THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 05 March 2020 [Teaching the teacher (Indian Express)]

Teaching the teacher (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: Education
Prelims level: Teacher Education Institutes
Mains level: Problems in Teacher Education Institutes

Context:

  • Teachers remain at the heart of the issue, and translating schooling into learning is a critical challenge.
  • The learning crisis is evident in the fact that almost half of the children in grade 5 in rural India cannot solve a simple two-digit subtraction problem, while 67 per cent of children in grade 8 in public schools score less than 50 per cent in competency-based assessments in mathematics.

Lacks of teachers in schools:

  • India is dealing with a scenario of significant teacher vacancies, which are to the tune of almost 60-70 per cent in some states.
  • There are over one lakh ........................................

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Lacks of quality teachers:

  • TEIs generating a surplus supply of teachers, they are also producing poor-quality teachers.
  • Besides it being reflected in the dismal state of learning across schools, the pass-percentage in central teacher eligibility tests that stipulate eligibility for appointments as teachers has not exceeded 25 per cent in recent years. This begs a pertinent question — how did we get here?
  • The answers lie in the inadequacies of planning, regulation, policy and organisational structures.

Problems of the Teacher Education Institutes:

Lacks of planning:

  • The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and its four regional committees (north, south, east and west), established by statute, are responsible for teacher education in India.
  • However, the Act assigns disproportionate power to the regional committees which grant programme affiliation while the Council has been rendered toothless.
  • Perverted incentives, widespread corruption and commercialisation have resulted in a massive proliferation of sub-standard TEIs.
  • The decade between 2004 and 2014 saw a five-fold increase in the number of programmes recognised by these regional committees.

Lacks of proper regulations:

  • About 90 per cent of these institutes are privately owned and a mind-boggling majority of them are standalone institutes, running single programmes with as few as 50 students.
  • Most of these TEIs are financially unviable, some function out of tiny rooms with duplicate addresses, and a few could even be selling degrees at a fixed price.
  • These institutes function in isolation from the rest of the higher education system, and there is no system to assess and accredit them.
  • There is no systemic sieve to ensure the entry of only motivated and meritorious individuals into the teacher education space.

Lacks of policies:

  • This establishes a compelling case for radical reforms in the sector.
  • Any reform initiative........................................

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Lacks of proper organizational structures:

  • The National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC), responsible for quality-standards in higher education, has only covered 30 per cent of all institutes since its establishment back in 1994.
  • Given the extensive landscape of the teacher education sector alone and current capacity constraints, it is necessary that multiple accreditation agencies be empaneled.
  • A common accreditation framework should be designed through a consultative process including all relevant stakeholders to facilitate its wider acceptability.
  • A transparent and credible system of accreditation could form the bedrock for weeding out substandard TEIs and propelling quality improvements in the rest.

Lacks of quality curriculum for teachers:

  • Another core determinant of quality is the curriculum which must be regularly revamped and revised to ensure that our teacher education system is aligned to global standards.
  • Ideally, given that teacher ...................................?

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Way ahead:

Prelims Questions:

Q1. With reference to the 'Yard 45006 VAJRA', consider the following statements:
1. The offshore patrol vessel 'Yard 45006 VAJRA' to enhance coastal security was formally launched recently.
2. It is the sixth in the series of seven offshore patrol vessels project that is designed and indigenously built by Larsen and Toubro Shipbuilding in line with the Centre's 'Make in India' vision.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

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Mains Questions:
Q1. What are the major ....................................?

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UPSC 2020
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Civil Services Mains
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