Students rejoiced, while teachers
were upset. Occasion : publication of the results of the Tamilnadu Teacher
Eligibility Test (TET). The results are not unexpected. Only 2,448 teachers could pass out of
6,76,763, who appeared for the TET in july 2012. What has been well-known is
now confirmed with hard data. The present system of education does not necessitate
up gradation of knowledge and skills by the teachers.
It is an irony that security of
job is an incentive for indifference to teaching by a large proportion of
teachers in government schools as teaching is considered a soft job in the
protected (government) sector. “Talkative Teacher Shifted”: headline of New
Indian Express of August 30. A teacher at the government school at Pudukovil in
Tamilnadu was transferred to another school because the students and parents
complained to the authorities that she was always speaking over the mobile
during class hours without bothering to teach. Is this a punishment ? what
happens to the students in the new school? God Only Knows. This teacher is not
an exception. She represents a large number of mobile addicts.
The RTE Act mandates that teachers
handling standards 1 to 8 at present and candidates aspiring to become teachers
in future should pass the TET in order to improve the quality of education.
Primary school education is the foundation of higher levels of learning, and it
should be solid. Hence teachers at this level should be well qualified. Teacher
training now lacks quality and rigor. Continuous teacher education programmes
need to be a regular feature to ensure education of high quality. Teacher
evaluation by students annually can be an effective tool of performance
improvement; this can be done confidentially by the teachers themselves. The
noble mission of teaching demands commitment from the teachers.
No comments:
Post a Comment