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PATHETIC STATE OF IN-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING
As an Educator engaged in teaching since1965 and as a
Teacher-Educator &Administrator since 1977; it has been my
earnest endeavour to improve myteaching, to grow professionally and
to share what I had learnt with others. Ihave lost count of the
number of Seminars, Extension Lectures andWorkshops that I attended
for the purpose.
After 1980 I had the opportunity of organising these Workshops
for Pre-Service and In-Service teachers. I experimented with
different approachesto training of teachers, including the
Diagnostic Remedial Approach inTraining Teachers in Skills of
Teaching.
I owe a lot to the experts from NCERT, IGNOU, CBSE, UGC and
otherAgencies; with whom I interacted, learnt a lot (if I did not
learn more, thefault was mine and not of the experts) and tried to
put it into practise.
The best opportunity came my way from 1979 to 1991, when I was
the
Founder Principal of Vishwa Bharati College of Education,
Srinagar and againin 2002, when I joined Darshan Education
Foundation- Delhi and had firsthand experiences of training
teachers on Activity-Based Teaching,Classroom Management through DA
Agreements, Buddy System, Key-Priority Areas, Practice and Review
Techniques and Scores of other Topics.
I owe a deep debt of gratitude to all my colleagues at the
Vishwa BharatiCollege of Education, Srinagar and to Madam Suzanne
Lauber, Director,DEF; who became my Role-Model of a Teacher
Educator/Trainer. We alsohad opportunities of interacting with
dozens and dozens of Experts fromIndia and Abroad and from them we
had Sessions on Memory, Study Skills,
Time Management, Team Building, Leadership, School
Administration,System Management, Quality Circles, Value Education
Models, Non- ViolentCommunication, etc.
During the last 20 years, I have conducted Workshops for
thousands ofteachers across the country. It has been a privilege to
interact with teachersat Srinagar, Jammu, Jaipur, Ajmer, Udaipur,
Gwalior, Aligarh, Hathras,Rohtak, Sampla, Hissar, Ambala, Ludhiana,
Kolkatta, Kaithal, Pune, Varanasi,Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad,
Jhansi, Lalitpur, Datia and Delhi. In the recentpast, I have
conducted Workshops for the Quality Council of India, at
Delhi,Gurgaon, Chennai, Ahmadabad; on How to prepare a School
for
Accreditation, and on Training Accreditation Assessors.
In the process, I have met teachers and Principals of the
reputed andprestigious Public Schools of Delhi and of other cities,
of Air Force PublicSchools, of Kendriya Vidyalaya, of Residential
Schools and also of Schoolstrying to establish their identity in
the community.
What I have observed and experienced is, that although the
Teachers andPrincipals show a lot of enthusiasm, are willing to
learn, participate actively,
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deliberate and contribute during the workshop; although their
Feedback isvery encouraging; but what really is transferred to
actual classroomsituations is not even a fraction of what the
teachers were trained in and for.
This is appalling! An in depth study and discussion with
Principals revealedthat these workshops were an eye-wash and each
School had an ulteriormotive behind the conduct of the Workshops.
Most often the workshop was
organised to publicise the School through press and Media.
Sometimes thePrincipal organised these workshops to prove to the
Management that hewas on the job of Professional Growth of Teachers
and in most of theseworkshops, he was the one who was not a
participant. Workshops werebeing used for Image Building,
Publicity, for inviting authorities from theState Administration,
Boards etc; and even for providing an opportunity tothe Publishers
to talk about their publications and how their Text-Bookswere
better than those of other Publishers.
As a result there has been a Mushroom growth of so-called
Experts invarious areas and the Quality of Workshops conducted
desires a lot. The
teachers are on the receiving end. Workshops are held on
Holidays, Sundaysand during Vacations. The Workshops are dull and
boring. These are farfrom the realities of classroom practices and
situations. Most of them areLectures or presentations. There is
hardly any activity which the teacherscould take up when they
return to schools. Managements are least botheredabout professional
growth of teachers. No one bothers to keep the teachersabreast of
the latest in the field of teaching-learning.
What again is disturbing is that the teachers and Schools seem
to act onherd mentality and suddenly experts spring up from nowhere
to conductworkshops on: Blue Print of a Question Paper, Parenting,
Counselling, De
-stressing, Motivation, Teaching without Burden, HOTS and now
the CCE,Inclusive Education, RTE etc.
It looks as if one school is trying to outdo the other. The
Focus is lost. Noone seems to remember the Objective behind the
Workshop. Customisedworkshops or Need-Based Workshops are not
possible in the absence of aseasoned Expert teacher trainer.
Question and Answer sessions have beenforgotten. A lot of precious
time is wasted in introductions, reception, reportabout the
achievements of the school, a few words by the Chief Guest, avote
of thanks at the end, which usually is a summary of what the
personhas understood at the workshop rather than what the Expert
tried to
convey. The poor expert has no other alternative but to cut on
the activitiesfor Hands-on -Learning and deliver a talk and thus we
have been talking atthe teachers.
Some Board Members have asked me occasionally as to how the
workshopis going to benefit the School, or how have the Workshops
conducted so farbenefited the teachers. This is obvious since their
is a dichotomy betweenwhat the teachers learn at the Workshops and
what they are required to doat the School.
