THE CASE FOR IN-SERVICE EDUCATION (3,5,6,7 & 9)
Need for In-service 8.01 While the case for a radical improvement of the quality of pre-service education of teachers has been dealt with so far and cannot be denied its importance, that of providing for a continual and comprehensive programme of in-service education cannot be emphasised enough. With the explosion in knowledge, the revolution in the world of the media, with contemporary issues, demanding urgent attention with values getting eroded, the need for helping teachers to keep abreast of things cannot be questioned.
8.02 As early as 1949 the University Education Commission stressed the urgent need for the institution of inservice courses and observed : "It is extraordinary that our school teachers learn whatever subject they teach before reaching the age of 24 or 25 and that their further education is left to experience, which in most cases, is another name for stagnation. We must realise that experience needs to be supplemented by experiment before reaching its fullness and that a teacher to keep alive and fresh should become a learner from time to time". This view has been further supported by the commissions that have followed. Yet we are constrained to observe that we have not made significant progress in, mounting a comprehensive programme during the last three decades.
8.03 A beginning was made between 1955-58 by the establishment of 74 Extension Service Centres and 23 1 tension Service Units attached to graduate training colleges. This was at the initiative of the Central Ministry in collaboration with the Technical Cooperation Mission of the USA. These centres were well-equipped and staffed and institutional improvement programmes were covered by each centre in about 100 to 300 schools, made feasible by the provision of a vehicle to the centre. In 10 years it is reported that about 40-50 per cent of the teachers and 60-67% headmasters of associated schools were covered. Study circles were also set up in Social Studies and General Science. Initially the expenditure was met by the Centre.1
8.04 The next important step was taken with the establishment in each state of the State Institute of Education (SIE). Their main function was to improve the quality of elementary education by orienting all categories of workers-teachers, teacher educators as well as members of the supervisory services. They also undertook the task of preparing suitable literature on education in the Regional languages for primary school teachers. A beginning was also made for the provision of correspondence courses for in-service training Teachers deputed were treated on duty and paid travel and daily allowance. Some States have later expanded these SIEs into State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and these organisation% look after the inservice needs of the entire school system and that of primary teacher educators.
8.05 Today the NCERT is the main organisation at the centre that offers programmes for the qualitative improvement of education. Apart from initiating inservice courses related to national need like popu- lation education, environmental education, science education, national integration, it has given a thrust to field programmes by establishing in collaboration with State governments. Centres for Continuing Edu- cation (CCE) which are located in teachers' colleges, junior colleges, higher secondary schools found suitable for the purpose. The expenditure is shared on 5050 basis. There are at present 91 centres distributed as follows: Andaman Nicobar Islands 1. Andhra Pradesh 6, Arunachal Pradesh 1, Assam 2, Bihar 19, Chandigarh 1, Gujarat 3, Himachal Pradesh 3. Karnataka 12, Kerala 4, Maharashtra 7, Manipur 1, Mizoram 1, Meghalaya 1, Nagaland 3, Orissa 4, Pondicherry 1, Sikkim 1, Tamil Nadu 4. Tripura 1, West Bengal 3, Uttar Pradesh 12. They undertake training
1 Status of Teachers in India (WCTOB), 1967.
60 THE TEACHER AND SOCIETY
programmes for primary teacher educators and for primary and secondary school teachers.
8.06 The Principal of the institution where the centre is located serves as an honorary director, and the resource persons are drawn from his institution and from neighbouring schools/colleges and paid an honorarium. Programmes are held in the evenings, during the week- ends, holidays and for one month in the summer.
8.07 These centres, we feel, should be reviewed and if found useful extended because of their potential for being meaningfully related to local needs.
The Magnitude of the Problem, 8.08 In order to plan ahead and develop a comprehensive strategy the magnitude of the problem of Inservice Education of Teachers (INSET) has to be appreciated. According to figures available for 1981-82, the number of teachers working at the different stages were as follows:-
Primary 3,65,431
Middle 8,46,772
Secondary 6,76,437
Hr. Secondary 1,98,778
Hr. Secondary
(old scheme) 66,400
The total teacher force, therefore, amounts to a little more than above 3 million. It is unfortunate that their continual further learning and upgradation has not become part of the work ethos of the teaching profession. We have not made it obligatory for every teacher to undergo inservice training as part of his professional growth. The SIEs and SCERTs which are the main agents at the State level find the resources available to them very limited for this purpose.
Present inadequacies 8.09 There is today an absence of clear cut policies and priorities for inservice education. There has been no systematic identification of needs. The content and, quality of programmes offered are generally poor. Strategies for training are vague and half-hearted. Not much emphasis appears to have been placed on solving the practical problems of teachers or meeting their educational needs. Inservice courses rarely result in the development of a corpus of instructional material that can be used by participants and other teachers. Hardly any use is made of new media and techno- logies. Administrative support for innovations is lacking as headmasters and superiors are not often involved in programmes where teachers are being trained in the use of new methodologies. The phenomenon of routine transfers finds trained personnel not placed in positions where they should use their training maximally. There is, therefore, urgent need for a thorough overhaul of existing practices. The qualitative improvement of inservice education must be given top priority. Its quantitative expansion must be planned most carefully. No good programmes should suffer for lack of funds.
The New Thrusts 8.10 VOW should be the new thrusts? How do we go about this enormous task? These are the questions that we must address ourselves to.
Identification of Needs 8.11 In the first place, the needs of teachers have to be identified at institutional and other levels and such inservice education arranged as will directly meet those needs. They may have to be remedial in nature, as for example, updating the teacher's knowledge in physics or geography, they may suggest new ways of dealing with classroom problems. as for example, dealing with multiple levels of attainment in a class or using a new media like the television; or they may have to sensitize the teacher to new areas impinging upon modem life, as for example, population explosion, environmental hazards, deforestation, alternate source of energy, proliferation of nuclear weapons and so on. Identification of teachers' needs and meeting them directly is of the first importance. For this the SCERTs/SIEs at State levels and the RCEs and the NCERT/NIEPA at the Centre should evolve a mechanism by which their feedback from the school and the training institute and college is constantly made available. The SCERTs may initiate News Letters announcing areas of inservice they would be taking up during one academic term and inviting suggestions from institutions for further needs. It should be the function of the school Inspector to enquire into the inservice education availed of by each teacher, reasons for not availing of any and to insist on the continual education of the teacher being part of his service conditions.
Planning ahead of time 8.12 Programmes should be planned thoroughly well ahead of time. We tend to be careless and slipshod in whatever we do. To be thorough, and meticulous in planning for a course being attended by a group of teachers is to show them the respect and consideration that is due to them. Papers have to be prepared by resource persons well ahead of time, reading lists and other materials mailed to participants before the course to stimulate thinking. Every detail should be
THE CASE FOR IN-SERVICE EDUCATION 61
attended to so that the teacher comes well prepared with the proper mind-set to benefit by the course, short or long. Conference and workshops should be business like and the tone has to be set from the first hour eschewing all fan fare.
8.13 One practice followed by the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan in the organisation of their summer training courses for teachers of all categories has come to our notice as worthy of consideration. In the first place the directors and resources persons of each course are selected very carefully on the strength of their academic and professional competence, organisational and communicational skills. These resource persons are provided an opportunity to meet together for a planning session of not less than 3 days well before the beginning of the course. At this session the objectives, the course content and methodologies are worked out in detail with help from experts of the NCERT and other concerned agencies.
Choice of Resource Persons 8.14 The choice of resource persons is important. Expertise and proven skills alone should matter. The system should be flexible enough to allow the cooperation of experts from various fields outside education like industry, agriculture, science, technology, management and the like. Media specialists have a particularly important role to play today. Also university professors, educational experts, outstanding teacher educators and teachers should be maximally utilised as resource persons. From our dialogues with teachers in the country we are convinced that we have everywhere many dedicated teachers with excellent records of service. Their co-operation in conducting inservice programmes should be welcomed for they can give the much-needed practical wisdom in bringing about change.
Changes in Methodologies 8.15 Methodologies adopted for inservice education call for closer scrutiny. The resource persons selected should meet prior to the actual course as suggested at 8.09 above and plan the details most thoroughly. Every course should be in the nature of a workshop demanding hard work and include the preparation of instructional and other material that can be used by the teacher when he goes back to school. No inservice course should be of such a general nature that teachers feel it is a waste of their time and energies. Practices that have been successful should be shared and class room methodologies that have failed discussed. Attention should be given to solving the teacher' problems satisfactorily, New ideas from other countries could be evaluated and an openness of mind enocuraged. The quality of inservice courses should be such as will themselves generate sustained interest for further improvement in the teachers' work.
Use of Educational Technology*1 8.16 The use of educational technology in a big way could revolutionise inservice courses. The days' of lengthy lectures and note-taking thereon are over. With the boom in audio-visual media it should now be possible to use a wide range of educational technology. A multi-media approach is useful. Teachers' interest could be evoked more purposefully by the use of audio and video cassettes on any subjects. The visual in particular makes a deep impact on the mind of the adult or child. Extensive use needs to be made of a variety of technologies in inservice education : radio and television; film strips and the epidiascope; tape-recorder, audio and video-cassettes; the overhead projector and the 8 mm. or 16 mm. film projector; the computer. The times demand of an educated person a modicum of- literacy in the technical field, in the use of his hands and the tools of technology. In these courses teachers must get acquainted with the hardware, their servicing and maintenance. These are essential skills to be learnt by every teacher and teacher educator and should not be overlooked. In organising courses with the use of media. resource persons in charge of a course should draw in media men and other entrepreneurs now available in many cities who would be only too happy to help.
Preparing Software 8.17 We are of the view that in the next couple of plan, priority must be given to the production of indigenous software in addition to the acquisition and installation of hardware in the school system. The dangers involved in supporting software from abroad are too obvious to merit any detailed' discussion. It should be our objective to develop software suitable for rural audience and capable of conveying relevant education including science and capable of promoting a scientific temper in the society. It should also be our objective to revolutionise classroom methodologies by increased use of educational technology and multimedia including audio-video cassettes etc. in the school system. Teachers must, therefore, be involved in the preparation of software and the work as part of a team. For example, it is time we prepared films/ videos of class room methodologies used by our most talented teachers right in the Indian Society by making audio-visuals of their actual lessons. Also software
1 Set also paras 7.31, 743 of Chapter VII,and 8.49 of this Chapter.
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THE CASE FOR IN-SERVICE EDUCATION 63
production would be supported considerably in quality if due note is taken of research findings. For example, in one project conducted by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education to improve scholastic achievement of scheduled caste students, trivial obstacles in language visualisation and in understanding the rules of the game prevent concept formation. It was also found that once these difficulties were identified, very inexpensive remedial measures could be generated and, that the programme led to a substantial improvement of their scholastic performance. In yet another project in non-formal education for school drop-outs it was found that science could be imparted even before the acquisition of literacy and that the natural interest of the pupils in S & T could in fact be used to, motivate them to acquire and retain literacy.
8.18 Commendable experience in the preparation of local specific materials and in developing other programmes of local relevance for adults, women and children are reported from several groups of people exploring new avenues for a breakthrough. But sufficient pooled information is not available about the useful work being done by such groups. We feel it would be worthwhile finding ways and means of learning from this type of field experience also.
Evaluation and Follow-up 8.19 The evaluation and follow-up of inservice courses is absolutely necessary and should be integral to the course. The evaluation of the success of a programme undertaken by teachers must be done towards the end of the course in a frank and free atmosphere without fear or favour. The mere use of check lists and questionnaires is of limited value unless properly analysed and used for feedback.
8.20 We recommend that attendance at an inservice training course be made mandatory for every teacher atleast once in five years. In the USA, teachers, we understand, are required to complete certain formal courses in order to move to higher scales of pay. In the USSR teachers are required to attend a course related to their work one day per week for one full year after three years of service and thereafter every five years.
8.21 Assuming that the average length of an inservice programme is 2 weeks, we feel that a provision of Rs. 500 per trainee should meet the requirements of this programme. Of this amount, Rs. 300 will go towards his daily allowance and Rs. 200 towards meeting the cost of 'his travel and other incidentals.1
1 For Financial estimates see para 10.77 of Charter X.
Other Strategies
School Complex2 8.22 -In-service strategies must be imaginative, bold and varied. Workshops, seminars and training courses belong to one type of approach. There are others.
8.23 The most effective among them are the services organised through the school complex. The idea of the school complex was originally put forward by the Kothari Commission 1964-66. The intention is to link the primary and secondary schools with a view to pooling resources and improving the educational process. The experience gained in Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are reported to be very happy.
8.24 Noteworthy of mention is the rapport-based programme of school improvement initiated in the year 1977-78 in Maharashtra. First it was introduced on a small scale in complexes of 9 schools including one rural secondary school in Char Holi, a village 20 km. from Pune. At present the programme has extended to 1800 school complexes.
8.25 A seven-point strategy of school improvement is reported : (i) grading of the school (ii) preparation (iii) implementation of institutional plans (iv) enlisting community cooperation for school improvement (v) encouraging teachers to do self-evaluation (vi) establishing rapport among school teachers, staff, pupils, local leaders and the community (vii) periodically evaluating the performance of the complexes. The headmaster of a school grades his own school on the scale A to E using a tool prepared by the SIE. This is to identify deficiencies and set the priorities for improvement. Out of 1800 complexes 1200 bad been adopted by one or the other of the officers of the Education Department including the Director of Education. Some tangible achievements they have bad are: marked increase in enrolment particularly at the age of 6+, in average attendance, in transfer rate, S.S.C. result, institutional planning, home assignment, self-evaluation by teachers.