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DNS Teacher Training –MP DIETs

Annual Report - January to December 2013

Background

On 21 December 2012, Humana People to People India signed a Memorandum of

Understanding with the Government of Madhya Pradesh (MP) to establish and run the DNS

Teacher Training Programme in five District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) in

or close to the urban areas in the State. Programme implementation commenced in mid-

January 2013, in the DIETs of Ujjain, Bhopal, Indore, Dewas and Shajapur. Each DIET has

about 6 DNS teacher-educators who work along with the government-appointed lecturers in

imparting the training programme.

Madhya Pradesh stands apart as an Indian State where a substantial number of teachers are

recruited at the Panchayat or the village council level. Most of these teachers lack required

professional skills and qualifications, and this compromises the quality of education imparted

at the primary school level. In 2010, the State government took it upon itself to rectify this

issue and since then most of the State’s teacher training mechanism has been employed to

bring these in-service teachers at par with the contemporary educational requirements.

The DNS teacher-trainers in the above-mentioned DIETs have been actively involved in

training such teachers as well as the pre-service teachers since the programme’s launch in

January 2013. The year started with 203 student-teachers being trained by 30 DNS teacher-

educators in assistance with 45 government-appointed lectures across all the DIETs in the

State. The initial phase comprised of extended orientation sessions wherein all the student-

teachers and DIET faculty members were introduced to the DNS teachers training

programme and its methodology. In the subsequent months, the coordination between the

DIET and the DNS staff became increasingly streamlined and today the teams of teacher-

educators work together as one homogenous unit across all the DIETs.

This year, the student-teachers were actively involved in various periods conducted under the

DNS Programme. This included Charter Periods, National Travel, Community Events,

Saturday’s Pedagogical Sessions, and It’s Show Time. Amongst other activities, some DIETs

conducted workshops all through the year on the recently approved Continuous and

Comprehensive Evaluation for primary school students, the National Curriculum Framework

for Teacher Education and the recently passed Right to Education Act. Further, Yoga camps

were organised in several DIETs across the State in which the student-teachers participated

enthusiastically.

As mentioned earlier, the majority of student-teachers at the MP DIETs are in-service

teachers, and this raises a unique challenge towards the training methodology employed.

However, due to the sustained effort of all the DNS staff, student-teachers in all the five

DIETs today are firmly guiding their own learning process.

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Main Activities of the Project

Core Group Formation – Core groups form the basis of implementing the DNS Teacher

Training Programme, and this year in the MP DIETs commenced with the formation of such

groups in each batch of student-teachers. Each Core Group comprised of 9-13 student-

teachers and one teacher-trainer. At all the five DIETs, the process began with a common

meeting where the student-teachers were explained the purpose and objective behind forming

Core Groups. Following the discussions, in which the students and the teacher-trainers

participated in an equal measure, the groups were divided across diverse criteria. While in

certain cases, the groups were formed according to already prevalent divisions in the

Institute, in other DIETs the student-teachers and the DNS staff, owing to pragmatic reasons,

had to find ingenious methods such as bus routes and proximity of residence.

Reflective Exercise on RTE and NCF – During this year, the DNS teacher-trainers across

the DIETs, organised a set of workshops in order to introduce the principles enshrined in the

Right to Education Act and the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher’s Education

(NCFTE). While RTE is an Indian legislation ensuring free and compulsory primary school

education to children, NCFTE is a framework for teacher education developed by a national

panel of the eminent educationists.

Conducted by the DNS staff, the exercise comprised of various activities, such as developing

a questionnaire, which the 1st year student-teachers then used to introduce themselves to each

other. They also used certain art activities to help the students understand the importance of

creativity-based learning, in line with the NCFTE provisions. During these workshops, the

DNS team also conducted a discussion on the topic ‘Fear, Punishment and Discipline’ in

order to elaborate the significance of creating a friendly environment in schools.

Teaching Practice – As a part of their D.Ed. curriculum, the student-teachers need to

participate in Teaching Practice (TP) in the primary schools located in the vicinity of the

DIETs. According to the MP State Education Board’s curriculum for Diploma in Education,

each student needs to complete 50 hours of TP in each academic session. This year, the

student-teachers were assigned to 126 primary schools located close to the DIETs. During

TP, they were able to work with nearly 14,700 primary school students and teach them using

the Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) and other pedagogical tools developed during

the course of their training.

Prior to the commencement of the TP, the DNS staff at the DIETs organised a common

meeting where the DIET Principal, headmasters of all the participating Primary Schools and

student-teachers participated where everyone was informed about the methods of preparing

the lesson plans, observation/reporting formats and ways of conducting the classes. During

TP, the student-teachers conducted classes in the school for three days and were in the DIET

for the second half of the week to attend lectures, prepare lesson plans and share their TP

experience with the faculty members.

Open Sundays – During this year, Open Sundays were organised so that the community

members can participate in an interactive sessions with the student-teachers at the DIET. The

student-teachers performed a number of plays emphasising the importance of education,

made presentations on health-related issues and performed various musical activities. They

also made presentations on different issues, which they observed in the community and

discussed solutions to several persistent problems with the community elders.

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Charter Periods – Deriving inspiration from the Humana People to People Charter, the

Charter subjects are designed to explain the foundation principles enshrined within the

document. The central theme of the period is Solidary Humanism and in a teacher training

setting it entails student-teachers to carry out research in the extended community outside the

institution’s premises in order to understand it better. These subjects provide the student-

teachers with practical and theoretical skills that can then be used in the community at large.

During implementation, the DNS teacher-trainers conducted courses about the four charter

subjects, namely, Women advocacy, Health care expert, Entrepreneurship, and Community

leader. Following the courses, the student-teachers were divided into groups and conducted

study tasks as a part of which they conducted various investigations in the community around

the DIET. As part of these investigations, the student-teachers interacted with the community

members, the village head, and eminent entrepreneurs and women leaders to understand to

understand different issues faced by them. The discussions varied from issues of health,

sanitation, education, water availability and agriculture produce among other things following

their investigations, the student-teachers presented their findings into their Core Group and to

the entire class.

National Period – The National Period is an integral part of the DNS Teacher Training

Programme and comprises of a month-long travel across the country so that the student-

teachers get a clear understanding of various contemporary realities of the country. This key

component of the DNS teacher training programme is aimed at familiarizing the future

teachers with a clear understanding of the national reality and its diversity so as to be able to

impart it to their students.

A month before the beginning of the National Period, the DNS staff and the student-teachers

at all the five DIETs got involved in developing travel plans. This was done by carrying out a

series of common meetings after the regular classes in the DIETs were over. The agenda of

these meetings was to set a planned itinerary and budget for the travel which was mutually

agreeable to all participants. Following these meetings, with the travel plans decided and the

budget in place, the student-teachers commenced the travel.

The theme of the National Period was: India before, India now and India next. During the

travel, all the participating 2nd

year student-teachers travelled to different parts of the country

and performed various in-depth investigations on history, culture, education and health

systems and livelihood practices of the States they visited. The student-teachers employed

Participatory Rural Appraisal, interviews, observation and social mapping as tools of

performing the investigations. This has been a trend-setting and novel experience for several

of the participating student-teachers as most of them had never travelled outside the State

boundaries. It was for the first time that such student-teachers were able to encounter the

diversity of history and culture this country offer, and their planned investigations ensured

that their experiences remain an integral part of their understanding, which can be shared

with the future primary school students.

The National Period has recently concluded and all the 5 DNS operations in the State at

present are compiling individual reports based upon their experiences during the travels.

Cleaning/Building Action – Cleaning/Building Action is an integral part of the DNS

Teacher Training Programme wherein student-teachers and the DIET staff spend a part of the

day in the upkeep of the institute’s physical infrastructure. While the main purpose behind

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this action is to instil a sense of responsibility and belongingness towards the Institute, in

India, due to the unique partnership with the State government, this also entails promoting an

environment of trust between the various stakeholders working in different capacities at the

Institute. During this year, the student-teachers and the DNS teacher-trainers at all the five

DIETs across the State spent a planned amount of time each month cleaning the indoor and

outdoor areas of the campus.

All the classrooms, assembly hall and toilets were also cleaned as part of this action. Along

with cleaning their own Institute, the student-teachers of the Institute also organised Cleaning

Action in various government-run primary schools in the district all through the year. In all,

16 cleaning and Building Actions were carried out across the five DIETs this year.

Impact of the Project

This year, the DNS teacher training programme has completed one year of its operation in

Madhya Pradesh. 331 students graduated with a Diploma in Education under the DNS

programme in 2013 from the 5 DIETs the programme is operational in. The DNS-trained

student-teachers were able to impact nearly 14,700 primary school students with the

innovative teaching methods.

Since the launch of the DNS teacher training programme in MP, the student-teachers have

been actively involved in various computer and spoken English classes under the programme

and as a result have been observed to be more self-confident in their everyday conduct. These

qualities have been further enhanced by the various interactive sessions they participated in

with the community under the programme. SPS, IST, Charter Periods and Open Sunday, all

integral parts of the DNS teacher training programme, have provided a relevant periodic

platform to the student-teachers to interact with the in-service primary schools' teachers,

headmasters and key stakeholders in the extended community, such as the head of the village

council and local politicians.

In the initial phase of operations, it was observed that the majority of physical infrastructure

at the DIETs was in dilapidated condition. Furthermore, at the time of the commencement of

the DNS operations in MP, most of the computer and science labs at the institutes were

dysfunctional and in need of urgent attention. With its innovative training methodology, the

DNS staff at the DIETs was involved in conducting several Cleaning and Building Actions

and, along with the students, was able to motivate other faculty members to participate in the

upkeep of the Institute. Following these sustained efforts, all the five DIETs are today

functioning at an optimum level.

National Period, organised for the first time under the DNS programme, has assisted in

broadening the horizons of the students-teachers as many of them travelled outside the State

boundary for the first time. The travel holds added credibility as it was organised and

executed entirely by the student-teachers themselves, thereby adding to their self-confidence

and personality development skills.

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Attachment 1: The Project in Numbers – January to December, 2013

Parameters Bhopal Dewas Indore Shajapur Ujjain

Number of student-teachers under DNS

training 145 193 100 99 149

Number of HPPI teachers 6 6 5 6 7

Number of DIET lecturers associated with

DNS 19 8 5 2 11

Number of PSTs involved with the DIETs 38 80 26 50 15

Number of Primary Schools involved in TP 16 33 9 19 49

Number of Primary School students benefitted 2,500 3,775 1,600 2,824 4,000

Number of Community Events organised 4 10 4 9 15

Number of Cleaning/Building Actions

organised 2 4 3 2 5

Attachment 2: Case story

My name is Sarfaraz Sheikh, and I’m a student-teacher in the 1st Year

batch of the Diploma in Education course at the District Institute of

Education and Training in Dewas. Along with the State curriculum, I’m

also being trained under the HPPI-run DNS teacher training programme at

the DIET. The DNS Programme is unique in a manner that the staff here

uses several pedagogical tools to implement the training. Furthermore, this

training maintains an active balance of sports, entertainment and various

community programs. Even previously, during our studies, we were

regularly involved in such activities, however, it was never carried out in

such an organised manner as it is done by the DNS staff. The best way to express my learning

during the course of the DNS training would be in the form of this couplet:

Shine forth in this great big world, and claim it as your own

Embrace the misery and conquer it, it’s no one’s but your own

One of the most striking features of the DNS Teacher Training Programme is the concept of

Core Groups, wherein the student-teachers are divided into three separate groups, and the

learning takes place within these groups. This leads to efficient learning owing to the smaller

size of the groups. There are regular interactions between these Core Groups and once every

month, an inter-group General Knowledge competition is held. As such, besides gaining

subject knowledge, the student-teachers also get to learn things from the current affairs or

other diverse fields of knowledge.

At the end of each month, an Open Sunday and Saturday’s Pedagogical Session is organised

by the DNS staff. During these events, which are an integral part of the DNS Programme,

student-teachers present various skits, plays, and other cultural programmes, which has led to

a substantial spike in our self-confidence and presentation skills.

At the end, I’d like to thank the DNS staff and reinstate that I consider myself very lucky to

be a part of this training program and wish it can reach many more student-teachers across

the country.

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Attachment 3: Appreciation Letter

Translation: This is to certify that student-teachers trained under the DNS Programme at the

District Institute of Education and Training, Shajapur, have been successfully conducting

their Teaching Practice in the Government-run primary school in the village Biklakhedi.

Under Teaching Practice, the DNS-trained student-teachers have been conducting regular

classes at the school. Besides conducting regular classes according to the State Education

Board-approved syllabus, the student-teachers have also introduced regular parent-teacher

meetings. DNS student-teachers involve the school students in various community services

and pedagogical sessions during the daily classes. The school students participate in these

activities enthusiastically and also spend a certain amount of time every day for the upkeep of

the physical infrastructure of the school. The enthusiasm and efficiency of these student-

teachers is extremely encouraging, and they have infused a lot of excitement amongst the

school faculty members and other staff ever since they started teaching the students here.

We pray for the bright future of these student-teachers and wish that they continue to

progress and spread the light of education.

Headmaster

Government Primary School, Biklakhedi

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Attachment4: Pictures from the Project

Student-teachers at DIET, Bhopal during a daily lecture being conducted by the DNS

teacher-trainers

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(Above) A CCE workshop at DIET, Bhopal; (Below) English lecture being conducted at

DIET Ujjain by a DNS staff

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(Above) Student-teachers work on study tasks in their Core Groups; (Below) An

orientation session held at a DIET

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(Above) Student-teachers interacting with a farmer during National Period; (Below) An

IST session held at a DIET