From Inspection Systems to Peer Learning: Teacher Development in Primary Education

The inspection system is a visible link between the large numbers of village-based teachers and the district-level administration. While it may be successful in its ‘school audit’ function, dissatisfaction with the system seems to be related to its inability to play a ‘teacher development’ role. Perhaps this failure is not of the inspection system, but of the mechanisms for teacher development. Other institutional mechanisms like the panchayati district education committee, the in-service training opportunities currently provided, or the meetings of school complexes and the pay-centre schools are unable to pay attention to teacher development issues. An alternative to such “top down” mechanisms is necessary. A perspective which puts the practices of teachers first can lead to decentralized “peer learning systems”. These systems – teacher driven and controlled – can drawn on resources already available within existing information systems, for instance, the contributions of outstanding teachers or insights from the inspection reports. District-level management systems like the inspection set-up or in-service training centres, whether bureaucratic or panchayati, can play a supportive role in the financing and monitoring of such initiatives. Such a perspective can also provide an understanding of how, in the context of the current debate on democratic decentralization, a partnership between the teaching community, the administration and panchayati raj institutions can be solved.