Improve teacher quality to raise school standards

Improving teacher quality and pedagogical innovation to enhance the overall rigour of education in the country, must be an immediate and urgent priority.

India has about 1.5 million schools of which approximately 1.1 million are government or government-aided schools, 9.7 million teachers and a total of 265 million students, the largest school education system in the world. The teacher-to-student ratio, at least on paper, seems reasonable as does the curriculum being taught. Yet the downslide of the quality of Indian education is generally acknowledged and is extremely worrisome. The reasons for the poor quality of education are manifold. The primary reason is the quality of school teachers and their training. Quality school teacher pedagogy is the foundation of quality education; for the level of education cannot rise above the quality of teachers.

Quality school teacher pedagogy is the foundation of quality education

However good the basic qualification of school teachers (in India restricted to suboptimal (mostly) distant correspondence degrees in B.Ed and M.Ed), even the best of these basic qualifications cannot equip teachers for life-long teaching. Further, in a globally connected world, the teacher must be educated and updated about social, political and technological changes for students to be equally aware of the consequences and implications of these changes and be suitably conscious and responsive.

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 emphasises the importance of teacher training programmes that focus on developing pedagogical skills among teachers. It also highlights the need for teachers to have access to ongoing professional development opportunities that enable them to stay updated with the latest advances and ideas in both pedagogy as well as subject content. Teacher pedagogy and the continuous professional development of teachers are inextricably linked to providing quality education. Effective pedagogy creates a nurturing learning environment, while continuous professional development ensures that teachers remain at the forefront of educational innovation. Educational institutions, policymakers, and educators themselves need to prioritise and invest in teacher pedagogy and continuous professional development to elevate the quality of school education and create lifelong learners.

The ministry of education has followed up the NEP recommendations and defined many teacher training schemes under the Pradhan Mantri Yojana, schemes which by their admission, need strengthening and financing. While these steps are being concretised, there are possible immediate steps that can be implemented to enhance the awareness and skill sets of the teachers.

Most government school teachers would not have stepped out of their immediate school environment after being admitted into the teaching services. They have not been exposed to the best education systems in India, let alone the world. While universities, IISERs, IISc and even IITs have open houses for school students, these institutes have limited interaction with teachers. The central universities, IISERs, IITs, and IISc, all under the remit of the ministry of education and other research institutions, can design and curate innovative conferences, workshops, short-term training courses, interactive visits and demonstrations for school teachers in their district and/or neighbouring districts. The design needs to be innovative, allowing interaction in regional languages, active participation of school teachers, and providing within the intellectual horizons of the participants, a functional experience that can enhance teaching skills and enthusiasm. The exposure to the best institutes and minds in India as well as to the latest educational tools and subject updates would be a lifetime experience for school teachers. The possibility of generative AI to augment teacher training and teaching must be explored, especially in regional languages.

The interaction between teachers from schools and higher education institutes will also lay the bridge for better-quality students crossing over to higher education institutions. The suggestion would be to start with the bottom half, in terms of quality, of the teachers and then, move to better teachers.

Instituting teaching assistantships/fellowships over and above the existing fellowships for doctoral and postdoctoral scholars to prepare and conduct lectures, assignments and discussions for school teachers would be a win-win, with teachers being updated, filling in for a large number of teachers on leave, while inspiring some research scholars to take up teaching as their career choice. This activity can be mandated to District Institutes of Teacher Education (DIETs).

Finally, a teachers database — not in the public domain though — must be maintained at the district level, which grades teachers on well laid out performance parametric. This database can be used by central/state governments to felicitate/incentivise performing teachers. Transparency in the selection of deserving teachers is a must, as opposed to a bias-driven nomination process.

In a resource-constrained country with a burgeoning student population, it is important to collaborate, mentor, and teach to improve the quality of education. In the Indian context, it has to be a collective responsibility. Creating opportunities, and providing better methods for teacher training and upskilling at scale, are imperative. The immediate present and future of the nation rests in the hands of capable teachers. The education landscape in India is evolving; improving teacher quality and pedagogical innovation to enhance the overall rigour of education in the country, must be an immediate and urgent priority.

Shailja Vaidya Gupta is a former adviser with the department of biotechnology (DBT), Government of India. The views expressed are personal