Understanding ‘Inclusion In Education’ From a Caste Perspective

Comparison of Two Policy Documents Concerning Teachers’ Status, Teacher Education and In­service Training

This paper compares the Report of the Committee for Review of National Policy on Education 1986 (1990) also known as Acharya Ramamurti Committee Report and the World Education Report: Teachers and Teaching in a Changing World (1998) published by UNESCO. The main terms of reference for comparison are teacher’s professionalisation, professionalism, resources and assessment practices.

Teacher's professionalisation

The World Education Report (1998) mostly refers to the R​ecommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (​1966) while discussing the aspects of teacher education, their recruitment and conditions of service.

It recommends that for an individual to be employed as a primary teacher, completion of secondary education should be the minimum educational qualification. They should also have undergone a formal teacher training programme. But it also acknowledges the fact that often these requirements are ignored by recruiters when there is a shortage of teachers. Since unqualified candidates are also employed for the job of teaching, the status of teachers in comparison with other professionals is undermined.

The report gives an interesting insight about the low salary paid to teachers even though people working in other professions with same or lesser qualification receive a decent pay. It says that teaching is generally considered to be a woman's profession which attaches certain negative characteristic to it unlike other jobs which are dominated by males. There is a possibility that more number of female employees in teaching results in low level of salary being paid to teachers as a group. This kind of system can be removed only when discrimination against women is eliminated and their skills and qualifications are given the respect that they deserve.

The Recommendations (1966) emphasise that the salary structure of newly ­recruited teachers should be discussed between teachers’ organisation and their employers and then only decided. But there are very few countries which have teacher associations that enjoy freedom to deliberate and demand better emoluments and working conditions for their member teachers.

The report quotes an excerpt from a paper presented at the 45th session of the International Conference on Education, Geneva, 1996 by Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India). This paper states that in India every state grants the formation of teachers’ unions so that they can collectively bargain for improving the overall service conditions of teachers. However they do not have certain facilities provided by the government as enjoyed by other public servants. The report too says that equating teaching with other public sector jobs restricts teachers to bargain for their rights.

Age ­profile of teachers also affects the expenditure on teacher salary. Developing countries like India have more number of young teachers than those in developed countries. These teachers most likely will continue their service till retirement with raise in salary. At the same time, more and more young professionals will join the field. Thus, the overall public expenditure on education needs to be raised. However, this is not generally the case as stated by the report that till 1998, “no region of the world at present has the average share of educational expenditure in GNP yet reached the 6 per cent level ...”. This is reiterated several times in the document that in spite of increasing demand for quality in education, the expenditure on education has not increased significantly and it is considered by the states that education systems will expand themselves with the help of existing resources.

Acharya Ramamurti Committee reviewed the National Policy on Education (1986) and gave recommendations for improving the overall system of education in India. In regard to recruitment of teachers, it says that mere good grades in academics at the university level should not be the sole criterion for selecting someone as a teacher. It recommends that the candidate should be tested for his/her aptitude for teaching first and then only employed.

But when it comes to non ­formal education, the committee recommends that para ­teachers be recruited. These para ­teachers are required in areas where either a large section of population does not have access to formal school system or in situations where children work during day time and cannot come to schools. The committee says that these teachers need not have qualification like the formal teachers in school. Also they should be preferably from local community who are interested in working with children. These teachers will work under probation for two­-three years and receive a salary almost half as that of school teacher. They will be appointed as permanent teachers in school only after completion of minimum qualification during probation.

The committee encourages mobility of teachers within the education system as well as other related sectors. It says that there should be provision to transfer the benefits of teachers’ past service from one institution to other.

The committee considers it essential that along with working conditions, the living conditions of teachers are also good. It suggests that the school building should have separate rooms for teachers so that they can interact with students and also they should have access to departmental libraries. They should get residential quarters in areas which facilitate community life as well as medical support. There should be arrangement from the institution’s side so that the teachers can travel for participating in conferences, industrial centres, etc.

Teacher professionalism

Apart from the factors mentioned earlier in UNESCO report (1998) which accord low status to the profession of teaching, the multiple functions that teachers are required to perform other than teaching also give cause uncertainty of their status. This uncertainty more often than not comes from within, i.e., teachers themselves feel unprepared when they join their duty. These functions include designing and administering tests for students, school management and administration, conducting classes using educational technologies, etc. In addition to this, teachers are also required to develop a rapport with the community to which majority of the students belong. The report highlights that the focus of teacher ­training programmes on only strengthening the content ­knowledge and pedagogy skills of teachers while ignoring the different responsibilities as mentioned above, to be carried out by teachers acts as a hindrance in their initial stage as a teacher.

This is more important for primary teachers who spend most of their day with a particular group of children for the whole academic session when compared to secondary school teachers who teach one or two subjects to various groups of students and do not get involved with any

particular group.

There is one more threat to the professionalism of teachers because of such pre ­service training. Instead of being an active contributor to the educational process in classroom, teachers become passive agents of passing prescribed information using prescribed methods to the students. The report does not provide any solution for this but asserts that orienting teachers ­to ­be about different teaching methods might help them in deciding what helps students to learn better.

The report next talks about in­service programmes for teacher training and stresses the fact that like any other professional, teachers too should update their knowledge and skills. While in­ service programmes initially dealt only with subject area knowledge, later the aspects related to assessment of students, educating children with special needs and school management were also included. Thus the issues with pre ­service training discussed earlier were covered in in­service training.

The report claims that although in many countries response to in­service training is overwhelming and that teachers take interest in obtaining career development qualifications leading to raise in salary, mostly teachers do not take initiative in participating in such programmes. This is partly due to the already packed schedule of teachers which does not motivate them to engage in any other activity during school hours and partly due to the lack of rewards on completion of such programmes.

The report recommends that instead of making in­service training a compulsion for continuation of service, teachers should be rewarded in the form of promotion, salary raise, etc. once they successfully complete the training.

The Acharya Ramamurti committee proposes the Internship model as an alternative to the pre ­service teacher ­training programme. It asserts that the shortcomings of the conventional pre­ service training are many such as isolation from real field experiences, is theoretical and involves high expenses. On the other hand this model aims at integrating theory and practical experiences of teachers so that they can learn for themselves which of their skills and methods are most helpful for learning outcomes of students.

District Institute for Education and Training and Educational complexes are given the responsibility to conduct these programmes along with monitoring and evaluation of schools. The teacher education colleges are suggested to be in close collaboration with DIETs and schools so that the trainees could get field experience during training. The report presents a two­-dimensional chart representing content to be learnt by teachers during training and how it can be learnt. The content includes knowledge, skill and attitude to be learnt through theoretical instruction, practical work and fieldwork experience respectively. Thus, there is too much emphasis on teacher’s empirical experience. During this period, the teacher­-student is required to be working under a skilled and experienced teacher who will demonstrate the practical aspects of training and will help in clarifying doubts.

The committee stresses the need for in­service training so that teachers are able to update their knowledge and skills. As discussed in the UNESCO report, this committee also supports inclusion of evaluation practices and training of those who evaluate teachers in the in­service training. The programme should also train teachers in areas like pre­school education, education for children with special needs, activity-­based learning etc.

The difference between the two reports in this regard is that while UNESCO report does not agree with the condition of institutions of forcing teachers to attend in­service training for continuation of service, Ramamurti committee claims that teachers should be demanded to undergo in­service training in order to stay employed. It also encourages the participation of teachers in planning and administrative activities of school. According to the committee, if teachers are involved in decision ­making process they will also implement them effectively thus improving the overall functioning of institution.

Resources

While the UNESCO report does not specifically talk about general living conditions of teachers, it discusses a great deal about the teaching and learning conditions which affect a teacher’s professional and personal status. Firstly it states that increasing student enrolment rates

are of no use if the conditions in which the students go are not suitable for learning. Thus it recommends that before any other expenditure in education, investment should be made in well-­planned and solid school buildings, furniture, water and electricity facilities and teaching­-learning materials. Only when this is fulfilled will the teachers be interested in teaching and students will learn in a productive manner.

Next important aspect of teaching and learning conditions is the class size. This has an economic implication because the class size determines number of teachers to be employed. In countries with large population, class sizes are big requiring more teachers and thus more expenditure by state on teacher salary.

However the report brings to our notice a problem with this in regard to regions where dropout rates are high. Thus, no stable policy can be proposed concerning teachers’ employment and salaries in such situations. Although the report does not say that large class size is a problem, it reveals that small class size helps both teachers and students to engage in teaching-­learning activity.

A section of the report is dedicated to the use of technology in education and its implications for teachers. It acknowledges that information technology will increasingly influence the teaching-­learning materials and teaching methods It says that unless the softwares are developed in such a way that the prescribed curriculum is readily integrated with them, use of technology in classrooms cannot contribute to students’ learning. The report stresses that teachers should be involved in the process of developing educational softwares so that they are in a better position to handle the technology and solve any technical difficulties that may arise during its use.

The Acharya Ramamurti committee recommended that the revised curriculum prepared by the NCTE for the B.Ed. courses should be sent to training institutions before finalising it. Suggestions from teacher educators and students should be taken so that it receives wider acceptance in implementation. It also emphasises that teachers should be provided with relevant material about current practices and debates in education. The report states that teachers should be included in the curriculum designing process.

Assessment practices

The UNESCO report discusses how teachers are assessed after they enter the profession. This assessment is unlike the one which is conducted to check the understanding of subject knowledge or knowledge about teaching methods. The evaluation is done so as to see if they are able to transact the curriculum as mandated by the school and if the learning outcomes of students is improving. Based on these criteria, it is usually decided by the headteacher and regional supervisor as to who will get promoted or otherwise.

The report asserts that there should be a valid assessment for teachers which they should be able to question also in case they feel it is unfair. It refers to a P​roposed checklist of teacher behaviour items to be utilized in the appraisal of primary and secondary school teachers in Beijing (p.75). Elements like preparation of teaching plans, assigning homeworks to students, evaluation procedures, teaching methods, presentation in front of class, etc. are taken into account while assessing teacher effectiveness and this ideally allows for objective evaluation of the teacher. The report supports the recommendation made by The 1996 International Conference on Education, that along with teachers those who supervise and evaluate teachers should also undergo formal training so that a fair appraisal and promotion is conducted.

As discussed earlier within the internship model proposed by Acharya Ramamurti committee the trainee will work in an institution during training. The committee suggests that only after three-­five years the trainee should be certified as a trained teacher. Based on the skills developed by the trainee during the training, his/her performance as observed by senior teachers and a written and oral test will be conducted to evaluate him/her.The committee recommends that head of the institution should have all the autonomy to evaluate the teachers in­service.

Both the reports stress that there is need for research in the field of teaching and that teachers should be given opportunities to engage in educational research right from the pre­service training through their career as a teacher.

References

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (1998). W​orld Education Report 1998: Teachers and Teaching in a Changing World.​Paris: UNESCO.

Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource and Development. (1990). R​eport of the Committee for Review of National Policy on Education 1986.​New Delhi

Teacher Professional Development: Comparative study of Acharya Ramamurti Committee(1990) and UNESCO World Education Report(1998) on the aspect of In-service Teacher Education

The Acharya Ramamurti Committee Report(1990) and UNESCO World Education Report(1998) both see In-Service Teacher Education as an essential element towards professional development of the teachers. According to UNESCO report the very nature of In-Service Teacher Education indicates the existing level of professionalism among the teachers. If the demand for In-Service teacher education is coming from within the teaching community it is said to indicate the very high level of professionalism when compared to a top down approach where the training programmes are imposed on the teachers. Then the teachers willingness to invest in their own professional development is said to indicate the high level of professional status of teaching. Further the professional status of teaching and professionalism among teachers are suggested to be closely interrelated. The prospective of attaining higher levels of professional status is said to serve as the most important motivation for teachers to voluntarily invest their time, effort and resources in improving their professionalism. It also observes that there is high level of teacher participation in areas where in-service education enables them to obtain qualifications that lead to the career development in terms of improvement in their salaries, tenure etc. This trend is said to be common across various professions.  It cites the teacher’s large number of enrollment in open universities as an evidence for their willingness to independently invest for climbing up the professional ladder. Hence the success of In-Service Teacher Education is argued to be interlinked with the factors like opportunities for upward mobility, incentives for improving professional status, extent of workload and the provision of support in terms of teaching-learning resources.  When compared to UNESCO report it is observed that the arguments made by the Acharya Ramamurti Committee with regard to Inservice Teacher Education are either inconsistent or incoherent in various sections of the report.

It proposes an Internship Model to meet the huge demands for teachers in the very short period. In this model the Headmaster/mistress would directly recruit the para teachers for the para schools that will serve the educational needs of children of the slum dwellers, villages, mohallas or habitations that are not yet served. There will be relaxation in the educational qualifications  and also in the remuneration of such para-teachers. Para teachers will be trained by senior teachers of the school and occasionally by the DIETs. After three to five years of such training they will be absolved as regular teachers. In another section while discussing about the leadership roles of the teachers it confesses that the current teachers lack the necessary motivation, aptitude and competence to assume the leadership role. On the other hand while listing out the characteristics of teacher educator it states that they should be the role models with high academic competence. These teacher educators will be from the existing school cadre who have years of experience.

The probability of finding teacher educators among the existing school cadre who will serve as role model will be very low. UNESCO report claims that poor school infrastructure, huge pupil teacher ratio, multigrade classrooms and lack of support in terms of teaching-learning resources work against the teachers who are willing to sustain high levels of competence. These conditions are said to be widespread in India by the Acharya Committee and hence the poor chances of finding teacher educators in large numbers. Further it is questionable whether in service training of para teachers will succeed given the failure of the same with regard to regular teachers.       

In another section the Acharya committee brings to our attention that there is lack of provision for organised and periodic in-service education of teachers in India coupled with poor co-ordination and monitoring of the such services. Here it also highlights the absence of research base on in-service education. So the rationale for suggesting the recruitment of para teachers given such poor conditions is not justifiable in any manner.

UNESCO report exactly claims that it is such practices of recruiting para teachers which has negatively impacted the professional status of the teachers. It says whenever there are pressures on the State to meet the huge demands for teachers instead of increasing budgetary allocation or reforming the regulatory framework States have opted to keep the wages low by recruiting para teachers in large numbers while relaxing the criteria needed for a teacher. This is said to spread the poor image of the teachers and their competence.

Along with this the Acharya committee in its recommendations regarding para teachers calls for handing over the effective control of the school, including the appointment, posting and promotion of teachers, to a coordinated management system involving the school, Village Education Committee and the Educational Complex. Given the perception of low status and poor competence of teachers the implications of involving Village Education Committee composed of community members is not dealt meaningfully. In villages where the means of production is largely in the hands of higher castes mere representation of members from lower castes in such committees is said to be not sufficient to guard schools from caste discrimination, inherent hierarchies, gender bias and inequalities entrenched in the villages. So any involvement of Village Education Committee can further end up undermining the competence and role of teaching community.

Further it emphasises that preference should be given to women teachers to encourage the enrollment of girls students. This is a very valid argument but the committee fails to explore other dimensions of this issue. In other sections too it calls for considerable increase in the number of women teachers.  UNESCO report suggests that the poor professional status of the teachers and lower wages directly draws from the status of the women in the community. In other sectors it is observed that large number of women with high academic achievements are missing from the labor force. Most women are said to take up jobs only when the family is in financial distress. Further women are said to prefer teaching profession as it is considered less demanding by them and hence they can balance both the roles as a homemaker and teacher. This obligation exclusively on the women with regard to performing domestic chores and child rearing in the family is said to result in poor interest shown towards their willingness or to voluntarily take up the in-service education. This again necessitates the top down approach where in-service training is imposed on the teachers indicating poor professionalism. In such cases higher remuneration is said to have helped the women teachers to avail services like play schools for their children or maid servants for doing domestic chores. UNESCO report clearly brings out this interaction where all the factors are interlinked and influence each other.

Regarding the mobility of teachers, Acharya committee recommends to encourage the mobility of teachers both within the education system as well as between education system and other related sectors. It also suggests to ensure transfer and protection of benefits availed through past services during such mobility. UNESCO report suggests to link such mobility with the In-Service teacher education.

The recommendations of Acharya committee is ambivalent towards increased role and participation of teachers in the management and decision making bodies of the school. It recommends that teachers, teacher educators and the training institutions must be assigned a leadership role in all aspects of education policy making, planning, strategy formulation, implementation and monitoring.  While discussing teacher’s participation it also cites that the democratic practices of electing representatives for school bodies by the teachers has given rise to political activism, conflicts and confrontations. In such cases it recommends other modes of representation like seniority by rotation, nomination etc. It fails to appreciate that the already entrenched hierarchies or social arrangements can be normalised only through such political activism. Confrontations and conflicts trigger the debate on various issues and make teachers to engage deeply with the issues. Self governance should be seen as a gradual outcome of such confrontations and conflicts. It is through the practice of such democratic ethos in the school governance the teachers will be able to nurture the same in the children. So the need for teacher’s increased participation is well recognised but the nature of such participation needs further examination. The scope for teacher’s participation in the decision making bodies of the school and other related areas is suggested to indicate the extent of teacher’s professional status and professionalism. Such participation is said to help teachers themselves realize the importance of in-service teacher education while also influencing their peers towards upgrading their skills and knowledge.

Acharya Committee also recommends for community empowerment by communicating the expected learning outcomes from schools in simple form and arranging opportunities where the community could directly evaluate what their children have gained from the school. This is suggested to help both the teachers and the community to be mutually accountable in a responsible and meaningful manner. Committee also recommends a strong distance education system of in- service education developed using TV, Radio and Print media that can be easily accessed by all.

Acharya committee recommends the teacher training model followed by Central Institute of Indian Languages where teachers are paid full salaries for ten months of the training period along with the stipend. However during the training period the services of the teachers cannot be availed by the schools. This is seen as a drawback but given the poor service conditions and support for teachers such models are said to be very successful and effective in improving the knowledge and skills of the teachers. Committee strongly suggests to increase both the funds and teacher enrollment in such training programmes. Further the committee points out that education being a concurrent subject sometimes both Centre and State are seen to expect from the other party to make provision for the in-service education programmes leading to negligence or delay in the sanction of the funds for teacher training. Teacher training institutions are also referred in the report to be acting like a dumping grounds for punishing troublesome teachers. Most posts in the DIETs are said to be vacant substantiating such presumption. In another section the committee recommends increased autonomy for DIETs for carrying out teacher training programmes.

UNESCO report suggests that the most important component of teacher training is the teacher assessment. Usually teacher assessments are said to be used for selecting teachers for promotion, to give tenure, to assign particular roles etc. Instead the UNESCO recommends to use the such assessments in in-service teacher training for knowledge advancements of the teachers. Assessments are said to help in identifying the critical areas in which teachers might need help while promoting efficient use of resources. The lack of evaluation on the effectiveness of teacher training programmes through such assessments are said to be the prominent reason for their poor quality. In same discussion the report cautions the use of student performance as a yardstick for measuring teacher effectiveness. If teachers are solely held responsible for the student performance then the role of students own responsibility and efforts are said to be comfortably ignored. Even when the teacher is effective in teaching a particular concept, students performance in tests after few weeks or months later is said to not clearly reflect the teacher’s performance. So the report recommends for the judicious use of teacher assessments without hurting the professional status of the teachers.

UNESCO report observes the need for in-service training of not just teachers but also those responsible for management, supervision and evaluation of teachers. It stresses the need to prioritize training of such personnel over the teachers to avoid the systematic hangover of the entire mechanism. With regard to employing new technology in the classroom it suggests that teacher should be given the freedom to choose the technology in which they are comfortable. Even before introducing it to classroom, teachers are suggested to be given with an opportunity to experiment with such technology among their peers. It also recommended for including teachers in developing educational softwares. Further teacher training is recommended to go beyond the disciplinary subjects to include opportunities to sensitize the teachers with various social, political and economical issues pertaining to education.