primary school teachers the twists and turns of everyday practice

Version 20 Oct 08, edited final
accommodate students only for two years, interns have to leave the hostel to
accommodate incoming first-year students and thus incur substantial expenses
for boarding and lodging during these six months; in addition there is also the
issue of security faced by women students.
Becoming a teacher is now like becoming a doctor, or an engineer. The D.Ed lasts two-and-a-half
years. By the time the internship is over, the last date for applying for a teaching post is over, so
we have to wait almost another year before we can get a job. Then for three years we have to work
as Shikshan Sevaks (contract teachers). So it takes almost seven years before we can get a proper
job (group discussion with 2 nd year D.Ed students in Pune).
The Maharashtra story described above may differ in detail from experiences of
other states but the essence remains the same: teacher certification programmes,
usually developed by experts with no experience of teaching at the primary level,
provide just that—certification, rather than any sort of meaningful engagement with
teaching and learning. A huge opportunity is wasted as the preoccupation with
numbers (of institutions, of students, of marks obtained in examinations) leaves
issues of quality and relevance completely invisible. Is this the best we can do?
Teacher-training faculty
The answer to the above question depends in part on the nature of the curriculum
designed for teacher trainees, as described above. But even the most thoughtful and
innovative curriculum finally rests on the ability of those implementing it—the cadre
of teacher educators available in each state. It seems self-evident to say that a
curriculum which does not take the skills and abilities of teacher educators as its
starting point is doomed to failure from the start. But just as teachers’ real training
needs are ignored by teacher-training curricula, so too is the vital role of teacher
educators sidelined by the education policy in every state. As pointed out in NCF
2005, ‘There is no established mechanism to create a professional cadre of teacher
educators, especially at the pre-primary and elementary stage. Most teacher
educators training pre-primary and elementary school teachers are themselves
trained in secondary education’.
Let us look once again at the situation in Maharashtra. Given the phenomenal
expansion in D.Ed colleges in the state over the last decade, the availability of teacher
educators has become an issue of major concern. 7 Teacher educators are expected to
have, at minimum, an M.Ed degree; but the state does not produce qualified
candidates either in sufficient numbers or of adequate quality, to the point where
current M.Ed students often obtain jobs even before completing their degree. New
M.Ed and M.A. (education) programmes have been opened in a number of
institutions, both government and private, 8 including in the distance mode, but
given that most of these programmes lack a practical component and are oriented
chiefly towards examination results, the relevance of this degree for the training of
primary school teachers is questionable, even more so in the light of recent changes
in the D.Ed curriculum. As one interviewee put it: ‘Qualified’ teacher educators know
7 This discussion is based on interviews conducted during March 2008 with concerned individuals in a
number of settings: the Department of Education, universities, non- governmental organisations and
teacher-training institutions.
8 Earlier, private colleges were not allowed to offer the M.Ed programme because the National
Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation required the availability of separate staff
for B.Ed and M.Ed, a requirement that was removed 3 or 4 years ago.
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