An assessment of in-service training programmes under DPEP in five districts of West Bengal

The study, sponsored by the State Project Office of West Bengal District Primary Education Programme (WBDPEP) and completed in November 2005, examines the impact of the short duration in-service training programmes for teachers on primary education in the five districts of West Bengal, viz., Bankura, Birbhum, Coochbehar, Murshidabad and South 24 Parganas, where DPEP was launched in 1997-98. It focuses on learning achievement by students as an outcome indicator and its distribution across various groups of students, and relate them to the input side, especially teachers' training. The study finds that, although by and large the training programmes have been successful in sensitizing the teachers about the need for learning modern pedagogical tools, they have not been as effective in orienting the teachers towards the need for closing inter-group disparities and weakening the close association between the student's innate social characteristics and her learning achievement.

The IDSK team that carried out the study consisted of Professor Achin Chakraborty (Coordinator), Barnita Bagchi, Bidhan Kanti Das, Dhiraj Bandyopadhyay and Sugeeta Upadhyay.

************************************************************************************************