Since the very dawn of the human civilization, teacher occupied a pivotal place in the spectrum of education. A teacher is a nation-builder, social architect and torch- bearer of a society. Teaching profession is considered to be one of the noblest professions. Traditionally a person by dint of his devotion and deep contemplation joined the teaching profession. However, in due course of time and advancement of civilization now people join the teaching profession mostly by compulsion not by passion because of some or other reasons. Hence, this changing attitude and perception towards teaching profession needs careful analysis and examination.
Teaching as a profession implies that people who have joined teaching, he should take it as a vocation that he has the aptitude of teaching. Teaching skills can be developed with the help of feedback devices. It involves more than job skills and aptitude of teaching. There are some ethical considerations and social responsibility. The person’s attitude and behavior should be an ideal person of a society as his students follow or imitate the teacher. Hence, teaching profession and the roles and responsibilities of the teacher are highly appreciated in each society.
The importance of teachers cannot be overemphasized because the strength and success of an educational system depends on them whether they teach in the schools, colleges or universities. Actually, the quality of a nation depends on the quality of its citizen depend on the quality of their education. A teacher’s personal qualities, educational qualification, his professional training, his attitude towards teaching professional, his job satisfaction, managerial skill etc help him to contribute considerably towards the development of the society. However, teaching as a profession consists of teaching attitude, aptitude, skills and other social accountability at large.
Now a day’s teacher’s professional development is an important issue in the areas of teacher-education. It is stated in several ways. There should be professionalization of teaching at every level i.e. from primary stage to the higher education. Teachers should develop his professional excellence. There are some fundamental questions related to professional development such as what is teaching profession? How is it different from other professions? Up to what extent teaching can be accepted as profession? What are the ways and means for professional development? How can professional development be measured? These questions have answered in this chapter for the awareness of this issue.
Teaching as profession consists of teaching aptitude, teaching skill and social responsibility programme. These factors should be included and awareness can be provided about the teaching profession. The importance of quality of teacher cannot be overemphasized because the strength and success of an educational system depends on them weather they teach in schools, colleges or universities. Actually, the quality of a nation depends on the quality of its citizens depends on the quality of their education. The quality of their education reflects, more than any other single factor, the quality of their teachers. A teacher’s personal qualities, educational qualification, his professional training, high managerial skills and the place he occupies in the college and in the community contributes to the quality of his teaching. The education of a teacher is not complete on receiving a degree or diploma from a college or university. Pre-service education or joining a college or university department is only the first stage in the continuous growth of a teacher in his profession. In the words of
The education of a teacher is never complete. The teacher never prepared for his profession before he enters it, but he must also be prepared again and again to keep abreast with latest developments. To satisfy this need is the purpose of in-service / continuing education. Every teacher, weather he is a beginner or a vocation, needs to be aware of the rapid cultural and social change, advancement in educational theories, methodologies and practices, increase in student enrolment and range in the interest and abilities of students and the ramification of the role of education due to change and advancement of science and technology. The frontiers of human knowledge in various fields expand rapidly. There is a need for continued study and growth that would raise the competence of a teacher on job in turn increase the standard of the whole educational system.
The term in-service teacher education or continuing education in a broad sense included all experiences and activities provided for teachers and designed to promote personal and professional growth. The continuing education also has the connotation of the life-long education; of educating oneself throughout life, whether he is a student, teacher or a non-professional.
The Programme of Action of National Policy on Education (1986) has indicated that the needs for in-service education of teachers arise from several sources such as changing national goals, revisions of curricula of schools and colleges, additional inputs in the teaching learning system, inadequate background of teachers etc. Hence, care should be taken to see that some of the courses mentioned and the corresponding needs that arise from these sources are reflected in the in-service programmes.
Teacher education can be classified under two groups such as pre-service teacher education and in-service teacher education. Accordingly, teacher training institutions are also categorized into two types like pre service teacher education institutions and in service teacher education institutions. Some teacher training institutions provides both pre-service and in-service training to the teachers. There are several teacher training institutions such as the Institute of Advanced Studies in Education (IASEs), Colleges of Teacher Education (CTEs), Secondary Training Schools (STS), District Institute of Education and Training (DIETs) etc. Further, several institutions like the IGNOU, New Delhi, Academic Staff Colleges (ASCs) presently HRDCs, NCERT and SCERTs provide short term in service training programmes to the teachers for their professional growth and development. Hence, all the teacher education institutions are regulated, recognized and controlled by an apex body, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), New Delhi which is a statutory organization of the government of India.
The District Institute of Education and Training (DIETS) were first established on the recommendations of the National Policy on Education (NPE) 1986. Accordingly, in each district a DIET was established throughout India and also in Arunachal Pradesh. The first DIET centre of the state of Arunachal Pradesh was established in the year 1988 at
Nevertheless the trainees of these DIETs at present pursue the course in order to get into the teaching profession. However, they fail to understand the values, norms and professional ethics of the teaching profession. The teacher is the backbone of the educational system, maker of the mankind and architect of the society. But the status of the teachers deteriorated over the last few decades mainly due to poor service conditions, lowering standard of teacher education, changes in the value system, inability to understand the professional ethics by the teachers and poor attitude of the teachers towards teaching profession. Moreover, they have varied level of problems related to curricular and extra-curricular programmes, problems of education and training at the DIET and at their hostel and home environment, problem related to motivation on the part of the teachers etc.. .Hence, it is essential to study the educational problems of the DIET students so that the causes of problems can be found out and accordingly necessary steps can be taken.
The students of DIETs undergo pre-service training course D.El. Ed. (Dip. in Elementary Education. The students face several problems during the course of training both at the institution and at their residences. Some students face the problem of adjustment because of the change in the environment and change in the structure and peer group. Some other students face peculiar problems like fear psychosis towards the new course, inferiority complex and lack of intrinsic motivation. Quite contrary some other students have problems related to the course itself because of change in stream, teachers attitude, lack of clarity in perception of teaching profession and problems arising out of the process of organization of curricular and co-curricular activities.
Looking into the above discussed problems of DIET students the researcher has undertaken the present study on the DIET students of DIET, Kamki West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh.
The DIET, Kamki was started as District Resouce Centre (DRC) in the year 2003 at Kamki. It was upgraded into DIET in the year 2012 by the state government of Arunachal Pradesh. The DIET, Kamki is functioning as a full-fledged teacher education institution offering DEd course to the students. It is also providing Dl.Ed course and in-service training under IGNOU, New Delhi. The institution meets the training needs of West Siang district in particular and helps in providing training and other skill development programmes. For the present study the investigator selected the DIET, Kamki as it will be convenient for data collection and to bring improvement on the basis of the findings.
Education is a continuous process of bringing an all round development of personality of the students in the educational institutions. It is a powerful instrument of social change and human resources development only when they are educated properly. The task of educating the human resources is on the teachers. Hence, teachers are torch bearers and nation builders. The Kothari Commission (1964-66) emphatically started that
All philosophical doctrines like idealism, pragmatism, realism, existentialism etc also give prominent place to the teachers. Besides, all great philosophers of the west and the east like Dewey, Gandhi, and Vivekananda etc laid emphasis on the role of the teacher in their philosophy of education. Hence, at the modern context, a teacher is required to acquire adequate knowledge, skills, interests and positive attitude towards the teaching profession. The teacher’s work has become more complicated and technical in view of new theories of psychology, philosophy and pedagogy and the emergence of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Hence, the NCTE, New Delhi is taking several measures to make teaching profession a noble and intellectual profession by initiating several measures such as curricular reconstruction, introducing new modules and new pedagogy in teaching. Nevertheless the trainees of these DIETs at present pursue the course in order to get into the teaching profession. However, they fail to understand the values, norms and professional ethics of the teaching profession. During this training period they face numerous problems related to their course of study, study atmosphere, organizational climate of the institution, their teachers and their methodology of teaching etc. Hence, it is essential to study the problems of education of the DIET trainees so that the reasons of their educational problems can be found out and necessary solutions and measures can be evolved.
The research problem of the present study was stated as
The following were the objectives of the study:
To study critically the educational problems of DIET trainees in relation to different factors. To workout the implications of the study on educational problems for planning and designing appropriate educational ventures for the DIET trainees.
The present research study was a normative survey method under the descriptive research.
The total population of the present study covered 120 students studying in the DIET, Kamki in the west siang district of Arunachal Pradesh.
The sample for the present study consisted of 50 DIET students selected from DIET, Kamki in west siang District of Arunachal Pradesh. The investigator selected the sample for the present study on the basis of simple random sampling procedure .
The following tool was used for collection of relevant data:
Self-developed questionnaire on Educational Problems for the DIET Trainees.
Relevant data were collected from the teacher trainees by personally visiting the DIET, Kamki campus before the lockdown in the month of November 2019.
The scope of the present study was limited to 50 DIET trainees of DIET, Kamki and one self- developed questionnaire on Educational Problems.
The investigator used appropriate statistical techniques feasible for analysis and interpretation of data. The simple percentage analysis was used to analyze and interpret the data.
Discontinuance of studies
Frequency of absence from the DIET
Educational Aspiration of parents
Difficulty in understanding the subjects taught
Reasons of Difficulty in Understanding
Difficulty level of subjects
Availability of proper study atmosphere at home
Amount of time devoted for study
Provision of Guidance and Advice from Teachers
Participation in co-curricular activities
Educational Aspiration of DIET Students
Education related to earning livelihood
Prediction on being successful in life
Method of deciding future career
Satisfaction of students with facilities available in DIET, Kamki
The following are the major findings of the study:
Only 4.00 % of the DIET students had discontinued their studies where as 96.00 % of them had never discontinued their studies More than one fourth of students (26.00%) remained absent very frequently and 60.00% of DIET students remained absent rarely. Majority (80.00%) of the students felt that their parents considered it necessary to educate them and only one fifth of the students felt that their parents did not allow them to become unsocial and bad citizens. One-tenth of the DIET students had difficulty in understanding most of the subject taught where as 30.00% of the DIET students had difficulty in few subjects. The DIET students felt the following reasons for difficulty in understanding different subjects in order of decreasing frequency of response (c) irregular attendance in DIET (ii) Inability of teacher to explain properly (iii) Domestic engagements (iv) lack of quiet place for studies at home (v)use of difficult language by the teacher. Half of the DIET students had difficulty in studying philosophy where as 30.00% of them had difficulty in pedagogy of English. 40.00% of the DIET students did not get proper study atmosphere at home. More than half (54.00%) of them received guidance occasionally whereas 40.00% of them received guidance regularly. Half of the DIET students had participated frequently, 40.00% of them occasionally and only one-tenth of them had participated rarely in the co-curricular activities. Majority (74.00%) of the DIET facilities were not satisfied with the overall facilities available in DIET Kamki, whereas only 6.00% of them were very satisfied.
On the basis of the findings of the present study, the following recommendations are made for solving the educational problems of the DIET students:
It was found that Only 4.00 % of the DIET students had discontinued their studies where as 96.00 % of them had never discontinued their studies. Half of them had discontinued their studies for either one year two years. Poor result was the main reason for discontinuance of studies of the students. Hence, it is recommended that the teachers should try to develop better attitude towards studies among the DIET students by organizing special programmes on teacher education at the DIETs, organizing seminars, workshops on teaching as a profession, by providing proper guidance and advice related to them. It was found that More than one fourth of students (26.00%) remained absent very frequently and 60.00% of DIET students remained absent rarely. Hence, it is recommended that the teacher should take appropriate steps to motivate the students to remain present regularly in the class. They should be guided by their parents. Special orientation programmes may also be conducted by the teacher training institutions. Moreover, mass media can also be used to disseminate information pertaining to teaching as a profession. It was found that One-tenth of the DIET students had difficulty in understanding most of the subject taught where as 30.00% of the DIET students had difficulty in few subjects. The DIET students felt the following reasons for difficulty in understanding different subjects in order of decreasing frequency of response (i) irregular attendance in DIET (ii) Inability of teacher to explain properly (iii) Domestic engagements (iv) lack of quiet place for studies at home (v)use of difficult language by the teacher. Hence it is recommended that the parents and teachers of the DIET students should make extra efforts to make the students understand the subjects being taught. They should use simple and clear language while explain difficult concepts. It was found that 40.00% of the DIET students did not get proper study atmosphere at home. Hence it is recommended that the parents of the tribal students should provide proper study atmosphere to their children and they should inspire their children to devote and concentrate more time to their studies. It was found that Majority (74.00%) of the DIET facilities were not satisfied with the overall facilities available in DIET Kamki, whereas only 6.00% of them were very satisfied.. Hence it is recommended that the Head of the institution /authorities should provide necessary facilities to the students. Besides, the State Government and the administrative officers should make adequate funding provisions and supply necessary materials required for carrying out of curricular, co-curricular and extra - curricular activities of the DIET.