District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), Bikram, Bihar, India. 29 March 2014

For the past five months, government school teacher, Ashok Kumar has been cycling from his home, on weekends for 16 kilometers each way to attend the open distance learning course at Bikram in district Patna in Eastern Indian state of Bihar. No concessions have been made even for public holidays like Holi or Chhath_ BiharÕs biggest festival. Besides giving up a weekly holiday, Ashok Kumar must also put in about two hours of daily study. This is in addition to his teaching duties. All these efforts are well worth it believes Ashok Kumar and feels this innovative open distance learning course that he is undertaking, free of cost, will bring benefits not just for himself but also to his pupils. Teachers attend the open distance learning course at the Badshah Navaz Rizvi Training College (BNRT) in Gulzarbagh, Patna in the Indian state of Bihar. State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and UNICEF has formulated and introduced an open Distance Learning module for in service government teachers. Open Distance Learning is a specially designed distance study module for not so up-to-date government school teachers. Through this initiative state governmentt target to train 1.61 lakh in service elementary teachers. Most of the tasks, assignments, projects can be done in classroom only. On Saturday and Sunday teachers go to attend class on their respective centre. This 2 year long course was designed by SCERT with support of UNICEF and after completion of this course teachers gets UGC recognized Diploma in Education (DEd).

Photograph by Sumit Dayal/UNICEF.

Training of teachers in Bihar