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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Qualified teachers needed
-The Pioneer

A school shapes the future of a child. But according to a latest research, there is a need for 60 lakh qualified teachers in India. Sangeeta Yadav speaks with some experts to bring you a solution to this glaring problem

 A degree does not qualify someone to become a teacher.  A teacher has to be a life long learner, researcher, pedagogy, must understand assessments and must be able to motivate learning in a child," says Anshul Pathak, managing director of Town School.

But that is not the case these days. Researches emphasise that there is dearth of skilled teachers in India which is eventually causing problems in the education industry. The recently released Supreme Court’s report clearly states the shortage of 12 lakh qualified teachers in eight states of India with a few states being adversely affected. This is becoming one of the crucial hurdles in implementing the Right To Education Act. This report has raised alarms not only in the minds of the Government but is also raising concern among many parents.

The quality of teachers and level of teaching is drastically falling with vacancies for good faculty tremendously rising. Pathak believes that this shortage of teachers is much more, as per some research reports. “India would require about 60 lakh teachers by 2020.  All teachers, existing and new have to pass the Central or State Teacher Eligibility Test, the pass rates are extremely low. For instance, the Delhi pass rates is about 7 to 8 per cent, while Bihar pass results were about 3 per cent to 4 per cent.  This indicates that the quality of teachers is very questionable.  Hence the shortage of teachers might be 60 Lakh, but the shortage of quality and qualified teachers would be much much more than that,” Pathak tells you.

 While the future of the children is in jeopardy, the Government seems to be doing little about bridging the gap between demand and supply of qualified teachers. “The Government wants to create teachers, but are compromising on the quality, by setting unrealistic budgets for companies to train them. As a result, they will get more unqualified people posing as teachers, leading to the same debacle that has been happening till now,” Rohit Pathak, MD, SelaQui International School, says. Though it is a major loop hole in the education sector, the need of the hour is to look for viable solutions to address this concern.

“Over 90 per cent of students do not complete class XII, hundreds of millions of students drop out of their school and one of the primary reasons is the lack of qualified teacher, if this teacher issue is not addressed, the lives of these hundreds of millions of children would continue to be at risk,”Pathak opines.

He adds that education is not reaching the masses, since it is not in tune with the needs of the time. “The masses view it as a waste of their time, and feel they can do much better by employing themselves in some other economic activity. They view education as irrelevant, since it doesn’t equip them with anything,” he says.

The report further highlights the facts that as compared to Western countries, the salary of teachers in India is very less resulting in high levels of dissatisfaction and demotivation. This further restricts quality talent to opt for this profession.

“In the West, the system is serious about education. They understand that human capital is what will take them into the next century, and are willing to spend money on building it. In India, we are still stuck in ‘A for Apple’. We are creating low to mediocre quality students, who are mostly not capable of taking on the tasks that are required to be done in today’s world. The western countries spend more and get more in return. We spend less, we get nothing in return. So it’s time to spend more funds for the betterment of the coming generations,” Rohit gives you a solution.

Salary satisfaction is one factor that has been a issue in every field but the question still remains whether by increasing the salary, we can improve the condition of quality teachers? “More than salary, it is the will of the teacher and the expectations of the community at large.  We have all accepted that the Government schools have failed, then why do we continue to fund them and waste the tax payer’s money.  Private schools in the rural parts of the country pay less salary to their teachers and perform better than the Government schools and the private institutions have  more enrollment than the Government schools.  No one wants to send their ward to the Government schools.  It is because there is no teaching or learning that is happening in these schools,” Pathak tells you.

Though teachers are the most critical element of a good schooling system and hence they must be continuously learning but however in India this is not happening. “We have come a long way from the time classes were held under the trees. While our infrastructure may have been upgraded, our pedagogy hasn’t seen much of a change. Teachers need to keep themselves abreast with the latest in the world, even if it is not from their field of learning. They do not have to be a reservoir of knowledge, but rather facilitators,” Rohit tells you.

 He points out that private schools in the metros understand the need, and are working towards it. They are facing problems, but are still trying to upgrade the quality of teachers they are getting. “The problem lies with the Government, which seems oblivious to the reality, that good teachers are not created by spending pennies. A lot of investment goes into making good teachers, and the Government is unwilling to spend that money. They need to spend more on creating good teachers, need to glorify this profession, thus attracting good talent and raising the quality of school graduates,” Rohit opines.

Besides providing with funds, the Government needs to build human capital, create more qualified teachers and build a system of monitoring  accountability for these teachers.

“Focus on the teacher developmental issues and make him more responsible and accountable to deliver.  Performance measurement standards needs to be instituted,” Pathak concludes.