Business Standard 1 in 6 elementary school teachers not professionally trained in India
Teacher training is imperative for improving learning outcomes in Indian classrooms
Economy & Policy News: With nearly one in six elementary school teachers not professionally trained, India must improve its spending on teacher training--just 2% of the 2018-19 budget allocated for Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (‘holistic education programme’) was spent on teachers’ training institutes. The projected budget allocation for the programme for 2019-20 is estimated to be Rs 34,489 crore, an increase of 10.5% from the 2018-19 budget estimate, according to a medium-term expenditure projection statement presented to parliament in August 2018. Launched in 2018 by combining Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (‘education for all’), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (‘national middle education mission’) and teachers’ education programmes, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan aims to provide support for both pre-service and in-service teacher training. Teacher training is imperative for improving learning outcomes in Indian classrooms, as acknowledged by the Three Years Action Agenda of the government think-tank NITI Aayog, as well as in the 2018 budget speech that emphasised on the need for professionally qualified teachers for school education reform. Only half of 10- to 11-year-olds in India can read a grade II level text (appropriate for seven- to eight-year-olds), as IndiaSpend reported on January 25, 2019. In rural India, almost half of grade V students cannot read a grade II text and more than 70% them cannot carry out simple division. Shortage of professionally qualified teachers A common feature across the Indian education system is shortage of qualified teachers. Section 23 of the Right to Education Act of 2009 (RTE Act) mandates that all government school teachers should possess minimum qualifications laid down by the National Council of Teacher Education...Read More