TRAIN THE TEACHERS
The education system is in a state of crisis. Changing it and altering the destinies of the 260 million children is possible only if the capabilities of the teachers teaching them are reimagined.
Few would argue that India’s education system is not in a perpetual state of crisis. The statistics have not only inundated us each year, they’ve numbed us. These are datasets telling us that only 27 per cent of Class 3 students can read a second-grade text. They’re numbers indicating that a staggering 67 per cent of children drop out before Class 12. They’re reports suggesting that the average Indian Class 8 student is on par, mathematically, with a Class 3 student from South Korea.
Few would argue that India’s teachers are not inextricably linked to our state of education. A 2009 McKinsey study on educational systems concluded that a high-performing teacher, over time, can improve students’ educational outcomes by 53 per cent. According to a number of studies since then, experts argue that the single greatest investment in a child’s education is the quality of teachers they receive. It’s an investment that, according to the numbers, is exponentially smarter than expenditures in infrastructure, curriculum, or even technology.
And finally, few would argue that policymakers haven’t tried to rectify this mess. It’s a twopronged solution that’s seemingly simple. Get more teachers. Improve their training. Give it time, and you’ll see the effect.
We now have 8.5 million teachers in the system. The country has the capacity and funding to train more than 3.5 million teachers, every year. Trainings include pre-service degrees, onboarding and induction for new teachers, re-orientations, and much more. Despite all of that, most assessments indicate that learning levels have either stayed stagnant or, in many cases, have declined.
It’s time to step back and accept that, perhaps, we’re going about this all wrong. Teachers are linked to solving our state of education. We need to get India’s best talent to choose teaching over every other career. Once they’re in classrooms, we need to do everything possible to maximise their talents. Getting the country’s best talent to teach and then getting the most out of them implies a massive restructuring in how we think about teacher recruitment and training. It’s a process centered on two central pillars.
WE NEED TO GET INDIA’S BEST TALENT TO CHOOSE TEACHING OVER EVERY OTHER CAREER. ONCE THEY’RE IN CLASSROOMS, WE NEED TO MAXIMISE THEIR TALENTS.
Revamp how we recruit and select our teachers
We have to acknowledge that teaching is far from an aspirational profession in India. Young Indians today are choosing every career but teaching. The salaries in government schools are quite respectable (between `30,000 and `50,000 per month), but most applicants shy away from the onerous recruitment practices which, according to multiple studies, are rife with entrance barriers and even bribes. Their counterparts in private schools aren’t faring much better. Further, killing the aspirational value is the low bar we place on incoming teachers. To appear for the national B. Ed exam, candidates only need a 50 per cent on their university degree. Once teachers are in the system, they face a promotion system that’s lengthy and rooted in archaic criteria that are far from meritocratic. If we’re going to make teaching aspirational again, we’re have to change the conversation. A little more than two decades ago, Singapore acted on a similar lesson. Prospective teachers are selected from the top third of a high school graduating class, and only one out of eight applicants is eventually accepted. Of accepted applicants, 80 per cent have already completed a bachelor’s degree in the subject they will teach. Since compensation often plays a role in attracting the best and brightest, the Singaporean Ministry of Education aggressively monitors teacher salaries to ensure they’re competitive. In India, we’ve seen the starting effects of such efforts but small in scale. A five-year study in Andhra Pradesh tested the effects of performance-based pay on teachers in 300 government schools. Teachers within the study were paid extra if student learning increased.
Rethink school and teacher support
In 2011, the government began implementing the Central Teacher Eligibility Test. The annual assessment tests pedagogical and content skills and a general understanding of child development. Both are essential skills for any successful teacher. In its first year, only one per cent passed the examination. Four years later, that number increased to 17 per cent. It means that 83 per cent of our country’s teachers don’t have the foundational skills needed to be successful.
Maximising the teachers’ talent means providing them with best training. It also means ensuring they’re able to focus their energies on one thing—student outcomes. Studies from across the world are telling us that teacher development is substantially more effective when it’s delivered by people close to the ground and when it’s delivered by people within our schools.
We currently have 17,000 institutions responsible for teacher education. Many are unregulated and, as a result, are churning out degrees. Most lack experienced or accomplished faculty. We have to ensure our institutions are equipped to provide teachers with the training and support they need to be successful. If we can’t, paying them more is futile.