Strengthening Cluster Resource Centre (CRC) As a Forum for Continuous Teacher Development: My Experience in Mayurbhanj District, Odisha, India

To bring about qualitative improvement in education, Cluster Resource Centres (CRCs) were established in each block of every district under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to conduct in-service teacher training and to provide academic support to teachers and schools on a regular basis as well as to help in community mobilization activities. According to the previous researches, it was found that the functioning of these centres were far away from the reality due to lack of physical resources and overloaded administrative responsibilities of the Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators (CRCCs). The situation of these Cluster Resource Centres in Odisha and especially in Mayurbhanj district was also not encouraging. There was hardly any scope for Monthly Sharing Meetings (MSMs) at the clusters. The deteriorating situation of these Cluster Resource Centres and absence of scope for continuous capacity building of teachers prompted CARE India (an International Development Organisation) to intervene in the district. It tested an innovation to revive the Cluster Resource Centres and to convert them in to a continuous teacher development forum. This in turn enhanced the reading skill of the children in the intervened schools. The results mentioned here are clearly reflected in the end-line assessment report conducted by a Delhi based research agency named “KAARAK”