Q. Is it necessary that teachers or monitoring personnel need training on a continuous basis ?
Yes, since teaching-learning process involves innumerable complex factors, it is not possible to visualize all possible situations and provide one time training. Moreover, the curriculum is also changing continuously to accommodate emerging Concepts. Hence, teachers and monitoring personnel need recurrent training.
Q. Is their any arrangement for external monitoring ?
Yes, the following institutions have been assigned to monitor SSA/DPEP activities.
- Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studits, Bhubaneswar .
- Dr. P.M. IASE, Sambalpur.
- Any other agency engaged by Govt. of India and Govt.of Odisha.
Q. Besides training in what other ways teachers' academic abilities can be improved ?
In several ways teachers' ability to acquire new experience can be enhanced. Some Practices adopted in DPEP which can further be extended are :
Sharing Meeting : Meetings where teachers can share their good experiences and can also share their problems with other resource persons help in acquisition and understanding of novel experiences relevant to their academic and management issues. Monthly sharing meeting would be treated as a training day and to be conducted at the cluster level for Primary teachers and at the S.I. circle level for Upper Primary teachers with exclusive academic focus.
Exposure Visit : The resource group members and selected teachers are taken to visit good practices in schools/institutions. The experience gained can be shared with other teachers to have broader vision and improvement of their activities.
Distance Education : Distance Education methods like print materials (Self-instructional materials like “Ekalavya”), audio-video materials, tele-conferencing can be used for teacher education purposes profitably.
News letter : Providing news on innovative practices evolving in different parts of the world, interacting with others through letters and sharing one's own good ideas and practices with other, news letters on pedagogical practices at block, district and state levels can be published and distributed regularly. Quarterly news letter on classroom practices ‘AROHA' is an effort towards this.
Seminars & Workshops : Participation in various seminars and workshops enhancesthe teachers knowledge and understanding of their own problems and ways to formulate appropriate strategy to solve them.
Q. Can the textbooks, reading and writing materials be provided to all students free of cost ?
No. under DPEP the textbooks, reading and writing materials shall be provided free of cost to all girl students, students belonging to SC & ST community at Primary level. Under SSA, free textbooks shall be provided to all girl students and students belonging to SC & ST in primary and upper primary schools with an upper ceiling of Rs. 150/-.