Decentralization: In Context to Teacher Development in India

Abstract

Decentralization as an approach was extensively adopted across the world for effective governance and policy making.  This approach although rhetorically advocated its strengths as being flexible and inclusive, functionally many shortcomings have been disclosed after it was adopted in real situation. Decentralization of teacher education and development programs in India, in this regard had a similar experience. The District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) were primarily envisioned to restructure and transform the elementary teacher education in the country. They were visualized as autonomous and academic lead institutions which catered to the diverse educational needs within the given districts. However, the outcome was not as expected since in most cases, due to systemic inadequacies and assignment of multiple tasks, these institutions resulted in operating in several directions and with limited focus. Hence, prior to introducing and setting up any decentralized structure it is important to consider an appropriate balance between centralization and decentralization, and lay definite focus on the roles of the functionaries within the established system.