Normal school for teacher training in colonial Bengal: A critical study

Teacher training in Bengal in modern period was shaped by the British in India with modern perspectives. They promoted normal schools and arranged training for existing pundits, gurus and teachers in different presidencies to improve the qualities of teaching. Different committees were instituted to look in to the system of teacher education and training. Of them Wood's Dispatch, Government of India's Resolution on Education Policy of 1904, Saddler and Hartog Committees made substantive recommendations which hold good for the present times too. School inspectors also suggested positive recommendations to systemize the teacher training system. The present study tries to examine the process of development, growth, origin and major key features of teachers' training system, particularly normal school system in colonial Bengal. Besides exploration of the archival documents, letters, gazetteers and other literary sources have been used in the present study to reach at specific conclusions. It would describe why and when teacher training was established as a system of education in India. Furthermore, it would identify the forces that shaped and developed the teacher training in Un-divided Bengal.