Teachers with contextualized content can provide quality education

15 October, 2012

There are many ways to look at and define the quality of education, which in fact is a complex and multi-dimensional concept. A cursory look as the literature reveals that the terms like efficiency, effectiveness, equity, criterion-referencing, standardization, etc., are used often synonymously with quality.

THERE IS a considerable consensus on some dimensions of quality like environments that are healthy, safe, protective and gender-sensitive, and provide adequate resources and facilities; content that is reflected in relevant curricula and materials for the acquisition of basic skills, especially in the areas of literacy, numeracy and skills for life, processes through which trained teachers use child-centered teaching approaches in well-managed classrooms and skilful assessment to facilitate learning and reduce disparities, according to the UNICEF.

Besides, the school level dimensions of quality of education related to the inputs and processes, there are dimensions of quality at the system level like the outcomes that encompass knowledge, skills and attitudes, and are linked to national goals for education and positive participation in society within nation’s political, cultural and economic context.

Contextualization of all dimensions of education, including teacher training and follow-up system is the core element of education. Only quality teachers with contextualized content and processes can provide quality education. My research with the UNICEF - supported rural bridge schools for girls in Jaipur district testified that ‘matching the educational intervention to the context’ is appropriate strategy for quality in school education and no uniform standards can lead to quality as context varies from location to location and from community to community.

Here is the abstract of an action research by this investigator titled ‘Modalities of Workplace Training of Rural Bridge School Teachers with Focus on Quality for Dropout and Nonstarter Girls in Partnership an Education-for-All Project in Rajasthan’

“With the emphasis on quality, in the form of ‘matching the intervention to the context’ and “pre-planned modalities’, a workplace training and academic support system was developed and transacted for the teachers (N=25; All female; 80 % Graduates; Age: 25-45 years) of out-of-school girls (N=560, Age: 9-14 years, Dropouts and nonstarters) to peruse two-year community-based bridge courses through multi-level learning strategy.

After an initial teacher training of forty days to the teachers in multi-level learning, the bridge schools were raised by the joint efforts of the teachers, an NGO, and local communities by providing the spaces for the schools and the accommodations for the teachers. Since the non-conventional instructional strategy was used, the continuous workplace trainings were organized through academic support staff (N= 4) by fortnightly one-day visits to the schools followed by monthly review and planning workshops. The two-year course had resulted in the certification of all the students and mainstreaming of 50% of them in formal schools.

The three stage learning in the strategy included the teacher-directed learning followed by group and individual learning. The parents (N=50) reacted significantly favorably (p<0.05, DF=2) to the system of workplace support system. The intervention was technically supported by an NGO and Axis Bank Foundation in Chaksu block of Jaipur district in India.