Teacher Training

Summary: All in all, the 3-day teacher training program recently held for new DSH teachers (mainly government school teachers in the Chinhat study) was a success. Teachers were present, and the program went smoothly. The real test is whether the teachers will take the message and lessons from the training to their practice.

Last week, DSH hosted a three-day teacher training, marking the official start of the Chinhat Study. The Chinhat Study is a 2-year study funded by the University of Washington to evaluate the impact of the DSH program in 11 government schools. Both Class 3 English and Class 5 Math are being evaluated at each school, one being the control and the other being the experimental group.

The training was conducted in Hindi and covered topics such as introduction to DSH, characteristics of effective teaching, sensitization to gender issues, and subject-specific teaching.

Attendance was high (~90%), which was a great sign. Less promising, however, was the “Prerna Mentorship” session, where teachers sat in and observed live classes held at Prerna, a high-caliber school for neighborhood slum girls.

After 15 minutes of shuffling around, teachers were finally settled into the respective rooms. Less than 5 minutes later, the teachers excused themselves and marched back into the other side of the school, where training had been held. Seeing us on the balcony, they gestured, “We’ve had enough and are heading back.”

I’m glad we cut the originally planned week-long Prerna Mentorship Program to just 30 minutes, but apparently even that proved to be too much for this lot. They had the guts to walk out of a session and the arrogance to think they could call the shots.

I find the sense of entitlement that comes with job stability and 20,000 Rupees per month very upsetting.