TEACHER EDUCATION IN JHARKHAND

Kumar Sanjeev

Khagendra Kumar

SECONDARY TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMME

Of late, all universities in Jharkhand have taken a new initiative for starting B. Ed. Programmes under self-financed scheme (SFS). As a result of the new initiative, the number of secondary teachers’ training institution rose to 36 by 2006. Of these, four are government training colleges running under regular scheme where a nominal fee is charged. Rest 32 colleges run B. Ed. programme under SFS. Four of these are private minority managed colleges. The overall intake in all these institutions is about 3,650. The B. Ed. Course of Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribag consists of 5 theory papers (5x100=500 Marks) and 3 Practical papers (3x100=300 Marks). Total Marks for the course is 800 Marks. The theory papers include 4 foundation papers: 1.Theory of Education, 2. Educational Psychology and Educational Measurement, 3. Educational Administration and Health Education, and 4. Educational Reconstruction in India and Abroad. The fifth paper has two parts, each part carries 50 Marks. The method subjects include Physical Science, Biological Science, Mathematics, Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit, English, History, Geography, Domestic Science, and Civics. Elementary Education is also offered as a part paper carrying 50 marks. There are 3 practical papers - one paper for each of the two method subjects and a paper for craft. Subjects covered under craft include: tailoring (only for girls), woodwork (only for boys), spinning and weaving and metal work.

Fee Structure

The fee structure is as follows:

Registration Fee - Rs. 1, 000/-

Tuition Fee - Rs. 12, 000/-

Admission Fee - Rs. 3, 000/-

Development Fee - Rs. 1, 000/-

Sports and Excursion Fee - Rs. 1, 200/-

Electricity and Allied Charge - Rs. 1, 200/-

Internal College Exam. Fee - Rs. 600/-

Common Room Fee - Rs. 1, 200/-

Course material & technical fee - Rs. 2, 000/-

Library fee - Rs. 500/-

College Magazine fee - Rs. 300/

Total - Rs. 24, 000/-

However, fees for SC and ST candidates are Rs. 12, 000/ - only.

PRIMARY TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMME

There are 23 Primary Teacher Training Colleges (PTTCs) and 10 DIETs in the state. Two training programmes - Two Year Basic Training (BT) and One Year In-service Elementary Teacher Education (ETE) are currently provided in these institutions. The B.T. curriculum consists of 8 compulsory theory papers: Education in Emerging Indian Society, Child Psychology, Curriculum and Evaluation, Mother tongue, Mathematics, Science, Social Science, Rashtra Bhasha Hindi (for non-Hindi speaking children) and Sanskrit. One may opt for English as an extra paper. The practical papers include SUPW, Teaching, Construction of self learning material, and Community life. The theory papers carry 800 marks and practical work carries 700 marks. The ETE course consists of four theory papers namely-Education in Emerging Indian Society, Educational Psychology (with special reference to child development), Educational Problems and School management and Contents and methodologies. The practical papers include Practice teaching, SUPW, Fine Arts, Music and other related works, Health and physical Education (Drill / Play / Yoga etc.) and Community life. The marks weightage for theory is 600 and for practical 400. There is also provision of internal evaluation.

Fee Structure

The fees structure is as follows:

Tuition Fee - Rs. 4, 800/-

Admission Fee - Rs.3, 000/-

Development Fee - Rs.1, 000/-

Sports and Excursion Fee - Rs.2, 400/-

Electricity and Allied Charge - Rs.2, 400/-

Internal College Exam. Fee - Rs.1, 500/-

Common Room Fee - Rs.2, 400/-

TOTAL - Rs.17, 500/-.

INSERVICE TRAINING

Almost entire primary teacher population of Jharkhand was given short duration in-service training through UJALA-I and II training modules. Ujala I module (focusing on the pedagogical skills required for grade I and II ) covered aspects like increasing community contact, training in gender sensitive teaching methods, developing communication skills and effective use of teaching aids. UJALA- II module (focusing on the pedagogical skills required for grade III, IV and V) covered the aspect of Multi Grade Teaching (MGT) along with many others. As short term in-service training has been conceived as a continuous programme for empowerment of primary teachers, short duration training modules have been developed to make teachers abreast of new and relevant skills. During UJALA- II training, the need was felt to improve upon this module and another training module called SAMAJH was developed. Apart from UJALA and SAMAJH, training modules have also been developed for teaching of English, Mathematics and Science subjects in the light of subject specific needs of teachers and teachers training evaluation study. Training of teachers in English is important as English has been introduced as a subject right from class I. This training enables the teachers to develop proficiency in English and professional competency for teaching English as well. Altogether 9,625 teacher were trained in English during 2003-04. Visualizing the need for learning Mathematics in joyful manner, an innovative training module was developed. A total of 17, 708 teachers were trained in teaching of Mathematics. Another training module was also developed for training teachers to teach science through experiments and activities, in a very simple manner. During 2003-04, 7, 301 teachers were trained under this programme (JEP, 2003-04).

In addition to training through subject specific training modules, there are provision for induction training for EGS teachers, training for BRC co-coordinators and CRC coordinators so that the implementation, monitoring and supervision take place in a co-coordinated manner. In order to provide in-service training to all primary teachers of the State, an elaborate support mechanism has been developed. At the apex level, the State Level Office (SLO), has the State Resource Group (SRG) consisting of experts in teacher education. A large number of teachers and pedagogues work together to develop the training modules. The implementation of in-service training is largely the responsibility of the District Level Office (DLO) of the project, District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) and the District Education Office.

Block Resource Centres

All the districts of the project are divided in educational blocks and each block has been provided with a Block Resource Centre (BRC) with self-sufficient facilities for training. Teachers from each block are identified and trained to function as Resource Persons. Local Block Education Extension Officer (BEEO) or Area Education Officer (AEO) is designated as coordinator of the BRC (BRCC). BRC was intended to offer 10-day training to each of the teacher every year. The idea was to impart various phases of short term training modules alternately till a different demand emerged from the teachers. All the districts have been able to achieve nearly 90 per cent of training target.

Cluster Resource Centres

The batches of 35-40 teachers drawn for 12-16 physically contiguous schools undergo training in a school identified as Cluster Resource Centre (CRC). The same group selects one of the teachers as coordinator (CRCC). CRC may be singled out as the most crucial mechanism in translating the training inputs in classroom transactions and institutionalizing the pedagogical reform processes started by recurrent Ujala training. The qualities of activities in CRC, the contributions that teacher makes and the continuity of the process combined together give a fair indication of teacher’s practices in classrooms. CRC may be viewed as a mirror of quality of classroom transactions. Realising that a 10 day exposure in a year may not be enough to achieve the desired transformation, provisions for one day recurrent monthly training at CRC were strategically planned. The same trainers/resource persons who had trained these teachers offer academic help to these training sessions. It is expected that this arrangement would provide opportunities to teachers to address the missing links of annual training besides opening up new vistas of self-sufficiency in academic trouble shooting at the local level itself.

REFERENCES

Census of India (2001) Summary of Jharkhand State. Govt. of India, New Delhi.

Curriculum for One Year In-service ETE Programme.

Curriculum for Two Year BT Programme.

B.Ed. Course of Study of Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribagh

B.Ed. Course of Study of Sido-Kanhu University, Dumka

JEPC (2003-04) Annual Report. Jharkhand Education Project Council, Ranchi.

MHRD(2006) Annual Report 2005-06 (Departments of Education). Government of India, New Delhi.