District teacher training institutes suffer from staff crunch and poor infrastructure
DIET in Jagraon, which once used to have 43 teachers, is now running with a total staff of 3, including the principal. There are 15 posts of teachers lying vacant at the institution
District Institutes of Educational Training (DIETs), where elementary teachers are imparted training with a purpose to nurture students and bring about all-round development of their personalities, have lost their importance due to lack of timely updates and staff crunch.
DIET in Jagraon, which once used to have 43 teachers, is now running with a total staff of 3, including the principal. There are 15 posts of teachers lying vacant at the institution.
Principal Rajwinder Kaur said when she joined in 2018, there were a total of 10 teachers who, after a few days, were deputed in schools. “We have also seen a phase where there was only one clerk and me running the institution. We have employed sweepers and guards on our own and we pay them out of the parent teacher association (PTA) fund as a lot of articles get stolen from our institution which makes a guard necessary during night time,” she added.
DIET provides elementary teacher training and the Jagraon centre currently runs 3 sessions with nearly 72 students in one, 68 in another and 59 in the third session from 9 am to 5 pm. “We even impart training to the teachers from elementary to senior secondary level and this institution is responsible for quality education in the district. Despite the staff crunch, the result of the students here is always 100% and now I have even started NSS here,” said principal Kaur.
However, lack of space has created a number of problems for the faculty members. Even the playground of the institutions lies in a dilapidated condition.
Commenting on reviving DIETs, special secretary of school education Churchil Kumar remarked, “DIETs in the state would receive funds from the central government under their concept of ‘DIET of Excellence’ and in the first phase, a few DIETs would receive the same including DIET Jagraon, the only condition is that we are required to fill the staff vacancy upto 80%, which we are working on.”