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.