In-Service Education

In-service Education of School Teachers in India: Critical Reflections

Abstract

India is one of the largest producers of trained teachers in the world, and with 1.3 million recognized schools and 7.1 million teachers it also has one of the largest pool of employed school teachers. So to maintain the quality of Indian educational system, keeping this large population of school teachers professionally up-to-date is a challenging task. This challenge becomes even more challenging considering the socio-cultural, geographical, economical and linguistic diversity of India. Considering the role and importance of in-service teacher education for professional development of teachers, it seems a fitting case to critically review and reflect about

These TTIs provide in-service training to the school teachers both vertically and horizontally. Vertically, the responsibility of providing in-service teacher training is divided in central and state governments. At the National Level, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)and National University on Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) are two national level autonomous bodies. NCERTalong with its six Regional Institutes of Education (REIs) undertakes specific programs for training of teachers and teacher educators as well as prepares a host of modules for various teacher training courses while institutional support is provided by NUEPA. Besides, CTEs and IASEs also provide in-service training to secondary and senior secondary school teachers.At the state level, SCERTs are responsible for preparing modules and providing specialized courses for school teachers. At the district level, in-service training is provided by DIETs. The lowest rung of institutions in the vertical hierarchy for providing in-service training to school teachers is the BRCs and CRCs

First major challenge regarding in-service education of teachers is availability of infrastructure and facilities. National Policy on Education-1986 emphasized need for a decentralized system of teacher education and this was put in action by the establishment of DIETs, CTEs and IASEs under centrally sponsored scheme. Further decentralization has been done by the establishment of BRCs and CRCs at block level. According to MHRD (2012), Government of India has sanctioned five hundred seventy one DIETs, one hundred six CTEs and thirty-twoIASEs for the implementation of scheme. But this number of sanctioned institutions is not sufficient to fulfill the needs and demands of such a large community of school teachers. The other irony is that many of these sanctioned institutes are not functional. Even the functional DIETs, CTEs and IASEs failed to fulfill the guidelines of MHRD at a satisfactory level. As far as the basic physical and academic facilities for in-service education of teachers is concerned, the situation is not heartening, as observed by a report of NCERT,

“The existing basic facilities in IASEs were found adequate only for the pre-service programmes run in the institutions. The IASEs do not have proper infrastructure in terms of physical space and other facilities for conducting in-service training programmes ,research and extension activities keeping in view of the future needs.