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Valuing Professional Growth by Teachers
School-based INSET is the right approach to promote teacher development from the grassroot. Instead of relying only on the guidance and help of external INSET agencies, SBINSET envisages a self-dependent, self-motivated, selfsufficient and self-inspired programme of faculty improvement. This is on-the-job training to develop teacher talent for self-satisfaction as well as to meet the institutional requirements. Since the programme originates from the day-to-day school life, it may prove to be a commendable attempt to bridge the gap between theory and pracice of education. Above all, it is not a programme coming from above or prescribed by persons on the top. It is an attempt to decentralise planning, implementation and evaluation of the whole programme of teacher development. The use of a popular phrase the SBINSET may be described as "the programme of growth of the teachers, by the teachers and for the teachers".
ASSUMPTIONS
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The basic assumptions behind the SBINSET programme for teachers may be listed as follows:
(1) Education is the most significant and potent activity to bring about the desired change in a society.
(2) Teachers have the capability to develop their personal and professional capabilities in the school and in the community.
(3) School is the most appropriate and important institution for educational change.
(4) Teacher's involvement and participation must be sought in planning and implementation of any programme of in-serive education and training for their benefit.
(5) Individual schools have their unique needs and problems which demand distinct solutions and programmes of in-service education.
(6) Each school has the capacity to improve and develop even within the existing resources in men and material.
(7) The SBINSET programme is not an isolated activity; instead it is to be taken as supplementary and complementary to the efforts already being done in the field of in-service education of teachers.
OBJECTIVES
Development of teacher competency and professional growth forms the basic objective of all in-service education programmes. SBINSET, being one of the modes cannot be entirely different in its aims from other agencies. However, the
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