Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Hunger / HDI | Education
Education

Education

Share this article Share this article

What's Inside

Kindly click here and here to access the document titled A Future at Stake – Guidelines and Principles to Resume and Renew Education (released on 2nd November, 2021), which has been prepared by the National Coalition on the Education Emergency (NCEE). 

---


The 2021 State of the Education Report for India: No Teacher, No Class (released in October, 2021) has been prepared by UNESCO New Delhi office in collaboration with Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai. Experts from other educational institutions too have played a key role in preparing the report.

This third edition of the State of Education Report, focused on the theme of teachers, teaching and teacher education, underscores that the work of teaching is complex. It attempts to provide an understanding of key aspects of the teaching profession, provides a profile of the 9.6 million teaching workforce, as well as the challenges of their intricate teaching routine and their professional development. 

With an in-depth analysis of the current state of teachers in India, highlighting best practices, the UNESCO State of the Education report for India 2021 aims to serve as a reference for enhancing the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) and towards the realization of the SDG.4 target 4c on teachers. The NEP, adopted in 2020, acknowledges teachers as crucial elements in the learning process, while stressing the importance of their recruitment, continuous professional development, good work environment and service conditions. 

The report also looks at teachers’ experience of ICT and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the teaching profession. The ongoing pandemic has drawn attention to the centrality of the profession and the importance of quality of teaching. During this unprecedented health crisis, most teachers were found to have positive attitudes and beliefs about integrating technology in education, even though they perceived a lack of professional skills.   

The key findings of the '2021 State of the Education Report for India: No Teachers, No Class' are as follows (please click here, here and here to access the sources): 

Profile of teachers in India 

• Using data from the Unified District Information System for Education, the report profiles the current teaching workforce and reveals aspects of teacher availability, deployment, and working conditions. 

• The private, unaided sector accounts for 30 percent of the teaching workforce, while the government sector employs about 50 percent. While teacher availability has improved, pupil-teacher ratios are adverse in secondary schools. Moreover, there is no information on availability of special education, music, arts and physical education teachers. The availability and deployment of subject teachers too, is not well documented and monitored. Almost all single-teacher schools are in rural areas. There is a pronounced need to improve both availability and deployment of qualified teachers in the north-eastern states of India. In terms of basic amenities, the working conditions of teachers in the north-east and the ‘aspirational districts’ are poor. Provision of school libraries is low, information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure is very low, and there is marked rural-urban disparity.

• The profession is overall gender balanced, with women accounting for about 50 percent of the teaching workforce, but there are significant inter-state and urban-rural variations.

• The majority of teachers in urban areas are women, in contrast with rural areas. The early childhood education, special education and private unaided schools sectors are also highly feminized.

• The work force has a deficit of over 1 million teachers (at current student strength) and the need is likely to grow, given the shortages of teachers in certain education levels and subjects such as early childhood education, special education, physical education, music, arts, and curricular streams of vocational education. In fifteen years, about 30 per cent of the current workforce will need to be replaced.

Status and terms of employment

• The teaching profession has average status in India, but it is a career of choice for women and youth from rural areas in particular. Private school teachers and early childhood education teachers are highly vulnerable groups, with many working without contracts at low salaries, with no health or maternity leave benefits.

• Several states have introduced the teacher eligibility test as part of their recruitment processes in order to improve teacher quality. Some states have also adopted technology aided teacher deployment. Teacher governance remains a focal area for systemic reform, accounting for 70 percent of the governance metric score in the Performance Grading Index.

Teaching practices in India

• Teacher-centric practices dominate the Indian pedagogical landscape in both government and private schools, and in most subject areas. These practices are linked to teachers’ beliefs regarding their learners, the process of learning, subject matter and the aims of education. Teachers who successfully address the learning needs of children from underprivileged and marginalized groups are found to have positive attitudes towards their students. They think of pedagogy as inclusive communication, and create an environment in which children feel cared for. Perceptions of ineducability, on the other hand, lead to teachers neglecting their students. Having an academic and collegial ethos in school, and better teaching-learning environments motivate teachers and enhance teaching quality. Teachers are more likely to change their practices in sustained ways when professional development engages with their beliefs and they experience the satisfaction of seeing their students learn.

• Teacher workload is high – contrary to public perception – although invisible, and a source of stress. Teachers value being given professional autonomy, and disregard of this is demotivating. Teachers’ voices in the system in matters of policy and governance can be enhanced through professional teacher networks, and unions. Most accountability systems tend to emphasize monitoring. Professional standards need to be made a part of a larger system and used in the context of professional development rather than accountability.

Pre and in-service professional training

• A large proportion of teacher education programmes in India are run in ‘self-financed’ colleges. Their geographic spread across the country is uneven. There are very few programmes to prepare special education, vocational education, arts and music education teachers. The volume of admission in Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) programmes seems to be stable, and quality of intake is found to have improved due to the adoption of entrance examinations. However, in some states, there are fewer science students opting for programmes. Admissions in Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed.) and Master of Education (M.Ed.) programmes are shrinking. Pre-service teacher education curricula still need to be improved, and supported with Indian language teaching-learning resources. While in-service teacher education is widespread and now incorporates technology, research is needed to understand its impact and to identify which models work. 

Teachers and ICT

• The report looks at teachers’ experience of ICT and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the teaching profession. Most teachers are found to have positive attitudes and beliefs about integrating technology in education. However they feel that it is time-consuming, and that they lack professional skills. Teachers have largely used smartphones as their primary EdTech tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a large proportion of students have had limited or no access to devices and data, compelling teachers to use hybrid modalities to keep in touch. Professional development using tech platforms can offer possibilities for building communities and new professional learning pathways by enabling greater agency and interaction among teachers. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has also exposed the vulnerability and insecurity of teachers.

The report concludes with a set of ten action-oriented recommendations to address the challenges facing the teaching profession in India, and thus help achieve the NEP 2020 vision and objective – “Ensuring quality education for all in the country”. 

The ten recommendations are: 

• Improve the terms of employment of teachers in both public and private schools
• Increase the number of teachers and improve working conditions in North Eastern states, rural areas and 'aspirational districts' 
• Recognize teachers as frontline workers 
• Increase the number of physical education, music, art, vocational education, early childhood and special education teachers. 
• Value the professional autonomy of teachers
• Build teachers' career pathways
• Restructure pre-service professional development and strengthen curricular and pedagogical reform
• Support communities of practice
• Provide teachers with meaningful ICT training
• Develop teaching governance through consultative processes, based on mutual accountability

Sources: Please click here and here to access.  

 

Rural Expert
 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

Im4Change.org हिंदी वेबसाइट का परिचय. Short Video on im4change.org...

Im4Change.org हिंदी वेबसाइट का परिचय. Short Video on im4change.org...

"Session 1: Scope of IDEA and AgriStack" in Exploring...

"Session 2: Farmer Centric Digitalisation in Agriculture" in Exploring...

"Session 3: Future of Digitalisation in Agriculture" in Exploring...

Objectives | About Us | Workshops | Disclaimer
share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close