Need for teacher education in India
Some of the most critical issues at a systemic level are (a) the curriculum, design, duration and quality of delivery of Teacher Education in the country, (b) highly rote memory based examination system (c) practically no schools of education that develop all-round professionals for education – with necessary education perspective, deeper understanding of subjects, pedagogy, education management, assessment, technology in education, early childhood education, education for specially abled children, etc. leading to severe lack of high quality people in the education system. This is the single most significant reason for the shortage of people in cluster, block, district and state level academic institutions. And yet there is no determination to create Indian Education Services recommended by the National Policy for Education.
Some of the most common issues are – ensuring implementation of decision, recruiting – retaining and motivating talent, managing performance and ensuring quality. The private / corporate organizations have one advantage – most people in the organization have one rallying point – profits or money, whereas different stakeholders have a divergent view about education. The additional difficulties in the Government system are – political interference, uncertain tenures of people in the given role and absence of accountability due to lack of performance management culture and any kind of risk-reward system.
School Type Schools Enrolment Teachers
Government (Aided included) 1196658 174765189 5808273
All Management (Government + Private) 1522346 260596960 8691922
(Source: U-DISE 2014-15)
Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs)
The number of TEIs is a staggering 18000 plus! The figures in Table 1 indicate that 80% of the total are government schools and 65% of the total students and teachers are in this system. However, when we analyse the TEIs numbers, the space is occupied by private players; more than 90% of the TEIs across the country are privately managed. It indicates that the private seized the opportunity and the Government could not keep pace with the increasing demand from schooling – though, it did provide the schools, the focus on providing adequate teachers was left to the private and this is true for all regions across the country; but one should also note that there is an uneven distribution between the States within a region.
in the government space, there are 571 District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET), 106 Colleges of Teacher Education (CTE), 32 Institutes of Advanced Study in Education (IASE) & 33 State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERTs) / State Institute of Education (SIE) in the country which originated in the 8th Plan period, post the National Policy on Education (NPE 1986). Some of the constructive work in the TE space has happened in these institutions, however, the quality of contribution is highly uneven across these institutions. Though they were set up under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Government of India, a large number of these institutions are plagued with – poor infrastructure, high levels of vacancies, dearth of high quality academic output, etc. that makes any kind of progress impossible (Azim Premji Foundation, 2010).
“Improving the quality of education depends on first improving the recruitment,
training, social status and conditions of work of teachers. They need the appropriate
knowledge and skills, personal characteristics, professional prospects and motivation
if they are to meet the expectations placed upon them”. (Delores, 1996)
Arora G.L., Raj Rani, Saroj Pandey (2000) in their article “Training needs of
primary school teachers” concluded that inadequate knowledge of teachers in the
content and pedagogy of Mathematics made it difficult transact the curriculum in
classroom situation.
Leinhardt and Smith
(1985), Leinhardt et al. (1991) have suggested that whilst many knowledge systems
exist fundamental to teaching and learning, two important core areas are knowledge
of lesson structure and knowledge subject matter. Subject matter knowledge includes
concepts, algorithmic operations, connections among different algorithmic
procedures, the subject of the number system being drawn upon, understanding of
classes of children’s errors and curriculum presentation. Lesson structure knowledge
involves knowledge for conducting lessons, general routines for interaction with
children, co-ordination lesson segments and fitting lessons to gather with in the day or
within a topic and across days. Subject knowledge supports lesson structure
knowledge providing the content to be taught, accessed during planning and in the
course of teaching.
A mathematics teacher should have a basic understanding of nature
of subject; nature of learner and learning process in Mathematics, aims of education
in general and that of Mathematics in particular ; methods and techniques of teaching
Mathematics; and should have a positive attitude towards teaching of Mathematics
Quality of Mathematics instruction at elementary school level depends on the
preparation of elementary teachers to teach Mathematics. Without sufficient
knowledge of Mathematics and Mathematics pedagogy, it is unlikely that elementary
teachers will be able to deliver sound Mathematics instruction to their pupils. In
addition, the Mathematics teacher should have positive attitude towards both
Mathematics and teaching of Mathematics. Otherwise they could not develop
positive attitude towards Mathematics in small children. Teachers’ negative attitude
may inhibit their learning and may be transmitted to their pupils Mathematics
achievement (Larson, 1983; Shofield, 1981).
The quality of teachers influences the level of attainment of the students. As
Kothari Commission has remarked, “Of all the different factors which influence the
quality of education and its contribution to national development of the quality,
competence and character of teachers are undoubtedly most significant”
Characteristic of good teacher educator -.
For Such scenario Our system need a teacher educator with following skills-
( Source- azimpremjifoundation)
- Improving the quality of educational processes and practices within schools across a district through capacity building of teachers, head teachers, teacher educators, and education functionaries
- Designing and facilitating creative approaches to teaching and learning through workshops, teacher forums, seminars, melas etc in their subject
- Building networks of like-minded teachers and head teachers
- Residing at teacher towns and blocks where government school teachers reside and engage with them continuously.
Professional competencies will include:
- Very good understanding of the subject and its content.
- Ability to conceptualize and deliver professional development programs for teachers and head teachers.
- Ability to facilitate
- Ability to communicate complex ideas in simple manner
- Liasoning and networking skills.
Over and above professional competencies, we are looking for individuals with the following attributes:
- Strong belief in constitutional values
- Deep commitment towards social change
- Being analytical and rational
- Be open and caring
- Patience and resilience to work for long-term goals
- Ability to function in a team
Since we work primarily with government rural schools, potential employees should be willing to live and work in remote locations across the state.
Area for intervention in teacher education-
शिक्षक पुरे शिक्षा तंत्र की धुरी है ,मेरे अनुसार शिक्षकों के साथ निम्न बिन्दूओ पर काम करने की आवश्यकता होती है –
- नए शिक्षकों के साथ काम – जब नया शिक्षक शिक्षा तंत्र में आता है तो उसे पर्सपेक्टिव से कंटेंट तक सहायता की जरूरत होती है , अनुभवी शिक्षक ,प्रिंसिपल या अन्य शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में काम करने वाले लोग शुरूआती दौर में कोच की भूमिका निभा सकते हैं और एक reflective शिक्षक के सफ़र में सहयोग कर सकते है.
- Peer लर्निंग – शिक्षकों के ऐसे समूह को पहचानना व् उनको एक साथ लाना, सक्सेस स्टोरी साझा करना –ये एक महत्वपूर्णकाम हो सकता है , इसमें हम कन्वेनर की भूमिका निभा सकते हैं .
- सिखने वालों का समुदाय तैयार करना स्कूल के बाहर– स्कूल में एक सीमा तक ही नवाचार के प्रयास किये जा सकते हैं ,इस कार्य को आगे ले जाने के लिए शिक्षकों के ऐसे समूह को पहचानना होगा जो सिखने में आनंद लेता है , उनको नया –नया सन्दर्भ साहित्य उपलब्ध कराना, उनकी विषयगत समस्याओं के सामूहिक रूप से मदद करना इत्यादि .
- रिसोर्स सेंटर के रूप में – विषयानुरूप tlm, लेसन प्लानिंग में मदद , उनके प्रपत्रों को भरने में मदद – हमें ना केवल अकादमिक क्षमता बढ़ानी होगी बल्कि इसके साथ उनकी प्रसाशनिक कार्यो में भी मदद करने की क्षमताओं को बढ़ाना होगा तभी हम समग्रता में शिक्षक के प्रोफेशनल विकास में एक उपयोगी भूमिका निभा पाएंगे. हम उनके स्कूल से सम्बंधित कार्यों के लिए कॉल सेंटर के समान हो सकते हैं .
- डेमो ऑफ़ गुड वर्क – अच्छी पाठ योजना , कक्षा –कक्ष में बच्चो के साथ कार्य , समुदाय के साथ शिक्षक की भूमिका व् अन्य जो भी हम शिक्षक से अपेक्षा रखते हैं ,हमें रोल प्ले कर कर दिखाना ही होगा तभी हमारे शब्दों को मायने मिलेंगे और उन्हें सुना जायेगा.
- शिक्षकों को चयनित कर उन्हें एडवांस स्टडी के लिए मदद करना, अच्छे प्रशिक्षणों में भेजना, प्रोफेशनल जर्नल उन तक पंहुचाना , expousre विजिट का आयोजन करना एक मुख्य कार्य हो सकता है .
E- रिसोर्स इक्कठा करना ,शिक्षकों तक पंहुचाना व् उसके सही इस्तेमाल को सुनिश्चित करना