Building evidence for effective Continuous Professional Development of secondary school teachers for sustainable learning

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) launched by the Government of India to enhance equitable access and improve quality of secondary education in India. RMSA is a relatively young... [ view full abstract ]

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) launched by the Government of India to enhance equitable access and improve quality of secondary education in India. RMSA is a relatively young scheme and the component of the teacher training has been implemented at the cost of 10 million pounds annually for past three years. However, there exists wide variations in the implementation and quality of the training across the states. In absence of any appropriate policy and guidelines for in-service training of teachers; trainings are carried out in an ad-hoc manner with limited evidence on effectiveness and impact. This paper presents a formative evaluation of in-service teacher training programmes that are conducted by various state governments and funded by RMSA.
The findings and recommendations of this mixed method evaluation are based on case studies from nine states across India and their cross case analysis. The evaluation provide useful insights into the quality of provisioning, planning, implementation and outcomes of in-service training of secondary school teachers. The evaluation is developmental in approach and suggests good practices and effective models of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of teachers based on in-depth review of national and international best practices.
The evaluation provides rich evidence to fill the gaps in knowledge and management of CPD of teachers through which classroom practices can be directly influenced. This will ultimately influence student learning positively in which teachers have a significant role.