DIET trainers allege teaching practice time extended

Our Correspondent

Kapurthala, November 16

Accusing the state Education Department of violating the norms of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and extending their teaching practice time to six months, District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) trainers, who are undergoing teacher training practice at the Sheikhupura DIET centre, staged a protest here on Friday. They demanded that the state government should abide by laws.

The DIET trainers said according to the NCERT norms, the teaching practice time allotted to them was 45 days. They added that in their two years of training programme, visiting different schools for 15 days fot teaching practice in the first year is a part of their syllabus. They said in next year, they have to visit various schools for 30 days.

They said by “violating” the NCERT norms, the state Education Department had extended their teaching practice time to 180 days (six months).

Garima, a DIET trainer, said, “As government schools in the state are facing a staff shortage, the Education Department has extended their teaching practice time and sent them to different schools.”

She said due to unnecessary transfers and postings in the recent past, many government schools are left with one or two teachers. Garima said to meet its own requirement, the department was doing injustice with them.

Another student Sidharth said, “DIET centres were set up to impart guidance to educational institutes and schools. It is the Union Government’s initiative for research and experimental work in the education domain with training of teachers”.

It is mandatory for a DIET centre to have 14 teachers, but hardly there are three or four teachers at one center.

In all 16 DIET centres in the state, there are only 67 teachers.