Issues related to teaching
Gaps in teacher training:
The momentum generated by the Right to Education (RTE) Act that was enacted over a decade ago has subsided.
The RTE had laid down indicators of quality, and for a while, an attempt was made in a few States to use RTE-compliance criteria for both government and private schools.
Since the 1990s, teacher training has become a beehive of small-time entrepreneurs.
The regulatory structure of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has not been able to enforce its meticulously worked out norms.
In 2008, the Supreme Court of India appointed a commission under the late Justice J.S. Verma to examine the various ailments of teacher training.
His magnificent report, submitted in 2012, offered some hope that the training of teachers would gain status and attention, but that hope proved short-lived.
Improvement of quality by the inspection raj proved an illusion.
Last month, the Supreme Court passed its verdict in a case concerned with teacher training at the primary level.
The Court said that the NCTE has not applied its mind while allowing Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree holders to teach at the primary level — BEd is traditionally associated with secondary education).
Prejudiced behavior and physical and mental harassment towards students:
Professional conduct for teachers
Teacher Commission report:
It was chaired by D.P. Chattopadhyaya.
The report showed how far school teaching in India was from standards and ethics that one might regard as professional.
Many decades have passed since that report was submitted and hardly anyone reads it now.
A summary of recommendations is available on the Internet for the benefit of students facing an examination such as BEd without attending classes.
It is hardly cynical to say that Chattopadhyaya’s recommendations are quite irrelevant.
The new ethos of education, promotes easy instrumentality, and never reflection or introspection.
The Chattopadhyaya report had advocated a well-read, thoughtful teacher who is conscious of her decisions and actions.
That view found limited traction in the Indian system, especially in the bureaucracy governing it. It continued to regard the teacher as a minor functionary.
During the 1990s, the compulsions of structural adjustment led to the loss of what little dignity teachers of small children had enjoyed.
North Indian States had no problem opting to recruit teachers en masse on contractual or ad hoc basis under euphemistic titles.
Reckless privatisation implied that market laws should prevail in deciding emoluments.
Enrolment grew, but there was no lasting improvement in working conditions.
Under the influence of the global policy adviser James Tooley, low-budget private schools multiplied, enabling State governments to merge their own smaller schools in the name of rationalization.
COMMENTS