voices of teachers and teacher educators

Voices of Teachers and Teacher Educators

Volume I Issue 3 October 2012

Published by:

National Council for Teacher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development,Government of India, New DelhiPreparation of the publication at Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur.

Cover Design: Jaya RathoreLayout Design: Preeti Misra and Rajesh Sen

Printed at: Choudhary Offset Pvt. Ltd., Udaipur

About the publication

The launch of the journal 'Voices of Teachers and Teacher Educators' is an initiative of

the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to highlight the vital role of

teacher education in India, as the country is poised to provide quality education to all

its children, irrespective of gender, caste, creed, religion and geographies under the

Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RtE), 2009. The large influx

of teachers necessitated under RtE represents the biggest opportunity to bring fresh

life into schools for decades to come. The challenge is to enhance the role of teachers in

shaping the social transformation India is witnessing, as well as have a long lasting

impact on the quality of education, also making it significantly more equitable. Teachers

and all those in the system need to recognize that their ownership and voices are

important and that they can and do learn not only from their own experiences but also

from each other through collective reflection and analysis. The publication attempts

to lend voice to teachers, their educators, researchers, administrators and policy makers

in the varied institutions: Schools, CRCs, BRCs, DIETs, IASEs, CTEs, SCERTs etc., and

make visible their engagement in accomplishing extraordinarily complex and diverse

tasks that they are expected to perform. Contributions are welcome both in English

and Hindi and there are plans to produce the journal in a multilingual format in the

near future.

Call for contributions

This publication is for all of us: teachers, teacher educators, administrators, researchersand policy makers. It is to provide a platform and also to build a network for ourvoices, ideas and reflections. Since the idea is to make this journal reflect all ourvoices it would only fulfill its purpose, if we contribute to it in as many ways as wecan. We look forward to all of you contributing with your experiences, questions,suggestions, perspectives as well as critical comments on different aspects of teachereducation and schooling. This could also be through comments and reflections on thecurrent issue. Your contribution could be in the form of articles, reports documents,pictures, cartoons or any other forms of presentation that can be printed. We lookforward to your inputs to make this journal truly reflective of our voices. It is proposedthat this be a quarterly publication. We would like to receive contributions for thenext issue by 30th December, 2012. We also look forward to comments and suggestionsfor improvements of the publication to make this a participative endeavor and improveits quality.

Editorial Team

Dr. Janaki Rajan is Professor of Education at Jamia Millia Islamia. She was Director, StateCouncil of Educational Research and Training, Delhi from 2000-2006. She holds master’sdegrees in English Literature, Psychology and Education. Her research, publications, teachingand activist interests lie in the areas of gender, inclusive education, curriculum and culturalstudies, women and child rights.

Hriday Kant Dewan is Education Advisor, Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur, Rajasthan, Hehas a Ph.D. in Physics from Delhi University. He is involved in strengthening SCERTs andDIETs, textbook development, teacher and teacher educator training and research anddissemination in education.

Editorial Assistants : Preeti Misra and Namrita Batra, Vidya Bhawan Education ResourceCenter, Udaipur.

Chief Editorial Coordinator: Dr. Amarjit Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment, Government of India.

Publication Coordinator: Mr. Vikram Sahay, Director, Department of School Education andLiteracy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

Contributors

1. Namrita Batra, Vidya Bhawan Education Resource Center, Udaipur, Rajasthan.

2. Suzana Andrade Brinkmann, Education Consultant, UNICEF-India, New Delhi.

3. Sonika Chauhan, TISS, Mumbai.

4. Shahnaz D.K., Government Secondary School, District Udaipur, Rajasthan.

5. Varsha Hooja

6. Faruk S. Kazi, Zila Parishad Primary School, Block Sangola, Maharasthra.

7. Gopal Midha, TISS, Mumbai.

8. Preeti Misra, Vidya Bhawan Education Resource Center, Udaipur, Rajasthan.

9. Sonia Ann Mondal, TISS, Mumbai.

10. Saurav Shome, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai.

Illustrations and Photographs

1. Jaya Rathore

2. Prashant Soni

3. Teacher Education - Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Contents

Editorial

Special feature: International conference on teacher challenges for EFA in India - Areport

Opening session 2

1. Professional development of teachers 16

2. Decentralization - challenges and steps forward 22

3. Gender issues in the teaching force 27

4. Public private partnerships to address the teacher gap 33

5. Inclusive education: Teachers for children with special needs 39

6. Monitoring and evaluation of teacher policy reforms 46

Closing Session 52

Agenda 61

Regular features

Section I: From practitioners, researchers, policy makers

1. The whole community approach to inclusive education 66

Varsha Hooja

Section II: Teacher education: Reflection on issues, challenges, effective

practices

2. Concept Note: Designing a long-term teacher mentoring plan 69

Suzana Andrade Brinkmann

3. Shikshak Prashikshan 81

Shahnaz D.K.

Section III: Reports of conferences, seminars, workshops

4. Ninth E-9 Ministerial review meeting: Inclusive, relevant quality 83

Education for All

Teacher Education: Ministry of Human Resource Development

Section IV: Book review

5. Jeevan ki ikai - Koshika 86

Saurav Shome

Section V: Teachers' Contributions

6. Beshak seekh jaaoge 89

Faruk S. Kazi

Editorial

Teacher Development is a key area in improving school education. There is sufficient evidence to indicatethat the standard of education in any system depends on the extent of engagement, motivation and insightof the teachers of the institutions. However, the experience across the world shows that there is no fixedrule for progress in the direction of increased teacher participation. Aiming for universal education is anenterprise that has socio-political as well as economic implications. It effects and is influenced by thecultural fabric and is a part of the democratization process. The principle of Education for All (EFA) andthe effort to achieve it is an indication of the commitment towards this process. The EFA goals relate to sixareas that are crucial: early childhood care and education, primary education, youth and adult learningneeds, literacy, gender and quality in education.

The importance of education in building a just, humane and peaceful world is now recognized. In thiscontext, three International Meetings on Teachers for EFA were organized by the Ministry of HumanResource Development, Government of India, the International Task Force on Teachers for EFA (TEFAS),E-9 Secretariat and UNESCO from 28th to 31st May, 2012 in New Delhi, India. The concern at the moment isthe inability to move forward on the agenda at all levels of governance. This issue emerged at the conferenceas a major impediment to human development. Also emerging as a factor was the inequitable developmentof learning and distribution of the facilities available and the inability of the system to accommodate theneeds of the differently-abled persons.

The International Conference in Delhi on 29th and 30th May, which involved participants from manynations, underlined the need for steps to improve the slow movement towards equal opportunities ofeducation for all. It focused on the challenges faced by teacher education in India and elsewhere in theworld. The fact that in many subtle ways, the dominant take control of the resources, in both school andteacher education, and utilize them to a disproportionate extent is unfortunate and makes the situationmore grave. The discussions underlined deeply the realization that disadvantaged actually need a highershare to be able to cope with the deficits that they have been forced to accommodate in their lives. Theconference reiterated that Teachers are a pre-condition to the achievement of all EFA goals and the key to bridgingboth the qualitative and quantitative targets.

In the Indian context, the challenge of education of a larger community to the strengths of democracy andthe need to make everyone participate in the social fabric is getting more complex as disparity increases.Economic success should benefit all sections of society and for it to be sustainable requires balanced,overall development. That this can be achieved only through education has been recognized leading to thegoal of universal elementary education (UEE) and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a project that focuses onteachers for improvement in quality of education.

The current issue of Voices has detailed Special feature focusing on the 4th International Policy DialogueForum on Teacher Challenges for EFA in India. The International conference was divided into 6 sessions,each of which tackled separate areas and issues related to them that are vital in informing policy decisionson teacher education. The editorial team of Voices is grateful to the group of Rapporteurs - Gopal Midha,Sonika Chauhan, Sonia Ann Mondal, Namrita Batra and Preeti Misra – who contributed to the report thatforms the basis of the special feature. Certain regular features of Voices, omitted in this issue, will beresumed from next time.

4th International Policy Dialogue Fourm

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4th International policy dialogue forum on teacher

challenges for Education for All in India

The global Education for All (EFA) agenda was first defined at the World Education Forum in 2000. Itset three quantifiable goals: Halving the number of illiterates, universal primary education and genderequality. As teachers are the vital cog in achieving any goal related to education, it became essential tofocus efforts to achieve the goals on them. The recruitment, deployment, retention and training ofteachers assumed increased significance. This in turn, necessitated identification of teacher gaps andchallenges. The International Task Force for teachers for EFA was established for this purpose in 2009.

The First Policy Dialogue of the Task Force took place in February 2010, Ethiopia and was entitledTeachers, the financial crisis and the EFA challenge of reaching the marginalized. The Second Policy DialogueForum took place in July 2010, Jordan and looked at Providing teachers for EFA – Quality matters. TheThird International Policy Dialogue forum took place in September 2011, Indonesia and discussedDeveloping and Implementing Comprehensive National Policies for EFA: Teacher Quality and Equity.

In this series, the fourth International Policy Dialogue Forum took place on 29-30 May 2012, NewDelhi, India. It was unique in the sense that it concentrated solely on the teacher challenges of onecountry - India. It focused on six key areas, identified during discussions between the Task ForceSecretariat and the Government of India. The areas were:

• Continuing professional development for teachers in India;

• Decentralization: Challenges and steps forward;

• Gender issues in teacher force;

• Public private partnerships to address the teacher gap;

• Inclusive education for children with special needs;

• Monitoring and evaluation;

The participants covered a wide range of stakeholders – members of the Central and State governmentsas well as individuals from non-government and civil society organizations, both national andinternational. The Forum was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development,Shri Kapil Sibal, who during the course of his remarks, challenged all participants to come up withnew thinking for better policy and better practice. This challenge formed the core of the discussionsduring the conference. The format of the forum involved presentations by a panel of experts followedby open sessions for questions and answers for the participants. Individuals from other membercountries - numbering close to 45 - of the Task Force also got an opportunity to share their experiencesand opinions during the open sessions. A poster exhibition showcasing the work in the held ofeducation, of different organizations across India, attracted much attention and appreciation. Thefinal day saw the participants dividing into six working groups which deliberated over their respectiveissues and came up with a series of suggested recommendations for the Task Force and Governmentof India.


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Opening and welcome session

Mrs. Anshu Vaish

Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Governmentof India.

Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Kapil Sibal, Distinguished officials fromUNESCO and the International Teacher Task Force Secretariat, Distinguished experts, delegates, andcolleagues from the Government of India and State Governments, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am privileged to extend you a very warm welcome to India and to the 4th International PolicyDialogue Forum on teacher challenges for EFA in India. This is the first time that an InternationalPolicy Dialogue Forum is being dedicated to a particular country on a specific issue. We are indeedgrateful to the International Task Force on Teachers for EFA for recognizing the significance of thisissue and giving India the opportunity to host this and two other events closely linked to this Forum.That most of our distinguished experts and delegates have travelled long distances to be heredemonstrates just how important the role of teachers is for achieving the global goals of Education forAll. We are grateful for your presence and look forward to two days of rich deliberations.

India is fortunate to host these three international events at this crucial juncture for school educationin India. Our Right to Education Act is now two years old, access to elementary education is a more orless fulfilled agenda, and quality is currently the major challenge we face. The agenda of quality isimpossible to fulfill without enough well-trained, quality teachers. In the wake of our Right to EducationAct, India has taken several steps to enhance and improveteacher numbers and standards. Since the focus is onIndia, our reform measures related to teacher issues willundoubtedly be shared with you during the course ofthis Forum. We are confident that the outcomes of thisForum will help us refine and carry our reform processforward.

Our Chief Guest this morning is the Hon’ble Ministerfor HRD Shri Kapil Sibal, who has succeeded in bringingthe RTE within the reach of millions of India’s children.Without his guidance and support, we would not havebeen able to put together this very important series ofinternational events. I warmly welcome him to the Forum.

I welcome His Excellency, Mr. Cravinho, Ambassadorand Head of Delegation of the European Union to India,and Mr. Shigeru Aoyagi, Regional Director, UNESCO.Both have kindly consented to grace the occasion and share their valuable experiences with us.

I also take this opportunity to thank UNESCO and UNICEF for their help and support in organizingthis Forum.

I welcome all my colleagues, particularly Shri Ashok Thakur, Secretary, Higher Education and Prof. R.Govinda, Vice Chancellor, NUEPA. I also extend a warm welcome to Dr. Kishore Singh, UN SpecialRapporteur on Right to Education. With their expertise in the field of education, we look forward totheir insightful contributions.

OOOOOur Right to Education Actur Right to Education Actur Right to Education Actur Right to Education Actur Right to Education Act

is now two years old, access tois now two years old, access tois now two years old, access tois now two years old, access tois now two years old, access to

elementary education is aelementary education is aelementary education is aelementary education is aelementary education is a

more or less fulfilled agenda,more or less fulfilled agenda,more or less fulfilled agenda,more or less fulfilled agenda,more or less fulfilled agenda,

and quality is currently theand quality is currently theand quality is currently theand quality is currently theand quality is currently the

major challenge we face. Themajor challenge we face. Themajor challenge we face. Themajor challenge we face. Themajor challenge we face. The

agenda of quality isagenda of quality isagenda of quality isagenda of quality isagenda of quality is

impossible to fulfill withoutimpossible to fulfill withoutimpossible to fulfill withoutimpossible to fulfill withoutimpossible to fulfill without

enough well-trained, qualityenough well-trained, qualityenough well-trained, qualityenough well-trained, qualityenough well-trained, quality

teachers.teachers.teachers.teachers.teachers.


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I specially welcome and thank my colleague, Dr. Amarjit Singh, Joint Secretary, School Education. Heand his team have worked extremely hard to organize this entire series of international events.

I warmly welcome Mr. David Atchoarena, Director, Division of Teacher and Higher Education inUNESCO and all my valued colleagues from the Ministry and State Governments as well asdistinguished representatives from governments, inter-governmental and non-governmentalorganizations from across the world. We are all here today as part of our common endeavour to makeEducation for All a global reality, and I am especially happy to note the response the Forum hasreceived from our State Governments.

You may know that we have set up an exhibition showcasing contemporary approaches to teachereducation in India. I hope you will have a chance to see it. I also hope that the exhibits will serve totrigger ideas that will in turn enrich the deliberations of the International Policy Dialogue Forum. Ionce again welcome you to India and to these international events. I hope you will have a comfortableand pleasant stay in New Delhi.

Mr. Shigeru Aoyagi

Director and UNESCO Representative to India, Bhutan, Maldives, and Sri-Lanka

Hon'ble Minister of Human Resource Development, Mr Kapil Sibal, the Ambassador and Head ofdelegation, Mr João Cravinho, Mrs. Anshu Vaish, Secretary, School Education and Literacy, ProfessorGovinda, my former colleague Kishore Singh and Mr. Amarjit Singh, Joint Secretary; my colleaguefrom Paris, David and my colleague from New Delhi office and dear participants. Well today I havethe message from the UNESCO Director General Mrs. (Madame) Bokova, to this very important forum.I’ll read her message first and then I’ll speak a little bit on my behalf.

Special message from Ms. Irina Bokova (as read out by Mr. Aoyagi)

UNESCO Director General

His Excellency Mr. Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resource Development and Communications andInformation Technology, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.

As UNESCO Director-General, it is an honour to address this 4th Policy Dialogue Forum of theInternational Taskforce on Teachers for EFA on the importance of teachers for reaching the MillenniumDevelopment of Goals and Education for all. This Forum meets in the right place and at the right time- in New Delhi, in between the Steering Committee and the General Assembly meetings of theInternational Task Force on Teachers for EFA held yesterday, and the preparatory meeting to takeplace the day after tomorrow, which is dedicated to teacher development for inclusive relevant qualityeducation.

This is an illustration of the synergies we need to build in global and national efforts as we strive toclose the teacher gaps for achieving the EFA goals. I am convinced each of these meetings will strengthenthe momentum we need to reach our education goals.

I wish to express deep gratitude to the Government of India for hosting this event. I welcome the effortsof the government to champion the cause of quality education for all. Under the leadership of HisExcellency Minister Kapil Sibal, this country is experiencing tangible progress - by mobilizing resourcesand by promoting the use of information and communication technologies in education.

I wish to thank His Excellency for the dynamic role India plays in the International Task Force for EFAand other UNESCO-related EFA initiatives. This Policy Forum provides an excellent platform forsharing knowledge and information to promote North-South and South-South cooperation. This is anopportunity for ideas to cross-fertilize on teacher-related issues and to generate discussions on researchand innovation in the field. The E-9 meeting will set the stage for the Ministerial Review Meeting laterthis year, when India assumes the chair of E-9.

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This important occasion marks also a moment when the deliberations on inclusive, relevant qualityeducation will receive the attention it requires. Teachers are architects for a better world, essential forlaying the moral and intellectual foundations of knowledge societies. They are cornerstones for theEducation for All campaign. These ideas underpin the International Task Force on Teachers for EFA,whose Secretariat UNESCO hosts.

Since the 2008 EFA High Level Group meeting in Oslo, this voluntary global partnership initiative hasgone from strength to strength. I am grateful that the early donors - Norway, the European Commission,France, Germany and Indonesia - have maintained their support. I know that the membership ofcountries as well as international non-governmentalorganizations and foundations has increased, and I amhopeful for new contributions in kind and in financialresources to help this initiative meet all of its promises.

Our case is strong and we must not tire of making it acrossthe world. The teacher deficit must be addressed foreducation for all to become a reality in all countries, forall learners - young and adult, men and women, ruraland urban, from rich or disadvantaged backgrounds. Thisis why UNESCO has made teachers the priority ofpriorities in education. We are working with teachers, toenhance quality and equity in education and to buildcapacity in countries that need it most. In all of this, wewill continue to work closely with the Task Force and itspartnership network.

I wish to thank you all once again for your commitment to reaching the goals we share. Your experiencesand ideas are vital for reaching the EFA goals and for charting the way beyond this milestone. I wishyou fruitful and productive discussions.

Mr. Shigeru Aoyagi

I thank you for your attention and let me share with you a little bit of my thoughts in this veryimportant forum. As the Director General said, India has been enjoying great achievement in theeducation sector. Now the enrollment ratio, the school enrollment ratio, is 97 percent and official datatouched 74 percent. This great achievement has started from the launch of the Right to Education Actwhich was established in 2009. I really admire the great effort of the Minister, Mr. Kapil Sibal, forsupporting the people throughout the country to get access quality of education. Nonetheless, thereare some challenges, of course.

If we look at the great progress of India there is some kind of the challenges behind - that is the qualityof education. If we look at the statistics a little bit - only 69 percent of enrolled children will go up tograde 5. As a consequence, 8.2 million students are out of school. Mainly as it follows, of course, of thesocio-economic background of the learners and their families but at the same time we can identify thatthe quality of education is not enough to attract and retain these learners to sustain until theircompletion. The UNESCO-Bangkok organized a very interesting meeting earlier this month to reflecton the EFA, the current status of EFA and also the deliberations made on the education issue beyond2015. Quality of education, ICT and many other issues are discussed and one of the most importanttopics was, of course, that how we can produce qualified quality teachers to improve the quality ofeducation

I believe that the participants, the delegation from the 45 countries will reflect on how we can copewith the great, rapidly changing needs and the diverse needs of the learners - which can be addressedby the qualified teacher. Nowadays, we have a lot of children who are under the so called ‘digitalnative generation’. In the classroom, there are a lot of the new gadgets – computers, ICT is coming tothe classroom: But what about the teachers? Are they really ready for these changes? And these are the

TTTTT eachers are architects foreachers are architects foreachers are architects foreachers are architects foreachers are architects for

a better world, essential fora better world, essential fora better world, essential fora better world, essential fora better world, essential for

laying the moral andlaying the moral andlaying the moral andlaying the moral andlaying the moral and

intellectual foundations ofintellectual foundations ofintellectual foundations ofintellectual foundations ofintellectual foundations of

knowledge societies. Theyknowledge societies. Theyknowledge societies. Theyknowledge societies. Theyknowledge societies. They

are cornerstones for theare cornerstones for theare cornerstones for theare cornerstones for theare cornerstones for the

Education for AllEducation for AllEducation for AllEducation for AllEducation for All

campaign.campaign.campaign.campaign.campaign.


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main concerns of mine and India. And I reflect, and I really encourage you to reflect, on this quality ofteachers, how they can cope with the new changes and challenges in this very important forum. Withthis I conclude my speech. Thank you so much for your attention.

Mr. João Cravinho

Ambassdor and Head of Delegation (Delegation of the European Union to India)

Hon’ble Minister, Shri Kapil Sibal, Professor Govinda, Vice-Chancellor of the National University forEducation Planning and Administration, Mr Shigeru Aoyagi, UNESCO, Secretary Anshu Vaish,Distinguished panellists and participants, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am delighted to be here at the Opening Session of this International Policy Dialogue Forum. Nothingis more important than Education; from the perspective of the EU, education is fundamental to Europe’sconception of human rights and democracy and a core foundation of the EU’s strategy for growth andjobs. Moreover, the EU acknowledges that education is the cornerstone for all development in any partof the world.

In India, the goal of comprehensive education has received a major boost with the implementation ofthe Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), and I would like to recognize the enormousambition which this initiative represents, and to say that we acknowledge this with respect.

The European Union has been cooperating with India in the area of education in a growing fashionsince the early nineties when India decided to make a decisive move to eradicate illiteracy. Since then,the EU has been a partner of the central government’s flagship program, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA),for more than 10 years. The EU’s support is based on the conviction that India’s own efforts to bringabout progress in inclusive and quality Elementary Education should be supported through a strongpartnership.

A few years later, in 2008, the EU-India Declaration on Education established a sector policy dialogueto promote cooperation across the educational spectrum through various education programs fromthe Elementary level with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to the Tertiary level with Erasmus Mundus. Thelatest example of this very rich cooperation was the official launch just last week, of the EU-India SkillsDevelopment Project. This is an area in which we have developed considerable expertise over the years,and we are now investing just over 6 million euros, or 42 crore rupees, over the next few years in orderto create mechanisms for sharing that expertise.

In India, progress is happening and it is impressive. There have been significant advances in elementaryeducation, contributing towards meeting the education-related Millennium Development Goals(MDGs). Furthermore, progress achieved by the Government of India and States towards the fullaccomplishment of the Right to Education Act is encouraging.

But as while, the more that is achieved the more that is possible in the future. The SSA is on track toachieve its development objectives, but the agenda to ensure that all children complete a qualityElementary Education remains work in progress. And in this context, teachers are the key to link boththe qualitative and quantitative targets related to inclusive education.

The recruitment, deployment, training and retention of teachers have been identified as crucial factorsin the success of SSA. With the growing emphasis on quality education, the implementation of theRight to Education Act and the Universalization of Secondary Education (Rashtriya Madhyamik ShikshaAbhiyan - RMSA), the need to address a wide range of teacher-related issues has been identified as apressing priority.

In our view, we very much believe in cooperating in the field of elementary education with specificattention to address teachers’ challenges. This responds to several distinct goals for us, such asenhancing inclusive relevant quality education; modernizing education; and improving the quality ofteacher education through the exchange of information and good practices.

The ongoing EU Technical Cooperation components are contributing to achieving these goals, notablythrough international conferences and study visits by central and state level government officials.

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One example is EU support for the International Conference on teacher education through ICT and distanceeducation that will take place in Bihar in June this year.

Based on our successful past experience, the EU remains strongly committed to supporting the prioritiesof the Government of India - to reduce poverty and strengthen quality education. In this context, I dobelieve that the forthcoming new education Sector Budget Support (Education Sector Policy SupportProgram - 2012 to 2016) encompassing elementary and secondary education, to be launched this year,will further enhance education as well as teacher effectiveness, promoting quality and equity for allthe children.

Times are changing though, and we try to change with the times. In particular, our cooperation withIndia is evolving and we are moving from a classical donor-recipient relationship to a partnership ofequals. In this context, I am happy to say that India will be one of the countries with whom we shall beworking with the New Partnership Instrument and other innovative cooperation modalities as of2014-2020.

The scope of cooperation between the European Union and India in education is enormous, and onour side we are enthusiastic and committed to it. I want to extend my best wishes for this PolicyDialogue Forum, and to say that I hope that it builds upon the excellent work done so far, and that itopens up new vistas for all of us who are committed to the vitally important issues of making Educationfor All a reality around the world.

Dr. Kishore Singh

UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education

Hon’ble Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India; Ambassador, Mr. JoãoCravinho, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to India; Secretary, Department of SchoolEducation and Literacy, Mrs. Anshu Vaish; Secretary,Department of Higher Education, Mr. Ashok Thakur;Vice Chancellor, National University of EducationalPlanning and Administration, Professor Govinda,UNESCO representative, Mr. Aoyagi, distinguishedparticipants, Ladies and Gentlemen. I consider it anhonor to participate in this fourth International PolicyDialogue Forum: Teacher Challenges for EFA in India.And I would like to express my appreciation and thanks for being given the opportunity to share myexperience in the field of Right to Education, in relation to the theme.

This Policy Dialogue is most opportune in the context of permanent challenges of responding toquality imperatives and may I congratulate heartily, Government of India for taking, in cooperationwith UNESCO, this very important initiative. The persisting gaps between commitment and reality inadvancing the right to quality basic education for all, is well known. The dearth of qualified andtrained teachers is an impediment in moving the EFA agenda further and accelerating progress towardsthe Millennium Development Goals on education. Shortage of qualified teachers, which has assumedalarming proportions, makes it incumbent upon public authorities to take bold measures. Innovativeprograms for revamping teacher education and development, such as in case of India, are highlysignificant in the context of the work of the International Task Force on teachers for EFA. The challengesare daunting, not only to ensure that qualified teachers are deployed but also to devise new modalitiesof teacher training in tandem with reforms in the world of education.

A number of countries today are modernizing their legislation and policies in the field of right toeducation. And India’s example has been mentioned which is a glowing example cited in many partsof the world and the system of United Nations. Today, however, the teaching profession is not attractiveenough, it is often least sought after. And it does not enjoy the kind of social esteem commensuratewith the noble cause which it serves. Therefore, valourizing teaching profession, with due regard to it

.....valourizing teaching.....valourizing teaching.....valourizing teaching.....valourizing teaching.....valourizing teaching

profession, with due regardprofession, with due regardprofession, with due regardprofession, with due regardprofession, with due regard

to it as a form of highlyto it as a form of highlyto it as a form of highlyto it as a form of highlyto it as a form of highly

valuable public service, isvaluable public service, isvaluable public service, isvaluable public service, isvaluable public service, is

of utmost importance.of utmost importance.of utmost importance.of utmost importance.of utmost importance.


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as a form of highly valuable public service, is of utmost importance. In this respect the national levelnormative framework can provide a firm basis for action and for programmatic initiative. UNESCOrecommendations on the, concerning the, status of teachers was adopted in 1966 and providesfoundation for this. The recommendations which applies, and I would like to underline this, to allteachers in public and private schools also gives us the framework and guidance on a wide range ofmatters such as teachers’ status, their roles, responsibilities, career advancements, security of tenureand conditions of service.

Allow me, also, to underline the importance of the work of the United Nations Human Rights treatybodies. For instance, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the United Nations committee oneconomics, social and cultural rights, have expressed concern about under-resourcing of schools,class sizes and teacher pupil ratios and the level of untrained teachers and their impact, adverseimpact, on quality of education received. Therefore, in line with the recommendations, which Imentioned, and work of the United Nations treaties, the countries should ensure conformity withminimum standards in education. In this respect, let me once again mention the importance of evolvingnorms and standards on quality in India in the context, in the process, of implementation of the Rightof Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009. One of the basic norms in that Act, whichI quoted in my report to Human Rights Council extensively, is teacher-student ratio and anotherdimension is the deployment of not only well qualified teachers but of trained teachers in schools asa matter of norm if we want to advance EFA agenda.

Some countries have also adopted code of conducts and guidelines for teachers and such instrumentsare useful in handling matters such as prohibition of corporal punishment, ban on private tuitions orteacher absenteeism - which are also widely prevalent phenomenon. I would like, in this respect, tomention the guidelines on elimination of corporal punishment, developed by India’s NationalCommission for Protection of the Child’s Rights.

Quality education hinges on pedagogical capacities of teachers and the dynamics of the learningprocess. Teacher training should therefore place high emphasis on pedagogical skills and subjectmastery. The quality of education requires new pedagogical approaches which are child friendly,inspiring and motivating. Teachers should be able to develop in children, love of learning. Theyshould also be able to kindle in children, and in adults, critical thinking as well as nurture in themethical and moral values. Improving quality of teaching and learning, at the basic education levels,therefore necessitates child friendly education systems in which, and I would like to emphasize this,the rights-based approach is all pervasive. This requires paradigm change. Teachers are the mainstayof the four pillars of education which are so well known and I repeat, learning to know, learning to be,learning to live together and learning of the international values of mutual understanding, which areof perennial importance. I have no doubt that this Policy Dialogue will result in a comprehensivepolicy response to teacher challenges and the deliberations which sharpen our focus on hostingnormative action at national level, so much needed to make the right to quality education, a reality forall. A right which is essential for the exercise of all other human rights and which must be kept in theforefront in the concerns and actions of global partnerships so that children, adults and youth canaspire for a promising future. Thank You.

Professor R. Govinda

Vice Chancellor, National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA)

Overview of teacher education scenario in India

Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Kapil Sibal ji, his Excellency, distinguisheddelegates from various parts of the world, distinguished international and national delegates, mycolleagues from the teacher education community. It is indeed a privilege for me to speak to thisdistinguished gathering from different parts of the world and in particular in the august presence ofmany international delegates. I am grateful to the organizers for giving me this opportunity.

It was precisely 22 years ago that the world community recognized education as a basic need of every

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individual and the world community pledged toprovide basic education for all, within a period of10 years. As we approached year 2000, werecognized that the pledge was quite a large task,not easy to achieve. And we reiterated, the globalcommunity reiterated, the pledge in 2000, in Dakar.Now we are approaching the deadline of 2015 setby the world community. If we draw the balancesheet it may indicate that there are still large gapsin many parts of the world, including India. But Iwould say here, closer scrutiny of the road that wehave traversed would show that the change andprogress is quite perceptible. For instance, Indiahas registered, undoubtedly, huge progress in thelast two decades. A very important milestone is theadoption of the Rights perspective – no more rhetoric but as a vision of the country, as enshrined in theconstitution today, as a fundamental right - and the legislation ensuing from that. Indeed it has beena landmark progress in this direction.

I would say that it is not just about adoption of the Right to Education Act. Even if we take stock of theprogress made otherwise, we can see that the change is visible, measurable, across the world and inIndia.

20 years ago, one of the major concerns of the international community was the question of demand.We were asking ourselves, why children not come to schools even when schools have been opened.Today we can safely say that demand for education is not an issue, in fact the demand for schoolingis overwhelming across the world and in particular in India. The number of schools that have beenopened in this period is phenomenal. Enrollment increase has been unprecedented, not just in Indiaelsewhere in the world also. The gender gaps may have persisted but they have begun to decrease, atleast in terms of numbers. Even while we recognize that there are gaps there is no need for pessimism.Because correcting long historical legacies of inequality of access to education is a long haul battle. Itis the path that we take for sustainable transformation of the system that is more important than thequick results that we register which may not be sustained over a longer period of time.

At the same time, we are all conscious that the task of providing education for all is not over. But as weapproach 2015, we are entering a new phase; we are looking beyond numbers today, we are looking atthe core issues of quality and learning outcomes. This is also because we recognize that even whilechildren are enrolled, even while they attend the school, many remain silently excluded. They areexcluded because they complete schooling with no visible benefits from the school which they haveattended for several years. This, I think, is the central question that we need to address in the years to

come.

While the debate on quality has attracted attention widely,we are also recognizing that we need to pin down theessential issues underlying the broad issue of quality.Analysis of results all over the world, and in particularthe findings of the successive global monitoring reports,very clearly show that the central focus of the debate hasto be teachers and teacher related issues. It is the teacherswho hold the key for ensuring quality education for all.But if we take quick stock of the assessment that has beenmade at the international level, today the world is facinga serious crisis with respect to teachers. Problems relatedto teachers are multi-fold. One is the supply of qualifiedteachers – in India alone the teacher shortage is estimated

BBBBB ecause correcting historicalecause correcting historicalecause correcting historicalecause correcting historicalecause correcting historical

legacies of inequality of access tolegacies of inequality of access tolegacies of inequality of access tolegacies of inequality of access tolegacies of inequality of access to

education is a long haul battle.education is a long haul battle.education is a long haul battle.education is a long haul battle.education is a long haul battle.

It is the path that we take forIt is the path that we take forIt is the path that we take forIt is the path that we take forIt is the path that we take for

sustainable transformation ofsustainable transformation ofsustainable transformation ofsustainable transformation ofsustainable transformation of

the system that is morethe system that is morethe system that is morethe system that is morethe system that is more

important than the quick resultsimportant than the quick resultsimportant than the quick resultsimportant than the quick resultsimportant than the quick results

that we register which may notthat we register which may notthat we register which may notthat we register which may notthat we register which may not

be sustained over a longerbe sustained over a longerbe sustained over a longerbe sustained over a longerbe sustained over a longer

period of time.period of time.period of time.period of time.period of time.

.....even while children are.....even while children are.....even while children are.....even while children are.....even while children are

enrolled, even while theyenrolled, even while theyenrolled, even while theyenrolled, even while theyenrolled, even while they

attend the school, manyattend the school, manyattend the school, manyattend the school, manyattend the school, many

remain silently excluded.remain silently excluded.remain silently excluded.remain silently excluded.remain silently excluded.

They are excluded becauseThey are excluded becauseThey are excluded becauseThey are excluded becauseThey are excluded because

they complete schooling withthey complete schooling withthey complete schooling withthey complete schooling withthey complete schooling with

no visible benefits from theno visible benefits from theno visible benefits from theno visible benefits from theno visible benefits from the

school which they haveschool which they haveschool which they haveschool which they haveschool which they have

attended for several years.attended for several years.attended for several years.attended for several years.attended for several years.


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to be more than a million. The world over, if we look at the requirement of teachers, it is really mindboggling. An important question on which we need to introspect is why we are unable to attracttalented and well qualified youth to teaching profession. It is difficult to answer – this is not a problemonly India is facing but perhaps many other countries are also. But in India, with its vast diversity, itis even more challenging. At the same time, a phenomenon that seems to have attracted the attentionof the world community, in particular the teacher education community, is the gradual underminingof teaching profession through the appointment of under-qualified, underpaid teachers - essentiallyas contingency measures - in the form of para-teachers, community teachers, contract teachers and soon. Probably they are contingency measures but I think as a teacher education community this calls forserious introspection as to its impact on the overall growth ofthe teaching profession. But no less serious is the quality ofpeople who are entering the teaching profession with fullqualification. In India, the recent teacher eligibility tests, whichhave been made mandatory by the Right to Education Act,have shown large knowledge gaps among teachers in theirdomain knowledge, in their subject knowledge. This of course,speaks of the overall poor quality of learning that is takingplace in schools and colleges of the country. But can teacher education programs remain untouchedby this issue of quality of people entering the teaching force. In fact, it points to the need for renewingour curriculum, revising the curriculum, integrating subject knowledge improvement as an integralpart of the teacher training strategy; not to focus merely on generic pedagogic techniques. Therefore,the big concern is of teacher education revamping; or in other words, the pedagogic preparation ofthose who aspire to enter the profession, their subject mastery and their professional developmentthereafter.

While this is a common problem faced by many countries, the Indian situation is characterized byseveral issues and challenges. I would like to focus on three or four of them.

One issue that is particularly bothering the teacher education community is that the teacher educationat the elementary stage has remained more or less frozen for too long at the bottom of the hierarchyamong educational institutions. By being at the bottom of the hierarchy, in fact, the elementary teachereducation suffers in my view double alienation. On the one hand, this keeps it away from the seats ofhigher learning – much of the elementary teacher education is managed by secondary educationboards in most of the states. As a result the teacher educators in these institutions are deprived of theopportunity to be involved in the process of knowledge generation. On the other hand, if we closelylook at the teacher education curriculum that is being followed, it is largely diverged from the realityof the school system. Much of the focus is on imparting generic knowledge and skills and notcontextualized to the changing reality of the field. We do hope that the new National CurriculumFramework for Teacher Education which has been formulated by the NCTE will be able to helpaddress many of these challenges.

Next question is what happens to teachers once they enter the profession, what happens to theircontinuous professional development and what kind of opportunities do they have. We should admithere that the investment in in-service training has considerably increased, significantly increased, inrecent years - not just in India but elsewhere in the world also, in-service teacher training has attractedtremendous attention. But are we doing adequate, is a question that we need to ask ourselves. Willshort capsules or modules, under the banner of training, being given year after year, will it reallysuffice to meet the professional development needs of the teachers. What are we doing with the craftsknowledge that the teachers acquire as they work in the schools. Where is the place for this craftsknowledge? Can in-service education be provided purely through external resource persons – oftenthrough packaged modules that are transacted? The question that we need to address is how do wecontextualize in-service education and make it more linked to the conditions in which the teachers areworking. This is indeed a big challenge for the teacher education community of the country.

BBBBBut can teacher educationut can teacher educationut can teacher educationut can teacher educationut can teacher education

programs remainprograms remainprograms remainprograms remainprograms remain

untouched by this issue ofuntouched by this issue ofuntouched by this issue ofuntouched by this issue ofuntouched by this issue of

quality of people enteringquality of people enteringquality of people enteringquality of people enteringquality of people entering

the teaching force?the teaching force?the teaching force?the teaching force?the teaching force?

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Another issue that we need to examine is that continuousprofessional development is not linked to the professionaland career growth of teachers in the system. Why shouldteachers really come for in-service education, is a regularquestion that is asked by many teachers. Within a system,if the teachers undergo in-service education there seemsto be no value addition that is coming to their life. This isbecause in-service education is neither essential nor is itbeing rewarded. Addressing this issue is more ticklish. It will take us to another very important area,namely that of assessing teacher performance based on appropriate standard-setting instruments. Ithink this is an area in which we have done practically little in this country and it’s an area in whichwe need to embark on, in the years to come.

I would agree that there are no ready answers to many of these critical issues that teacher education isfacing. But in order to address many of them, in order to improve in-service teacher education, in orderto improve the pre-service teacher education, we require much larger public investment. I underlinepublic investment because around 85 percent of the teacher education institutions in this country areprivate, self-financing institutions. This raises the question of do we have the institutions which havethe capability to set standards for curriculum, teaching and evaluation in teacher education. Can thecurrent level of public engagement with the system adequate to influence the system, as a whole andchange the direction of performance of the system. I think this is a serious issue on which we need toreflect in much deeper sense.

Lastly, I would like to say that it is time that the teacher educator community engages in seriousintrospection for themselves. Till now, the teacher education community has often pointed fingers atthe systemic inefficiencies, systemic deficiencies, as the reason. I think we all agree that the teachereducation can shine only in the reflected glory of a good school system. If the school system is underthe cloud, teacher education cannot be great. This indeed is the situation in which teacher educationin India is placed. The challenge to teacher education system lies here. In order to maintain ourcredibility, we cannot remain mute spectators or merely reactive. Rather we have to lead from the frontin transforming the school system. Teacher education community has to engage in more seriousinnovative designs in terms of pedagogy, in terms of teaching and in terms of generating empiricalknowledge that have the capability to transform the school system. There lies the answer if the teachereducation has to regain its vitality and give leadership to the school education system and in generalto the EFA movement in this country.

Thank You very much for giving me this opportunity – I hope we’ll have opportunity to discuss manyof these issues.

Hon’ble Shri Kapil Sibal

Human Resource Development Minister, Government of India.

Ambassador and representative of the European union in India, Ambassador Cravinho; secretaryschool education and literacy Ms. Anshu Vaish; secretary higher education Ashok Thakur; ProfessorR. Govinda vice chancellor NUEPA; representative of UNESCO in India the distinguished Mr. Aoyagiand Mr Amarjeet Singh, distinguished delegates - I believe there are about 45 countries representedhere so all the delegates who have come from abroad, all the distinguished governmental,intergovernmental non-governmental organizations, guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

First of all, let me thank the secretariat for the task force on Teacher for EFA in agreeing to organize thistwo day long conference, which will focus on a range of issues related to Teacher’s challenges inIndia. We also thank the international Task force on Teachers for EFA who have elected India as thecoach here on Teachers for EFA and I thank the steering committee for having recommended India’s

CCCCCan in-service education bean in-service education bean in-service education bean in-service education bean in-service education be

provided purely throughprovided purely throughprovided purely throughprovided purely throughprovided purely through

external resource persons –external resource persons –external resource persons –external resource persons –external resource persons –

often through packagedoften through packagedoften through packagedoften through packagedoften through packaged

modules that are transacted?modules that are transacted?modules that are transacted?modules that are transacted?modules that are transacted?


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name, thank you very much. I also want to thank the Director General for the message for this conference.Please convey my warm regards to her.

Teachers for EFA, when you talk about teacher’s education I feel somewhat puzzled but of course Iknow the reality. Because it is the teacher who educates our children and the subject we are concernedover here are how to educate our teachers. And that also tells us that there is a problem that the E9countries face, a problem that the global community is facing, in terms of the quality of teachers whoteach the young. If I look at India then the numbers are mind boggling. The number of children under14 in India is 400 million. That means it’s almost the entire population of Europe, more than thepopulation of United States of America. And to think that India is involved in this gigantic nationalmission to empower our young to take India forward into the 21st century is a great challenge as wellas a great opportunity. And if India is to succeed in the 21st century, as one of the leading lights in theglobal community, the one thing they need to do is to address this issue very seriously and the problemis I believe mindset and the policy framework. The mindset problem is the following: How best mindsin the country or anywhere in the world move towards investments which will generate profit throughliquid capital? So the best minds in the world join investment banks and all business enterprises,multinationals because they have a lot of liquid capital to invest. Whereas the best minds in the worldshould invest in the capital asset which is perhaps the most precious that the global community has- which is the Mind of a young child. And it is unfortunate that at the policy level all nations and allparents in the world persuade their young to move towards jobs which will allow them to play withliquid capital or profit without realizing that the most important capital is the mind of the young whoare going to grow into adults and then, of course, produce for the country. And unless, across theglobe, those who make policy realize that the most important area in which the nation’s investmentmust be addressed is to all our children, I don’t think that we are going to solve this problem. That’spoint number 1.

Point number 2 is that every country has its own solution to deal with a problem and we look at Indiaas a nation - a nation which has about, you know, several schedule languages, different cultures,diverse regional environments, people belonging to different religions who are brought up differently,you have tribal areas in some parts of the country where children are brought up in differentenvironment, you have urban areas like Delhi, Mumbai where children are brought up in an entirelydifferent environment, and the environment keeps on changing as you move across India. There arefor example 2500 dialects apart from the Schedule languages that are spoken. There are 2500 dialectsand so how do you actually bring about quality education in a country as diverse as India. And howdo you find programs for quality education which will fit into that diversity that I am talking about.And if you really were to create modules for that there is no one module that will fit everybody. So thebiggest task, at least in India, is to be able to create modules that will fit into the particular diverseenvironment in which the children are brought up in various parts of the country and that’s not easy.That’s the point number 2.

The third point that I wish to talk about is that when we talk about teachers one of the questions that

I think that Govinda raised is that how it is that the best minds don’t go into the teaching profession?

In India, for example, employment and recruitment of teachers has nothing to do with the central

government. State governments in India are entirely responsible for their recruitment and since state

governments are responsible for their recruitment each state government decides on its own who to

recruit, how to recruit, what are the terms and conditions for that recruitment, what benefits will be

given to the teaching community and all that stuff. Therefore, each

state has a different vision. There is no uniformity in terms of the

recruitment processes, no uniformity in terms of salaries, no uniformity

in terms of benefits that the teachers are going to get, in terms of lifelong

pension, medical benefits, house rent allowance and stuff like that.

So unless state governments in India realize the importance of the

.....how it is that the.....how it is that the.....how it is that the.....how it is that the.....how it is that the

best minds don’t gobest minds don’t gobest minds don’t gobest minds don’t gobest minds don’t go

into the teachinginto the teachinginto the teachinginto the teachinginto the teaching

profession?profession?profession?profession?profession?

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teaching community, you can keep on addressing the question of quality teaching but unless you havequality people, you will not be able to deal with the problem of quality teaching. And quality peoplewill only come when you give them attractive prospects within the teaching profession. As Govindasaid, what is in it for a teacher who has done a D.Ed. or a B.Ed., what are his promotional areas? Yousee, there are no promotional areas. In any other profession in the world we go through a process oflifelong learning - this is something I do in politics on a daily basis but it’s true of other professions aswell. If it’s the legal profession you have to go through a process of lifelong learning, if it’s the medicalprofession then you have to go through the process of lifelong learning, but where is that process oflifelong learning in the teaching profession. There are no systems in place for lifelong learning becauseas technologies change, as new methodologies are thought of in terms of how to teach your children,how many teachers in India or anywhere in the world get access to those avenues?

So I personally think that the first thing we need to look at what is the teacher supposed to teach apartfrom the universal values that we talk about but in the context of the environment in which the teacheris placed what is he/she supposed to teach? In the 21st century, to prepare our children for the challengesof the tomorrow, we must redefine what the processes of teaching must be in the 21st century - naturallythey will be entirely different from what they were in the 20th because the nature of challenges aredifferent. You have today access to technology that we never had before. You can truly envision ascenario 10-15 years from now in which every classroom will be connected. Every classroom will beconnected throughout the country and any classroom will be connected across the world. You canimagine a scenario where teachers and children will be talking to each other not just around India butaround the world. You can envision a scenario where the young will be preparing themselves for aparticular challenge not necessarily existing in India but existing in some other part of the world. Youcan imagine a scenario where children will be actually looking at a collaborative solution for problemsnot necessarily relevant in their own country. That’s the power of connectivity. And that’s going tohappen. There is no power in the world that can stop it. Globalization is a reality; globalization ofeducation will be a reality. How do we then prepare for that? Because in the ultimate analysis, when youtalk of inequity, when you talk about discrimination, you really talking about lack of opportunity;inequity and discrimination - the genesis of that is lack ofopportunity. Because you are born in a particular environment,you don’t have access to what other people are born with in adifferent environment or what you need is access. You give thechild a computer lab and whole of the world that you see outsideyou will grow with it and a child belonging to any part of thecountry will be able to give you suggestions like anybody else.

How do we actually bring about the equality of opportunityand then what is the role of the teacher in the context of a newenvironment in which they are going to live in. Just say that asthe nature of learning must change, the nature of teaching toomust change. And I think we in the global community need tostart addressing that issue and we at the policy level need toaddress the issue as how to get the best minds to invest in the capital asset of our country which areour children. And if we address ourselves to these two problems I think we can solve a lot of challengesthat we are dealing with.

Then, of course, the nature of pedagogy is something that we can talk about; the nature of pedagogyalso must change. The teacher in the 21st century is more a guide than a repository of learning thoughin the classroom the teacher is an inspirational figure. When I was younger, most of us when young,we looked upon the teacher as epitome of wisdom, of inspiration or the best that happens to us and welook upon teacher as God. The children of the 21st century are not looking upon their teachers as God.

.....we in the global.....we in the global.....we in the global.....we in the global.....we in the global

community need to startcommunity need to startcommunity need to startcommunity need to startcommunity need to start

addressing that issueaddressing that issueaddressing that issueaddressing that issueaddressing that issue

and we at the policy leveland we at the policy leveland we at the policy leveland we at the policy leveland we at the policy level

need to address the issueneed to address the issueneed to address the issueneed to address the issueneed to address the issue

as how to get the bestas how to get the bestas how to get the bestas how to get the bestas how to get the best

minds to invest in theminds to invest in theminds to invest in theminds to invest in theminds to invest in the

capital asset of ourcapital asset of ourcapital asset of ourcapital asset of ourcapital asset of our

country which are ourcountry which are ourcountry which are ourcountry which are ourcountry which are our

children.children.children.children.children.


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Whether that is fortunate or unfortunate is another issue, a debatable issue. So we need in the classroomthe presence of an inspirational teacher, there is no doubt about it. But we also need that inspirationalteacher changes or the way he/she teaches. The nature of inspiration that is required for a child issomewhat different. Classroom teaching is no longer about textbook learning. It is learning beyond thetextbook. It is no longer about being tested on the textbook, it is about being tested beyond the textbook.It is no longer about learning the chapter that you have read the previous evening, it is about what youneed to learn based on what you have read the previous evening. In other words, the frontier ofknowledge in the classroom needs to be expanded. And those frontier of knowledge will only beexpanded when the nature of pedagogy changes. If you look at India as an example, you look at ourexamination system it is based on textbook knowledge. So naturally the emphasis is on learning whatis written in the textbook and then regurgitating it in answering an examination paper. But if you wereto actually change the process of examination it will change the nature of teaching. Because you can’tanswer the question by reading the text so naturally children will have to learn beyond the text andtherefore the teacher will have to teach beyond the text. So I think there need to be a lot of issuesdiscussed in context of teaching, quality teaching and it is related to a lot of other things – it is relatedto pedagogy, it is related the kind of people you recruit as I mentioned. And, of course, as I said in thebeginning, the nature of the challenges would be different as we look upon. The other day I was inUttar Pradesh, I have to share this with you, I was in Uttar Pradesh and everybody in India talks aboutthat the demographic advantage. Uttar Pradesh incidentally is a state in India which if it were to be aseparate nation it will be the 6th most populous nation in the world; just the state of Uttar Pradesh.Now the maximum number of young are in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. So all our demographic advantagesare in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar but our human progress index in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is thepoorest if we compare to the rest of the country which means the poorest of the poor in Uttar Pradeshand Bihar are the most under privileged in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and India. Most children in Indiawho don’t have access to education are in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar so the demographic advantage couldturn out to be a demographic disaster if you do not, people don’t, invest in that capital asset. So you haveto have national strategies as well apart from the fact that we have to have a overall policy framework,you have to have national strategy to address the issues where the challenges are the greatest, invest inregions where the challenges are the greatest, invest money where the challenges are the greatest becauseif you improve and empower the children of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar automatically the national humandevelopment index will rise exponentially. And there again the quality of teachers is of utmost importance.Some states in India are doing exceptionally well like Tamil Nadu and some of the other states, Maharashtrais doing quite well too. But it’s the poorest states we have to strategize on.

I have been talking about the challenges of course but there are a lot of good things that have happenedin India. You know our mid day meal program - 1.2 million children on a daily basis is a key success.Our access is 97 percent as was mentioned earlier but ofcourse then the dropout rate is huge. The worse enrolmentratio at the secondary level is 30 percent and that grows into,at higher secondary, 17 percent. Now that’s a problem thatneeds to be addressed. A part of that problem is that we havenot been able to get the quality teachers who can inspire ourstudents to walk forward in the school. Of course, this hasalso has got to do with - if you look at United States of Americathe entire university system is changing its curriculum.Because the university system in the US realizes that peoplecan’t get jobs after they pass out of the university system. Thenature of pedagogy and teaching in the university systemmust change to address the demands of the communitybecause community wants skilled people for jobs. So thenature of teaching must also address that problem. So apartfrom teachers in maths, physics and chemistry there will be teachers who will address the problems of

BBBBBut if you were to actuallyut if you were to actuallyut if you were to actuallyut if you were to actuallyut if you were to actually

change the process ofchange the process ofchange the process ofchange the process ofchange the process of

examination it will changeexamination it will changeexamination it will changeexamination it will changeexamination it will change

the nature of teaching.the nature of teaching.the nature of teaching.the nature of teaching.the nature of teaching.

Because you can’t answerBecause you can’t answerBecause you can’t answerBecause you can’t answerBecause you can’t answer

the question by reading thethe question by reading thethe question by reading thethe question by reading thethe question by reading the

text children will have totext children will have totext children will have totext children will have totext children will have to

learn beyond the text andlearn beyond the text andlearn beyond the text andlearn beyond the text andlearn beyond the text and

therefore the teacher willtherefore the teacher willtherefore the teacher willtherefore the teacher willtherefore the teacher will

have to teach beyond thehave to teach beyond thehave to teach beyond thehave to teach beyond thehave to teach beyond the

text .text .text .text .text .

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the community by empowering the teachers to teach children who can actually then get jobs and moveout of school. Not everybody will be a doctor, not everybody will be in medicine or engineering. Therewill be lot of children who will go to a polytechnic and get skilled. And in a skilled environment,ultimately get a job when one moves out in the community. So where are the teachers for that objective?And out of 220 million children who go to school in India, ultimately by 2020 if we are able to get say 45-50 million children into college, you will have 150 million children who are going to college and theywill need a job and we will need teachers for that. We will need teachers to skill them. For the jobs thatthey aspire for when they move out of school or out of polytechnics. So how do we create a pool ofteachers for the skilled? This is not something that can happen overnight. But lots of things can be done.

And let me just set out 3-4 things that can be done to help the teaching profession. For example, we cancreate a pool of pedagogy and now with ICT revolution we can actually set up databanks, and thedatabanks can house a pool of pedagogy which can be accessed by anybody, any school, any child,provided we are able to provide power in school. And every school doesn’t have to invest, this can bedone at the national level. For example, I can take the example of higher education. If you were to take allthe medical journals anywhere in the world which are useful, and they were to be subscribed by oneagency in India and then housed in a data pool which can be housed anywhere. It can be housed in acloud so any institution can access a particular journal or 1 or 2 or 4 or 5 journal that they want and paya little bit for the service. That’s about it. So multiple investments are not necessary. This can happen inschool, it can happen in higher education. The child should not have to carry his textbook to school if weare able to bring about the dream of the Akaash and make it something real for the children. Becauseunless the global community thinks differently, redefines what literacy mean in the 21st century and wemust redefine and UNESCO must take that lead. Sometimes it is more important to know what to accessand how to access. When a research student becomes, you know starts learning how to research paperthe most important thing is how to research. If he doesn’t know how to research he will not be educated.So how the children must be taught the methodologies to access information, that should be part ofliteracy- it is not so far a part of literacy and I think we need to have a UNESCO round table to figure outwhat are the needs of the global community and what are the needs of our children across the globe forthe purpose of making them literate in the context of 21st century.

The second thing that we can think of that we should have a pool of teachers again at the global level, indifferent languages, science, math, physics, and the language of the learner. This pool of trained teacherscan be the source of pedagogy which then can be accessed by anybody. And you will have thousands ofteachers volunteering for it. Why should we not have the possibility of the best math teacher in Indiagiving a lecture in math, teaching somebody and this particular lecture be accessed by all children inIndia. It is possible. If the dream of the Akaash were made true its possible. I mean, we can’t, the nationcannot afford to wait for ten years to recruit people. 1.2 million teachers short - the status has reduced tonow 0.6 million but that also we have given funding for. So I think those will also be recruited very soon.But recruitment is one thing, the nature of teaching is quite another thing. And there should be, when youtalk about continuous comprehensive education, why do you talk about CCE in the classroom, whycan’t you talk about CCE for teacher, continuous comprehensive evaluation for teachers. They need to becontinuously evaluated and there can be self evaluation process, and need not be something that isbrought from outside but at least give the opportunity for the teacher to evaluate herself/himself to findout where she/he stands. And it should be comprehensive. And we can have a pool of teachers creatingpedagogy of teacher evaluation, continuous comprehensive learning and evaluation of teachers. Whydo you limit it to the students in the classroom? Now I said all this, knowing fully well that these areissues that need to be addressed. And these are not very issues, these are very contentious issue on whichpeople will have different points. Which is why I said what I said - because the whole purpose of this 2day conference is to generate a kind of debate forthe global community in the context ofdistinguished representatives here who havecome from 45 countries and with the task forceand policy framework and UNESCO presencehere. That it is time for us to think differently, toact differently, and to do differently. Thank you.

.....at least give the opportunity for the.....at least give the opportunity for the.....at least give the opportunity for the.....at least give the opportunity for the.....at least give the opportunity for the

teacher to evaluate herself/himself toteacher to evaluate herself/himself toteacher to evaluate herself/himself toteacher to evaluate herself/himself toteacher to evaluate herself/himself to

find out where she/he stands.find out where she/he stands.find out where she/he stands.find out where she/he stands.find out where she/he stands.


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Ashok Thakur

Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

Vote of Thanks

Shri Kapil Sibal ji, Honorable Human Resource Development Minister; Mr. Cravinho, AmbassadorEuropean Union and head of the delegation; Shrimati Anshu Vaish, Secretary, School Education; MrAoyagi, Director and UNESOC representative in India, my friend Kishore Singh, Dr. Govinda and Mr.Amarjit Singh from our ministry and all the distinguished delegates from the 45 countries; participantsfrom the various states of our country.

If in the last 4-5 years, that is our 11th five year plan, we have been devoting to the hardware aspect - wehave been busy building up more central universities, more IITs, more IIMs - if that has been theemphasis then in the next five years, that is the 12th five year plan, our emphasis is going to be on thesoft aspect of it. And when we talk about the soft aspects of education, teachers’ education comescentre stage – so our emphasis in the 12th five plan year plan is going to be majorly on teachers, becausewe know that buildings alone do not make institutions; it is the people who are inside those buildingsand do exciting and creative things who actually make up institutions.

In our ministry, under the leadership of our Honorable Minister, who has passion, real passion foreducation, we have been working together very seamlessly - whether it is the school education orhigher education. We are going to work jointly towards a major mission which is going to be theNational Mission on Teachers and this is going to straddle across the school education and on to thehigher education; even probably beyond because we believe that education is seamless – you cannotcompartmentalize it, one fuses into the other. And it is in this spirit we are going to we are working tohave a National Mission on teachers education in the 12th five year plan, under the leadership of ourHonorable Minister.

I would just like to share one small thing that we achieved just yesterday under the able leadership ofour minister. We have, in our country, something known as the IIT, and they have a very tough examand that is the IIT-JEE exam. Unfortunately, because of social pressure, because of media hype,everybody, all the school children, under pressure from their parents, started concentrating only onthat major exam, the JEE exam. With the result, the school education system was gradually eroding -it was getting marginalized. The fundamentals of the children became very weak and they just resortedto understanding and devising means of cracking that exam and somehow making into it. So thatgreat distortion which had crept several years back, yesterday the Honorable Minister completelycorrected it and from 2013 onwards, that is from next year onwards, school board marks will be givenweightage in a fairly comprehensive way for the selection into these premier institutions. So I thinkthis will really boost our school education system. So these are some of the steps which we are takingand these are all innovative things coming out of the initiatives of our Minister.

As far as I have been given the task of thanking all the participants and all the honorable delegates onthe dais: First of all, I would like to thank our Honorable Minister for giving a very thought provokingopening address as usual, inspiring too. I would also thank UNESCO, EU, UNICEF and specially theTask Force on teachers. I also thank the esteemed speakers who shared their thoughts with us, theexhibitors who exhibited their various things outside for the benefit of all of us, and above all I wouldlike to thank team MHRD under the leadership of Madam Anshu Vaish and Amarjit Singh of course,who really took the brunt of organizing this thing. I also thank the media and the press for beingpresent here, and thank all of you, especially all the delegates who have come all the way from 45countries. Thank you very much sir.

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Theme 1

Professional development of teachers

Teacher development is a long term process that is multi-dimensional in terms of content,

process and context and includes both formal and informal experiences.

Key contemporary challenges in teachereducation and tensions between policy andneeds

Rapid decline in the share of public schoolenrolment is a serious public policy questionespecially in the context of RTE. Importantly, whileover 80 percent of India’s children are enrolled instate schools, over 80 percent of teacher educationinstitutions operate in the private sector.Continuing low levels of learning compel one toassess this shift in enrolment and deal with issuesof teacher preparation that may be the cause.

There is a great need of trained teachers in thesystem. Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,Orissa, UP and West Bengal, apart from the NorthEastern states have been identified as states thatgrossly lag behind in their institutional capacityto educate teachers (GoI, 2011). Even in otherstates, there is a greater demand to prepareteachers for diverse classrooms as the Supreme

Introduction

India is at a unique moment when socialmovements and civil society initiatives haveculminated in several progressive legislations.The educational discourse too has been enrichedby the NCF 2005 and NCFTE 2009. Bothdocuments have articulated majorepistemological shifts in imagining the nationwhere constructs of local knowledge, activecitizenship, diversity and inclusion attempt toredefine curriculum and to establish teaching associal practice. Education which is central to bothsocial and national development cannot beviewed as service delivery, to be closely monitoredand tightly controlled.

The ongoing debate on Universal ElementaryEducation and curriculum renewal has reiteratedthe close relationship between school and society.There is an imperative need to evolve specificmeasures to strengthen democracy, enhance thequality of life and ensure higher levels of socialjustice for all. Thus, while learning needs to belooked at as a collective rather than an individualactivity; teaching needs to be not a technical skillbut a social practice. The presentations in thesession on professional development of teachersbrought out this paradigm shift in perception. Thediscussions in the session investigated thefollowing themes:

• Key contemporary challenges in teachereducation and tensions between policy andneeds;

• Re-conceptualizing pre-service teachereducation;

• Reforming in-service teacher education;

• Supporting teachers to acquire qualifications;

• Role of corporate organizations and NGOsin teacher education;

• Developing DIETs through their linkages withhigher education institutions (HEIs);

• International practices: Learning from theglobal community.

Projected shortfalls in teacher supply

In the context of EFA and MDG goals,there is a need of 10 million teachersworldwide. The greatest need is in Africawhere 3.4 million teachers are needed by2015. South and West Asia requires 4.7million teachers. In India, ccurrently523,000 are vacant. Government policiesare in place to reduce class sizes and toensure universal access to primaryeducation require an additional 510,000over and above current vacancies. Thereare regional differences within the countrysuch as in Delhi, the proportion ofunqualified teachers is 0.08% where as inArunachal Pradesh (a state with minimalteacher training capacity) the unqualifiedpercentage is 71.21%. In comparison,Bihar has 45% of existing teachers asunqualified.


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Court has upheld the 25 percent reservation forthe economically weaker sections decision.Several long debated issues are being positionedas ‘forced choices’. These include:

• The conflict between private and publicschooling arrangements;

• Diversification and selectivity of the teacherworkforce;

• Multiple locations as the site for teacherpreparation: state and university, private andpublic;

• Long duration pre-service teacher educationvs. short-term measures of in-service training;

• Contradictions of simultaneous regulationand deregulation.

We need to examine the tension between policyimperatives and the lived reality of schooleducation rather than position them as forcedchoices. NCF 2005 and NCFTE, 2009 although inconsonance with processes of policy-making, areoutside the domain of policy enforcement and thecurrent instruments that are used to enable this.Policy, for instance, cannot ensure that acurriculum is interpreted as intended through themedium of a textbook. Therefore, while school andteacher education curriculum speak of educatingfor and in a diverse society, specific policymeasures adopted, such as large scale testing oflearning outcomes, seek to standardize schooleducation. Likewise, policy enforcement seeks toensure teacher accountability rather than teacherdevelopment.

Tensions also exist in the ‘quality’ discourse itself.For instance, ideas of learning guarantee throughlarge scale testing of learning outcomes andteacher performance and management, havebegun to define the ‘quality’ dimension ofeducation. Simultaneously, commissionededucational research has built a discourse aroundaspects of teacher absenteeism, teacher motivationand teacher accountability, and instructionaltime-on-task. This research has positioned theschool teacher as the chief reason for the decliningquality of school education, leading to an anti-teacher discourse and marginalization of the roleof the teacher. Teachers, perhaps unfairly, areviewed as responsible for declining quality andare seen as objects of reform. Exercises such as

lesson planning, standard materials are erodingteachers’ autonomy. Meticulously designed‘lesson plans’ and other ‘teacher-proof’ materialsare being marketed. These are designed for a cadreof school teachers with or without pre-servicequalification to merely implement and increaselearner performance. Meanwhile, a proliferationof private institutions requires rigorousmonitoring and evaluation mechanism to ensurethat the for-profit dimension does not overtakethe quality dimension in teacher education. Thisraises the questions of who should be the targetof reforms - Institutions or individuals.

Re-conceptualizing pre-service teachereducation

The approach to the education of school teachershas remained unchanged for half a century intwo crucial aspects:

• The institutionalized intellectual isolation ofthe student teacher and

• A circumscribed engagement with pedagogyas mere technique.

Institutionalized intellectual isolation

In India, the pre-service course structure remainslargely in the form of 1-2 year, top-up programs.They follow a monolithic program structure thusTeacher Education Institutes (TEI) culture remainsstatic and pedantic. B.Ed. programs assume thatthe subject or discipline knowledge is fixed bythe graduate degree course and focus only onpedagogy. Isolation of TEIs at both university andthe SCERT stems from lack of linkages withHigher Education Institutes (HEIs), limitedengagement with schools, and Universitydepartments of education not being organicallylinked with science, social science, humanitiesdepartments.

The institutional cultures of pre-service teachereducation in India are also a consequence of theirpositioning in a system of higher education. Thebulk of secondary teacher education institutesoffering B.Ed. are outside university campuses.Elementary teacher education institutes offeringD.Ed. are not linked to universities. However, thisis set to change with the 12th Plan proposals torestore the link between schools and highereducation.

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Viewing pedagogy as mere technique

Pre-service programs have remained frozen andtheir pedagogy is severed from the context inwhich it takes place. The social context of learningis being ignored and education remains aroutinized classroom activity - the holding ofexaminations where the onus of learning restswith learners. Psychology and the psychometrictradition have assumed an overarching influenceon aspects of teacher education curriculumtransaction and learning. For instance, thecomputational model of the learner’s mind isconsidered to be more suitable because it is seento provide a practical framework for the teacher.This is so, despite a significant body of researchthat has established the situated nature ofcognition and learning in social and culturalpractice. The oversimplified psychological frameforms the dominant sub-culture of teacherpreparation, maintaining the false neutrality ofteacher education programs.

Policy measures are needed to articulate evidence-based expectations from teacher preparation,expand the profile of institutions that provide theentry level teacher education while ensuringsystemic, close, multi-disciplinary linkages withinstitutions of higher education/research, andforge robust links with schools as part of theprogram. Further, recognizing the importance ofsocial and cultural factors in learning, needs tobe given respect in policy articulation.

Reforming in-service teacher education

For continuous support to teachers, a nationalpolicy for reaching out to all teachers in the systembegan with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, in the year2000, through provision of 3 weeks orientation/refresher course on an annual basis - the largestinitiative anywhere, except perhaps in China. In-service teacher education in India is dealing withlarge numbers of teachers. Every year, training isimparted to nearly 4 million teachers.

In the past, this training has been mechanistic -determined and implemented through a top-down cascade process. This de-contextualizesand raises issues of conceptualizing pedagogyas a mere collection of skill sets or knowledgeareas. The lack of involvement of HEIs in theplanning of in-service teacher education has also

isolated the evolving teacher from the largereducational discourse.

The mechanism and structure are in place, theneed now is:

� To move from mechanistic approaches toorganic ones;

� Root the process among the teachers;

� Create planned spaces for their voice,knowledge and agency;

� Link with higher education/researchagencies as well as have direct, intimateengagement with children’s learning;

� Enable policy requirement for supporting the

formation of teachers’ networks

Supporting teachers to acquire qualifications

An estimated 1 million teachers do not currently have

the academic or professional qualifications mandated

by the RTE. The current policy direction is to look for

quick, one-shot distance education programs heavily

rooted in ICT. A more sustained policy approach

would be to generate a community of teachers and

have a 3-5 year program based on their needs

implemented with the support of an HEI.

Role of corporate organizations and NGOs inteacher education

The use of programs under Corporate SocialResponsibilities (CSRs) has exploded inmagnitude in recent years and their role andimpact on government teacher education and

Recognition, Affiliation andCertification

� All teacher education programsrequire recognition by the NationalCouncil of Teacher Education(NCTE)

� State Councils of EducationalResearch and Training (SCERT)provides affiliation and certificationfor diploma programs

� State/Central universities provideaffiliation and certification for degreeprograms


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school systems has not been explored in detail.Their presence in in-service teacher education isrising exponentially in the states: Policies arerequired to move from fragmented sectoralapproaches towards integrated synergisticapproaches with proven outcomes. Suchorganizations also need to interact and work inconsonance with universities and the academiaso that they can play an informed role inrevitalizing teacher education.

Developing DIETs through their linkages withHEIs

The translation of the DIET idea into successfulpractice can only happen if appropriate linkageswith universities would root the requiredknowledge and professional expertise amongteacher educators and teachers. There areproposals to upgrade DIETs to undergraduatecolleges affiliated to state universities in a phasedmanner. This will enable them to offer 4-yearintegrated programs of teacher education. Facultyrenewal through cross-deployment acrossuniversities/NGOs/research institutions andpersonnel movements across DIETs based onprofessional merit (rather than transfers) areimportant possibilities. If the in-service trainingis imaginatively designed, DIETs will be able toengage school teachers so that they canincorporate ideas into their own classroomteaching and engage in their ownexperimentations in the schools.

The 12th plan document provides variousmeasures to re-vitalize the DIETs and teachereducation by forging a closer link with the HEIsand developing a separate cadre of teachereducators, as has been the successful experienceof some states. Researchers from HEIs could orientDIET faculty, participate in design, collection ofdata, devise tools for research and encourageschool teachers and students to document andpublish their efforts.

International practices: Learning from the globalcommunity

Lastly, some of the systems in placeinternationally, which are yet to find space in theIndian teacher education system are brieflyhighlighted for shaping future policies :

• Substitute teachers on call;

• Teacher: teacher educator ratio;

• Mentoring system in schools;

• Orientation for teacher educators;

• Standards based system of education andteacher education.

Open Distance Learning (ODL) could also beeffectively used in pre-service and in-servicetraining of teachers on a large scale as well as ina shorter time-scale. It provides more access toquality learning resources and continuingprofessional development to remote and ruralteachers. Subsequently, it upgrades programs forboth qualified and unqualified teachers while on-the-job while providing cost-effective teachereducation and training. However, suchapproaches need to be studied in detail andconsiderably adapted to suit the issues of teacherprofessional development in India.

Recommendations

1. Strengthen links between Universities,Teacher Education and School Educationacross India. Power of this idea is visible inthe engagement of university-basedacademics in the articulation of the NCF2005, and NCERT’s new school textbooks.

Commonwealth of Learning (COL)

It is an inter-governmental organization established andfunded by Commonwealth Governments. It isheadquartered in Vancouver and has an internationalboard and staff with several hundred projects/modelbuilding and shared experience/global networks. CoreStrategies of COL includes Partnerships, Capacitybuilding and Materials development including OER.

Through its teacher education initiative, and inpartnership with teacher education institutions,ministries of education and some development partners,COL provides support to teacher education institutionsto design and deliver quality teacher education throughODL. It helps conventional teacher educationinstitutions transition to dual mode by facilitating thedevelopment and use of Open Education Resources(OERs). It develops the capacity of teachers andteacher educators to implement child friendly schoolsmodels and approaches and advocates the use of ODLin teacher education to address shortfalls in teachersupply and enhance teacher quality.

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Such linkages could be parallely donethrough:

• Creating a Teacher Education Cell in theUniversity Grants Commission (UGC);

• Forming State-level research institutionsfor curriculum studies, gender studies,cognitive studies, child development,linguistics;

• Linking SCERTs and DIETs withResearch/Higher Education institutions;

• Closer and well thought out linksbetween schools and teacher educationprograms.

2. Interdisciplinary platforms for educationalresearch and practice and teacher supportneed to be established.

3. National Institutes of excellence can beenvisioned to be drawn upon to fill criticalgaps in mathematics and sciences. SelectUniversities and Institutes of highereducation could establish Schools ofEducation to help develop education as aninterdisciplinary enterprise and includecentres that undertake in-depth work inneglected areas of school education.

4. Inter-disciplinary postgraduate programs ofstudy with specialization in curriculumstudies, pedagogic studies and assessmentneed to be developed. This would helpdevelop a cadre of professionals and increating a body of contextually relevantknowledge

5. The Teacher Education Program could havelateral entry points. There can be electives ineducation at the undergraduate level. Someof the existing programs may be deepenedand reconstructed:

• 2 years for B.Ed. with internship;

• 5 year integrated programs in education;

• Blended program wherein teacherscontinue formal education throughdistance/vacation mode for 1-2 yearsafter they join schools

• 4 year B.Sc. Ed /B.A. Ed. conducted byuniversity departments in science,mathematics, social science, humanitiesdepartments.

These could draw upon the two decadeexperience of the B.El.Ed. which sets theexample of an interdisciplinary ElementaryTeacher Education Program offered byundergraduate Colleges of the University ofDelhi, Delhi. The MA program in elementaryeducation offered at TISS, Mumbai offers amodel for the professional development of theprofessional cadres in EE.

6. Generate local level groups of teachers forteacher training. Have a credits based systemto assess what they need to become qualified,and set up a gradual 3-5 year program ofstudy with commensurate rewards onattainment. HEIs may be involved.

7. Revamp pre-service teacher education andcontinued professional development ofschool teachers. Use the RTE Act as anopportunity to enforce structural changes inthe teacher education sector, towardsrecruitment, development of a professionalcadre of teachers, teacher educators andresearchers.

Summary

The session on Teacher ProfessionalDevelopment (TPD) focused on the challengesand opportunities in redesigning and upgradingcurrent teacher education programs. The speakersemphasized how, in India, teacher education isconstantly being shaped by the tension betweenthe educational discourse which visualizesteacher education as complex and the policydiscourse which views teaching as a mere servicedelivery mechanism. While teacher educationpolicies focus on teaching for diversity, the schooloutcomes are being increasingly measuredthrough standardized tests/exams. The necessityto have organic linkages of teacher education withother departments in the University and forinstitutional frameworks was emphasized.

In the working group, the participants felt thatgrowth of teacher should be linked toremuneration and that there was a need to seeprofessional development of teachers at all threelevels: entry, pre-service and in-service. Further,policies which look at innovative teachereducation programs with lateral entry points andcloser linkages to HEIs could be put in place. The


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continuous professional development of teachersalso could provide teachers with variety ofexperiences like faculty exchange programs,action research projects and sabbaticals inassociation with universities.

This session was moderated by Professor ParvinSinclair, Director, NCERT.

Professor Sinclair is a professor of Mathematics.She has been closely associated with the field ofeducation, especially mathematics education anddistance learning, for over two decades. At theIndira Gandhi National Open University,Professor Sinclair also developed, with the helpof individuals working in the field, a certificateprogram in teaching of primary schoolmathematics, a first of its kind in the world.

The keynote speakers in the session were:

1. Dr. Janaki Rajan, Faculty of Education, JamiaMilia Islamia.

Dr. Janaki Rajan is an E. Desmond Lee Scholarfor Global Awareness, Webster University, St.Louis, Missouri, USA. She was Director, SCERT,Delhi from 2000-2006 and Reader, CentralUniversity of Education, Delhi University from1994-2000; Research Associate, Centre for PolicyResearch, New Delhi, 1992-94. Prior to that, shetaught at primary and secondary schools andheaded a teacher education institute for Muslimminorities in Hyderabad. Dr. Rajan holds aBachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Masters in

Education, English Literature and Psychology.Her doctoral thesis was on development of theconcepts of space and time among primary schoolchildren using the Piagetian framework. Herresearch interests are curriculum and pedagogicstudies, gender studies, human rights, communityengagement for universal elementary educationand teacher education. She is an Ashoka Fellow-Innovators for the Public. She has a number ofpublications and is associated with severalprofessional and non-government organizations.

2. Professor Poonam Batra, Central Institute ofEducation, (Department of Education), Universityof Delhi.

Professor Batra has over 29 years of teaching,research and professional experience ineducation. Major areas of professional focusinclude public policy in education; curriculumand pedagogy; social psychology of education,teacher education and gender studies. Awardedthe Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship in 2008 forundertaking research in teacher education andsocial change, Professor Batra has been on severalGoI committees including the PlanningCommission Working Group on TeacherEducation and the NAC-RTE Task Force onteachers. Publications cover a range of issues inelementary education and public policy includingan edited volume on Social Science Learning inSchools: Perspective and Challenges, publishedby Sage in 2010.

3. Dr. Abdurrahman Umar, Education Specialist,Teacher Education, Commonwealth of Learning.

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Theme 2

Decentralization - challenges and steps forward

Decentralization vs. centralization in teacher

education - understanding the debate

Decentralization is regarded as a principle of

administration, extremely desirable in today’s

democratic context where we need to take

decisions at the local level. The push towards

decentralization has also been partly driven by

the notion that centralization produces rigidity,

uniformity and less flexibility than what is

required for dealing with local issues, leading to

bureaucratization, delay and lack of

accountability. Therefore, the shift in the seat of

decision-making is expected to bring more

responsibility, accountability and ownership.

However, this notion misses out on the benefits

that decision making at the centre brings. The

centre has access to the larger picture and access

to power that is useful in consensus building. It

has access to better expertise to formulate policies

and more current and accurate knowledge. The

notion also fails to acknowledge that in India, the

local may be in need of reforms and alteration

and hence may need to be infused with values

and thinking that are not already a part of the

landscape. The centre, on the other hand, is

structurally designed to be less parochial and

more beneficial in taking decisions linked to the

public domain.

In the context of school education,

decentralization is seen as an effective way to

improve community participation and of making

schools more effective through increased

accountability. Given the extremely contextual

nature of what happens in school education, RTE

recognized the need for local involvement as a

necessary feature for school education in a

democracy. NCF 2005 referred to the idea of the

school curriculum being localized and directed

towards local concepts - and teachers especially

can be useful contributors to this process. This is,

Introduction

As the need to provide autonomy at the groundlevel is being increasingly voiced, not just bypeople in academia but also practitioners at theground level, decentralization is gaining immensepopularity. It promotes linking of schoolknowledge with the knowledge of the community,for better understanding and also as a means ofinclusion of locally relevant content in thecurriculum and pedagogy. Although its relevanceand need in schooling is quite clear, howdecentralization would or has impacted TeacherEducation needs more dialogue and research.

In the context of teacher education, theChattopadhyaya Committee Report (1983-85)emphasized the significance and need for adecentralized system for the professionalpreparation of teachers in India. This policy wasput in place proactively by the CentralGovernment in the 8th Plan with the establishmentof District Institutes of Education and Training(DIETs), Institutes of Advanced Studies inEducation (IASEs) and Colleges of TeacherEducation (CTEs) through the CentrallySponsored Scheme of Restructuring andReorganization of Teacher Education. The DIETswere envisioned as Academic Lead Institutionsto provide guidance to all academic functionariesin the district. But their impact on teachereducation is still considered limited. Are theDIETs a good example of decentralization? Whatis the role of the central government in adecentralized context? These were some of thequestions which were discussed during thesession on decentralization. The key themeswhich emerged are:

• Decentralization vs. centralization in teachereducation - understanding the debate;

• Key pre-requisites for effectivedecentralization ;

• Decentralization – issues and challenges.


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however, a complex area and attention needs to

be paid to the school structures that govern theteachers’ work, their capability and theirautonomy or rather the lack of it.

Decentralization in Teacher Education (TE) iseven far less understood and issues pertaining tohow it can be applied to pre-service and in-serviceteacher education are unresolved. For instance,although one could envision the role for thecommunity in how school internships are held,whether they can contribute to the conduct of in-service TE is doubtful. Setting up of DIETs asinstitutions to provide teacher education at thedistrict level is one way perhaps. Decentralizationcannot be treated as an either-or question. Rather,one could begin to discuss which areas in teachereducation would benefit most by decentralizationor alternatively, what would be the pre-requisitesfor effective decentralization.

Key pre-requisites for effective decentralization

Decentralization is important to buildcommitment and ownership of programs. If these

programs are designed completely at the centre

and include rigid guidelines on how they need to

be implemented (example, topics for each session,

assessment formats, methods of teaching for each

topic), then the role of the institution at the locallevel becomes that of a delivery agent. This leads

to too much rigidity and prevents much needed

contextualization. On the other hand, true

contextualization can only be possible in a

generalized framework of ideas. For instance,

while mother tongue is an excellent medium forinstruction, language development of the child

become difficult if we do not connect it to her

conceptual development and if we do not

introduce other languages to her. Similarly, a

focus on local geographical information will not

be very useful if it is not connected to human well-being and the environment. Or, looking at local

customs without examining the framework of

equality and justice; an exclusive focus on

contextualization may becomes blinding and

parochial.

Another critical requirement for decentralizationis the freedom to the local agencies to engage in a

healthy critique of the curriculum and design and

provide constructive feedback to the center on

what would make such programs more

meaningful. If the center defines norms which are

deemed as the only way to conduct the program,

it is difficult to fight against them.

Although decentralization usually brings

ownership, it is important that the decision

makers at the local level understand the pros and

cons of different decisions and are able to

reasonably anticipate their impact. The need to

become skillful at planning and tracking theimplementation of plans through regular

milestones is crucial. The people on the ground

also need to be supported with continued

academic and administrative learning from other

decentralized authorities. There needs to be a

forum where such learning are discussed andshared. Finally, a strong monitoring mechanism

which encourages quick feedback and self-

regulation would be extremely useful.

Another key requirement for decentralization is

autonomy. This autonomy relates not only to

decisions about what kind of trainings andprofessional developments to offer and choose but

also financial autonomy in designing new course

structures for effective teacher education. Any

decentralization is unlikely to work without

access to resources and autonomy in how they

may be used.

Decentralization requires a feedback loop so that

the decision makers can understand the impact

of their decisions. In TE in most states, there is no

continuing fixed group of people who prepares

the material and trains teachers; and there is no

feedback loop from the trainers either. Thereforethe people who make the material find it difficult

to modify material with respect to what is

happening on the ground. This also makes it

difficult to pin down and resolve the reasons

which make trainings poor.

Convergence can also be a key factor in effectivedecentralization. While the centre or state may

devolve powers to different agencies on the

ground they cannot give multiple training

institutions the freedom to target the same group

of teachers. This would not only confuse and tire

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the teachers but also lead to waste due to

inefficiencies of similar content being developed

and offered. Similarly, there needs to be

convergence at the state and centre level too.

Having two organizations (one at centre and the

other at state) deciding issues linked to state

curriculum might not be useful. Hence, the role of

SCERT, IASEs, CTEs and DIETs needs to be clearly

defined by the different projects and schemes in

teacher training. Structures must be put in place

for various coordinating agencies like District

Education Offices, Resource Persons, DIETs, SSA

to come together and make decisions for the

district. At present, the district authorities act more

like mediating agencies to implement what has

been decided at the state or centre level. Regular

meetings to achieve given objectives of

professional development of teachers are likely

to bring out and clear role overlaps and build

strengths in participative decision-making.

Decentralization - issues and challenges

One of the concerns, highlighted often, is how to

balance autonomy and contextualization with

the larger central vision of education. In case of

monitoring teacher education institutions for

example, how much freedom may be given to the

state to work around the guidelines set by NCTE.

Another key concern is in the different

interpretations and perspectives towards

decentralization which are held by the various

states and the centre. What level of

decentralization is needed is still an open

question. Should it stop at the district and block

level or should it go on till the schools? How do

we determine the capabilities of decision makers

at different levels? What is the role of SMCs in

TE? How do we involve the community in a

dialogue on whether decentralization is needed?

Although the Principle of subsidiarity (we decide

what we need to do then decide who is best placed

to do it at the level closest to implementation) is

useful, it requires that the concerned local

authorities take responsibilities and

accountability for success of the project. This is

usually missing. In that case, decentralization

would be enforced like other things from the top.

The need for decentralization, therefore, might be

a ‘good’ thing, what is needed is an agreement on

desirable and relevant form of engagement.

Recommendations

These were some of the key recommendations from

the discussions

1. The role of the Head teacher, the SMC and

boards of governance need to be clearly

defined. They could be guided through

Standards.

2. The principle of subsidiarity may be used

rather than defining specific roles for block,

state and village. The Principle means that

we decide what we need to do then decide

who is best placed to do it at the level closest

to implementation. This requires taking stock

of capability and resource availability at

different levels

3. The end must be kept in mind before deciding

whether decentralization can address it

rather than treating it as an end in itself.

Further, there might be various models of

decentralization which could be applied

depending on the context. A one-model-fits-

all approach is unlikely to work.

4. Public dialogue about the needs of

decentralization is required. It should focus

on trust from the centre and the support for

capacity building and accountability on the

part of the local authorities.

5. Country specific understanding, to reflect on

the homogeneities, heterogeneities and

diversity within which decentralization is

discussed, is needed. There are differences

not only in the government structure but also

in polity and its diversity within which

decentralization needs to work. More

dialogues and discussions among different

countries would help form a richer

understanding of the concept.


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Summary

The speakers in this session highlighted that

although there may be universal acceptance of

the need for decentralization, what is needed is

an agreement on how it can be achieved. It is

important to make decentralization as a ‘way of

thinking’- only then it can lead to academic

vibrancy. It would result in closer interaction of

schools and teaching colleges, and professional

development rooted in the teachers’ own needs

as they create their own bouquet of professional

development opportunities. There was also the

need to differentiate teacher needs instead of

putting new and experienced teachers in the same

training basket. Other pre-requisites for effective

decentralization include autonomy, convergence

and feedback loops.

The working group session on decentralization

brought forth the need to give freedom to district

specific institutions like DIETs so that location

specific nuances can be incorporated. This, the

group felt, also required an assessment of capacity

at such institutions. Another idea is to think

through ways to adapt curriculum to local needs.

Having forums where states could dialogue and

share best practices was also mooted. The group

highlighted that decentralization must not be

looked at as the answer to every educational

problem. It has its own challenges and could lead

to a parochial perspective, constrained identities

and a misalignment of the specific role and vision

of various districts with that of the center. The

vision of the centre is needed to ensure

consistency in the aims of education across the

country.

This session was moderated by Dr. Padma

Sarngapani, Professor, TISS, Mumbai.

Dr. Sarangapani has worked in the area of

elementary education, curriculum studies and

teacher education, and has collaborated closely

with State government of Karnataka on the District

and sub-district level resource institutions for

teachers. She is currently involved with a study

on quality in education and on resource centres

for teacher professional development. Her book

Constructing School Knowledge is published by

Sage, 2003.

The keynote speakers in this session were:

1. Dr.Rohit Dhankar, Professor, Azim Premji

University, Bangalore

Professor Dhankar also teaches a philosophy of

education course as visiting faculty at TISS,

Mumbai. He has been part of many NCERT

initiatives in developing material and curriculum

through various committees. He was an integral

part of the National Curriculum Framework 2005

process as a member of the National Steering

Committee, drafting committee and Chair of Focus

Group on Curriculum, Syllabus and Textbooks.

He is also a part of the collaborative group of

institutions that developed the M.A. Elementary

Education program of TISS and has been involved

with capacity building of educational

functionaries at the national level and with

various states.

Rohit trained as a teacher under David

Horsburgh in the Neelbagh School, and taught at

the elementary level for about 15 years. He is

founder secretary of Digantar, a voluntary

organization in Jaipur engaged in providing

alternative education to rural children.

Digantar endeavors to nurture self-motivated and

independent learners equipped with the ability

to think critically. As an organization Digantar

has been and continues to work with government

system at the level of improvement in schools,

working with DIETs, in-service training and

research in education.

2. Smt. B. Seshu Kumari, Director, SCERT,

Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.

She was formerly, Director, Community Managed

Education Services, Society for Elimination of

Rural Poverty (SERP), RD Department (Oct 08 to

Dec 2010).- Prior to this, she was Resource Group

Director, Human Development, Centre for Good

Governance (CGG) (2005 to Oct 08) and also

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worked in the School Education Department as

State Academic Monitoring Officer, Sarva Shiksha

Abhiyaan, AP (2004 -05), Deputy Director,

Planning & Statistics, School Education

Department, AP(1998-2002), DEO, Ranga

Reddy(2003), Deputy Educational Officer &

Assistant Director of School Education (1988 -98).

3. Dr. Ora Kwo, Faculty of Education,

University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Kwo has taught in the Faculty of Education atthe University of Hong Kong for three decades.Much of her work has focused on the dynamics

of teachers’ learning and the power of community

discourses. In 1997, she was awarded a

University Teaching Fellowship in formal

recognition of her excellence in teaching. Among

her edited works are Developing Learning

Environments: Creativity, Motivation and

Collaboration in Higher Education (2004) and a

special issue of the International Journal of

Educational Research (2004) entitled Uncovering

the Inner Power of Teachers’ Lives. Her research

also examines the significance of inter-

disciplinary learning and community approaches

for educational leadership.


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Theme 3

Gender issues in the teaching force

• Women teachers are not serious about their jobs.They do not take on any administrative workaround the school and refuse if asked to stay longerthan school hours.

• Talking about gender during teacher training is awaste of time, we should talk about subjects.

Voices of some functionaries in the Indian educationsystem.

With these conflicts in mind the conferencefocused on the challenges of developing a gendersensitive curriculum, best practices for womenparticipation in the teaching profession andincentives to promote female participation in theteaching profession.

The discussions which were held could bebroadly collated under the following key themes:

� Teachers as agents of change or socialization;

� Gender equality and the Indian educationsystem;

� International perspectives on feminization ofthe teacher workforce.

Teachers as agents of change or socialization

Teachers are seen as harbingers of equality andjustice and agents of change in a society. This is avery challenging task as teachers are a part of thevery society that they are to spearhead change in.Their attitudes, belief systems and prejudices areoften not very different from those held by societyin general. And so in most cases they do notquestion these, let alone feel the need to changethem. Voicing these sentiments, the NCF 2005states ‘Teachers and children are a part of the largersociety where identities based on membership of caste,gender, religious and linguistic group, as well aseconomic status inform social interaction, though thisvaries in different, social, cultural and regionalcontexts…Research on school premises suggests thatidentities of children continue to influence theirtreatment within schools, thereby denying themmeaningful and equal opportunities to learn. As a part

Gender equality is one of the six areas laid out by the

international community at the World Education

Forum in the year 2000 when they defined the global

Education for All (EFA) agenda. It is also one of the

eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that are

to be achieved by 2015 according to the United Nations

Development Program (UNDP).

A historical analysis of the experiences ofcountries that have achieved goals of universalprimary education (UPE) and gender parity ineducation indicates that an influx of women intothe teaching profession has been central to thesesuccesses. Besides the need for more women inthe teaching profession it is also necessary toinitiate and sustain a dialog on various issues ofgender equality within the teaching force.

However, the statements given below presentconflicting pictures of the progress India hasmade in achieving gender equality in education.While data shows that more and more girls areentering schools and a greater number of womenare part of the teaching force, voices offunctionaries within the education system tell usthat the picture might not be complete.

• Differences between men and women are because oftheir sex- women can produce babies, men cannot.Because of this difference women are naturally morecaring, loving and giving than men.

• Both men and women are comfortable in the rolesallotted to them, why disturb the situation.

Some statistics

48 percent girls are enrolled in primaryschools.

The gender parity index in the upperprimary classes is 0.91.

74 percent schools (primary and upperprimary not including single-teacherschools) have at least one female teacher

— NUEPA, 2008


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of the experience of schooling, children also receiveimplicit messages through interpersonal relationships,teacher attitudes, and norms and values that are partof the culture of school…Girls are often subject tostereotypical expectations based on stereotypicalexpectations based on notions of their future roles aswives and mothers rather than enabling them todevelop their capabilities and claim their rights.’(pg. 82-83)

In such a situation when talking of gender issuesthat frame the teaching force it becomes importantto address the goal of gender equality qualitativelyand not merely limit it to improving access for thegirl child.

Gender equality and the Indian educationsystem

Focus on quantitative criteria

Gender has come to be equated to the girl childsince the slogan of Universalization ofElementary Education (UEE) gained currency inIndia in the early 1990s. Achievements in genderequality have become restricted to numbers anddata that track girl child access to schooling. Anincrease in enrolment of girls, fall in the dropoutrate of girls, an improvement in the gender parityindex and an increase in the number of femaleteachers is what we usually map. Since what ismapped and measured is also what is done, thefocus of planning for achieving the goal of genderequality is also restricted to these numbers. Thetreatment of UEE as a time-bound mission hasalso increased the emphasis on collecting andimproving these numbers and it almost seems likeprograms are positioning gender as a biologicalconstruct and not a social one; and this isproblematic.

The discussion about gender is often justcompletely taken over by statistics of how boysand girls are performing and the percentage ofboys and girls in classrooms. The focus mustrather be to look at teachers’ education and whatis it that teachers are understanding about gender.Gender attitudes are held both by male and femaleteachers so there is a need to train both. Justbecause the teacher is a woman, it does not meanthat she naturally become child friendly orsensitive to gender issues. This would be makinga biological link between a gender understanding

Simplistic Understanding of GenderEquality

In a state in India, the textbook expert committeereviewed all the textbooks from class 1-12 andpictures illustrating gender stereotypes wereremoved; a higher percentage of women teachersare there in primary schools, more girls arepassing out of high schools and the results ofgirls are much higher than boys in the 12th

grade. This led the state functionaries to worryabout the lesser achievement of boys in thestate. They proposed that there is no genderequity or equality and girls are actuallyoutsmarting boys in every field.Such questions are common. For instance, oftenquestions are also raised about how eventhough recruitment of female teachers hasincreased, why they seem to carry stereotypicalideas and assumptions about gender.

and the biology of the woman and there is a needto exercise care in reaching such conclusions.

Gender is an add-on issue to teacher development

Most teachers continue to consider issues thatarise out of gender as mere family matters or amatter of addressing a social ill and do not wantto deal with the conflict that arises by talking aboutit in trainings. Gender is also considered a softarea to be treated separately from the critical areasof curriculum and pedagogy. It is kept isolatedfrom all subject knowledge and is in fact an ‘add-on’ in teacher training modules in the form of acertain number of hours in a day. This gives nospace to teachers to analyze their ownassumptions about gender and undergotransformatory experiences. In such a situationtalking about gender is reduced to providingteachers a list of dos-and-don’t in trainingmanuals that they are expected to follow andbehave in accordance with.

The position paper of NCF 2005 on gender issuesin education makes a break from theseunderstandings. It states that education is a ‘projectof possibility that expands the notion of what it is to behuman…a project of possibility begins with a critiqueof current realities, that a contradiction exists between


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the openness of human capacities that we encourage ina free society and the social forms that are providedand within which we must live are live.’(pg. 23)

To engage with this project it asks for the adoption ofa ‘substantive or corrective approach to equality’ whichis not simply concerned with ‘equality in treatment,but equality in terms of outcome’ and ‘develops in thelearner the ability to question relations of power thatare central to the hierarchies of gender (pg. 25)’.

Thus, NCF 2005 considers gender to be a matterof equity requiring an understanding of powerwhich includes not only that which exists in arelationship between a man and a woman butalso in caste, class and so on. Within thisframework it asks for teacher trainings to beconceptualized very differently. It emphasizesthat gender needs to be integrated with subjectsand not be treated as a separate input.Importantly, teacher trainings requires apedagogic approach that allows teachers not justto study gender theory but also engage with theirown position in society vis-à-vis their genderroles.

Imagining a transformative experience

There is a need for a vision that istransformative. Just as a child comesto learn in a school and reflects on herexperiences, similarly teacher trainingtoo needs to be transformative. It needsto encourage teachers to look withinand imagine new ways of being, ofcommunities, of equity and equality asvalues. The trainings need to addressissues in that larger framework ofgender equity. By treating gender as anisolated marker of inequality and notunderstanding other markers ofinequality and their relationship withgender, one is quite likely to continueto just talk about boys and girls and betrapped within a biologicalunderstanding of gender. It is possiblethat one can be experiencing inequalitynot just because she is a girl butbecause she is a tribal, or that she issomebody who belong to thescheduled caste or she comes from a

particular region that is under developed. So thereis a complex matrix of inequity that needs to belooked at substantively. And finally, any genderanalysis or an understanding of equity, is anunderstanding of power and structures in societyand that is what needs to be communicated toteachers - the ability to analyze, to understandstructures of inequality, to understand differentdimensions of power because gender analysis isrelated to an understanding of power.

International perspectives on feminization ofthe teacher workforce

While no officially recognised percentagethreshold exists for when feminisation begins, astudy of the percentage of women in the teachingprofession across the world shows that barringSouth and West Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa,the number of women in the teaching professionis much higher than their male counterparts. It is

also interesting to note that the numbers go down

as we move from the primary to the secondary

stage, and in regions like the Pacific, the statement

Arab States

Central and EasternEurope

Central Asia

South East Asia andthe Pacific

East Asia

Pacific

Latin America and theCaribbean

North America andWestern Europe

South and West Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

52 59 49 51

82 80 72 74

84 86 65 69

55 60 46 48

55 59 46 47

71 75 57 56

76 78 64 60

81 85 56 61

35 45 35 36

43 44 31 30

Teaching Staff – Percentage Female

PrimaryEducation

School yearending in

1999 2007 1999 2007

School yearending in

SecondaryEducation

Region

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that the teaching force is feminized actually says

that the primary teaching force is feminized.

If one traces the historical trajectories of countries

showing high levels of feminization today, one

finds that there have been catalytic periods when

women have entered the teaching profession in

large numbers. These have been times when

governments have emphasized universalization,

the education system has expanded considerably,

men have exited the profession as more lucrative

job opportunities have been created for them and

this has created synergy with the larger

understanding in society that teaching is a

women’s profession.

It has also been seen that an influx of women into

the teaching profession has been central to

successes in the delivery of UEE and gender

parity in education. However when the

relationship between bringing more and more

women in the teaching force and issues of gender

equality is studied, it seems to be a mixed bag.

Being teachers has definitely empowered women

economically. However, it has also strengthened

It is often asked if the deployment of morefemale teachers will lead to improvingeducation outcomes? In a study in Dominica,where primary school students, both maleand female were interviewed, what camethrough was quite a mixed bag of

perspectives. On one hand a lot of thechildren said that they preferred their femaleteachers because of the perception thatwomen are more able to understand them,understand where they are coming from andtherefore teaching is more sensitive but on

the other hand Dominica also has got a lotof people who view women teachers asunable to discipline boys and there is thisidea that more men need to come into theprofession in order to be able to manage boysparticularly as they start to reach puberty.

So in many ways the jury is very much out,a lot more research needs to done in thisarea.

the perception that teaching is professionnaturally meant for women because of ‘theirbiological instincts for child rearing’ and alsobecause it allows them time to maintain theirpersonal domestic sphere whilst also earning. Ithas also raised various questions of equity withinthe feminised workforce. Low salaries have beenmeted out to those in the profession as most havebeen women and it has been felt that women areable to work with these salaries. Women numbersare much larger at the primary level than thesecondary and the absence of women asprincipals, heads of departments is in starkcontrast to their large numbers.

Thus, experiences have shown that whilefeminization of the teacher workforce encouragesgirls to enter school and helps in universalizingeducation it does raise others concerns of genderequity within the feminized work force and aboutthe perception of the teaching profession itself.

Recommendations

The conference suggested the following waysforward-

1. Targeted recruitment in deployment ofwomen teachers should be undertaken,particularly in rural areas. These should besupported by appropriate and contextspecific incentives and social securitymeasures for the female workforce.

2. Gender should be mainstreamed across thecurriculum of pre-service teacher educationcourses. DIETs, SCERTs and Universitiesshould also create courses on equity andgender as compulsory and not optionalpapers.

3. Creating handbooks and resource manualsthat link gender and equity issues to subjectspecific knowledge would be useful

4. A systematic, graded module for gendersensitization workshops should be workedout over a three-year period. These in-serviceworkshops/trainings should be organizedfor all teachers at regular intervals.

5. A school should be made both friendly andsafe for both the girl child and female teachersand this includes provision of variousamenities like separate toilets for girls,boundary walls around schools etc.


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Summary

The presentations on gender issues explored

challenges of developing gender sensitive

curriculum and ways to include more women in

the teaching profession across all levels. The

speakers brought out the problematic positioning

of gender in the education space. The teacher

trainings, for example, treat gender in a

mechanical and isolated way by making it an an

attitude issue around girls and women and do

not connect it to other subjects or disciplinary

knowledge. Also, there was a widespread

tendency to visualize progress on gender only

through data/statistics on enrolment/attendance

of the girl child and not qualitatively. There was

also the need to move away from the perception

and practice of treating women as synonymous

with teaching profession and hiring them as a

cure-all for bringing about EFA. It would be useful,

the speakers pointed out, to look at how women

are placed in different managerial positions in

educational institutions in comparison to men.

The working group session on gender issues

brought out the need for a reflective gender policy

environment. The group members recognized

teachers are agents of socialization and therefore

the need to help them understand gender not as a

biological but as a social construct. They argued

that gender policies need to be context specific -

not just at national but at state and district levels.

The group suggested that male gender advocates

be brought into discussion and other members of

the community to resolve issues linked to gender

equity. They suggested gender sensitization for

all teachers and mainstreaming gender education.

To conclude, achieving gender equality in school

education presents various challenges to the

school system. It asks for an improvement in the

numbers of girls entering school, an increase in

the number of female teachers as well as school

premises that are friendly to the girl child. More

importantly it expects the system to consistently

engage with teachers (through trainings, courses,

reading material etc) in a manner that places

gender within the complex web of power

relationships in society as well as analyze their

own assumptions such that school and

classroom experiences for both boys and girls are

‘transformatory’. It also expects more women to

enter the teaching profession, acknowledging its

positive effects on girl child education. But also

realizes that this encourages a gendered notion

of why women should enter this profession and

also requires addressing various equity issues

within a feminized work force.

This session was moderated by Professor Vimala

Ramachandran, National Fellow, NUEPA

Professor Ramachandran was earlier the Founder

& Director of Educational Resource Unit – a group

of researchers and practitioners working on

education and empowerment. She was among the

team of architects and first National Project

Director of Mahila Samakhya (1988-1993) – a GoI

program on women’s education based in the

Department of Education, MHRD. She was

founder and Managing Trustee of Health Watch

– a women’s health network from 1994 to 2004.

She has published extensively on education,

health, gender issues and women’s

empowerment. She has researched and written

on women’s and girl’s education, teacher

development and on systemic barriers to equity

and quality in school education in India. She has

also worked in the South and South East Asia

region on education, gender and development

issues. She has several published books/reports

including:

• (2010): Primary teachers in India – The twists

and turns of everyday practice. AzimPremji

Foundation, Bangalore. Available at

www.eruindia.org

• Gender issues in higher education –

Advocacy brief. UNESCO – Asia Pacific

Regional Bureau for Education, Bangkok.

• (2008) Co-authored with Rashmi Sharma:

The Elementary Education System in India:

Exploring institutional structures, processes

and dynamics. Routledge New Delhi.

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1. Dr. Dipta Bhog, Founder Member, Nirantar

Over the last two decades, Dr. Dipta Bhog hasengaged with both women’s literacy and

elementary education at the policy level and in

program implementation at the grassroots. She

has been involved in conceptualizing and

developing teaching learning material including

curriculum for teachers as well as learners from a

gender perspective. She has also worked on

developing school textbooks for middle school

state and national boards. She steered a research

study on language and social science textbooks

across 5 states titled “Textbook Regimes: A

Feminist Critique of Nation and Identity”. The

capacity building of teachers from gender and

equality perspective has been an important area

of her engagement with the education system. She

has been involved in trainings and workshops

with personnel involved in various activities

ranging from planning to the implementation of

programs and curriculum. She was member of

the sub committees on girl’s education for the 11th

and 12th five year plan. She was also a member of

Gender Focus Group of the National Curriculum

Framework 2005.

2. Ms. Fatimah Kelleher

Fatimah Kelleher is an international consultant

with over ten years’ experience delivering

programming and research in social and human

development issues. As an educationalist,

Fatimah has worked widely across gender and

education (girl-child access, strategic approaches

for adolescent girls, and boys’ underachievement);

education for marginalized communities

(minorities, rural and urban poor, nomadic and

other mobile groups); and on teacher provision

(deployment issues, teacher feminization). More

broadly, Fatimah is also a gender equality

specialist, working extensively on women’s

enterprise development, gender and trade policy,

maternal and child health, gender and conflict

issues, and gender responsive budgeting. She has

worked for/with a variety of stakeholders,

including the Commonwealth Secretariat, UN

agencies (UNESCO, UNCTAD, UNIFEM),

national governments, international NGOs and

local civil society. Geographically, her work has

spanned Africa, South Asia and the Caribbean.

As an educationalist she has published in several

areas, including on teacher deployment, nomadic

education, boys’ underachievement and on

women and the teaching profession.


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Theme 4

Public private partnerships to address the teacher gap

of corporate foundations and NGOs inaddressing the teacher education challenge. Thediscussions which were held could be broadlycollated under the following key themes:

• Defining public-private partnerships;

• Public private partnerships in education -complementing strengths;

• Policies to consider different types of PPP;

• The need for transparency and the concernsof private partners.

Defining PPPs

In recent years the term 'partnership' has come tobe used to cover almost any arrangement,contractual or otherwise, between private andpublic entities. Such a broad usage masks greatdifferences of motivations, obligations, practicesand potential benefits for partners.

Private partner usually means corporateorganization. However, we need to include NGOs,civil society organizations, community andparent bodies in the definition of PPP.

Besides the difference in the type of privatepartner, the nature of partnership itself could bedifferent. In some types of PPP, the governmentprovides capital and operates jointly with theprivate sector or under contract. In either case,the private provision of public services (inparticular at the level of basic or compulsoryeducation) falls under publicly-scrutinizedcontractual arrangements. The public sectormakes the main policy decisions and sub-contracts elements of implementation.

Education PPPs that are not contractual are oftwo types: 1) from foundations or other non-profitentities, involving the gift of goods or services ina particular context or program, or 2) fromcorporations, often technology companies, almostalways involving activities that are closely relatedto the companies’ core business. Both of these havedemonstrated both results and potential and it

Introduction

In India, provision of education, both traditionallyand constitutionally, falls in the Government’sdomain. In recent years, giant steps have beentaken towards achieving the goal of universalelementary education - the need now is to improvethe quality of schooling. Given the high costinvolved in providing education (it isrecommended that 6% of GDP be spent on it, theactual expenditure and budget estimates arenearer 3%), it is clear that the ultimateresponsibility of providing quality education willcontinue to rest with the government. Privatepartners can only support the government’sefforts. The number of schools under private,unaided management is just 173,282 out of1,250,775 as per latest DISE data and by mostestimates only 20 percent of India’s children areenrolled in Private schools.

In sharp contrast, over 80 per cent of the teachereducation institutes (TEIs), for preparingelementary and secondary level teachers, operatein the private sector. However, they differ widelyin terms of quality. In several states, these areregarded with suspicion as it is believed that theyaward degrees that are undeserved. Further, theprivate and public spheres in teacher educationoperate nearly independent of each other. Theconference explored the actual and potentialcontribution of public-private partnerships (PPPs)to addressing the teacher gap.

While PPPs have demonstrated excellent results- there have been examples of innovativeapproaches of NGOs to address the teacher gaps- and strong potential in several areas, they shouldnot be expected to deliver system-wide change.PPPs in teacher education can involve teachertraining or provision of services designed toenhance teacher motivation and performance butit is often quite difficult to separate out thespecificities of PPPs related to teachers. With thisbackdrop, the conference focused on unpackingthe notion of PPP and learnings from experiences


34

needs to be ensured that the original sense ofpartnership - shared effort, risk and benefit –remains intact and the operations areparticipatory and transparent. Although it iscommonly assumed that the private sector cando things equally well or better with fewerresources, this assumption needs to be testedagainst reality in each case.

Besides the type of partnership, duration of PPPscan also be different. PPPs can be both long andshort term. Those of a longer duration are morecomplex and need to anticipate any incident thatcan affect the successful functioning of thepartnership. In any scenario, the ultimateresponsibility of ensuring timely outcomes restswith the government as it is regarded as the majorpartner.

PPPs in education - Complementing strengths

In India, neither the private nor the public sphereshave been totally successful in education. In

school education, the government schools areregarded as poor functioning but this is true forall but the most elite private schools. In teacherpreparation however, the split is along the linesof pre-service and in-service education withprivate players holding the major share in theformer and the government in the latter. This isnot to say that the private sector has not playedany role in the implementation of SSA trainingsor that there are no government TEIs. However,their role and reach is limited.

The system and mechanism required foroverhauling the teacher education system canonly be provided by the government. While it hasthe means and resources, there have been areaswhere it has been less successful – due tocompetency or reach or resources. These are thegaps which need to be identified and which canbe filled through PPPs provided the right kind ofprivate partner is chosen.

Private partners too require government supportfor their success. Several organizations can onlycontinue their work if the government builds asustenance mechanism for them that is based ondemonstrated capabilities. A well designed PPPcan benefit both partners as well as improvequality of outcomes.

Specifically, in a PPP aimed at teacher education:

• The government can focus on core functionssuch as policy and planning, qualityassurance, monitoring the outputs andoutcomes of teacher education institutions.Since the bulk of finances are committed toteacher salaries which cannot be met throughstudent fees, the government can provide thenecessary funds;

• The private sector can support thegovernment structures in developing andrunning teacher education preparationprograms - in terms of developing alternativemodels for process and systems, newalternative or enriched materials, capacitybuilding and research;

• The private sector may fund the resource forleadership and management capacitybuilding roles in institutions such as theDIETs and SCERTs;

• Research and assessment of PPPs as well asTEIs can also be carried out by the privatesector.

Clearing Myths about PPPs

PPPs are not the same as privatization. Thisis because Public authorities retain controlover service provision and accountability.There is the fear that the cost of the servicewill increase to facilitate private profit(which arises from the myth that the publicsector can finance services at a lower costthan the private sector).

Public private partnerships are seen asinformal, hassle-free ways of expandingresources and therefore opportunity. Bothare true, but to a relatively limited extent. Itis also necessary to keep in mind that aswith any activity affecting public goods,PPPs need public scrutiny and thereforeregulation. While many see private partnersas a source of finances, in reality theircontribution cannot match those of the publicpartner.

The biggest myth regarding PPP is that itwill prove to be the silver bullet that curesall ills of teacher education. PPP andprivatization are not the panacea of allproblems.


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Even with those private partners that are sociallyconscious, there is a need to further analyze themon parameters of efficiency and quality. Privatesector is considered to be synonymous toefficiency, good governance, expertise, results andquality. This needs to be evidence based ratherthan a general ‘given’. Only those private playerswho have a proven record of capability to deliverresults and experience of working in the fieldshould be chosen as partners. There are very fewprivate sector organizations or NGOs that havesolid competence and understanding tocontribute to quality education and only after theymade efforts in understanding issues for years

Policies should take into account different typesof PPP

A clearer policy on PPP will help ensure that onlygenuine private partners are able to work withthe government and that there is no misuse byunscrupulous private players. The policy mustalso highlight the monitoring mechanisms whichclearly lay down the different responsibilities of.

Further, instead of a single-approach-fit-allphilosophy, different policies could be draftedkeeping in mind the history and credentials ofthe private organisation, the objectives of the PPPand the respective responsibilities of the partners.

The policies for PPP could also be influenced bypeople who are ultimately affected by it. For

example, there should be involvement of teachersin partnerships decisions regarding theirtrainings. Sometimes, the framework for work isdeveloped by the government and privatepartners are fitted into it – this should changeinto mutual development of work framework.Priority could be given to private sector partnersthat help to improve systemic capacity of existinghigher education institutions or DIETs throughpartnering.

Who should have the monitoring and regulatorypowers in the PPP? Most agree that these mustrest with the public partner but there is also thequestion of where these powers should be seated.The document, Teacher Education in India – Anagenda for reform, (May 2012) drafted by the MHRDsuggests that the State governments may frameinternal guidelines for regulating practices and areasof partnerships but ensure that they follow budgetallocations and are approved by the TeacherEducation Advisory Board (TEAB).

The need for transparency and the concerns ofthe private partners

A clear framework providing specific areas andmodes of PPP engagement ensures that theprivate players work towards the larger overallplan. Objective defined outcomes (not inputs orefforts) could be provided and revised yearly if

Are all private partners same?

While deciding on the framework of the PPP,it is necessary to consider both the nature ofthe PPP and the private partner involved.Private partners span an entire spectrum –from non-profit NGOs or CSOs, Corporatefoundations to for-profit organizations.Government should look at private sector ina differentiated manner and treat themdifferently while formulating policies forPPP. They need to distinguish between profitand non-profit organizations and thereshould not be a blanket recommendation forPPP. Differentiation between sociallyconscious/oriented organizations and thosethat are business driven should be made.

Working Together

Different parties in PPP bring with themtheir own style of working but they all needto move together to guarantee success. Thisis a big challenge as each party has to setaside their bias. The different partners(senior government officers, field personnel,NGOs, private sector companies) have torespect the other's approach.

This can only be achieved if we recognizethis as an issue and make an effort to find asolution. This could take the form of aplatform or forum to address challenges incommunication between parties or inimplementation of projects. The aim is tovoice the concerns work together ontransforming the conflicts.

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necessary. Where the intended outcomes are notmet, support may need to be provided and/orpenalties imposed (for example if targets are notbeing repeatedly met and it is not due tounforeseen circumstances, non-renewal ofcontract may be explored). The original agreementcould clearly state these consequences.

Transparency and continuity are key concerns ofprivate partners. The entire process of PPP fromstart to finish be as transparent as possible withclear directives and platform for informationsharing. This will help all partners to adjust inadvance to any changes in the enablingenvironment (on-the-ground conditions well aschanges in the policy/regulatory framework, ifany) and move forward on an informed basis.

Finally, PPPs need not be always viewed withdistrust. Usually such a perception has largely todo with fear of privatization of education and thefear that the government is abdicating itsresponsibility towards education. The poorperformance of several private teacher trainingcolleges has also added to this fear. However,many innovations in education such as inclusiveeducation, or innovations in teacher educationprograms, can be traced to the engagement ofprivate players.

Recommendations regarding PPP in teacher

education

PPP is a relatively new and largely unresearchedterritory in the field of teacher education in India.The recommendations regarding PPP in teachereducation propose a number of reforms relatingto the manner in which PPPs can be made moresuccessful. Some of the suggestions which werevoiced in the conference were:

1. The Government should look at private sectorin a differentiated manner and treat themdifferently while formulating policies for PPP.It would be useful to distinguish betweenprofit and non-profit organizations and nothave a blanket recommendation for all.Differentiation between socially conscious/oriented organizations and those that arebusiness driven must be made.

2. The government could use PPP for buildingtheir capacity. The government should begin

by identifying its own areas which needstrengthening and then identify what kindof partner will fill the gap and ensure qualitydelivery.

3. A committee to define criteria for privatepartners in terms of capability, experienceshould be set up. They could focus on thepolicies for regulation of PPP and ways tostrengthen monitoring.

4. A central PPP Unit in the MHRD may beestablished as well as PPP Cells at the statelevel that have cross-agency participation aswell as participants for the private sector.They could also draft key performanceindicators for monitoring of PPP to ensureachievement of intended results.

Some examples of PPPs in Education

PPPs in school education have beenoperating for several years. They may be inthe form of direct involvement of privatepartners in day to day school activities suchas provision of midday meals, computer labsor support for infrastructure improvement.Private partners have also been invited instate curriculum and textbook reformsinitiatives. A major example of publicfunding for private schools are the grant-inaid schools which receive up to 95% fundingfrom the government.

The Centre for Civil Society organizesvouchers for girls of weaker sections in thetrans-Yamuna area in Delhi. Parents canchoose the private school to send theirchildren and hand over the voucher whichis then redeemed by the organizers.

In teacher education, the M.A. ElementaryEducation is a contact cum on-line, highquality program of the Tata Institute ofSocial Sciences in collaboration with NGOs- Digantar, Eklavya and Vidya BhawanSociety. IASE Bangalore is run incollaboration with the Indian Institute ofScience, Bangalore. Vidya Bhawan Societyruns the CTE in Udaipur, Rajasthan andhas provided valuable field-based researchon education.


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5. Workshops and seminars exploring the roleand possibilities of PPP in teacher educationshould be organized. Documentation ofdevelopment of a resource and trainingprogram outlining good practices inregulation of PPP would also be useful.

6. There could be more flexibility inmanagement to private sector in areas suchas teachers’ pay and conditions, curriculum,etc. without losing sight of fair pay to allowthem to be effective.

7. Government could provide funding for 50identified institutions working in educationensuring quality but allowing them to retainautonomy.

Summary

The presentations advocated the need for PPPs tobe explored as a solution to the challenges inteacher education. While the public player in thesepartnerships is defined, clearer definition of whocan be the private partner is needed. Bothcorporate and non-government organizationshave their own unique skill sets – academic andmanagerial – which can be explored by the State.But they also have their own requirements andway of functioning which need to be consideredwhile drafting the terms and conditions of thePPP. It needs to be a collaborative engagementthat builds on the strengths of different playersand creates a total greater than the sum of theparts. PPP can then become possible, meaningfuland effective on credible parameters.

A thought-through Policy for regulation of PPP isrequired and monitoring of such partnershipsneeds to be improved. The government could lookat private institutions in a differentiated mannerand treat them differently when formulatingpolicies for PPP. For instance, it needs todistinguish between profit and non-profit privateorganizations or between socially conscious/oriented organizations and those that are businessdriven. Various approaches to PPP need to beexplored but the ultimate responsibility ofproviding outcomes of PPP must continue to restwith the government and private partnerships canonly play a supportive role. PPP can be animportant part of the overall strategy to achievequality, but is not a panacea.

The session was moderated by Mr. Ahlin Byll-Cataria, Executive Secretary Association for theDevelopment of Education in Africa

Ahlin Byll-Cataria has extensive experience in theidentification, elaboration and development ofeducation programs with bilateral andmultilateral development agencies. He is currentlythe Executive Secretary of the Association for theDevelopment of Education in Africa (ADEA),whose mandate is to act as a catalyst of innovativepolicies and practices for the qualitative changeof education in Africa. He heads the secretariat inTunis (Tunisia) and oversees nine ADEA’sworking groups mostly located in other Africancountries. He is also a member of the GoverningBoard of the UNESCO Institute for LifelongLearning (UIL), representing Togo. Prior tobecoming ADEA’s Executive Secretary in August2008, Ahlin was Senior Advisor for the SwissAgency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

From 1979 he worked in the field for 10 years as atrainer of trainers in the Swiss literacy project andas a deputy representative of SDC in Niger. AtSDC headquarters in Bern, he worked for 10 yearsin the West Africa Division, responsible forprogram and financial planning, development,management and evaluation in Mali and Niger.Most of his career was spent at SDC, where healso worked for eight years in the education sector,responsible for the elaboration of basic educationpolicies and program management. From 1995-2003, he worked as a consultant in education,completing mandates in various countries inAfrica, Asia, Latin America and the Middle Eastfor UNESCO and various NGOs.


1. Dr. Hriday Kant Dewan, Education Advisor,Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur, Rajasthan.

Hriday Kant Dewan was a student of Physics andtaught at a Delhi University College before heshifted to improving Science Education in ruralelementary schools through better learningmaterials, better in-service preparation of teachersand systems of on-site support. After leaving DelhiUniversity, he was a part of the group that set upEklavya Foundation in M.P. He later worked ondeveloping a Holistic Primary Education for ruraland urban schools. After working in Eklavya for

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14 years, he joined Vidya Bhawan Society and iscurrently the Educational Advisor. He has beeninvolved in capacity building of teachers,preparation of materials for children and teacherfor primary classes and for Science andMathematics in elementary classes. He has beena part of the team designing pre-service and in-service certificate program for both elementaryand secondary teachers. He has also developedparticipative and actively engaging modules forteacher trainings and worked towards preparingkey Resource Persons for that. He has beenworking in teacher development and inelementary school education system for the last30 years or more.

2. Dr. Dilip Ranjekar, Chief Executive Officer,Azim Premji Foundation

Dileep Ranjekar is the founding Chief ExecutiveOfficer of Azim Premji Foundation and has beenassociated with the Foundation right from itsideation. Dileep is a science Graduate and has aPost Graduate Diploma of Business Managementas well as Master’s degree in PersonnelManagement and Industrial Relations from TataInstitute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

He joined Wipro from campus in 1976 and wasdeeply involved in building Wipro as aprofessional organization that is deeply committedto Values. While working in the area of HumanResources, Dileep was significantly responsiblefor setting the tone and culture of the organization.The high point of this effort was when Wipro wasassessed at Level 5 of Maturity on the CarnegieMellon of People Capability Maturity Model.Wipro was the first company in the world to beassessed at this Level.

Azim Premji Foundation and Azim PremjiUniversity founded by it are not-for-profit

organizations committed to the vision of“contributing towards a just, equitable, humaneand sustainable society”. The Foundation hasworked with thousands of government schoolsdirectly and with many state schooling systemsinvolving over hundred and fifty thousandschools.

3. Alexandra Draxler, International Expert onPPPs in Education

Alexandra Draxler is an education specialist whoworked for many years for UNESCO. She was theExecutive Secretary of the InternationalCommission on Education for the Twenty-firstCentury (Delors Commission) whose report waspublished in more than thirty languages. She isnow an independent consultant working withprivate and public sector clients on PPPs,education sector planning and the use oftechnologies in education. She is the author ofNew Partnerships for EFA: Building onExperience and several other articles and paperson the same subject.

References:

1. http://jurisonline.in/2010/11/public-private-partnership-in-india/

Public Private Partnership in India byKRISHNA KUMAR, 11 Nov, 2010 (accessedon 5th July 2012).

2. Teacher education in India – An agenda forreform. Department of School Education andLiteracy, Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment, GoI, May 2012.

3. Draft - Report of the Sub-Group on PublicPrivate Partnership in School Education forthe 12th Five Year Plan, Department of SchoolEducation and Literacy, MHRD, GoI, October2011.


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Theme 5

Inclusive education: Teachers for children with special needs

needs of children with diverse impairments andhow environmental and attitudinal barriersprevent them from learning and living a fullerlife, the ability to nurture all aspects of personalityand development, promoting self reliance, wouldbe the expectations from a regular teacher. Thesecond change required is at the macro level -policy and legislation, at the local, state, national,international level - as it impacts the practice atthe micro level.

Changes needed in the teacher educationcurriculum and policy

Paradigm shifts in Inclusive Education - rights,not charity

The shifting approaches to understanding anddefining disability have translated into diversepolicies and practices and differentresponsibilities for the state. The policy andprograms reflect two primary approaches ordiscourses: Disability as an individual pathologyand disability as a social pathology.

Policies that are ideologically based on the humanrights model start by identifying barriers thatrestrict disabled persons’ participation in society.This has shifted the focus in the wayenvironments are arranged. In education, forexample, where individuals were formerly labeledas not for education, the human rights modelexamines the accessibility of schools in terms ofboth physical access (ramps, etc.) and pedagogicalstrategies.

Disability and policy in India - Existing policiesand framework

Trends in provisions in India reflect that theleading policy before the 1970s had been towardsthat of segregation or social exclusion, when thedisabled were kept in isolation and weremarginalized. A new approach to positioningdisability, the human rights model looks at

Introduction

The policy of inclusion in our education systemis aimed at the participation of all children in thelearning processes and activities in and outsideschools. About 70 million children in the worldare out of school and out of those about a thirdare Children with Special Needs (CWSN) and ofthose 80 percent are from developing countries.In E9 countries, there are 15 million CWSN. Anysystem of education is incomplete withoutinclusion of these children. E9 countries thereforehave the responsibility of the education of thesechildren to take us closer to the realization of theEFA goals.

The role of the teachers in achieving this goal is toencourage, support and be humane in teaching-learning situations to enable learners to discovertheir talents, realize their physical and intellectualpotentialities to the fullest, and to developcharacter and desirable social and human valuesto function as responsible citizens.

The session on inclusion highlighted thefollowing elements:

• The challenges and changes needed in theteacher education curriculum for inclusiveeducation;

• Identifying practices of effective andmeaningful collaboration between teachers,parents and school staff to promote inclusiveeducation and how NGOs can contribute;

• Changing role of special educators/resourceteachers in facilitating inclusion of CWSN ineducation.

Since education of CWSN would no longer be thepriority of the special education system alone butthat of the general education system itself,therefore changes at various levels are needed.The first change required is at the micro level - thelevel of classroom and school values and culture.This would entail a change in the attitude ofteachers towards children with diverse needs andbackgrounds. Sensitivity towards the educational


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disability as an important dimension of humanculture, and it affirms that all human beings areborn with certain inalienable rights. It is basedon the principle of respect for difference andacceptance of disability as part of human diversityand humanity, as disability is a universal featureof the human condition.

The change in approach from the charity modelto the human rights model resulted in differentpolicy and practice. In the 1970s, the IntegratedEducation for Disabled Children (IEDC) schemewas launched by the Central government forproviding educational opportunities to learnerswith Special Educational Needs (SEN) in regularschools. A cardinal feature of the scheme was theliaison between regular and special schools toreinforce the integration process and five daysorientation program for general teachers and threedays for administrators. Integration became thekey to the problem and responsible for a majorparadigm shift as for the first time it brought thedisabled from isolation into the community.However the system continued to function asbefore, without any changes to help the CWSN

adapt to it. The CWSN were just placed into thesystem, there was no change in the approach, inthe curriculum or in the teachers’ attitude, andtheir welfare was not the concern. Statistics showthat although the integration of learners with SENgathered some momentum, the coverage underthis scheme remained inadequate. There was aclear need for fuller access of children with SENto all educational opportunities.

The government has also initiated certain policyinitiatives for students with disability. In 1987National Council of Educational Research andTraining (NCERT) joined hands with UNICEFand launched Project Integrated Education forDisabled Children (PIED) to strengthen theintegration of learners with disabilities intoregular schools. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan alsoemphasized training of resource teachers, generalteachers, Aanganwadi workers, parents, Headteachers and also of care givers for home basededucation

Despite the constitutional provisions and thepolicy measures, much progress is needed. Policydistortion and fragmentation due to factors like

Constitutional and Legal Obligations

Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992 – This act came into existence through an Act ofParliament with the basic objective of standardizing teacher education curricula in the disabilitysector and also to recognize institutes to run special education teacher preparation courses. Thecurriculum developed by the RCI aims at developing necessary skills in teachers in core areas,specialization in school subjects and expertise in disability.Persons With Disabilities Act, 1995- Educate CWSN in an appropriate environment till 18years. It emphasises the need to prepare a comprehensive education scheme that will makevarious provisions for transport facilities, removal of architectural barriers, supply of books,uniforms, and other materials, the grant of scholarships, suitable modification of the examinationsystem, restructuring of curriculum, providing amanuensis to blind and low vision students,and setting up of appropriate fora for the redressal of grievances.Right to Education Act, 2009- focuses on inclusive education, where children of diverse socio-economic backgrounds and abilities are encouraged to study together;

National FrameworksNCF 2005 emphasizes that teachers must be trained to address the learning needs of all childrenincluding those who are marginalized and disabled.National Focus Group 2005 highlights the need for gearing all teacher education programs todeveloping pedagogical skills required in inclusive classrooms to make IE a reality.NCFTE 2009 recommends that teacher education institutions will need to reframe their programcourses to include the perspective, concept and strategies of inclusive education.


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dependency on NGOs, lack of political will hasresulted in the non-inclusion of disabled children.Thus this systemic failure has resulted in theviolation of human rights with 90 percent CWSNand their families being without any services andonly 10 percent being actually covered (GoI 1994).

Identifying and overcoming barriers

A deeper probe reveals the following lacunae inthe efforts:

• The roots of these initiatives are not based oninclusive ethos. Since the vision and valuesof these schools are not in sync, the teachershave a ‘I will have to do’ rather than ‘will do’or ‘can do’ attitude and are not ready to caterto CWSN without special educators;

• Short term introductory training only worksto the extent of creating awareness whereaslong term training (90 days) fails to build theskills for inclusive classrooms;

• Collaboration between parents, thecommunity and schools is missing. On onehand the parents are apprehensive aboutsending the children to schools as teachersare not well trained and on the other handthere is lack of resources and resource personsto work in this area;

• Pro-active approach to identifying barriersand finding practical solutions are missing.

A sincere examination of the situation reveals thatit is lack of our own understanding of a child’seducation/growth needs that becomes a barrierin the learning process. The social aspect ofdevelopment has considerable bearing on thecognitive development of the child. Thus if thesechildren are not socially accepted and respected,if their diversities are not recognized then all theirhigher cognitive functions are also affected. Thereare environmental barriers in the form ofarchitectural designs that restrict CWSN fromaccessing spaces, like the absence of ramps andso on. There are systemic barriers which refer tothe hindrances at the level of policy making.

Another major barrier in the way of inclusion ona macro level is structural. There are twoministries addressing school needs of disabledchildren, the Ministry of SJE and the Ministry ofHRD. The different agenda of these two Ministriescauses a failure in the system and leaves millions

out. There is lack of adequate number of trainingcenters that teach students about disability andhow disabled students can be included intomainstream education. There is also a severedearth of appropriate courses for training on“how” to include all children into mainstreamschools. Not just the government but the NGOs’efforts remain fragmented largely due to a senseof insecurity about their funding position.

RTE - a new definition and meaning of inclusion

The Right to Education Act 2009, calls for focuson inclusive education, where children of diversesocio-economic backgrounds and abilities areencouraged to study together; it mandates acurriculum that is in line with Constitutionalvalues; it seeks to move towards a system oflearning that is free from the pressure of exams.Thus, it is one of the first inclusion oriented acts.

Inclusive education ideally means attending todiverse needs of every child (differing in ability,ethnicity, socio-economic background etc.) in thesame classroom or school setting. Being Inclusivetherefore refers to taking into consideration notonly physically and mentally disabled childrenbut also other children amongst the poorersegments of society who face barriers to learning,be it the girl child or the socially and economicallydisadvantaged child. Inclusion is beyonddisability, it is effective education in which everychild is a special child, it is a process andparticipation, not just a program or enrollment.

While at the macro level, inclusion remains acomplex and controversial issue which tends togenerate heated debates, surrounded withuncertainty, there are success stories that provethe effectiveness of inclusive education, not justfor CWSN but also for those without. The questionis no longer whether CWSN can be included inthe general system but how they can be included.

Changing role of (special) educators

It is required that every teacher, not just the specialeducator, should be able to cater to the diverseneeds of these children, both educational andpsychological. The following points would helpin achieving such a setup:

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• De-professionalization: Every teacher needs

to be equipped with the ability and capacity

to teach all children including those withSEN. Abolition of separate systems of training

of teachers for mainstream children and for

children with impairments of locomotor,

sensory and cognitive impairments is

imperative. A resource support team from

the special education to ensure retention ofchildren in schools could help. NGOs and

special schools could play an important role

as Resource Support Teams.

• Compulsory component in teacher education:

At present, there are no specific provisions in

the in-service programs of the DIETs. TheTeacher Training Courses at all levels,

therefore, need to emphasize the study of

disability.

• Compulsory component in ICDS: Teachertraining courses like B.Ed. usually have anoptional paper on education of CWSN, withvery few takers. Every training program forpre–school education should have acomponent on inclusive education. Theduration of the training program forAnganwadi workers should be increasedfrom the present 28 days to focus more ondisability. This would help in theidentification of SEN children at an early ageto be able to help them cope with challengesin later life.

Shouldering / sharing responsibilities - thecollaborative approach

It has been seen that CWSN often become thevictims of the attitudes of their own families andcommunity. Thus, the sensitization, orientation,and training of parents, caretakers, and otherstakeholders becomes imperative. It will build asupport system for the school. Other students ofthe school can become a huge resource if they areproperly informed and oriented. NGOs cancontribute through their knowledge andexperience

Collaboration with other teachers and relevantstaff for support to meet the individual needs ofthe students is important. Teachers, parents, andothers can collaborate in determining and meetingthe needs of any student. Creating a communityof learners, in which all members see themselvesas both teachers and learners, enables children,teachers, and parents to develop sharedunderstandings about what is important to knowand why it is important. Such collaboration canbecome a reality through:

1. Demystification of disability that can becarried out through sharing of informationand techniques with parents, families andteachers. This helps remove commonly heldmyths like disability is infectious or thatinclusion requires a continuous support ofwell-resourced specialist services, thatAnganwadi workers will not be able takeproper care of disabled children.

2. Deinstitutionalization, involving movingaway from specialized settings to communitysettings. For example, by creating resource

Promoting inclusion, celebratingdiversity

There have been several initiatives both bythe governmental as well as non-governmental institutions towards bridgingthe gap between the special and generaleducation sector. NCERT started thefollowing training courses aimed atinclusion:

• Pre-service courses at RIEs that givesinputs on CWSN with a focus onInclusive Education in B.Ed (Bhopal,Ajmer) and Inputs in M.Ed. (Mysore,Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal and Ajmer)

• Specific in-service training programswhich look at capacity building ofteacher educators through EDUSAT

ADAPT (Able Disabled All PeopleTogether) formerly The Spastics Society ofIndia, is an NGO which was founded in1972. It provides service includingassessment, infant stimulation, therapy,counseling, inclusive education, skillstraining and job placement, continuum ofsupport services and home managementprograms for children and young adultswith disability


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support for parents through Mahila mandals(PTAs) that create awareness about nutritionand hygiene.

3. Decentralization of services through trainingprograms and alliances.

Recommendations

The following recommendations werehighlighted:

1. At present, special education is under theMOSJE, Anganwadi workers under ministryof child development whereas regularteachers are under MHRD. This creates adichotomy and fragmentation. It isrecommended that the MHRD should planteacher development for teachers across theboard so that all may be educated in theprinciples of inclusive education.

2. All pre-service teacher education programsat the pre-school, elementary and secondarylevels should have a compulsory paper oninclusive education. This could be in the formof a module which includes practicum/internship. It should be supported with therequisite human and material resources. If itis not followed, de-recognition of thatinstitution should be a punitive action.

3. Synergies between government organizations,non-governmental organizations and civilsociety organizations working in the field ofeducation and teacher education should bedeveloped both at the central and grass rootlevels.

4. All monitoring and evaluation mechanismsfor teacher education to include a componenton inclusive education. In fact, inclusionshould be at the core of all developmentalpolicies of all programs and all interventionsat all levels. There should not be a need tocreate a separate or special forum or policyfor inclusive education, it should underlieevery intervention.

5. There should be regular continuous in-service progress in inclusive education.Specific incentives such as awards shouldbe instituted for innovative work or researchin this field. This would encourage researchnot just by organizations but also bypractitioners.

6. Most special teachers in the country areworking in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)but they are still treated as project staff andnot absorbed into the existing system. Thiscreates a sense of exclusion of special teachersfrom the general system. This may beovercome only by creating a cadre of specialteachers at the State level or by earmarkingways and career paths to include them in thegeneral system.

7. Special schools can become Resource Centresas well as Model Demonstration Hubs toactually demonstrate inclusion within eachcontext engaging with government’s existingprograms. These Model DemonstrativeCentres of Inclusive Education can fan outall over the country.

8. Higher Education should, like other countriesacross the world, include a special subject ofDisability Studies which should move awayfrom the current medical entrenchment ofdysfunctioning individual to the social modelof an enabling environment.

9. The MHRD’s findings, on integratededucation in 25 polytechnics across thecountry, needs to be disseminated to all ofthe concerned institutions and the lessonslearnt therein should be incorporated in thenew initiatives to be taken.

10. Budgetary support is critical at all these levelsand in all these recommendations.

11. All policies and programs existing at thecentral and state levels should have acomponent of disability inclusion.

Summary

The session on inclusive education focused onbest practices in teacher development for workingwith children with single/multiple disabilitiesand sensitizing teachers towards issues linkedto child protection. The speakers stressed that thewell being of country was related to the well beingof its marginalized sections. It was highlightedhow the attitudinal-environmental and socialfactors, and not their disabilities, were the realbarriers to preventing such children from leadingfull lives. From the 1990s there has been a shift inthe policy environment from social exclusion toinclusion, that is, viewing such children as

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valued, contributing citizens of theircommunities. It was felt that there was a criticalneed to have orientation programs for schoolmanagement, teachers, parents and other staffmembers to deepen the understanding of mindincluding cognition, emotions and motivationand their impact on our learning process. TheNGOs working in the field of disability could beof assistance as resource centres. The speakersargued for the abolition of separate systems oftraining of teachers for mainstream children andchildren with disabilities and mainstreamingspecial education in TE.

In working group discussion, it was suggestedthat teacher education (including SpecialEducation) should be under the Ministry of HRD.At present, special educators are governed by theRehabilitation Council of India (Ministry of SocialJustice and Empowerment) and this was creatingfragmentation. There was also the need to developsynergies between government organizations andcivil society organizations working in this field.The group recommended that all pre-serviceteacher programs at the pre-elementary andsecondary levels must have compulsory paperson inclusive education along with the requisitehuman and material resources. Finally, allpolicies and programs existing at the central andstate levels should have a component of disabilityinclusion. It concluded on the positive note that itis very much doable. What it needs is convictionand courage to take bold steps. Openness toexperiment with new ideas, determination toevolve implementation strategies andaccountability are important for bringingnecessary changes in the system. It is worth doingas it is a matter of preparing future generationsfor an inclusive society where diversities areaccepted and respected.

The session was moderated by Dr. M.N.G. Mani,Chef Executive Officer, ICEVI.

Dr. M.N.G. Mani served as the Principal ofRamakrishna Mission Vidyalaya College ofEducation, Coimbatore for many years. He haspublished extensively in teacher education,inclusive education, and research. He has servedas a member of many professional committees ofRCI, NCTE, NCERT, UGC, and IGNOU and alsoworked as a consultant of UNESCO, UNICEF, and

WHO. He is currently serving as the ChiefExecutive Officer of the International Council forEducation of People with Visual Impairment(ICEVI) and Executive Director of the GlobalCampaign on Education for All Children withVisual Impairment (EFA-VI).


1. Dr. Shanti Auluck, Director & President,Muskaan.

Dr. Auluck was formerly, Reader, Dept. ofPsychology, Lady Shri Ram College, DelhiUniversity. Taught psychology at LSR from 1976to 2005 and has a deep interest in psychologyand Indian Philosophical Thought. She haspresented papers on psychology and Vedanta inseveral seminars and conferences organized byNCERT, Delhi University, Aurobindo Society aswell as international conferences. She alsopublished articles in books and journals. She tookvoluntary retirement from the college in 2005 todevote full time to Muskaan.

2. Prof. Anita Julka, Head, Department ofEducation of Groups with Special Needs andInclusive Education Cell, NCERT, New Delhi

She has been involved in various research,training, development and extension activities ofthe Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, IEDSS & RMSA, GoI.She has also been a member of various committees,the most important being Position Paper, NationalFocus Group, NCERT on Education of Childrenwith Special Needs, National Steering Committee,NCERT for renewal of National CurriculumFramework, 2005, Development of theComprehensive Action Plan for includingChildren and Youth with Disabilities inEducation, Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment, 2005, Textbook Review Committee,NCERT, Working Group for the XII Plan forEmpowerment of Disabled, Ministry of SocialJustice and Empowerment, National ResourceGroup, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Research AdvisoryCommittee, National Institute of VisuallyHandicapped and Proposal Grant CommitteeMHRD for IEDSS. She has published books andarticles in number of International and national


45

journals, the most recent publication is “MeetingSpecial Needs in Schools: A Manual, NCERT.

3. Dr. Mithu Alur, Founder Chairperson, ADAPT(formerly The Spastics Society of India)

For over 36 years, Dr. Mithu Alur has been closelyinvolved in education, healthcare andemployment for women and children leading tosocial change, legislation and social policy.Professionally, a Doctor of Philosophy and policyanalyst from the Institute of Education, Universityof London, her thesis analysis Indian Governmenteducational policy for children with disability.The reason for her involvement in disabledchildren is daughter Malini, who is disabled.Malini has done two Masters – in Gender Studiesand in Information Technology from Universityof London. Dr. Alur set up the first model of theSpastics Society of India in Mumbai in 1972 withthe help of Indira Gandhi with Nargis Dutt as thefirst Patron. At the State level, Dr. Alur has been

involved in community based projects involvingState and Municipal authorities, non-governmental agencies, the private sector andinternational agencies. At the National level shehas helped various regions in the country to setup services. Today ADAPT’s first model has beenreplicated in 16 of the 31 States of the country. In1992, Mithu and her colleagues launched theNational Centre for Cerebral Palsy (NCCP) inMumbai.

Reference

National Curriculum Framework 2005, Position

Paper, National Focus Group on Education of

Children With Special Needs.

Event Brochure/Website (www.teindia.nic.in)

ADAPT website (www.adaptssi.org/home.html)

Invisible Children - A study of Policy Exclusion ,

Viva books Pvt. Ltd., Alur (1999).

Incl

usi

on


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Theme 6

Monitoring and evaluation of teacher policy reforms

supervision by District Education Officer, BlockEducation Officer and the DIET faculty. As thesepeople are overloaded with a large number ofschools and colleges, it results in M&E consistingsolely of ticking a checklist. This model is far lessefficient at academic supervision and moretowards checking infrastructure, faculty absence,payment of salaries on time or mission specificobjectives. The self-reporting form used for theinstitution is also focused on administrative tasksand does not provide academic feedback toteachers.

The secondary data which is collected also reflectsa more quantitative and infrastructure relatedapproach to monitoring. The DISE data base, forinstance, has 20 teacher related indicatorsfocused on their numbers, 15 facilities indicatorsand 23 enrollment based indicators. The reportsbrought out by National University of EducationPlanning and Administration (NUEPA) also lackunderstanding of State-specific factors. Thespecific issues with NUEPA’s annual exercisepertain to (a) vague definitions and estimation ofeducation indicators; disaggregation notavailable in the analysis and reports; (b) co-relational analysis not available and (c)dissemination of data for further use. (FifteenthJoint Review Mission,2012)

The periodic meeting with state governments andannual meeting of the Teacher Education AuditBoard has not yielded adequate results to monitorthe performances of the TEIs. Absence ofperformance indicators of these institutions failsto capture the teacher change process. It also doesnot allow the institutes themselves to gauge theirown progress and status.

Understanding the teacher education context

Before one begins to strengthen the monitoringmechanism for teachers, teacher educationprograms and institutions in India, some aspectof the structure of teacher education (TE) mightneed attention. At present, TE in India is

Introduction

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of teacherpolicy reforms has become critical in the past fewyears with emphasis on growth of the teacherherself. Once the required number of teachers hasbeen appointed, the quality of the teaching andthe teacher assumes significance. This brings inthe concept of accountability. In India, forinstance, teacher absenteeism continues to be amajor issue. As compared to this, in countries likeFinland, the phrase teacher accountability israrely invoked because the system tends to attractand retain the right kind of teachers.

A key aspect of M&E involves responding to theconcerns of poor quality teacher education. In the1990s, a large number of countries had closed downTeacher Education Institutions (TEIs) offering sub-standard education. M&E mechanism therefore isa critical process not just to ensure quality controlbut also to guide the path of such organizations.As a large number of countries struggle to balancepublic budget, focus shifts to effectiveness ofpublic investment and interests. Finally, there hasbeen a rise in alliances between the governmentand private organizations and an effective systemof M&E would be useful in ensuring andmaintaining quality.

Besides highlighting the growing importance ofeffective M&E mechanisms, the presentationsfocused on the following key themes:

• The conventional approach to M&E requireschange;

• Understanding the teacher education contextfor M&E;

• Evaluating teachers – the current context andissues;

• Issues and challenges in monitoring TEIs.

The conventional approach to M&E requireschange

The existing approach involves schoolinspections, college inspections and academic


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completely woven around the stage of school thatthe teacher is expected to teach. For instance, theDiploma in Elementary Education which isrequired for teaching at elementary school levelis insulated from the Bachelors in Educationrequired for teaching higher grades. This preventsa more holistic understanding of what TE could be.Hence, instead of a specialization for teaching aparticular grade during the later part of a TEprogram, the whole program is structured aroundthe grades at which the teacher would teach. Thereis an assumption that the lower the stage ofeducation, the lesser the qualifications needed.This also creates barriers in terms of careerprogression. The elementary teachers are put ona lower scale than secondary which are in turnconsidered on a lower scale than highersecondary and so on. To begin with, policyinitiatives need to address such inequities.

It would be important to keep in considerationthat most of the teacher education policies havebeen shaped by the SSA norms. During the lasttwo decades EFA movement has witnessed seriesof Centrally Sponsored Schemes with substantiveresource allocation for school improvement andchanges in teacher education and teachermanagement. Being programmatic interventionswith a different focus has however led to framingof policies which ended up diluting teachereducation.

Evaluating teachers – the current context andissues

There is an urgent need to evolve norms for goodteacher performance. Further, these norms needto be evolved keeping in mind the whole schoolsystem and the teacher education policies andperspectives used in developing the programstructure. For instance, there is little emphasistoday on improving the quality of intake ofstudents in a D.Ed program. Or, the specificpedagogical implications of higher secondaryschooling are often bypassed in the area of teachereducation. All these would have an impact ondefining who is a good teacher.

A good way to start evolving the norms would beto enlist the help of teachers themselves in such aprocess. Not only would it bring more ownershipto the process, it would also bring a richer sense

of what is happening on the ground and thechallenges that teachers face. These norms could,for instance, relate to relationships with childrenand young people, team work skills, personaldevelopment, professional knowledge, teachingand learning, assessment and monitoring,knowledge of subjects and curriculum, literacy,numeracy and technology.

The concept of teacher growth too has to beconsidered in M&E. The evaluation measurestoday assess the same parameters every year likeknowledge and skill levels of a teacher and/orthe student scores which count towards theteacher’s career. They could be made moremultidimensional and contextualized based onprior learning and move beyond cognitivechanges to include affective changes. The softercriteria like the change in the way the teacherviews herself, her identity, belief patterns andways of teaching also needs to be captured besideshard data on knowledge. Similarly, there is also aneed to develop a professional code of ethics forteachers. It would be useful if these were actuallydeveloped and monitored by the TeacherAssociations themselves.

The Teacher Eligibility Tests, now mandated by

the Center have become a critical evaluation

mechanism for teacher certification and

regulating the entry of teachers into the school

Countries like UK, for instance, havedeveloped rigorous documentation onProfessional Teacher Standards and theQualified Teacher Status with varying levelof expertise (example, core, post threshold,excellent teacher, advanced skills teacher)and detailed descriptions on what each ateacher at each level looks like and how theirlevel may be assessed.Similarly stages in professionaldevelopment for teachers have also beenconceptualized. For instance, in anothercountry the teacher can move towards otherroles – designing and producing teaching -learning materials, becoming a mentor,holding workshops for other teachers. Suchroles provide alternate career paths.

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system. Although a useful measure to ensure thatonly quality teachers enter schools and colleges,such tests need to go beyond asking similarquestions as those posed in the teacher educationinstitution examinations. Being a paper andpencil test, they also suffer from the disadvantageof providing only a one-sided picture of the teacherin terms of her verbal and written skills and onlyabout subject matter.

Also, there is fear that private colleges mightreduce themselves to TET shops attractingstudents on the basis of their pass-ratio in TETthan the quality of education being offered. TheTeacher Educators, too, could end up teachingfor the TET than what would be useful for thenew teacher when she enters the classroom. TheTET as the filter might also make useless the effortstowards revamping of teacher educationcurriculum and structure. This poses the questionwhether we need TET as a licensure kind of filteror a national level entry exam into a teachereducation program.

There is the need for stronger and well-refinedtools to capture the change process within theteacher. Indicators need to be developed whichcould develop such growth since it is slow. Suchindicators would depend instead on a conceptualframework of teacher growth and could includeelements of teacher learning, thinking, feelings,cognition and knowledge.

Similar to the Continuous and ComprehensiveEvaluation measures being applied in schools,the teachers also could benefit by having theiroverall growth assessed regularly. Their formativeassessment would support them during theirtenure for continuous improvement andsummative assessment, at the end of every twoyears, could help arrive at whether the teacherfeels stagnated, bored or burnt-out. Finally, themonitoring and evaluation of teachers needs tobe through a participative social dialogue insteadof through a top-down inspection process.

Issues and challenges in monitoring TEIs

The quality of TEIs has become a concern of late.Institutions with fewer and lesser trained facultyand poor infrastructure facilities have sprung upespecially in the private sector. Hence their qualityneeds to be monitored rigorously. An effective

monitoring mechanism would ensure the poorquality TEIs are weeded out. Further, theregulatory bodies need to move beyond recognitiontowards quality assurance through accreditationof TEIs. Standards could be evolved for teachercertification itself which could help maintainquality levels of both teachers and TEIs.

Closely tied to the monitoring of the TEI isanswering the question of duration of the teachereducation programs itself. At present, the D.Ed.is usually a two year program located in a publicor private college monitored by the DIET whilethe B.Ed. is a one year program usually affiliatedwithin the university. There are variations amongdifferent states on the duration of such programs.There also exist four year integrated programswhich offer a subject specialization along withteaching certifications. The exit norms for studentscould be evolved which would allow them theflexibility to become teachers after they completetheir graduation. Evolving standards for teachereducation programs would also help TEIs insituating their role in improving quality.

Finally, when evolving the policies for TEIs, thespecificities of each state must be taken intoconsideration. The policy should also look atteacher education for primary, secondary andhigher secondary stages in comprehensivemanner.

Recommendations

The conference suggested the following waysforward:

1. Dedicated evidence based research mustinform all sectors of teacher policy reformscommensurate with the contextual realitiesof a country, including design of relevantinstructions for monitoring and evaluationof reform parameters.

2. A comprehensive framework for monitoringand evaluation of teacher policy reformsincluding measurable performanceindicators must be developed. Theseindicators must be arrived through researchand not overly influenced by program focusareas.

3. Rigorous documentation on professionalteacher standards and the qualified teacher


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status with varying level of expertise (for

example basic, excellent teacher, advanced

skills teacher) and detailed descriptions on

what a teacher at each level looks like and

how their level may be assessed. These

must be supplemented with developing a

professional code of ethics. Teacher

associations could come forward in

designing such standards and ethics.

4. Tools for evaluation of teachers and teacher

educators including self evaluation should

be promoted. Further, there is a need for critical

dialogue that involves teachers and teacher’s

educators’ evaluation, capable of renewal in

the light of lived practices. The assessment of

teachers and teacher educators must involve

observation, self evaluation, portfolios, school

evaluation, external evaluations,

performance indicators, students’ evaluation,

and student scores to get a more

comprehensive view of teacher growth.

5. The Teacher Eligibility Test and its impact

on the quality of teaching in TEIs needs to be

researched. It would be useful to think of an

entrance test or process for admission into a

teacher education institute.

6. Clear objectives and indicators for career

progression (career advance schemes) for

teacher and teacher educators working in

DIETs and SCERTs is important.

7. Teacher Education Institutes need to be

monitored rigorously. An effective monitoring

mechanism would ensure that the poor

quality TEIs are weeded out. Further, the

regulatory bodies need to move beyond

recognition towards quality assurance

through developing standards for

accreditation of TEIs.

8. Teacher and TE policies should be

administratively, professionally and

financially viable. TE policy should be

framed within larger educational policies

reforms.

9. A toolkit for countries to design context

specific monitoring and evaluation teacher

policy framework can be developed.

Summary

The session on Monitoring and Evaluationexplored designing the instruments forassessment and evaluation and a scheme forcomprehensive and continuous monitoring andevaluation. The speakers highlighted that

although monitoring and evaluation was a

technical process, it was also a process of social

dialogue, interactions with the people and their

environment. Further, a system of evaluation

should go beyond quantitative indicators andcapture the softer elements of teacher growth.

There was also a critical need to have better

understanding of impact of open and distance

learning for pre-service TE and about tools

important for monitoring, example, accreditation

and certification of Teachers and TE institutions.

In the working group discussion, it was suggested

that teachers must do their own evaluation and

reflect on their own performance. Further, a

comprehensive and contextual framework for

monitoring and evaluation of teacher policy

reforms including measurable performanceindicators needs to be developed. This could be

done through toolkits. They also agreed on the

need for a critical dialogue that involves teachers

and teacher Educators evaluation in the light of

lived practices in the classroom.

This session was moderated by Mr. David

Atchoarena, Director, UNESCO Division forTeachers and Higher Education.

Prior to holding this post, David served as SeniorProgram Specialist at the International Institutefor Educational Planning (IIEP), UNESCO, Pariswhere he was heading the Training andEducation Programs Unit of IIEP, including theIIEP Masters Program in Educational Planningand Management (2006-2009). Before joining theInstitute in 1991, he served as “Chargé deMission” at the National Agency for LifelongEducation (ADEP) of the French Ministry ofEducation, and as Project Coordinator in theMinistry of Finance and Planning, in Saint Lucia.

David Atchoarena is also Special Professor at theUniversity of Nottingham (UK). He holds a

Doctorate in Economics from the University of

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Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne). His work covers

several areas related to educational planning and

policies, such as planning techniques and tools,

technical and vocational education and training,

lifelong learning, and education and rural

development.


1. Prof. A.K. Sharma, Former Director, NCERT

Prof. A.K. Sharma’s academic career spans overthe Punjab University, Chandigarh (1961-74) andthe National Council of Educational Researchand Training (NCERT), New Delhi (1974-99),which institutions he served in various capacities.During his tenure with the NCERT, he wasassociated with the work on the All IndiaEducational Surveys, Surveys of EducationalResearch and Innovations and curriculumdevelopment in science education, teachereducation and distance education.

He has been consultant to the World Bank,Commonwealth of Learning (CoL), EducationalConsultant India Ltd. (Ed.CIL). He is acontributing author to ‘Cross National Policiesand Practices on Computers in Education’, anIEA Study across 20 countries. Prof. Sharma wasa member of the Task Force on Secondary andTeacher Education for the development ofProgram of Action (PoA) to the National Policyon Education (NPE) 1986/1992. He was one of a3-member committee to develop the conceptualdocument on District Institutes of Education andTraining (DIETs), Colleges of Teacher Education(CTEs) including Institutes of Advanced Studiesin Education (IASEs), components of a centrally-sponsored scheme on teacher education. He wasChairman of the Sub-committee of the CentralAdvisory Board of Education (CABE) on draftingthe Right of Children to Free and CompulsoryEducation Act, 2009 and the draft Model Rules tothe Act.

2. Prof. Pranati Panda, Professor, Departmentof Comparative Education and InternationalCooperation, NUEPA

Prof. Pranati Panda has M.Phil. and Ph.D. degreein (Education), International Certificate Courses

on Education Sector Diagnosis, IIEP, Paris;Certificate Course on Child Rights, GhentUniversity, Belgium; and was on the research andteaching faculty of National Institute of PublicCooperation and Child Development (NIPCED)and National Council of Educational Researchand Training (NCERT). She has authored books/chapter in books and several research papers andarticles published in national and internationaljournals, developed monographs, self-learningmodules, teacher training packages; specializesin teacher and teacher education policy, teachermanagement issues, school based in-serviceeducation and training of teachers, class size ,school quality and safety, human rights educationand education for peace. She was consulted bythe United Nation High Commissioner for HumanRights, APCEIU,UNESCO, World Bank,HURIGHTS, Japan and serves as resource personfor Asia in general and South Asia in particularfor training and development of trainingpackagesfor teachers. Dr. Panda is the member ofseveral official committees on educationconstituted by Govt. of India and differentnational institutions. She is also editorial boardmember of International and National journals.

3. Professor Rama Mathew – Dean, Faculty ofEducation, University of Delhi

Professor Rama Mathew previously taught at theCentral Institute of English and ForeignLanguages, Hyderabad where she was involvedin English language education with specific focuson language teacher education and assessmentfor more than twenty years. She was ProjectDirector of a national curriculum evaluation study(1993-98) called the CBSE-ELT CurriculumImplementation Study, which concretized thenotion of teacher as researcher in actual classroomcontexts. She also coordinated a project onmentoring in collaboration with the OpenUniversity, UK, under the UKIERI scheme. She ispresently coordinating the English LanguageProficiency Course for the students of DelhiUniversity in which loose-leaf materials meantfor adult learners have been developed andstudents take proficiency tests at three levels thatassess all the skills of the language. She has beenan invited plenary speaker at several conferencesin India and other countries including the


51

conference of the International Association ofTeachers of English as a Foreign Language(IATEFL). Her current research interests includeteaching English to adult learners, teachereducation, and proficiency assessment includingonline assessment.

4. Mr. Shailendra Sigdel, Statistical ClusterAdvisor, New Delhi

He started career as an education statistician in1995 from the Ministry of Education in Nepal andworked with various development agencies oneducation statistics, monitoring and assessments.

He worked with the World Bank, UNICEF, DanishDevelopment Agency (DANIDA), Save theChildren and many research institutions as aconsultant and employee on education planningand monitoring expert. He also worked as visitingfellow in Kathmandu University for some time.Since 2009 he is working as Statistical Advisorfor South Asia in UNESCO Institute for Statistics(UIS) in New Delhi. UIS is a specialized agency ofUNESCO on statistics. His current role is toprovide technical assistance to the member stateson statistics and evidence based monitoring onUNESCO minded areas- Education, Culture, S&T

and Communication and Information.

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Closing session

Recommendations and Conclusions

Dr. Edem Adubra

Head, Secretariat of the International Task Force on Teachers for EFA

Mr. Co-chair, of the Task Force Steering Committee, when you are interested to organize an event likethis on issues so heavy - in breadth and depth - issues which are so sensitive politically, economically,culturally, socially, emotionally, I think, when you still have participants sitting and showing realsign of engagement, you can only be a happy man. And I am very thankful to you all for your engagementin this process which, I consider as a beginning of a long, long journey. I repeat again - in which I hopeto have you all bringing in more people that could make the cause of teachers address globally and ourrespective contexts.

Context is actually important and that is what you have been hearing from the beginning. Supposethat we organize this and the person, who should assess me and us (the participants) on this process,looks at the time, his watch, right now and says, “Where is Edem and where are the participants”; andthen we are still in this room. The person will miss out the fact that we have been engaged in a processthat needs to be concluded. So the context should address the importance you give to the criteria ofassessing the process on developing your strategies.

I’ll like to make a comment on the reports – they captured the essence of what we discussed. So I wouldlike – I am not a perfectionist but I have a small, one more request to the rapporteurs. If they could takethe recommendations and incorporate some of the issues and make them action oriented. Because thatis the way we formulated them; we want them to be action oriented so that we could carry them out,here in India, as program developing foundation. So you can work on it for 15 minutes and then at theclosing of the session, bring it to us so that the conclusions I am going to be drawing now could becompleted by these recommendations.

If you miss out on context, you wouldn’t understand that for this (conference) to happen, we have hadthe collaboration of the hotel people who promptly would open curtains and close them as well. Sothis is when you talk about collaboration between school context and community, if you don’t havethose supportive elements, which are not in teacher policies or what the administrators and bureaucratconceive as elements that are needed for successful delivery of teaching and learning, we miss out thepoint as well.

I will, however, draw your attention on a couple of things Ihave noted. About the gender one – somebody indicated thatit is important to not consider gender as stand-alone andarticulate it in our next event in the various themes or topicwe would like to address. And I reflected on that and I saidyes, this is something that is actually true not just for thegender one. But when you believe that all the topics wouldaddress something, it’s like thinking that something is theresponsibility of everybody and nobody does it. So that’s whyyou need to single out, sometimes, items and things that youbelieve are lost, in the global considerations of education andeducation policy formulation. By having a segment here, we

IIIIIndia is faced with andia is faced with andia is faced with andia is faced with andia is faced with a

paradox. It hasparadox. It hasparadox. It hasparadox. It hasparadox. It has

articulated strong,articulated strong,articulated strong,articulated strong,articulated strong,

rights-based policies inrights-based policies inrights-based policies inrights-based policies inrights-based policies in

favor of education yet itfavor of education yet itfavor of education yet itfavor of education yet itfavor of education yet it

doesn’t have, nor isdoesn’t have, nor isdoesn’t have, nor isdoesn’t have, nor isdoesn’t have, nor is

officially developing, aofficially developing, aofficially developing, aofficially developing, aofficially developing, a

clearly articulatedclearly articulatedclearly articulatedclearly articulatedclearly articulated

description of quality.description of quality.description of quality.description of quality.description of quality.


53

are not, by any means, thinking that these issues are isolated items. I give an example again. When youthink about decentralization, in Ghana in their policy formulation, in their decentralization policy,there is a provision that if you are a female teacher and then there is a post in the rural area, they allowtwo female teachers to go to the rural area so that the female teacher doesn’t feel alone and exposed. Sothose are the linkages between decentralization and gender, for example.

Ok, now what do we remember from these two days’ deliberations. What I am going to present now isnot final; so bear with me. We just have the gist and we will increase and enhance with therecommendations later on.

The forum was officially opened by Honorable Shri Kapil Sibal, Human Resource DevelopmentMinister, with an ardent defense of the teaching profession. He laid out some principles and policyavenues for making it more attractive - that is, the teaching profession - thereby improving the applicantpool as well as the public perception of the teaching profession. He spoke of the tools and the supportthat need to be made available for teachers so that they can best fulfill their roles. He reminded us of theimportance of a new pedagogy, of the crucial role of examination in driving educational practice - forbetter or for worse - and of the increasing importance of technologies in modernizing educationalmanagement and practice. I would also say that before he left the premises of the conference, HonorableShri Kapil Sibal accepted to become the Goodwill Ambassador of the International Task Force for EFAwhich, as most of you commented, is the charismatic leadership that we need to bring the messageabout the importance of teachers to the high level forum.

Our other opening speakers spoke about these themes, the theme that the Minister addressed as wellas about the significance of reinforced partnerships and the need for an array of opportunities, foraspiring and practicing teachers to learn and perfect their skills. So we were faced with what is bothobvious and hard to achieve. Committed and effective teachers are at the forefront of positive educationchange. They have to be involved in the future of education as they will largely shape the future. Thenwe started addressing the specifics of themes of the conference. The first one was ProfessionalDevelopment of Teachers.

India is faced with a paradox. It has articulated strong, rights-based policies in favor of education yetit doesn’t have, nor is officially developing, a clearly articulated description of quality. Professionaldevelopment of teachers is, in its initial stages, carried out almost entirely by private institutions. I wasnot sure if I remembered the percentage – 80 or 85 percent of these teacher education institutions areprivate. These institutions do not fall under government control. Although, there are formal requirementsfor numbers of years of education for teachers at each level, shortage of qualified candidates meansthese are not respected. Again, it (India) doesn’t have competency standards for teachers. And becauseof these shortages, India has hired very large numbers of unqualified people to be teachers, with noclear plans for normalizing the situation.

Several of the introductory statements and presentations of the first session highlighted this paradoxand speakers hoped that it would soon move high on the agenda for education reform. I will completethis part of the conclusion by the recommendations on the specifics of the theme when I receive thefinal draft formulated by the rapporteur.

Decentralization – Challenges and Steps forward. Several issues emerged from the presentations ondecentralization First, there needs to be reflection about the optimum level at which decisions shouldbe made. Second, there is resistance to the notion of decentralized responsibility for implementingnational or state decisions that represent a uniform system of doing things. Third, often capacity canbe lacking when actions that have been the responsibility of the central authority are suddenlydecentralized. And capacity building or partnering to develop capacity during a transition period isimportant.

Decentralization varies according to the nature of the activity - whether training, education materialor planned. More research is needed on what is needed and what works. Finally, consulting localactors, including teachers, is very important. So those are the key elements that we extracted from the


54

presentations and the discussion that ensued, which aregoing to be completed by the relevant recommendationswe have just heard.

On Gender issues in the teaching force: As governments,including the Government of India, adopt rights-basedapproaches to education, there is great progress in accessof girls to education although much remains to be done.Female teachers are in the majority, at least, at the basiceducation level in many countries. However, girls are still in the minority in science and math andtechnology; women are rarely seen at high level management positions, and indeed as school heads inmany areas. Several speakers insisted on the fact that while tracking gender, statistics has become animportant measure of success of government education policies, qualitative issues are lost in this wayof looking at the question.

Boys are falling behind in education outcomes of some countries or regions. We do not know the effect– good, negative or neutral – of feminization of education profession. We do not know whetherchanges in attitude to gender, as an issue, are taking place or not, by feminization. Finally, we do notknow how progress towards parity in access affects the ways that males and females, boys and girls,interact.

Speakers insisted on the fact that gender should not be seen as exclusively meaning girls and womenbut as a way of looking at issues of equality and equity in society, in general. Again, we will insist herethat your recommendations are reflected in. And one comments that I took, I picked from, the questionsafter the presentations, is that we need to see teaching and learning, or at least when you considergender, we should not see teachers as the only people who could impact the perception of genderstereotypes. We need to talk about learners - so in formulating the recommendations, again, pleaseattend to this important comment.

Teachers can play a significant role and here too I am always happy when we mention that peopleshould put importance on teachers or teachers are crucial, central to education. But that could have adownside when things go wrong. Then we are exposing teachers as being the single villains in thisprocess. That is why schools or the education system as social constructs needs to still be perceivedwhen we highlight the important role of teachers.

Now, on the sub-theme of public-private partnerships to address the teacher gap: We heard threeinterventions about the potential and limitations of public-private partnerships. While, fundamen-tally, basic education is the responsibility of the public authorities, various kinds of new partnershipshave demonstrated that they can provide innovative ideas and services, some new resources andcomplementarity with the public sector in reaching particular populations. Caution must be exercisedconcerning sometimes overenthusiastic hopes for the contributions of the corporate sector to publiceducation. We heard that again when somebody asked the question, “why a public good should beeven allowed to have a private intervention”. The public sector will always have final responsibilityfor ensuring equity and equal access, and I’ll add quality also. The ensuing discussion elaborated onthese notions with an emphasis on the driving role of the government and the need for careful negotia-tions with private entities. Recommendations should be plugged in here when the report is finalized.

Inclusive education – Teachers for children with special needs: The presentations provided an eloquentpanorama describing needs and examples of inclusive education. Each panelist emphasized that allelements of inclusive education are fundamental for quality education for all children, in general.Inclusion is a process not an event. It is a matter of adapting the environment, the pedagogy, thecurriculum and rhythms of education, in order to take into account the individual needs of all children.And I liked the comment of the moderator yesterday when he commented that if you consider mydisability, are you not denying yourself the perception, your ability to perceive my disability. Thepresentations provided that the Indian government has policies in place for inclusive education that

.....gender should not be.....gender should not be.....gender should not be.....gender should not be.....gender should not be

seen as exclusively meaningseen as exclusively meaningseen as exclusively meaningseen as exclusively meaningseen as exclusively meaning

girls and women but as agirls and women but as agirls and women but as agirls and women but as agirls and women but as a

way of looking at issues ofway of looking at issues ofway of looking at issues ofway of looking at issues ofway of looking at issues of

equality and equity inequality and equity inequality and equity inequality and equity inequality and equity in

societysocietysocietysocietysociety


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follows on naturally from its rights-based education policies. Advocates and practitioners havesucceeded in mobilizing significant public opinion for an education that doesn’t define people withdisabilities or special needs through the lens of a medical issue but as an issue of social inclusiveness.The panel stressed that when education is inclusive all participants benefit - not other groups orindividuals that suffer discrimination, such as girls or minorities, but also teachers.

Teacher training is moving from the preparation of teachers specifically to teach those with specialneeds, to preparation of all teachers to take into account special needs - at least in principle. So theseprinciples are what we wanted your recommendations to put into practical measures. So I have noproblem with the long list of recommendations that this group submitted provided that we find a wayof operationalizing them at national level, institutional level and global level.

Finally, the final sub-theme is monitoring and evaluation of teacher policy reforms. I must confess thatI was impressed when I saw the initial list of people, the participants, who signed up for this theme. Iwas impressed by the interest it generated among the audience. This has been proven again by thereport on the recommendations.

India has, for some 20 years, developed a series of policieson most subjects related to EFA. It has good qualitystatistics on many aspects of education. It has developeda policy and is implementing the creation of DistrictInstitutions of Education and Training that are the focalpoint and implementers of policies on teacher training.The UNESCO institute of statistics, in addition to regularlyupdated survey on teacher gaps, is now developing,notably in Asia, set of data concerning teachers includingsome related to classroom performance. And I am glad toinform you that the task force has already started working

on it. It was when I was here that I received the concept note that we are preparing together withUSAID to finalize the framework for teacher indicators. So work is in progress, we’ll capitalize on yourrecommendations to improve and engage some of you in the process.

There is a recognized need for better information about better teacher training, teacher performanceand the teacher variables that have impact on learning outcomes. However, to be done, to connectpolicy to practice and monitoring to evaluation of learning outcomes, a lot remains to be done. In spiteof both policy commitment and advocacy for the use of open and distance learning for teacher pre-service and in-service training, evidence is lacking for what works. Similarly, the evidence is lackingconcerning the impact of short training courses on the classroom practice and on their outcomes.

So those are the key conclusions. On a short and quick way we have extracted this big discussion thattook place in this couple of days. We will refine, complete, and integrate the proper formulations andthe names of individuals who made those contributions so that the document becomes a historicaldocument marking another beginning for our concerted efforts to address teacher education issues inorder to achieve EFA goals. I thank you for your attention.

Mrs. Anshu Vaish

Thank you, Edem. Please join us. Steve?

Vote of Thanks

Mr. Steve Passingham

Co-chair of the International Task Force on Teachers for EFA European Commission

Ok. Thank you very much. As Co-chair of the task force, I would like to express our very warmappreciation and thanks to a number, all, of the people that have made this week possible and a

AAAAA ll elements of inclusivell elements of inclusivell elements of inclusivell elements of inclusivell elements of inclusive

education are fundamentaleducation are fundamentaleducation are fundamentaleducation are fundamentaleducation are fundamental

for quality education for allfor quality education for allfor quality education for allfor quality education for allfor quality education for all

children, in general.children, in general.children, in general.children, in general.children, in general.

Inclusion is a process notInclusion is a process notInclusion is a process notInclusion is a process notInclusion is a process not

an event.an event.an event.an event.an event.

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success. I will start with big thanks to the Government of India and would ask to pass on our sincerethanks to the Minister for his inspiring words at the beginning of yesterday and for yesterday’sdinner. We appreciate the very warm welcome we have had and the hospitality provided by theGovernment of India and to all the insightful sharing of the challenges India is grappling with inrelation to teacher issues. It has been a clear reminder of the absolute centrality of teachers in achievingEFA goals.

In particular, we would like to thank Amarjit Singh and his team. You have done an absolutelymagnificent job. You have provided us with a very rich and insightful, if sometimes very sobering,experience and you have set the bar really high for future events. Thank You.

We would also like to thank Edem Adubra and his team in the Task Force Secretariat. Together withAmarjit and his team, you have ensured the success of the task force meeting on Monday and of thispolicy forum. Thank you very much.

Likewise we extend our thanks to David Atchoarena, UNESCO for your solid collaboration with theGovernment of India in relation to this policy forum and other matters and for your continuingsupport for the Task Force.

I would like also – it’s been a, the source of the richness, I think, for much of this policy forum - I wouldalso like to thank the presenters, the persons who have been on this panel and all of the participantsfrom India. I know many of you have traveled a long way and you bring a rich diversity of yourexperience and expertise. Thank you very much for your valuable insights and all of the food forthought that you have given us.

I am not sure if there is anyone in the room but thank you also to the Ashok Hotel and its staff for theirvery warm welcome, very smooth organization and delicious taste of Indian cuisine. Thank You.

Not least, I would like to thank all of the Task Force members for your participation. Many of you havecome from many miles away, if not the other side of the world in some cases. It has been really good tomeet you all, both in the Task Force meeting on Monday and in this policy forum. It has been particularlyencouraging to welcome new members and to meet new focal points. I think we have had a greatopportunity for those of you who are new to get to know each other a little and hopefully we can buildon this success. In our meeting on Monday, we took many important decisions to ensure the mosteffective possible working of the task force and to better support your efforts to address the manychallenges you face in improving all aspects related to teachers in your countries.

I will finish my thanks with thanks to the Government of Indonesia for its support. It supported theTask Force in a number of ways including succourment of people to the secretariat in Paris and also inco-chairing the Task Force. It has been two and a half years of great contributions so - thank you,Government of Indonesia and welcome to the Government of India as co-chair of the next two years ofthe Task Force.

If I may, I would just make a few comments. Yesterday morning, the Minister challenged us all. Hechallenged us not just in new thinking for better policy and better practice. What does this challengeactually mean for us? It is a huge one. It means that we need to do a much better job of marrying whyand what of all the aspects in relation to teachers to how we can actually make a difference. It needsthinking through and discussing – how change happens and how any learning is applied and for usto answer for ourselves what difference our learning from each other will make in our own situations– both in other parts of India but also in other countries.

The Minister referred to new thinking. Another way of saying this is in terms of innovation. Just to giveone example of that – the whole issue, if I can use the phrase, it may not be universally popular but itis a sure hand - is the issue of teacher quality; the quality of teaching that students experience. We notonly need to focus on this as an absolutely critical challenge but we also need to do it in ways that takeinto account some of the realities we deal with – the realities of teachers’ lives, the reality of theirstarting points in terms of support or lack of support they get in becoming effective teachers. We also


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need to take into account the financing of education and be thinking much more rigorously about cost-effective ways of trying to provide the support that teachers need to become more effective teachers andto help their students to learn.

One of the things that has been mentioned a number of times is been the evidence base for better policyand better practice; the role of research and monitoring and evaluation. What do we know? Howsound is our knowledge? This is absolutely critical. We know that many political decisions in relationto education, and in many other areas, are taken not just on the basis of evidence: Inertia plays a role,sometimes its ideology. Sometimes, as Edem said just now, its emotions, sometimes its political populismor expediency. But our basis for arguing the case for education, arguing the case for more support andmore action on the whole range of challenges in relation to teachers, must be based on the strongestpossible evidence base. And we need, I think, to focus on telling stories, talking to the wider world andparticularly about success. Even in the best of circumstances, political attention and funding is limited.In some cases, some countries represented in this room, are going through particularly austere timeswhen a lot of political attention and funding for education, and therefore for teachers, is being challengedand in some cases diminished. We need to be much clearer amongst ourselves about not just resolvingthe issues that we have been discussing over the last couple of days, internally, amongst felloweducators but also to the wider world.

Yesterday morning at the beginning, just to conclude, Edem referred to battery charging. I think, thisweek has been a great opportunity to recharge. Success, of course, will depend on many factors butprimarily on all of us and how we communicate and learn from each other, how we share experiencesand we apply that learning. I am confident we have a strong basis to build on. Just, I reiterate, mythanks to all those who have been involved in this week. It has been an emphatic battery charge.Thank you very much.

Anshu Vaish

Thank you very much Steve. So this, I think, pretty much brings us to the close of the forum. It has beena very full two days for everybody here, I know. Well I will promise that we will finish very soon. It isa bit strange, I have to say, to make a closing address after the vote of thanks but since that is theexpectation, I will make a formal closing address, with your permission.

Friends you know that every year on the 5th of - you may know, you don’t all know - that on the 5th ofSeptember every year, India honors her teachers for their invaluable contribution to nation building bypreparing our children for being responsible citizens and responsible participants in society. 5th

September is the birthday of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, he was our former president, a greatteacher and an outstanding scholar. I call to mind the words of Dr. Radhakrishnan, and I quote:

“The aim of education is not the acquisition of information, although important, or acquisition oftechnical skills, though essential in modern society, but the development of that bent of mind, thatattitude of reason, that spirit of democracy which will make us responsible citizens”.

I believe that these words encapsulate the whole philosophy and approach to education. They urge usto introspect and think about some critical issues in our education system. To give you just two or threesuch issues:

What education purposes should the schools seek to achieve?

Are our schools achieving these educational purposes?

And if not what alternative educational experiences can be provided that are likely to achieve thesepurposes?

If there is one group of people who can and must answer these questions, I am sure you will all agreethat that group is of teachers. It is the real and lived experience of teachers with children in classroomsthat will inform us of the directions in which we ought to proceed; that will inform the roadmap that

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we set ourselves for the future. It is teachers who provide a safe space for children to express themselvesand who can create inclusive classrooms for all students. With universalization of school educationbecoming a real and achievable goal through EFA, more and more children from very diversebackgrounds have entered and will continue to enter our school systems. And in a country like India,many of these children will come from families who have never had the opportunity of schooling atall. So these children will be first generation school goers and there is a pretty large number of them inour schools now as a result of our universalization of elementary education program and the Right toEducation Act. Many of these children, many of these first generation school goers, would have variedand wide ranging life-experiences. The challenge before teachers is to build on their experiences andensure that every child participates in the learning process. And the challenge before us as policymakers, implementers and administrators is to ensure that the teachers already within the system areenabled to manage this change, their capacities are built to manage this change and the new ones thatare selected, are selected for their aptitude and their commitment to the teaching profession. Anybodywho has been associated with the school education in any capacity, recognizes that of all the elementsthat are required for inclusive and relevant quality education (on which we will have an E9 meetingtomorrow, this is the theme of the E9 meeting tomorrow), anybody who has been associated with theschool education will realize that of all the elements that are required for such an education, teachersare perhaps the most crucial. Children will learn only in an atmosphere where they feel they arevalued. And India’s National Policy on Education states in this context and again I quote,

“A warm welcoming and encouraging approach, in which all concerned share a solicitude for the needs ofthe child, is the best motivation for the child to attend school and to learn”

In other words, the best buildings, the best curricula, the best textbooks will not translate necessarilyinto learning unless there are motivated and sensitive teachers. In many countries, our schools still donot covey to all children, the sense of being valued and the sense that learning is something that isjoyful, that learning is not something to be feared, it is not something stressful. Teachers need to stepout of the role of moral authority and learn to listen to children with empathy without judging them.They also need to enable children to listen to one another in the classroom and create an atmosphereof trust in the classrooms - particularly for girls and children of underprivileged social groups. ForIndia, this kind of inclusion is extremely important and I am fairly sure that the same applies to manycountries across the world. But while we realize the need for all of these things to happen, as policymakers and administrators what do we do to translate this vision into reality. These challengesobviously existed even when access to education was restricted and our classrooms were thereforerelatively homogeneous. With universalization and increasingly heterogeneous classrooms, the chal-lenges are further compounded. Universalization has also led to a significant increase in the demandfor education, as we know, and a consequential increase in societal aspirations as well. Obviouslyeach country and each society needs to find its own answers to these challenges and in a countrywhich is as diverse as India, each state needs to find its own answers to these challenges.

What India realized a decade ago was that the right to education needed to be given the status of afundamental right in our constitution. And so we saw the constitutional amendment to bring inArticle 21 A for this purpose in 2002. So in 2002 the right to elementary education became the funda-mental right of every child between the ages of six and fourteen in this country. Then followed a longprocess of drafting, in consultation with 34 states and union territories, the Right to Education billwhich came into force, the Act came into force, on the 1st of April 2010. And, as I said, this gives everychild, between the ages of six and fourteen, the right to free and compulsory education. This act, theRight to Education Act, represents a momentous step forward in our struggle to universalize elemen-tary education. We have had a program in place for a decade, since 2001-02, we have had the SarvaShiksha Abhiyaan program being implemented. The successes of this program are phenomenal and yetthere was something missing till we made this a right of every child because now that right is justi-ciable. A child that is denied a benefit under a program cannot go to court but a child that is denied aright under a legal, under legislation, can go to court – can obtain that right through the court.


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Simultaneously, however, the Right to Education Act poses the biggest ever challenge for the teachersof this country. While the Act seeks to make life easy for teachers in many ways - by proscribing thepupil-teacher ratios, by mandating that the teacher vacancies in any school will not exceed ten percentof the sanctioned strength of teachers and by providing that teachers shall not be deployed for non-academic work except work like census and elections and disaster relief which we cannot actuallyperform without, you know, bringing in the teacher force - the legislation also has high, very highexpectations from teachers: These include their full involvement with the functions of the schoolmanagement committees and accountability towards the local authorities regarding the rights ofchildren and their entitlements. The Act also lays down the academic responsibilities if teachers interms of what they should teach, how many hours and days they should teach, how they should teachand how they should evaluate students continuously and comprehensively. In fact, the Right toEducation Act invokes a moral response from the teaching profession. It recognizes that while theteachers should be able to safe-guard their dignity and their rights as members of an esteemed profes-sion, there should be no compromise with errant behaviour on the part of teachers.

Yesterday the Minister for Human Resource and Development touched upon the role of ICT in educa-tion and in particular in teacher education. Today, education is not considered complete withoutinitiation into the world of ICT which has the potential to transform the means of acquiring andaccessing information. The use of non-textual approaches to learning can lead to improved learnerengagement and motivation. It is important that teachers see ICT as a natural part of quality teachingand learning. The challenge therefore now is to expand the reach of ICT enabled education to allschools in the country. But before we can extend ICT to all schools in the country, we need to expandthe reach of ICT to all teacher education and training institutions; and to incorporate the skills of ICTenabled teaching and learning into professional courses for teachers. I am sorry, actually, to note thatat present there are many of our teacher education institutions which do not have facilities for this andwe hope that the new teacher education program, which we have very recently rolled out, will providefacilities of this kind to teacher education institutions, at least to those that are run, set up and man-aged by the government.

The Government of India has recently drafted a policy on ICT in schools and this policy is expected tobe approved within the coming few days. I am happy to say that this policy hinges on the centrality ofthe teacher and alerts implementers against seeking to supplant teachers with the use of e-content andICT based teaching. We must remember that, we must recognize and remember that ICT is not apanacea for all our ills in the school system and ICT should be used not to drive education but toenable education – it must strengthen the hand of the teacher but must not seek to replace the teacher.And I think that this is very important to acknowledge and for implementers to remember when theyare rolling out the implementation of the policy.

As this forum draws to a close I am reminded of something else that Dr. Radhakrishnan said and Iquote:

“Respect for teachers cannot be ordered, it must be earned”.

I believe that it is up to all of us to build the capacities of our teachers so that they take pride in theirprofession, in their job and in the children that they teach. We owe it to our teachers and to ourchildren to restore the stature and prestige of teachers in society.

Before I close I would like to reiterate that India feels privileged indeed to have the opportunity to hostthese three international events on EFA. We started with the Steering Committee of the InternationalTask Force for teachers on EFA followed by a meeting of the general body of the Task Force on the firstday (on that day itself). Yesterday, the Honorable Minister for HRD, Shri Kapil Sibal, inaugurated this4th International Policy Dialogue Forum on teacher challenges for EFA in India and tomorrow we goon to the meeting of E9 countries on teacher development for inclusive, relevant quality education.

We have had extremely meaningful and rich discussions through these three days and I have abso-

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lutely no doubt that tomorrow’s deliberations will be equally fruitful and enriching. I would like totake this opportunity to thank all the governments, all the organizations, institutions and the indi-viduals who have participated in the event so far and will participate in the meeting tomorrow. Inparticular, I would like to thank the International Task Force for teachers for EFA for providing us achance to partner with them and for dedicating this forum to the issues around teachers in India.Thank You.

I would like to specially mention the co-chairs of the task force, Miss Poppy Dewi Puspitawati and Mr.Steve Passingham, who is co-chair on behalf of the European Commission, the Steering Committeetask force members, Ms. Winsome Gordon, from Jamiaca and Mr. Alessandro Ricoveri from the EC, aswell, the Secretariat for the International task force for teachers on EFA, Mr. Edem Adubra, who is herewith me, Ms. Shivali Lawale and Ms Makedda Yohannes. Could you please stand where you are?Thank you. Thank you very much.

I would also specially like to thank UNESCO, UNICEF and the EC for their constant help and supportin organizing this forum, and indeed the three events that we have organized here over these fourdays. Heartfelt thanks are due to all the speakers, moderators, rappaoteaurs, participants in the exhibi-tion and participants in the forum. I must particularly acknowledge the consistent help and guidancefrom NUEPA, especially Professor Govinda and Professor Ramachandran, in the academic organiza-tion of this forum. Professor Padma Saranagapani of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, ProfessorJanaki Rajan of Jamia Milia Islamia, Shri Dilip Ranjekar of the Azim Premji Foundation and ProfessorPoonam Batra of Delhi University, also helped and advised in conceptualizing and organizing theacademic aspects of the forum. I warmly thank them all.

I acknowledge with gratitude the presence of representatives of our state governments and I mentionthis as well - I was overwhelmed by the presence of state governments in this event. Their response hasbeen most heart warming and I am confident that they would have benefited greatly from the delibera-tions of this forum. I also join Steve in thanking the Ashok Hotel and its entire staff, even if they maynot be here now, for organizing the hospitality for the participants and for taking care of their needs,however small. I would also like to thank the media for their role in spreading the message of EFA andthe role of teachers in achieving EFA goals. I would also like to thank the Ministries of External Affairsand Home Affairs, as well as the Delhi Government, and the Archaeological Survey of India, for theirhandholding and their assistance in organizing various aspects of these events.

Finally, I would like to thank my own Joint Secretary, Dr. Amarjit Singh, and Director, Dr. SuparnaPachauri and the entire team of officers and helpers that they led for the organization of these interna-tional events. This team worked tirelessly for many weeks to ensure that every event is well organizedand is conducted smoothly – without them none of this would have been possible and no one realizesthis and recognizes this more than I do. I extend my warm and heartfelt thanks to each one of them fortheir complete involvement, commitment and their pride in organizing these international events.Thank you all very much – you are my own but I must thank you. I would be remiss if I didn’t.

I would now like to invite on the dais the names – well, Steve is here, Edem is here already; Winsome,please could you join us here? This is for the, for us to be able to give you some mementos, I believe –those are Amarjit’s orders. So Amarjit, maybe, you can join us here as well. Mr. Allessadro Ricovericould you please join us, Shivali and Makedda Yohannes. Steve, thank you so much.


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Agenda

29-30 May 2012

Ashoka ITDC, New Delhi, INDIA


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Varsha Hooja

The whole community approach to inclusive education

“Ignorance … is a guarantee of marginalisation.” Lewin (2000: 23)

• The micro level or The whole school approachwas the level of classroom and school valuesand culture and looked at schooldevelopment and training.

• The mezzo level was The whole communityapproach and focused on an action researchunder which inclusive services weredeveloped within the community.

• The macro level was The whole policyapproach, addressing policy and legislation,at the local, state, national, international level.This included the whole rights approachmoving away from service delivery to thematter of rights and entitlements.

An inclusive society values everyone and doesnot differentiate and discriminate on the basis ofgender, race, caste, class or disability. Inclusionmeans all castes, religions, races, boys and girls,whatever their aptitudes, learning and workingtogether. It involves schools, communities andpolitics. Inclusion is a journey, a process andneeds preparation. A critical component ofinclusive education involves having a sustainingrelationship with local communities.

Building the capacity of the parents and trust in

the community

NCRI has always recognized the importance ofpartnering with parents. This is a radical departurefrom the usual practice prevalent in India;wherein the medical and para-medicalprofessionals are treated as being demi - Godfigures, whose word is law. They are also used tobeing the final authority on all subjects related tochild health, both mental and physical. Thoughthe professionals do have their benefits, theparents in this setup are reduced to being helpfulbystanders if not gofers at the beck and call of theMedical Gods, rather than being a fount ofinformation where their child is concerned. Thatthe parents are the experts on their children issidelined in this setup.

This is the story of a journey that began in 1972when children with multiple disabilities wereconsidered uneducable and Dr. Mithu Alur setup the first innovative model for the education ofchildren with multiple disabilities in India, underthe aegis of The Spastics Society of India.

Moving away from the prevalent ‘hospitalsetting,’ a special school was begun using amultidisciplinary approach combining educationand treatment under one roof. With themodifications introduced and the concessionslobbied for and obtained, the students were ableto pursue Higher Education and TechnicalEducation. Today the first generation of learnershave become accountants, journalists, computerexperts. They have pursued academics at theMasters and Ph.D. level. 18 of the 31 Indian stateshave replicated the same model. However.......allthe centres of excellence in the country could onlytouch the tip of the iceberg.

A research on government of India policy, theIntegrated Child Development Scheme or the ICDSfound that 90 per cent of children with disabilitieswere being left out of government programs.It was felt that the exclusion in the ICDSprogrammes, reflected the wider malaise of thelack of a cohesive policy in the country that hadresulted in a massive exclusion that left close tofive million disabled children under the age offive out of the safety net of existing services (Alur1998). It became critical to change this and in 1999,the Spastics Society moved away from segregatededucation to the concept of inclusive education,setting up the National Resource Centre forInclusion (NRCI), where children with or withoutdisability studied together side by side. The mainaim was to operationalise inclusive education intoexisting Government practice throughdemonstrating how inclusion works.

At the NRCI, inclusion means ALL children whoface barriers to learning, especially sociallydisadvantaged children; the girl child and thechild with disability. Inclusion was addressed atthree levels:


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NCRI began raising the capacity of the parents,involving them as decision makers andtransforming them into resource people. Regularparent meetings, home visits, home managementprograms and awareness rallies were held toenhance interaction between the supposedprofessionals and the parents. Women’sempowerment groups, Mahila Mandals were setup and information on health and hygiene,literacy, gender issues and importance ofinclusive education was disseminated at thesesessions. Training programs for parents were acritical part of the transformation process. Parentswere trained to support their child’s inclusionthrough providing a continuum of support.Parents Support Groups for Inclusion wereintroduced where they could come together andspeak about their apprehensions and challenges.Often parents of students who had earlier beenincluded were invited to share their experienceswith the group.

Changing parents’ attitudes was critical, as theyhave been among the most sceptical and hesitantabout inclusion. They saw our special schools asproviding a caring and supportive environmentand did not want to risk losing this. Most parentsadmitted to being anxious initially about theirchild’s inclusion. Their fears pertained mainly toapprehensions about the reactions of non-disabled peers, the teasing and adjustments theirchildren would have to make, toileting issues, theattitudes of teachers and how their childrenwould be supported in the regular school, andwhether their children would be able to copeacademically. We held ‘mock sessions’ and roleplayed the procedure. This built their confidenceto answer questions and speak to the authorities.

After inclusion the overall attitude of parents wasextremely positive. They reported that theirchildren too felt that the “normal” school wasmuch better. Parents valued the increasedinteraction of their children with non-disabledpeers, and the confidence and independence thatresulted. Self-confidence of parents alsoincreased, and it was apparently evident to otherparents. In one case, the mother of a child whohad transitioned to a mainstream school waselected by the other mothers of children in herdaughter’s class to be the class parentrepresentative for the school. Generally, parentsrecommended that inclusion had to start as earlyas possible and that parents had to be reachedwith information and awareness-building so theycould help lead the way.

The empowered parents took ownership forincluding their children into regular schools, andestablished effective relationships with theteachers. They now refer to the specialists onlywhen they need them.

Empowering the Community

We had been working in Dharavi, Asia’s largestslum since 1985 and Community participationand involvement had been an integral part of ourwork. Our staff was employed from within thecommunity, local women who had completedtheir schooling who knew the community. Wetrained them to make home visits, encouragefamilies to send children to schools. Regular inservice training on the causes and identificationof disability, teaching strategies, the philosophyof inclusion was carried out through an

Regular parent teacher meetings helped

empower the parents

Street plays helped spread the message of

inclusion within the community


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interactive, participatory process converting thewomen into “Multipurpose Workers” who weretaught to handle diverse situations and providesupport.

Substantial work was done with the key personsfrom the community and with not just the parentsbut all members of the joint and extended families.Local Leaders and slumlords, influential peoplein the community were addressed through streetplays, rallies, door-to-door visits. They had to beconvinced that the service had nothing to do withpolitical gain. Once they saw the benefit ofinclusion, they became our advocates.Neighbourhood school principals and teacherswere given orientations to disability.

The three D’s of work are: Deprofessionalization;Demystification and Deinstitutionalization.

In order to produce a cooperative and collaborativepartnership instead of an authoritarian andhierarchical one, a deprofessionalization exercisehad to be carried out. These are the Three R’s:Retraining of the professionals into the contextand culture of the community; relocation awayfrom the institute to the community andredeployment of time: introducing another set ofpriorities. As a result, professionals learned toaccept the expertise of parents.

Deinstitutionalization refers to the moving awayfrom specialised settings to the community setting

involving parents. This was not easy and tookthe professionals a while to adjust to however

Disability and inclusion is surrounded by amystique and the general perception is that

professionals are needed to address this. We havetried to demystify this through involving theparents and the community.

Conclusion

Inclusion is a collaborative effort. Engaging thecommunity strengthens the community to takeownership of the programme. A wholecommunity approach is critical to create aninclusive environment.

References

Alur, M. (2003) Strengthening the Community fromWithin: A Whole Community Approach to InclusiveEducation in Early Childhood. Paper presented atThe North South Dialogue II: From Rhetoric toPractice, Kerala, India.

Alur, M (2003) Invisible Children – A Study of PolicyExclusion, Viva Books Private Limited, New Delhi

Alur, M. and Rioux, M. (2003) ‘Included’: AnExploration of Six Early Education Pilot Projects forChildren with Disabilities in India.Final report.Mumbai: SSI/UNICEF Project.

Alur, M, Rioux, M & Evans, J. (2004); CulturallyAppropriate Policy and Practice (CAPP) II– the WholeCommunity Approach; National Resource Centrefor Inclusion, Mumbai.

Alur, M (2010) Family Perspective: Parent andPartnership published in the book entitled,‘Confronting Obstacles to Inclusion: Internationalresponses to developing inclusive education’edited by Rose, R.; David Foulton Book, London,pg. 61-73. 2010

Booth, T. (1998) ‘From them to Us’ Routledge

Mani, M.N.G. (2001) ‘Inclusion: INDIA is way ahead’,Success & Ability, India’s Cross-disabilityMagazine, Ability Foundation, Chennai, India.


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Suzana Andrade Brinkmann

Concept Note: Designing a Long-Term Teacher Mentoring Plan

government training program. She comes to thetraining program not because she particularlywants to, but because her authorities havemandated that she must – even though she hasattended so many of these trainings before andhas heard most of what they have to say. She isreluctant to leave her students unattendedwithout a teacher, and she will fall quitebehind in covering her portions. Moreover,the government has not provided anyaccommodation for participants so she must traveltwo hours to reach the training centre eachmorning and back.

When she comes to the training, she is told thatmost of what she has been doing until that pointis wrong – that her 20 years of hard efforts andexperience in dealing with children day in andday out do not count. Her confidence in her ownabilities and thinking is shattered, and she mustlisten quietly while an Expert at the front lecturesabout the ‘right’ way to teach – the ‘learner-centered’ approach. Even though the Expert atthe front is lecturing to her that ‘learning comesfrom doing’, her own long years of ‘doing’ is notcounted, her own hard work and rich experiencedo not matter as much as what the expert says.

She writes down everything she hears, but insideshe feels, how can the Lecturer really understandthe day-to-day struggle she will face when shereturns to her classroom? How can she put allthese new theories into practice when she has anovercrowded classroom with children of differentages, some of whom don’t even understand thelanguage of the textbooks, most of them whosimply can’t keep up, and when she already hasa huge syllabus to complete? Why should she tryto add these new ‘activities’ on top of it, as if shedidn’t have enough to do? How can she evenknow where to begin, when she has never seenthis new approach being done in practice, whenshe herself has never experienced this ‘learner-centered approach’? But she would not dare tobring up these issues because she is too scared of

For over a decade, recent education reform effortsin India such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyanprogram, the National Curriculum Framework2005, and the Right to Education Act 2010 haveattempted to bring a paradigm shift in Indianclassrooms, from a ‘teacher-centred’ to a more‘learner-centred’ paradigm, where the teacher actsas a facilitator in guiding the child’s active processof knowledge construction in a learningenvironment that is participatory, inclusive andjoyful for every child. In-service teacher trainingin particular has been promoted in SSA as a keyvehicle for bringing this paradigm shift amongteachers. SSA has spent over Rs 1700 crores from2001 to 2010 in order to provide 20 days of in-service training every year for governmentteachers across the country. However, ten yearsafter the inception of SSA and six years after thepublication of NCF 2005, the 11th Joint ReviewMission of SSA (2010) reported that despiteenormous investments in quality improvementinitiatives under SSA, the vision of NCF 2005 isstill a long way from being translated into mostclassrooms: “The ‘chalk and talk’ or teacherinstruction still dominates the classrooms…after anumber of years of implementing in-service teachertraining, it is not clear what type of impact suchtraining has had on improvements in the classroomprocesses” (p.35-37).

Why have our training programs so far failed intranslating the vision of NCF 2005 into practicein our classrooms? It is not for lack of goodintentions, efforts, investments or programs –these have been considerable in the last decade.Keeping in mind the larger systemic issues andconstraints impeding change in our classrooms,how can we catalyse in-service training programsunder SSA to truly bring transformation in ourclassrooms?

Why our trainings fail

Consider the case of Prabha, an average villagegovernment school teacher attending a


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the Trainer to say anything, and nobody asks herwhat she thinks anyway, no one takes the time tounderstand what are the real problems she facesand what is the kind of help she really wants.Some Expert who has never met her, who sits faraway in an office very different from her realclassroom, has already designed beforehand whattopics the training program will cover. And soshe treats this training just like every other: Simplyanother formality she must complete, rather thansomething that could actually help her become abetter teacher.

Can this really be a suitable learning environmentfor teachers? Are we surprised that we do not seethe results we hope to see?

Apart from the larger systemic obstacles restrictingchange (inconducive syllabi, assessment systems,available resources, etc.), many of the factorscontributing to the low impact of teacher trainingprograms are avoidable and can in fact bechanged. Some of these factors include:

• Training modules are often designed by‘experts’ at the top, who have little personalexperience of elementary teaching, and whoassume that children are homogenous andall learn the same way, and that teachers arehomogenous and all require the same inputs.This leads to standardized modules that donot relate to real classroom challenges, andto teachers who are not empowered to thinkfor themselves – they are expected to simplyfollow the reforms prescribed by the thinkersat the top.

• Training is imparted through a ‘cascade

mode’, leading to transmission loss at each

successive level of training, and to Trainers

who have not have fully internalized a

‘learner-centred’ approach and thus are not

able to effectively communicate it to teachers

• Teacher training programs often do not reflect

a learner-centered methodology, but are

delivered through lectures or transmission of

knowledge by experts, thus teachers never get

to see or experience the leaner-centred

approach being advocated

• Teachers lack a clear vision of what they are

aiming to achieve, or have not been

adequately convinced of the effectiveness of

the new approach in order to put in the extrawork that it takes. When the training fails tomotivate or inspire them, teachers’ attitudeto training may be to simply get it over with.

• Training does not address underlying beliefsand mindsets: Many teachers (as well asparents and administrators) in our societycarry deeply rooted beliefs about children,education, relationships, etc., often stemmingfrom the surrounding culture, and which areoften at odds with learner-centred pedagogy.Some examples include:

o A belief that children of certainbackgrounds/ gender are less capable oflearning;

o A hierarchical culture where authorityfigures decide, and others listen and obey,or where children are seen as property tobe controlled by adults;

o A belief that there is one right answer,that the textbook is the only source ofvalid knowledge, and that no learninghas taken place unless students write the‘correct’/ textbook answer – thusmistakes should not be tolerated;

o A notion that the goal of education is tosucceed in examinations in order to get agood job (thus no times for ‘activities’)

o A belief that all children/ teachers willlearn in the same way and thus requirethe same inputs (whether teaching ortraining);

o An assumption that the teacher’s duty isto ‘cover the syllabus’, and if studentsdon’t learn, it’s their own fault.

Yet most training programs focus merely on

imparting technical skills, and fail to address

these deeply embedded cultural beliefs and social

ethos. Thus any changes during training are only

superficial – once teachers return to the classroom,

they fall back on the beliefs that they have grown

up with and that they are surrounded by every

day.

• Teachers lack a practical understanding of

how to implement learner-centered activities:


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According to research, one of the majorreasons cited by teachers for their failure toimplement learner-centered teaching is: Theydon’t know how! Training often fails toaddress the practical realities or to giveteachers enough experiential exposure of howto create activities that relate to the textbooks,how to conduct them with students, how tomanage multi-grade situations, etc.

• Lack of hands-on support: Even a sincerecommitted teacher who tries to implement thetraining will face obstacles, and she needssomeone who can encourage her and helpher resolve her questions or doubts. This isoften not present since follow-up and on-sitesupport is often minimal.

• Lack of support from administration orauthorities: Often the authorities to whomteachers must report (whether headmasters,school inspectors or administrative officers)have not internalized the new approachthemselves, thus teachers feel constrained toimplement the new approaches in theirteaching.

Unfortunately, teacher training is often viewedas the acquisition of new techniques or skills, andour search is often for finding the ‘right way’ ofdoing things – ‘best practices’ or innovations thatwe must train teachers to implement. But it doesnot work like this. We cannot see teachers asmerely technicians who must be trained in specificskills or knowledge. Teaching is about more thanjust teachers’ subject knowledge or pedagogicalskills; it relates to fundamental assumptions aboutthe world, human beings, relationships, purpose.It must deal with the whole person, with teachersas human beings, and as such it must addressdifferent dimensions of the teacher as a whole:their underlying beliefs, their attitudes & values,and their external practice in the classroom.

For any educational reform, teachers must be thekey players. This sort of change in teachers cannotbe imposed by the system from the top; teacherscannot be ‘programmed’ to change by externalexperts or policymakers or teacher trainingseminars. This kind of change will never take root,and will soon die away, after the dynamic officialhas moved on or with the next change in

leadership. The desire and vision for change mustcome from within teachers themselves. Unlessteachers understand and design their ownstrategies for change, they will naturally resistreforms that are imposed from outside and thatdo not come from their own thinking. Teacherslike any other human beings are capable ofdelivering much better in their own classrooms ifthey are given exposure to different ideas andresources, and if they are allowed autonomy,freedom, and scope to experiment.

In this scenario, the role of the system is not toimpose change on teachers, but to empower teachersto think, discuss, reflect, and themselves takeownership over their curriculum and teachingprocess, coming up with their own solutions.Training should be concerned with who teachersare as human beings, nurturing them through aprocess of personal transformation, whichawakens an inner desire and vision for change.Then, only after that, they should be equippedwith the practical skills that can enable them toimplement their own renewed vision – by seeingthe new approach for themselves, experiencing itfor themselves, practising it themselves (duringthe training workshop), and collaborativelyreflecting on their practice themselves.

Teacher training that works

Think back to the most important things you havelearned in your life. Though some things may havebeen learned in school, in reality most of theimportant wisdom and lessons we learn in life,we learn outside the classroom. We mostly learnthem from our experiences, from our friends, fromour family – people we trust, whom we admire,with whom we feel comfortable. It is throughhonest conversations and dialogues, with friendswith whom we can discuss, debate, listen openly,and share from our hearts, that we learn newtruths which remain with us and which can trulychange us.

The same is true of the new things we learn in ourwork life. As professionals, we learn new andbetter ways of doing our work based on our ownexperience, when we experiment something newand it works well, when we reflect on whysomething we tried may not have worked well,


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when we discuss new ideas with our colleagues,or when we see a friend or colleague doingsomething that we admire or that inspires us.

Similarly, as a teacher, it is when I see with myown eyes a simple, doable, better way of doingthings, when I share and discuss with my friends,try it for myself, and continually receive positiveencouragement and suggestions from friends onhow I can do it even better, that I will gain theconfidence to try new things to improve mypractice. No human being will truly open theirheart to someone whom they are afraid of,someone who criticizes them, someone who doesnot come to them as a friend and an equal. It isfellow teachers and fellow human beings whomteachers will open their hearts to, whom they willlisten to and discuss with openly, who they willtruly learn from.

How can we design training programs forteachers that replicate such types of positivelearning environments for teachers: where theycan gain confidence in their own abilities, beaffirmed in the positive things they may alreadydoing, be exposed to simple new ways of doingthings, and receive encouragement and supportfrom a Mentor who inspires them to achieve better?How can we create teacher training programswhere true sharing can take place among acommunity of equals exploring and learningtogether?

If we look at international research on what makesteacher training programs effective, MichaelFullan and Andy Hargreaves (1992) argue thatprofessional development needs to focus on thedevelopment of ‘total teachers’, by addressing fourdifferent dimensions: the teacher’s purpose, theteacher as a person, the real world context in whichteachers work, and the culture of teaching, that is,teachers’ professional relationships with otherswithin the system. This can be done through fourimportant focus areas: personal vision-building,reflective inquiry, mastery of skills, andcollaborative work cultures (Fullan 1993).

Research from different countries around theworld (UNESCO 2004, Darling-Hammond andMcLaughlin 1995, Ramachandran 2009) suggeststhat teachers are more likely to change theirteaching when:

1. The training is based on needs identified bythe teachers themselves

2. The training affirms what teachers alreadyknow and can do, and link new knowledgeto build on that

3. The teachers have opportunities to worktogether as they learn from each other

4. Instead of listening to experts telling themwhat they should do, teachers participate ina variety of interactive structured activitiesand planned experiences (eg. case studies,demonstrations, video recordings of teachersin classrooms, discussion groups, micro-teaching, role playing, etc.)

5. When teachers are empowered to think forthemselves and design changes in their ownschools, pedagogy and classrooms, eventeachers with minimal formal education andtraining have been found able to bringdramatic changes to their classrooms andstudent achievement

6. The teachers are encouraged to apply whatthey have learned both during the trainingand in their own classrooms, and to thenreflect, receive feedback/support, modify,and try again

7. Teacher development is continuous, offeringa rich menu of platforms and opportunitiesfor teachers to learn, rather than only one-time training workshops

8. A culture of trust, collaboration and localproblem-solving is encouraged, rather thanteachers feeling scared to experiment or makemistakes, and encouraged to hide theirproblems

In short, effective training programs must:1. Empower teachers to think for themselves

and come up with their own solutions,through a sense of feeling valued andrespected as human beings, seeingthemselves as professionals, and believingthey have the power to change things

2. Inspire teachers, by exposing them to newideas, allowing them to experience the newapproach for themselves, building a personal


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Examples from our own country suggest that the above principles do work. For example,

Kalikayatna, an NGO working with government teachers in Karnataka, has explained that the

secret to the tremendous changes they have been able to bring in existing government schools,

is that they refuse to offer teachers any ready-made solutions or fancy materials. Instead, they

simply expose teachers to a few new ideas, and then give them opportunities to think for

themselves. The Facilitators merely support them in that process, and give them space to try

out their own strategies and methods, and to share their experiences with their colleagues.

According to one of the trainers, “They HAVE to put their brains together, and come up with a

solution. Even if it takes a little time, they have to arrive at the solutions. You can have the best of

modules, best of materials, but NOTHING will sink in unless teachers are able to own the process. It

cannot come from the outside; it has to come from her. Maybe it will come in a very crude and unpolished

way, and it can be fine-tuned later. But the initial change gets established through the teachers’ reflection

processes. Our training or facilitation is simply about strengthening the roots of a teacher – their own

confidence and creativity. If she is growing and empowered, all kinds of fruits will emerge – and they

will be unique for every teacher. That is our belief.” (Interview with Gowri, Kalikayatna, Bangalore,

19 Oct 2010).

vision and internal motivation for change,and promoting a commitment toconstitutional values

3. Convince teachers that the new pedagogyindeed works better, based on tangibleevidence, direct observation of the impact onchildren, a deeper understanding of howchildren learn, examining their beliefs andassumptions, and their own trial and error

Equip teachers thoroughly with practical skills,simple strategies and easily-accessible resourcesand support, so that they feel it is doable and canconfidently apply it in their everyday classrooms.

A new approach: Teacher mentoring

This kind of teacher development requires a shift:From seeing it as one-time ‘training programs’, toseeing it as a long-term process of ‘teachermentoring’. It requires creating and sustaining aculture of teacher professionalism where teachersthemselves are empowered to become agents oftransformation, by equipping them with the clearvision, understanding and skills they require todesign their own path and strategies for change,along with the freedom and support needed forthem to implement it.

For this, the following framework for TeacherMentoring is proposed, focusing on four key

dimensions (that spell out the word C-A-R-E):

Each of these is explained in more detail below:

Continuous Collaboration

This requires an overall shift to a culture ofdemocratic rather than hierarchical relationships,at every level of the system, starting at the verytop levels. We need to stop seeing all teachers asthe problem and instead start seeing at least someof them as the solution. The NGO Eklavya, whiletraining teachers in Madhya Pradesh to useinnovative textbooks, noted that “it is thedemocratization of the training process that holdsthe key to change in beliefs and attitudes...Aboveall, sitting and eating together, sharing fun and

1. Continuous Collaboration amongteachers and academic supportsystems;

2. Attitudinal Changes throughinspiration, vision-building & focus onteachers’ values;

3. Reflective Learning where teachersreflect critically on their beliefs andpractice'

4. Experiential Learning throughworkshops that are learner-centeredand practical;


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anger and living with teachers as equals is whatbuild firm bridges between them and us” (Batra2010). This involves seeing teachers asprofessionals, and nurturing a culture of sharedlearning and accountability, through strategiessuch as:

• Involving teachers themselves in formulatingpolicies and programs, in determiningtraining needs and topics, and in designingtraining modules;

• Building caring and democratic relationshipsbetween teachers and Training/ MonitoringOfficials, where teachers feel valued andrespected as human beings and colleagues;

• Encouraging peer learning among teachersthrough regular monthly Reflection Meetingsand/or conducting follow-up workshopsthroughout the year, where teachers have achange to discuss their successes andchallenges, to reflect on and learn from theirmistakes, and to brainstorm solutionstogether;

• A strong network of Teacher Mentors whothemselves have classroom experience andwho can continually offer hands-on classroomsupport, handholding, encouragement andappreciation to teachers;

• Providing affirmation and support to well-performing teachers, and bringing role modelsto the forefront;

• Creating forums for a Learning Communityof teachers and educators, includingplatforms and mechanisms which enableteachers to interact as professionals, not onlyamong themselves but also with otherprofessionals such as scientists, scholars andcollege teachers, to use libraries, laboratoriesor internet facilities, to access interestingteaching and learning material, meet otherteachers and educators, and attendworkshops of their choice.

Attitudinal changes

Teachers’ attitudes can be addressed throughstrategies that inspire and touch teachers, suchas:

• Focus on building relationships amongTrainers and Teachers: The more Trainers are

willing to share from their own personalstories of change and learning, the moreteachers will be encouraged to be authenticand open in their learning;

• Focus on building values: Good teaching isless about what teachers know and moreabout who they are as human beings.Training must promote values ofinclusiveness, equality, integrity, commitmentto the practice of democracy, a love forchildren, commitment to children’s learning,a personal desire to learn and grow.Ultimately it is the teacher’s love and concernfor each student that drives her to excellencein teaching – this is what we must inspire;

• Inspiring teachers by targeting their affectivedomains, through inspiring stories, films,writings, real life examples, resource persons,activities and discussions that touch teachers’hearts and inspire them with a desire forchange;

• Building a clear vision of what they canachieve, by providing plenty of exposure towhat change could look like – exposure toinnovative schools or teachers, successfulworking models, good books, demonstrationsof activities;

• Selection of strong Trainers who are effectivecommunicators and who are themselvesmotivated and committed to change.

Reflective learning

Training must challenge some of teachers’fundamental beliefs about teaching and learning,about children, etc. which can sometimes be apainful or resisted process, and requires anenvironment where teachers feel safe andconfident to take that challenging step ofquestioning their beliefs and practice. This canbe encouraged by:

• Allowing plenty of opportunities for personaland group reflection (eg. journals, reflectiontime, homework, thought-provokingquestions, discussions, debates, sharingtimes), encouraging teachers to reflect on theirprevious experiences, their own teachingpractice, their strengths and weaknesses,their philosophy of education, to examine


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their assumptions and biases, to questionthemselves and others ;

• Getting teachers to put themselves inchildren’s shoes: One of the most importantqualities we can promote among teachers isempathy – getting them to look at theirteaching from a child’s perspective, to trulyunderstand children and how they think,what they like, the problems they face, whythey have trouble learning, and what cantruly help them learn;

• Encouraging a culture of lifelong learning,instilling in teachers a love of reading, a desireto improve, helping them identify areas inwhich they want to grow, and providingexposure to good reading materials;

• Demystifying theory of pedagogy: Ratherthan just providing teachers with quick-fixesand superficial tips or tools for improvinglearning in different subjects, teachers mustbe enabled to delve deeper into thefoundational elements of each discipline insimplified terms, and to conceptuallyunderstand the pedagogical rationale behindactivities in different subjects, so that they candesign better strategies and activities on theirown;

• Teachers’ own subject mastery also needs tobe looked at more closely, in terms of theirability to deliver the curriculum well. Needsassessment should be undertaken of teachers’own confidence in delivering the elementaryschool curriculum, which can then feedbackinto needs-based teacher training foraddressing areas of weakness.

Experiential learning

Training workshops must allow teachers toexperience for themselves the active andparticipatory methodologies that they areexpected to implement with children, and mustalso provide them opportunities to actually planand practice conducting activities (if possiblewith real children), with the support of thetrainers.

• ‘Learner-centred pedagogy’ believes thatlearners learn better when they are involvedin the learning process, when learning is

related to their daily life experiences andenvironment, and interactive discussions areencouraged whereby learners arrive atinsights on their own, with the help of peersand a facilitator. These principles must beapplied as much to teachers as to students:Training must be participatory, drawn fromteachers’ own needs, interests andexperience, and with the Trainer merelyguiding them through a process of thinking,discovering and applying their own solutionsand insights;

• Link between theory and practice: Trainingshould be focused on identifying practicalproblems that teachers face in the classroom,and on devising and demonstrating simplestrategies and doable remedies that teacherscan use to tackle these common problems.

Using effective training methodologies

In terms of the content of teacher training, we haveseen that training must address three broad areas,targeting teachers’ beliefs, attitudes and practice:

1. Foundational areas: Challenging teachers’beliefs and prejudices, promoting values suchas inclusion and democracy, buildingteachers’ self-confidence and self-reflection,building a vision for educational change andthe purpose of education (based on NCF05 and RTE), building a commitment tochildren’s learning, understandingconstructivist pedagogy and how childrenlearn, etc.

2. Practical skills: providing opportunities tomaster basic pedagogical skills such as howto design and conduct activities, classroommanagement strategies, handling multi-gradeclassrooms, conducting continuousassessment, etc. through plenty ofdemonstrations, easy-to-use tools andstrategies, and opportunities for practice

3. Mastery of Subject Knowledge & SubjectPedagogy: Identifying areas where teacherslack confidence in transacting certain areasof the school curriculum, and providingspecific needs-based support to enableteachers to understand and confidently teachdifficult concepts in different subjects


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But merely deciding on the training topics is notenough. Equally important is the question of howthis training is delivered. If training on values ormethodology is delivered mostly through lecture-mode, this is not much use. Similarly, training onsubject content needs to be practically linked tospecific topics in the syllabus where teachers andstudents face difficulties, giving teachers a chanceto plan and practice specific lessons on thosetopics.

In terms of effective training methodology, theGolden Rule of teacher training can be stated as:

“Do unto teachers as you would like themto do unto students.”

The learning process within the trainingworkshop must mirror the kind of learner-centredpedagogy we want teachers to implement in theirclassrooms. Experiencing such learning forthemselves communicates much more to teachersthan a handout, lecture or presentation ever could.According to the experience of the NGO Eklavya,this involves “promoting a genuine democraticdiscourse during the training sessions, byrespecting teacher’s opinions, allowing them tofreely air their questions and disagreements,moving on only after building a consensus on anissue, rigorously enforcing the teacher’s right toknow on the basis of an argument, assertingnothing on the basis of authority but only on thebasis of hard evidences in support, andfacilitating a comparison of their own experienceswith what is being discussed” (Batra 2010).

An examination of Adult Learning theories andTransformative Learning theory (which focuseson how to bring transformation in adult learners)can offer useful insights into what processes canmake training into a meaningful journey ofpersonal transformation for teachers, addressingtheir beliefs, attitudes, and practice. Drawing fromthis literature (Cranton 2006, King 2005, Mezirow2000), the following are some important processesthat can contribute to bringing this transformationin teachers, and some suggested methodologiesthat can be used for each of these:

1. Create a safe emotional environment:Through group activities which allow thegroup to bond together, feel safe to share theirpersonal experiences and views, and where

every individual feels valued (games, group-bonding activities, sharing personalexperiences, drawing out teachers’ questionsand concerns early on);

2. Empower confidence and motivation: Helpteachers identify their strengths; give themsmall tasks where they can experiencesuccess; constantly affirm their experiencesor responses (skits, games, activities, gettingteachers to share their own successes,opportunities to showcase their talents,songs);

3. Focus on the positive: Meeting teachers wherethey are and not where the ‘experts’ thinkthey should be, and connecting whatever theissue is to the things that already matter tothem – their own core values, personal goalsand interests;

4. Create cognitive dissonance: Exposure to newinformation, knowledge, insights, or valueswhich allow teachers to encounter a point ofview that is different from their own (throughrole play, critical debates, case studies,simulations, games, life histories, presentingresearch findings);

5. Inspire with a vision of what is possible:Show concrete evidence of children’scapabilities and creativity, or examples ofwhat teachers in similar contexts have beenable to innovate (presenting evidence ofstudents’ work, videos, films, live practicaldemonstrations, real stories, narratives,exposure visits to innovative schools,classroom observations, teachers sharingtheir own stories of transformation);

6. Utilize soul work: Strategies that allowteachers to be creative and to reflect on theirown values, goals, sense of purpose andmotivation (through use of journal writing,reflection, artistic projects, poetry, inspiringquotes, novels, storytelling, getting teachersto recall their own childhood and schoolingexperiences, people who have inspired them,painful experiences, instances ofdiscrimination, to examine their prejudicesor biases);

7. Encourage critical self reflection: Discussionsand debates that allow teachers to analysetheir existing beliefs and assumptions, to


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engage in dialogue with others andconsider alternative perspectives (surveyquestionnaires, Likert scales, debates, smallgroup discussions, classroom scenarios,visualization exercises, writing or speakingfrom a point of view other than your own,observing children, teachers playing the roleof students, readings and discussions basedon the readings)

8. Facilitate group problem-solving &consensus on new paths for action: Helpteachers to identify what they perceive asproblems or areas for change, and tobrainstorm together and themselves come upwith practical new strategies to solveproblems around them/ in their classrooms(case studies, brainstorming, drawing charts,projects, action research, ‘What if?’ scenariosand response, analysing students’ testpapers, investigating reasons for students’mistakes and misconceptions);

9. Opportunities for practice teaching: Allowteachers to apply what they have learned ina real-life classroom setting, preferably withreal children, while receiving encouragementand constructive feedback from peers andTrainer (teachers designing their ownactivities/ lessons, conducting activities withchildren, simulation, role play, writing lessonplans);

10. Practice incremental changes: Teachers mustleave the training with a concrete plan ofaction with specific but small changes anddoable strategies that they can implement intheir classroom which will yield visiblestudent learning outcomes, which will furtherenable an experience of success and changeof beliefs.

Designing a long-term teacher mentoring plan

In order to bring the shift from one-time trainingworkshops to a continuous process of teacherprofessional development, a long-term frameworkfor Teacher Mentoring must be put in place. Thefollowing are suggested components that shouldbe included in such a plan:

1. A basket of various opportunities forongoing professional development

The training workshop is merely one limitedcomponent of a long-term professionaldevelopment plan. A variety of ongoing exposuresmust be planned that contribute to teachers’growth: For example, access to rich educationalresources, distribution of good books and articles,teachers’ magazines, Book Clubs, skills andfacilities to access internet resources, exposurevisits to innovative schools, platforms for sharingtheir experiences, forums for collaboration,lectures by inspiring speakers, action researchprojects, etc. The Block & Cluster Resource Centres(BRC/CRCs) were originally envisioned as well-stocked, vibrant Resource Centres that couldprovide such platforms for teachers’ professionaldevelopment.

2. Offering training based on teachers’ needs

A state SSA administrator once noted that SSAteacher training is often driven by the need forstate governments to meet training targets toaccess SSA funds, rather than training beingdriven by teachers’ needs (Ramachandran 2009).Research around the world has shown that wheneducation reforms ignore teachers or are notconnected to the daily realities of the classroom,even the most expensive and well-designedinterventions are almost certain to fail (Craig et al1998). Training on new pedagogies must keep inmind the practical challenges teachers face day-to-day: Classrooms of sometimes 100 children,one or two teachers in the entire school, multi-grade classrooms, children who have never beforeattended school, high rates of teacher and studentabsenteeism. Teachers require strategies that areimplementable in these contexts. In our presentclassrooms, diversity among children hasincreased (different ages, social backgrounds,linguistic backgrounds), as well as diversityamong teachers (different educational levels,service conditions, places of residence, socialbackgrounds). A uniform and undifferentiatedtraining plan for all the teachers in a state ordistrict simply cannot meet every teacher’s need.Careful needs assessment must be conducted(through field visits, surveys, classroomobservations, informal conversations, assessmentof teachers’ knowledge and skills), training mustbe flexible and adaptable to teachers’ local needs,teachers themselves must be involved in


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designing training programs, and teachersshould be given a choice of what kinds/topics oftrainings they wish to attend.

3. Minimising cascade, selecting & equippinggood trainers

Much transmission loss usually takes place ingovernment trainings due to the multiple levelsof cascade, which requires creative efforts toeliminate as many layers of the cascade as possible(e.g. For rolling out the ABL program, Tamil Naduhired 6000 Block Resource Teacher Educatorswho were trained directly at state level and gavetraining directly to all teachers in the state – whichwas found to be much more effective than thecascade). The quality of a training program canonly be as effective as its Trainers. Trainersthemselves need to have a vision for activepedagogy, must have experienced it forthemselves, must be able to inspire teachers forchange, and must be equipped to effectivelydemonstrate it and provide support to teachers.This requires a rigorous process of selection ofTrainers, based on criteria such as:

• Friendly, democratic attitude, respect forteachers and children, and commitment tochildren’s learning;

• Enthusiasm, confidence in communicating,and ability to inspire/ persuade others;

• Pedagogical understanding and previousclassroom experience;

• Open-mindedness, willingness to learn andtry out new things themselves, interest inreading and personal growth.

This could be ensured through multiple-daySelection Workshops where opportunities areprovided to observe candidates’ training skillsand potential as Trainers based on some of theabove criteria, through group exercises,presentations by candidates, demonstration ofactivities, etc. After selection of strong Trainers,they must undergo a careful process of capacity-building by taking them through the sametraining program that they must carry out withteachers, along with additional sessions forreflection, debriefing, developing participatorytraining skills, principles of adult learning andeffective training methodologies.

4. School-based training workshops withappropriate facilities

For maximum effectiveness, training should beresidential and sessions should be kept to a smallsize of no more than 35 participants per session,to allow participants to bond, open up and sharetheir personal stories, and feel safe enough toquestion their assumptions. Much of the learningduring training takes place in the evenings afterthe sessions, when teachers have a chance to getaway from their usual surroundings, and bondwith and share with the other participants. Also,ideally workshops should be conducted at or neara school, with sufficient opportunities forobserving and interacting with children duringthe course of the training. Finally, maximumefforts should be taken to show respect to teachersby providing them with decent comfortableaccommodations during the training – the qualityof the accommodations provided often sendsteachers the message that their dignity is notvalued.

5. Clear goals and performance indicators

The training program must be linked to clear pre-determined objectives that the training aims toachieve – which can include specific performanceindicators for teachers, and certain targets forimprovement in children’s learning. This requiresa shift from trainings that are input-driven tooutcomes-oriented. Trainers should askthemselves: what will the teacher be doing afterthis training that is different from before? Andcan I make sure that they have obtained thecompetence to put these goals into practice?During the training workshop, teachers alsoshould be encouraged to design a TeacherImprovement Plan with their own personaltargets for self-growth and planned action stepsto achieve each goal, and then have opportunitiesin Monthly Meetings to review their progressagainst their own targets.

6. Ongoing collaboration through on-sitesupport and monthly CollaborativeMeetings

As teachers experiment with new approaches,they need someone to turn to when they facepractical difficulties and questions, and this is


79

where the Trainer must play a proactive role inproviding frequent school-based support toteachers – not as an ‘Inspector’, but as anencouraging friend and cheerleader. Moreover,teachers need a platform for sharing theirsuccesses, discussing their difficulties, togetherbrainstorming solutions, and collaborativelylearning from each other, through monthlyCollaborative Meetings. Any examples of goodpractices should be publically appreciated,documented and disseminated, to create anenvironment where teachers are motivated toexperiment new things.

7. Monitoring impact of training

Often there is little clarity on what has been theactual impact of all the many training programswe have conducted. Having clear pre-determinedtraining objectives makes it easier to design amechanism by which one can assess thetraining’s effectiveness in achieving theseobjectives. This can be done through acombination of Feedback Forms, pre-tests andpost-tests, ongoing classroom observations,tracking improvement in children’s learning, andlarger research studies.

8. Orientation for Administrators

Teachers will not be able to successfullyimplement new approaches if their authorityfigures do not understand and support the change

they are trying to bring. Teacher Training efforts

cannot focus only on teachers: their Head

Teachers, School Inspectors, Block/District/State

level functionaries, must all be required to attend

a similar training – particularly the foundationalareas on beliefs, attitudes, and vision for

pedagogical change – in order to be able to

understand and support teachers in the

challenges they encounter.

9. Systemic changes for improving working

conditions & professional identity of

teachers

Teachers’ practice depends not only on their own

abilities or even desire to teach well, but as much

on the conditions, expectations and rules of

engagement of their working environment – both

stated and unstated. The policy environment in

which teachers work often send many mixed

signals about which behaviours are valued and

rewarded. In order to build the eroding

professional identity of teachers, a long-termTeacher Mentoring Plan must address areas such

as teacher salaries and benefits, working

conditions, presence or absence of incentives to

attract teachers, opportunities for promotion and

career development, teacher professional

standards, systems for accountability. The lackof promotion opportunities and other incentives

for good teacher performance have been cited as

key factors hindering teacher motivation and

commitment. Avenues should be created for

teachers’ career mobility, like in Kerala and Tamil

Nadu where teachers are encouraged to upgrade

their educational qualifications, are granted leave

to study and take examinations, and are given

opportunities to move up the education system

ladder to join a high school, DIET or even become

an SCERT Director. Another factor that has

contributed to the erosion of the professional

identity of school teachers has been hiring of

untrained contractual teachers, and

opportunities should be given to help them move

up to regular teacher positions based on

performance and obtaining additional training

& qualifications.

10. Strengthening Pre-service TeacherEducation

Finally, in-service teacher education cannot beseen in isolation. Stronger links must be forgedwith pre-service teacher education programs, withradical measures needed for revamping teachereducation institutions and programs, in order tohave a long-lasting impact on teachers’professional development.

We live in an era where in the desire to see rapidresults, many educational administrators andpolicymakers are looking for the ‘best practices’panacea or the key innovative program, whichonce implemented will revolutionise the entiresystem. Unfortunately such short-term changesoften remain subject to political whims or changesin leadership, and simply cannot be sustained.For any long-term lasting change in our system,


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teachers must be the key players. Only a systemthat can effectively inspire its teachers with avision for change, empower them to come up withtheir own solutions, and nurture them with theskills and environment needed to implement thesesolutions and to grow as professionals – will beable to create sustainable change in its teachersand classrooms.

References

Anderson, Lorin W. (2004). Increasing TeacherEffectiveness (2nd Ed.). Paris: UNESCOInternational Institute for Education Planning.

Batra, P. (Ed.) (2010). Social Science Learning inSchools: Perspectives and Challenges. New Delhi:Sage.

Craig, Helen, Richard J. Kraft and Joy du Plessis(1998). Teacher Development: Making an Impact.Washington DC: USAID and The World Bank.

Cranton, Patricia (2006). Understanding andPromoting Transformative Learning: A Guide forEducators of Adults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Darling-Hammond, Linda and Milbrey W.McLaughlin. 1995. ‘Policies that supportprofessional development in an era of reform.’ Phi

Delta Kappan, April.

Fullan, Michael (1993). ‘Why Teachers MustBecome Change Agents’. Educational Leadership50 (6).

Fullan, Michael and Andy Hargreaves (1992).Teacher development and Educational Change.London: Routledge.

Government of India (15-29 January, 2010). SarvaShiksha Abhiyan 11th Joint Review Mission &Mid Term Review – Aide Memoire. [Online].Available at ssa.nic.in/ssadoc/jrm/AIDE%20MEMOIRE%2011%20JRM%20with%20state%20reportss.pdf

King, Kathleen (2005). Bringing TransformativeLearning to Life. Malabar, FL: Krieger.

Mezirow, Jack (2000). Learning asTransformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theoryin Progress. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

NCERT (2005). National Curriculum Framework.New Delhi: NCERT.

Ramachandran, Vimala, Bhattacharjea, Sumanand Sheshagiri, K.M. (2009) Primary SchoolTeachers: The Twists and Turns of Everyday Practice.New Delhi: Educational Resource Unit.


81

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83

Ninth E-9 Ministerial review meeting:

Inclusive, relevant quality Education for All

9-10 November, 2012, New Delhi, India

Session of the General Conference, decided toadopt the theme “Inclusive, relevant qualityEducation for All” for the November 2012-November 2014 biennium.

The global education quality challenge and itsimpact

A range of sources, including EFA GlobalMonitoring Reports (GMRs), the GlobalCompetitiveness Report (GCR), international andregional assessments—PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS,SACMEQ, LLECE—national assessments, andcountry-specific sector analyses point to the factthat most of the developing world is in aneducation quality crisis, a crisis they can ill afford!Equally, a large proportion of developed countriesare yet to deliver quality education and tofacilitate effective learning for all learners. A rangeof country-level sector analyses have documentedthe weak quality and doubtful relevance ofgeneral education. As one of the proxy measuresof education quality, test scores have a statisticallysignificant association with real GDP per capitagrowth with one standard deviation in test scorescorrelating to two per cent annual average growthin GDP per capita. Poor quality also deniesindividual ‘graduates’ employmentopportunities, the resultant earnings andimproved quality of life. Because the majority oflearners who receive poor quality education areoften from marginalized and poorer segments ofthe society, sustaining the current levels of poorquality education not only denies developingcountries the opportunity for growth, but also there-distributive effects of education. Ultimately,poor education quality risks reinforcing social andincome inequalities and sustaining inter-generational poverty and marginalization.

Moreover, countries with acute social inequalitieshave been shown to be more prone to socialunrests and political instability.5 Poor educationquality, therefore, is detrimental to povertyreduction efforts, social equity and inclusion,

Introduction

The last two decades saw a significant increasein access to education in many countries of theWorld. From 1999, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southand West Asia increased their primary netenrolment ratios by five times and three times therate of the 1990s, respectively, reaching 76 percent and 86 per cent by 2008. In total from 1999 to2008, an additional 52 million children enrolledin primary school.

South and West Asia reduced the number of out-of-school children by fifty percent — a reductionof 18 million. Sub-Saharan Africa reduced its out-of-school population by almost a third—areduction of 12.5 million, despite a large increasein the primary school age population. Theproportion of girls among the out-of-schoolpopulation declined from 57 percent to 53 percent.

Access to secondary education registered modestimprovement. Though there are wide regionaland country-level disparities, over 60 percent ofchildren at eligible age were enrolled in 2008.

While many countries have successfully enrolledmillions of boys and girls in schools, a significantmajority of them are actually not effectivelylearning, at least, not to levels commensurate totheir educational attainment. This is manifest inthe system’s failure to sufficiently preparelearners for subsequent levels of education, fortrainability and educability, for taking up life-long learning (LLL) opportunities on their own,for the labor market and for the world of work.

Though the quality problem is more acute in thedeveloping world, in part due to the rapidexpansion of access, it is recognized thatimproving the quality of education and the equityof that quality is a global challenge. In terms ofthe EFA Goals, Goal 6 – Education Qualityappears to be the least to register progress by 2015.

Recognizing the education quality challenge andthe need to address it urgently, the E-9 Ministers’meeting on 29 October 2011, during the 36th


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social coherence and political stability. It standsin the way of attaining poverty reduction relatedMDGs at an individual, national, regional andglobal level. At the same time, it presents obstaclesto attaining the six EFA goals, each of which haseducation quality aspects; and particularly goals2, 5, and 6.

The education quality challenge in E-9 countries

More than half of the world population lives inthe E-9 countries and addressing educationquality effectively in these countries will go a longway in making a significant dent on the globaleducation quality challenge. While internationalcomparable data exist on many aspects of theeducation sector it is hard to come by a consistentset of definition of quality and its measurement.However, countries take part in some form ofregional or international education achievementtest and most importantly they conduct regularnational assessments. Though not in any way aunique situation, the following evidence frominternational, regional and national assessmentssuggest the acuteness of the education qualityproblems in many of the E-9 countries but alsothat significant progress can be made. The 2009PISA showed that in Brazil, Indonesia and Mexicomore than 40% of the children after 8 years ofschooling failed to achieve a Level 1 proficiencyin reading. A 2009 national survey showed thatin rural India only 38 percent of grade 4s couldread a text designed for grade 2s. In rural Pakistanprovinces Punjab and Sind only 35 percent ofgrade 4s surveyed in 2008 could read a textdesigned for grade 2. There is also evidence thatwith the right policies and interventionssignificant improvements in quality can beachieved but also gains can quickly evaporateunless efforts are sustained. For example, nationalassessments of Indian primary school childrenshowed that from 2006 to 2009 the proportion ofgrade 5 students able to read a grade 2 textincreased from 44 percent to 64 percent in Punjabstate, but declined from 65 percent to 46 percentin West Bengal (Pratham Resource Centre, 2010).In Bangladesh, over 80 percent of studentsreaching grade 5 pass the Primary School leavingExamination. However, in Wazirpur upazila(subdistrict) in Barisal district, almost all grade 5students pass the exam, compared with fewerthan half in Jamalganj upazila in Sylhet district.

Improving the quality of the education systemto deliver quality education for all

All countries have the intention and commitmentto deliver quality education to all their citizensand they make tremendous efforts to achieve that.Despite all these efforts however, quality remainslow and in some cases is deteriorating. Thequestion is why the efforts are not bearing fruitand why improvements are sometimes notsustained. The problem appears to lie in how theeducation quality challenge is addressed. Priorand current general education quality analysesand improvement efforts have tended to focus onspecific aspects of education inputs, mostly inisolation from one another. The most analyzedinputs are finance, teachers, curricula, schoolinfrastructure and furniture, books andinstructional materials.

However, it is very rare that even these selectedaspects receive a comprehensive, articulated andinteractive/iterative analysis. Key processes likeassessment, teaching and learning, managementand governance often receive isolated attention.Most quality analyses have been limited in scopeand fragmented. This has often led to inherentlyinconsistent and sometimes contradictoryremedial interventions. It has also, often, led touneven and imbalanced improvements of aspectsof the quality. For instance curricula reforms havenot always taken into account the books andinstructional materials, teachers, teaching/learning processes and assessment methodsrequired to give them effect. Changes in studentcurricula have not always taken into account theteaching and learning environments where suchcurricula are to be implemented, or teachers whoare supposed to implement such curricula.Conversely, changes to the physical teaching andlearning environments have not always taken thedemands of diverse curricula into account or eventaken into account teachers’ and learners’ needsthat have to be met within such environments. Agrowing phenomenon that is increasinglyleveraged is technology. Now the ICTs are beingused for teacher development. Hitherto, what seemsto be lacking are tools for systemic analysis andidentification of critical constraints that preventMember States from attaining and sustaining intendedlevels and equity of education quality and learningoutcomes.


85

The UNESCO education quality analysisframework

The UNESCO Secretariat, in collaboration withthe Member States, has developed a GeneralEducation Quality/Diagnostic Framework(GEQAF) that seeks to enable Member States toanalyze/diagnose and identify criticalimpediments that prevent their general educationsystems to equitably and sustainably provide highquality education and effective learningexperiences to all learners. The lack of tools isparticularly noticeable in general education (K-to-12) relative to Higher Education and toTechnical and Vocational Education andTraining. Beyond national and internationalexaminations which have very limited scope andlongitudinal comparability, general educationsystems in most countries do not have a strongsystem-wide tradition of diagnosing/analyzing,improving and assuring quality. Weak analysistranslates into serious gaps in the knowledge baserequired to guide the design and implementation ofresponsive quality improvement interventions. Thediagnostics/analysis guided by GEQAF is meant tohelp Member States strengthen both the qualitativeand quantitative knowledge base required to effectivelyguide the design and implementation of responsive,targeted and timely general education system qualityimprovement interventions. Eventually, evidencefrom the diagnosis/analysis could be used togenerate country and even sub-country levelqualitative and quantitative indicators for generaleducation system quality.

GEQAF elements pertain to the development goalsthat guide the key outcomes of an education system,desired outcomes of an education system, the coreprocesses and core resources that produce thoseoutcomes and support mechanisms that enable theproduction of outcomes.

India and Nigeria have been the first two countriesto apply the GEQAF to analyze, in a systemic andcomprehensive way, their education system bothat national and sub-national levels. These twocountries will share their experience in applyingthe UNESCO Education Quality AnalysisFramework and how it can further be improvedand strengthened to serve as a major global tool tohelp countries adopt a systemic approach toimproving the quality of their education system. Ithas been opportune that the development of the

Framework coincided with the choice of educationquality for the E-9 biennium 2012/2014.

Ninth E-9 Ministerial review meeting

The Ninth E-9 Ministerial Review Meeting to beheld from November 9-10, 2012, in New Delhi,India, is being organized by the Government ofIndia in collaboration with UNESCO and E-9Secretariat. The meeting will focus on thechallenges of improving education quality in andon how these challenges can be addressedcollectively and cooperatively by E-9 Countries.The main point of departure will be therecognition of the systemic nature of the qualitychallenge and hence the need for acomprehensive and systemic approach. In thisregard the UNESCO Education Quality AnalysisFramework will be an important input.

The aim of the meeting is to review the educationquality challenge in the E-9 countries with theview to identify concrete steps to address thosechallenges cooperatively.

Specific objectives:

1. Discuss the GEQAF as a tool that the E-9 canuse to map-out the major challenges andconstraints to the equitable delivery of qualityeducation and effective learning to all.

2. Share country experiences in addressing thequality challenge, successes and shortcomings.

3. Identify key areas for cooperation between E-9 countries to equitably improve educationquality and to effectively facilitate learning.

4. Identify strategies and actions to share thecollective knowledge and experience of E-9countries to support other countries in theireffort to improve education quality.

Expected results:

1. Adaptation and/or adoption of the GEQAFas tool the E-9 countries can use during thebiennium.

2. A common action plan and mechanism to takethe education quality, equity of quality andlearning effectiveness forward.

3. A firm and concrete commitment to championeducation quality beyond the E-9 countries.


86

Saurav Shome

Book Review

Anil Dixit, Arvind Gupte, Bharat Pure, Kishore Pawar, Bholeswar Dubey, Sushil Joshi, Javed

Siddique and Uma Sudhir, Jeevan ki ikai - Koshika. 72 pages. Bhopal: Eklavya. 2011. ̀ 100

teachers, the principal agents of instruction, feelempowered, the philosophy enshrined in the NCF2005 will not be realised (NCERT, 2006). Thoseteachers who have a rich content knowledge aremore likely to handle the uncertainty arising instudent-centred classrooms. Moreover, teachers’rich subject knowledge enables an understanding,among those teachers, of the nature and structureof the subject as well as its connection with othersubjects. One component of teacherempowerment is to prepare materials pedagogicstrategies and content knowledge (Bruner, 1977).

It is the role of subject experts to prepare materialsand make it accessible to all teachers. It would befruitful to select concepts that recur acrossdifferent topics in a domain and across the yearsof learning. The book on Cell by the expert team ofEklavya serves this purpose. The content of thebook is not prescriptive. Rather it is flexible andcould serve to enrich teachers’ content knowledge.In the Introduction (pp. 7), the authors have evenencouraged teachers to develop their own way ofteaching about the cell after reading this book.

Overall, the module is easy to read andcomprehend. Relevant additional informationand explanations have been provided separatelyin the boxes without compromising the lucidityand continuity of the theme. It appears that thevocabulary of the module has been carefullychosen to avoid alienation from familiar context.Most of the resources used for experiments areeasily available and inexpensive. Theintroduction of the chapter sets the rationale,context, and philosophical underpinning ofpreparing such module. The authors rightlypointed out that there are biological processes likedigestion that can be described without takingaccount of the cellular process, however,understanding of cell throws new light to ourprevious understanding. On the other handbiological processes like reproduction in a livingbeing can be understood only from theunderstanding of cell.

Cell is a fundamental concept in biology becausethe understanding of cell helps understanding ofbiological processes (Alberts et al. 2004). Despitethe explicit mention of the cell as a "structuraland functional unit of life" in textbooks, childrenwho use these textbooks still conceptualize cellas being inside the body, but not as a ‘buildingblock’ (Dreyfus and Jungwirth, 1988). Childrenof grades 6 and 7 (11-13 years) visualize cell astwo dimensional. Many students of the same agegroup cannot connect respiration and energyproduction as cellular processes. Many of themthink that plant cells have a definite rectangularshape, while an animal cell has no definite shape.They think of cell and nucleus as being like jellyor butter (Kawalkar and Vijapurkar, 2009).However, these ideas about cells can be replacedand restructured through the use of appropriateteaching learning material.

Towards this, a book for teachers on Cell titledJeevan ki ikai – Koshika (The unit of life – cell)published by Eklavya under the copyleft licenceis a significant step. Eklavya plans to publish thismaterial in English as well. The authors have along experience of working with students andteachers from schools and colleges. According tothe authors, the module addressed in the bookhas been enriched by comments fromdistinguished teachers and educationists as well.The book includes several appropriate andattractive photographs and illustrations by AmodKarkhanish, Karen Haydok, and MeghnaPalshikar. The authors as well as the illustratorshave recognized the significant role played byvisuals in the teaching-learning of science(Tversky, 2005).

The National Curriculum Framework 2005 hasproposed that teaching learning needs to be childcentred and constructivist, building abstractconcepts from children’s real life experiences. Butthe NCF has somehow failed to fullyacknowledge the instrumental role of teachers(Batra, 2005) in transacting the curriculum. Unless


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Several curriculum suggests to adopt historicalnarrative and "explanatory stories" approach inscience teaching (Millar and Osborn, 1998).The module presents a story of evolvingunderstanding of cell from a number ofobservation and studies over the centuries. Thus,the module presents science as a social enterprise(King et al., 1994), not stories of individuals’success. Scientific knowledge is not thecontribution of a single mind rather product ofmany. The knowledge is incremental andsubjected to change in the light of newobservations and findings. A scientist also mighthave misconception or incomplete idea(s); bystating "Even Charles Darwin considered thateach organ has play its role in egg..." (pp. 8). Theknowledge is shareable and reproducible inseveral instances, any one can see what Hookobserved; "you too see what Hook observed" (pp.12). The significance of an invention or discoveryis valued and acknowledged by society and notdetermined by the inventor alone, recognition maynot come instantly; "...around 55 years later in1986 he (Ernst Ruska) was awarded Nobel Prize"(pp.24).

The module has four chapters. In the first onetitled, Koshika – Khoj ki kahaani (Cell - Story of thediscovery), tells the journey of understanding thecell and organelles as a historical narrative. Thereare four important clarifications made in thechapter viz.

1) Why typical textbook pictures of cell does notmatch with observation? (pp. 25)

2) A note on "republic of living elementaryunits" serves a nice introduction of "system"and its fundamental unit. Especially thedistinction between the work for individualexistence and the other for the communitylevel. The property of whole is different fromits constituent (pp. 28).

3) The role of evolving technologies ingenerating new knowledge, for example,development of electron microscope widensour understanding of cell.

4) Using 3D pictures and original photographsreduce several misconception and doubtsregarding the shape and proportional size ofcell or cell organelles. It links what studentsobserved in their school laboratories.

The story of exploration of cells starts with theuse of lenses during the mid seventeenth centuryto see the small and unobserved things. Presentingseveral activities (viz. observation of a slice of cork,membrane of onion and human squamous cell),an attempt has been made to introduce studentswith the early observation of cell and involve themin the same journey. A novel attempt is made tocomplement textbook photographs of cell with theactual observation carried out by students withsimple microscope. The relevant informationsabout compound microscope, electronmicroscope, and centrifuge are also mentioned.

The second chapter Koshika aaye kahan se (wheredid the cells come from?) questions the origin of acell. The chapter laid the motivation of inquirythrough three steps: a) observing microscopicorganisms found in pond or drain water b)investigating the theory of spontaneousgeneration and contribution of Francesco Rediand Louis Pasteur in refuting the possibility ofspontaneous generation c) understanding cell asstructural and functional unit in the context oflife cycle of frog.

The division of cell is discussed in chapter three,Koshika se koshika (Cells from a cell). After defeatof the spontaneous regeneration theory, questionremained on where actually the new cells camefrom? Schleiden considered that the new celldevelops from the "cytoplast". Using stainingtechnique, Strasburger and Flemming observedthat nucleus consists of other components too.Some of them undergo changes and take part incell division. The observation confirmed the theorythat cell originates from another cell only. Themajor attraction of the chapter is the activity withonion roots to observe the phases of cell division.In the end the chapter provides a short relevantintroduction on cancer cells and stem cells.

In the last chapter, Koshika siddhant: aage badatekadam (cell theory - ever chaning steps), thedivision of cell and gradual differentiation of theirrole is discussed. The body of a multicellular livingbeing is not just a pile of cells, it is a coordinatedsystem of cells. In a multicellular body of livingbeings cluster of cells perform differential tasks.However, there is a difference between plant andanimal cell. In optimum condition a plant cellfrom any part of the plant has potential to growup to a complete plant, whereas, cell from anypart of a multicellular animal will not grow up to


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a complete animal. It is worth appreciating thatin this chapter the authors introduced cloningand biotechnology in a lucid style. Incorporatingthe ethical and social dimensions of cloning andgenetic engineering, the authors prepared aplatform for engaging students in argumentationof socio-scientific issues (Jimenez-Aleixandre andErduran, 2007).

The evolving understanding of cell helps explainthe unity as well as diversity among the livingbeings which leads to a better understanding ofevolution of life. The same fundamental structurein all living being indicates that living diversityactually evolved from one primitive living entity.However, questions remain on how thatprimitive living entity appeared? Under whatcircumstances inorganic substances formed aliving cell?

At the end of four chapters, the authors present atime line related to cell and cell theory. Inappendix description of compound microscope,necessary precautions in using microscope andsuggestions of further activities enrich themodule’s practical utility for the users. Themodule would be a valuable reference materialfor teachers as well as students of middle, highand even secondary level.

The module has shown some unique characterswhile building concepts of cell, throughaddressing possible misconceptions about cell,demystifying the microscopic observation of cells,integrating nature of science, and presenting theentire content as historical narrative. Good quality‘real’ photographs of cells are indeed a treasureof the module. However, the effectiveness of themodule is largely based on the primary targetgroup, the teachers, those who are going to usethe module. The underlying philosophy inwriting the module needs to be in tune with thatof teachers during their classroom transaction.This bridge can easily be built through a series ofworkshops and long term collaboration withteachers.

References

Alberts, B., Bray, D., Hopkin, K., Johnson, A.,Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K. and Walter, P. (2004).Essential cell biology. New York: GarlandScience.

Batra, P. (2005). Voice and agency of teachers:Missing link in National Curriculum Framework2005. Economic and Political Weekly, 40 (40),4347-4356.

Bruner, J. S. (1977). The process of education.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard UniversityPress.

Dreyfus, A. and Jungwirth, E. (1988). The cellconcept of 10th graders: curricular expectationsand reality. International Journal of ScienceEducation, 10 (2), 221 – 229.

Jimenez-Aleixandre, M. P. and Erduran, S. (2007).Argumentation in science education: Anoverview. In Sibel Erduran and Maria PilarJimenez-Aleixandre (Eds.), Argumentation inscience education: Perspectives from classroom-based research. New York: Springer.

Kawalkar, A. and Vijapurkar J. (2009). What docells really look like? Confronting children’s resistanceto accepting a 3-D model. In K. Subramaniam andA. Mazumdar (Eds.). Proceedings epiSTEME-3:An International Conference to Review Researchin Science, Technology and MathematicsEducation, (pp 94-100). Mumbai: MacmillanPublishers India Ltd.

King, G., Keohane, R. O., and Verba, S. (1994).Designing social inquiry: Scientific inference inqualitative research. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press.

Millar, R. and Osborn, J. (1998). Beyond 2000:Science education for the future, The report of aseminar series funded by the Nuffield Foundation.London: King’s College.

NCERT (2005). National Curriculum Framework2005. New Delhi: NCERT.

NCERT (2006). Position paper: National FocusGroup on Science Teaching. New Delhi: NCERT.

Tversky, B. (2005). Visuo-spatial reasoning. In K.Holyoak & R. Morrison (Eds.), The Cambridgehandbook of thinking and reasoning (Chapter 10).Cambridge: MA: Cambridge University Press.

ISBN: 978-81-906971-4-9; Available from:www.eklavya.in


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Abbreviations

B.Ed. : Bachelor of Education

B.El.Ed. : Bachelor of Elementary Education

BA : Bachelor of Arts

COL : Commonwealth of Learning

CPD : Continuous Professional Development

CTE : College of Teacher Education

CWSN : Children with Special Needs

D.Ed. : Diploma in Education

DEO : District Education Officer

DIET : District Institute of Education and Training

DISE : District Information System for Education

DPEP : District Primary Education Program

ECCE : Early Childhood Care and Education

EDI : EFA Development Index

EFA : Education for All

EU : European Union

GoI : Government of India

HEI : Higher Education Institutions

IASE : Institute of Advanced Studies in Education

IEDC : Integrated Education for Disabled Children

ICDS : Integrated Child Development Services

ICT : Information Communication Technology

M.Ed. : Master of Education

MDG : Millennium Development Goals

MHRD : Ministry of Human Resource Development

MOSJE : Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

NCF : National Curriculum Framework

NCFTE : National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education

NGO : Non Government Organization

NUEPA: National University of Educational Planning and Administration

ODL : Open and Distance Learning

Ph.D. : Doctor of Philosophy

PISA : Program for International Student Assessment

PPP : Public Private Partnership

RMSA : Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abiyan

RTE : Right to Education

SCERT : State Council of Educational Research and Training

SEN : Special Educational Needs

SMC : School Management Committee

SSA : Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

TE : Teacher Education

UEE : Universalization of Elementary Education

UPE : Universalization of Primary Education Abbreviations

voices of teachers and teacher educators

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