District Institutes of Education and Training were the Indian state’s first and only significant institutional investment in elementary teacher education, ushering in a new phase of elementary schoolteacher preparation nationwide. This worm’s-eye view of one such institute in a backward district of Maharashtra suggests that, far from being “dysfunctional,” the pre-service teacher education at these places is engaged and responsive to local needs. The problems encountered by student–teachers and teacher–educators have more to do with the neglect and arbitrary nature of the system than the negligence and dereliction of duty of actors and agents within the institution. The proposal by the ministry to do away with teacher education at these institutes demonstrates that policymaking is often based on assumption rather than reality, borne out by research.
