primary school teachers the twists and turns of ... - ERU Consultants

Version 20 Oct 08, edited finalaccommodate students only for two years, interns have to leave the hostel toaccommodate incoming first-year students and thus incur substantial expensesfor boarding and lodging during these six months; in addition there is also theissue 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-halfyears. By the time the internship is over, the last date for applying for a teaching post is over, sowe have to wait almost another year before we can get a job. Then for three years we have to workas Shikshan Sevaks (contract teachers). So it takes almost seven years before we can get a properjob (group discussion with 2 nd year D.Ed students in Pune).The Maharashtra story described above may differ in detail from experiences ofother 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 withteaching and learning. A huge opportunity is wasted as the preoccupation withnumbers (of institutions, of students, of marks obtained in examinations) leavesissues of quality and relevance completely invisible. Is this the best we can do?Teacher-training facultyThe answer to the above question depends in part on the nature of the curriculumdesigned for teacher trainees, as described above. But even the most thoughtful andinnovative curriculum finally rests on the ability of those implementing it—the cadreof teacher educators available in each state. It seems self-evident to say that acurriculum which does not take the skills and abilities of teacher educators as itsstarting point is doomed to failure from the start. But just as teachers’ real trainingneeds are ignored by teacher-training curricula, so too is the vital role of teachereducators sidelined by the education policy in every state. As pointed out in NCF2005, ‘There is no established mechanism to create a professional cadre of teachereducators, especially at the pre-primary and elementary stage. Most teachereducators training pre-primary and elementary school teachers are themselvestrained in secondary education’.Let us look once again at the situation in Maharashtra. Given the phenomenalexpansion in D.Ed colleges in the state over the last decade, the availability of teachereducators has become an issue of major concern. 7 Teacher educators are expected tohave, at minimum, an M.Ed degree; but the state does not produce qualifiedcandidates either in sufficient numbers or of adequate quality, to the point wherecurrent M.Ed students often obtain jobs even before completing their degree. NewM.Ed and M.A. (education) programmes have been opened in a number ofinstitutions, both government and private, 8 including in the distance mode, butgiven that most of these programmes lack a practical component and are orientedchiefly towards examination results, the relevance of this degree for the training ofprimary school teachers is questionable, even more so in the light of recent changesin the D.Ed curriculum. As one interviewee put it: ‘Qualified’ teacher educators know7 This discussion is based on interviews conducted during March 2008 with concerned individuals in anumber of settings: the Department of Education, universities, non- governmental organisations andteacher-training institutions.8 Earlier, private colleges were not allowed to offer the M.Ed programme because the NationalAssessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation required the availability of separate stafffor B.Ed and M.Ed, a requirement that was removed 3 or 4 years ago.47