
created with teacher at the centre where in the resources and the facilitator are directly accessible. - being flexible to adapt to the diverse needs such as reading room, activity centre, laboratory, screening of shows etc (that is where one could adopt diverse strategies of interaction and not uni-dimensional)
- enables the interaction of teacher community among themselves and other educational persons
- shall promote resources of the following nature: local, low cost, environment friendly, and utilizable. (things like thermocol which seem to be infected the teacher training crowd shall be discouraged) shall function on schedules that are convenient for the teachers without disturbing their regular school timings
objectives of the centre would be, at the end of three years, to,
(1) Resources and materials, (2) Pedagogy practices and school management, (3) Networking with the local institutions for regular interventions, and (4) Issues surrounding Resource Centre[
(1) Resources and materials
To what extent the resource centre made any significant contribution to improved resources for teaching and learning in schools - qualitative and quantitative?
* Influence for quality material in the schools
* Availability and usage of learning material in the school
* Creating new demand for such resources
(a) To what extent resource centre stimulated the creation and development of learning materials by teachers? (Guide and facilitate at the centre for creation of new material)
Exhibit and influence such model resource material that would influence the system to adopt such processes while supplying material to the schools, effective in nature and efficiency in supply.
(2) Pedagogy practices and school management
To what extent are the pedagogy practices and better school management methods imparted in training programs are transferred in to schools and classrooms?
(a) To what extent are teachers have imparted suggested pedagogical practices into their classroom teaching? (Can be elaborated further)
(b) To what extent are the schools utilized suggested management strategies into their day to day running of the class / school? (Steps taken for better attendance, community participation, teacher-teacher support system -- Can be elaborated further)
(c) To what extent are students becoming a part of these activities incorporated at the centre? (Utilizing material that is developed at the centre, such as workbooks, etc-- Can be elaborated further)
(3) Networking and coordinating with the respective government / institutions at the district level and other resource agencies for sustained interventions at the district.
(4)What are the issues surrounding resource centre, how resource centre is influenced and how issues are influenced by the resource centre.
(a) How relevant is the content and methodologies imparted in resource centre, through courses and activities, to existing realities in schools? (high TPR, lack of facilities in the schools and classrooms, the way teachers presently teach and underlying philosophies, factors affecting teachers and children outside of school, etc)
(b) To what extent are resource inputs into resource centre training programs sufficient for meeting goals and expectations as mentioned in the national policies on education?
(c) How does resource centre fit into the wider strategy of in-service teacher training, and to what extent do they play a useful, strategic role in the effective implementation of in-service training? (There are existing institutional based in-service training centres; cascade systems; school-based training)
(d) What is the place of resource centres within a policy of decentralization? (Are these visualized as regional resource centres providing support to the district specific needs?)
