Open Forum
New
Delhi, 29 August 2019
Teacher Education
IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED
By Dr. S. Saraswathi
(Former Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)
The HRD Ministry has launched the National
Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA), which
is a massive teacher training programme long overdue and indeed indispensable
for reform of school education in India. It is said to be one of the biggest
programmes in the world undertaken for in-service training of school teachers
and heads of schools at elementary level in all government schools.
The initiative has come at the right time.
While introducing the New Education Policy, it is also necessary to bestow
attention on enhancing the quality of teaching through reforms in teacher
education (TE). Global thinking is also in favour of providing relevant teacher
training and updating its contents.
Teacher training is mainly designed to equip
prospective teachers with knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and skills to
perform effectively in classrooms, schools, and in wider community signifying
the multiple role of teachers in shaping children. Professionals engaged in
this training are known as teacher educators or teacher trainers. Policies,
procedures and contents of training are educational matters, but are in many
countries high on political agenda so as to encounter multifaceted challenges.
Teacher education is a major factor in student
learning and in improving teaching quality. In fact, it is a career-long
process as social conditions and needs keep changing and require adaptations to
be learnt through education and training. It is the centre of much-needed
educational reform in India for enhancing the quality of education and student
learning. Investment in teacher education and training is part of educational
progress. The teacher needs to keep abreast of a changing world. The classroom
is his/her laboratory where professional techniques have to be developed and
tried. Teacher education and training also depend on the support of educational
research.
The necessity for refreshment, growth,
adaptation, are some crucial factors in making in-service training in any
field. In Britain, a proposal to introduce compulsory in-service training has
been considered for teachers, but not adopted.
Aimed at capacity building of over 42 lakh
teaching staff in elementary schools, the mission now launched by the
Government of India has the specific objective of motivating and encouraging
these teachers to foster critical thinking in students. The foundation for
proper education is laid at the elementary stage which is not realised by many
people.
The training presently envisaged, will be a 5-day
programme to impart innovative teaching methods, the use of art and technology
in the classroom, and basic counselling techniques. This is expected to
generate interest in school teachers to help students to think critically and
not just mechanically reproduce textbook lessons. Rote learning has come under
severe criticism these days as the enemy of true learning.
Wide coverage of teachers is being planned
under the programme to include faculty members of State Councils of Educational
Research and Training (SCERT), District Institutes of Education and Training
(DIETs), block resource coordinators and cluster resource coordinators in all
States and UTs. Training is to be conducted directly by over 30,000 key
resource persons and state resource persons trained by 120 national resource
persons identified by NCERT, NIEPA, CBSE, and KVS among others. Thus, it is
organised to create a chain of professionally qualified and trained teaching
community.
NISHTHA aims at creating awareness among
teachers to the multiple responsibilities of teachers in grooming students
besides covering the contents of the prescribed syllabus. The responsibility
relates to developing skills on various aspects of learning outcomes such as
competency and proficiency and student-centred pedagogy. Training in school
safety and security, cultivation of personal social qualities, motivation for
inclusive education, ICT in teaching-learning, promotion of health and
well-being including yoga are included in the programme.
The classroom in any government school in
India today is vastly different from what it was at the time of independence.
School education is in reality open to all - rich and poor, backward and
non-backward classes, boys and girls, and rural and urban children. The teacher
has to handle pupils with widely different background and need ability and
interest in promoting educational equality. To cope with students from diverse
background, teachers require education and training in a democratic knowledge
system. They must be prepared by attainments and attitude to take special
efforts to uplift the educationally backward and first generation learners – a
task peculiar to the teaching job, particularly at the primary level in India.
Primary education in India refers to class I
or grade I up to class or grade 6/7. The pupils are in the age-group 5 to 12 or
13 years. It does not include pre-school education. This elementary stage is
considered very important in all countries.
NISHTHA is designed to help build character
in students. Through this programme, teachers at the elementary level are
expected to acquire scientific temperament and knowledge of important aspects
of education and transmit that knowledge to students. Elementary education will
be enriched with character development and not restricted to the conventional
three Rs.
Even if these laudable objectives are not
realised straightaway and just remain on paper, repeated assertions will not go
in vain. These will help to lessen school-based inequalities furthered by indifference
and ignorance of teachers to their social responsibility. The important role of
teaching community at the primary level is at last getting recognition. It has
to be sustained by constant reiteration and follow up action to remind parents
and pupils and others who are prone to concentrate attention on higher
education as the gateway to employment and neglect elementary education as a
simple task and ignore primary schools as if they do not matter.
In the US, public school teachers must be
licensed. But, there is no licensing system in India. There is a degree course in teaching. Any
suggestion for re-assessment of teachers meets with strong protest naturally as
such a system is needed in any profession.
Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan
is the main programme of the Government of India for universalising elementary
education, which is implemented in partnership with State governments. Its
mandate is not only to provide universal access to education and retention, but
also to bridge gender gaps in education and advancement of learning levels of
children. There are other schemes also like “Beti
Bachao, Beti Badhao”, “E-Pathasala”,
and “Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan” for
primary and secondary education. NISHTHA can be a big support for education for
all.
Policy cooperation in the European Union has
led to a broad description of the kinds of attributes that teachers in EU
Member-States should possess. Teacher education, which is high on the agenda of
school system is organised in three stages – initial or pre-entry, induction
stage, and in-service. Continuous professional development is provided in most
countries.
Reports are coming about the poor quality of
school education at the primary level in many government and aided schools
pointing to the urgency to take remedial programmes. Ill-equipped teachers are
not likely to show commitment to improve the capacity of students. We have to
avoid landing up in a state of educational emergency marked by wide
inequalities in quality of learning and learners. Action must start
immediately. --- INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
|