EDUCATION

"If one accepts that a school education system is only as good as the teachers it employs, then conversations about improving it must begin by first examining the quality of teacher education in the country. We are all painfully aware of the problem of teacher shortage that plagues our nation’s schools.

According to a recent report by the Ministry of Human Resource Development ( 2016- 17), out of the six million teaching positions in government schools across the country, as many as 900,000 in primary schools and 100,000 in secondary schools are vacant. But it’s not just a problem of the number of teachers, but also their quality. In the last year alone, a whopping 95 per cent of candidates from Tamil Nadu and 83 per cent of the candidates from Bihar , who appeared for the Teacher’s Eligibility Test, failed to demonstrate fundamental instructional knowledge. Educationists in both states attributed the failure to substandard teacher training institutes. To counter these problems, the Union Budget for 2018 should allocate funds necessary to attract the best talent to the sector, raise the standards in teacher training institutes and welcome participation from foreign universities that align with the New Education Policy ( NEP)’ s goals to bolster the quality of teacher education in the country. We can talk about improving learning outcomes, investing in digital learning and setting up new assessment frameworks to improve the education system in our country, but ultimately, as far as any student is concerned, the education system comes down to the teacher in the classroom."