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