ENCOUNTERING EMERGING CHALLENGES IN TEACHER EDUCATION

ENCOUNTERING EMERGING CHALLENGES IN
TEACHER EDUCATION

Z. Zayapragassarazan
Lecturer in Education
Pope John Paul II College of Education
Pondicherry-605 010.

E-mail: zprazan@yahoo.co.in

Since time immemorial education is envisaged as the most effective way of enlightenment for all, which will lead to better and higher quality of life. Teachers have the highest influence on the evolution of the society. They not only give knowledge but also generate love for pursuit of knowledge. They act as mentors pursuing all round development of learners. Therefore, to build a generation of constructive, progressive and enlightened teachers, the education of teachers should be carefully scrutinised and sculpted. Teacher education has gained all the more importance, in today’s context, with an explicit aim of ‘Quality Education for All’.

Educationists the world over have agreed that the training of the teachers is of utmost importance in any educational endeavour. The Vedas call it a divine exercise and no wonder the teacher was defied. “Acharya Devo Bhava” says the Upanishads. From Vedic times, ashrams and gurukuls have insisted on the primacy of the teacher and the utmost importance of teacher training. The great Indian Universities of Taxila and Nalanda were real centres of knowledge via training. The potentialities of the child have to be nurtured, just as in Nature a mighty tree evolves from a very simple and small seed. This is not an easy task and hence, various commission and committees often recommend the need for careful implementation of teacher training. Today, we talk of caste recruitment, appointment of teachers, minorities, reservation and salaries only. Agitations were held for more and more benefits, but no one seems to talk about training teachers to make them committed and dedicated. Teacher training perhaps gets the lowest priority in our educational scale.

Teacher Education Programmes in India
In India, a variety of teacher preparation programmes are currently in vogue. Some of the programmes are stage-specific like the secondary teacher education programme (B.Ed), elementary teacher education programme (D.Ed) and nursery teacher training programme (NTT), while some other programmes are subject specific like the programmes meant for the preparation of teachers for languages, art and craft, music and dance, and physical education. Teacher preparation programmes are also categories as degree level programmes like the B.Ed., B.P.Ed., and B.El.Ed., integrated programmes like the 4 years integrated teacher education programme – B.A.B.Ed., B.Sc.,B.Ed., and the non-degree programmes like the D.Ed, BTC, JBT, PTC, Etc. (NCTE, 2003).





Quality education
Quality education should result in students acquiring necessary competencies as an outcome of their education. Today’s student requires four types of competencies:
 Cognitive competencies such as solving problems, thinking critically, formulating questions, searching for relevant information, making informed judgements, making efficient use of information, conducting observations and investigations, inventing and creating new things, analysing data, presenting data communicatively, communicating effectively, orally and in writing.
 Meta-cognitive competencies, such as self-reflection or self-evaluation.
 Social competencies, such as leading discussions and conversations, persuading, co-operating, and working in groups.
 Effective dispositions, such as perseverance, internal motivation, initiative, responsibility, self-efficacy, independence, flexibility.
Amartya Sen rightly emphasized the importance of developing human capabilities through education for development. In his scheme of development, quality education has an important role in quality of life. Quality education is possible only through quality teachers who come out from quality institutions (Prasad, 2004).

Determinants of Quality Teacher Education
- Quality thinkers as quality policy makers
- Quality policies
- Quality curriculum designers
- Quality curriculum
- Quality curriculum transaction
- Quality infrastructure and teaching-learning resources
- Quality selection procedure for staff and students
- Quality selection procedure of student teachers
- Quality knowledge and skill development
- Quality communication skills and personality development
- Quality monitoring system, appraisal, assessment and accreditation
- Quality guidance and counselling services
- Quality community links and community work
- Quality consultation services
- Quality links with peer institutions
- Quality placement services
- Quality teacher training institution
- Quality co-curricular activities and extra-curricular activities
- Quality school experience programme or Internship training programme
- Quality In-service training programmes
- Quality Parent-teacher associations
- Quality Research and development
- Quality Alumni association

Factors that make the present teacher training programmes ineffective
 The teacher education today is far from a satisfactory position and the same was stated by various Committees and Commissions constituted from time to time. The teacher education is undergoing a severe turmoil. It is considered to be a sub-system of education but even today it remains isolated from the other areas of education.
 Quality issues of the teacher education programmes can be examined by analysing the quality of input, quality of process and quality of output. This can also be stated in terms of quality of content and technique of teacher education (training), the quality of teacher educators, the quality of infrastructure and the quality of teacher trainees. Any deficiency in the above said quality determinants will influence the effectiveness of the teacher education programmes.
 The impact of privatisation and globalization increases competition everywhere. In this era of competition most of the teacher educational institutions face difficulty in surviving. Hence, immediate steps have to be taken by these teacher educational institutions for survival and growth. Various measures have to be taken by these educational institutions in imparting quality education for the student teachers in order to survive in this competitive era.
 The present teacher education programmes does not have meaningful linkages with schools, peer institutions, other institutions of higher education and the community.
 Curriculum reforms and pedagogic reforms are not coping with the rate of advancement of knowledge, besides varied packages of curriculum followed by different affiliating universities.
 Mushroom growth of ill-equipped, ill-provided and ill planned teacher education colleges has led to the production of ineffective teachers in the name of teachers.
 Admission of undeserving candidates based on the caste, creed, religion, etc. and political interference for admission of students and for the recognition of the institution.
 Increasing competition due to privatisation of education causes tremendous pressure on admission.
 Delay in starting the courses due to conflicts between the Central/State Governments and the teacher training institutions with regards to obtaining No Objection Certificates, minority status, reservation norms, admission norms, etc.

 Poor quality of teacher training due to poor learning resources and with higher teacher educator-student teachers’ ratio.
 Poor assessment, appraisal and monitoring systems.
 Lack of preparation of the teacher trainees with regard to the contemporary global and national issues.
 The curriculum transacted in teacher education institutions fails to be translated in actual situations. The dynamics of the school and society are not reflected in teacher training and thus the teachers produced are rendered incapable of coping with the changing times.
 Lack of committed and dedicated teacher educators and appointment of unqualified or under-qualified teacher educators.
 The evaluation system is qualitatively poor and corrupt.
 Non-availability of financial grants from the Central and State Governments.
 Evil practice of collecting capitation fee for admission
 Absence of constructive and applied research opportunities in the field of education.
 The present duration of the B.Ed., and M.Ed., course makes the course more examination oriented and not oriented for professional preparation.
 The professional preparations of teacher educators are not relevant and satisfactory to consider them as teacher educators.
 No intensive microteaching and macro teaching practices to understand and learn the teaching skills.
 The link practice or the teaching practice carried out during the teacher training courses are not much enough to learn the techniques of teaching and to realise the teacher trainees themselves as teachers in all the respects.
 No research exposure to teacher trainees and no interaction with the community.
 No post-internship training after completing the teacher- training course as it is compulsory for other professional courses like medicine and law.
 Lack of involvement of teacher trainees, school teachers, teacher educators, research scholars and principals/administrators of teacher education institutes in framing policies with regards to teacher education.
 Skill of ‘learning to learn’ is lacking among teachers and teacher educators.
 Teacher education institutions do not have link with their similar institutions and do not involve themselves in consultant jobs for the government or other private agencies.
Challenges of Teacher Education in India
 The Constitutional goal of opportunity to all is still far from being a reality. It needs continuous pursuit in view of the inherent capacity of the student. Also a balance has to be struck between the need for competition and equality of opportunity. The teacher training system does not generate among teachers a new perception to follow both aspects with zeal.
 Ours is a multicultural and plural society. Every region and state has its typical cultural identity and there is a need to utilise the same as the context for a child’s learning. The teacher education today fails to cater to this culture specificity and is dealing with one uniform, mechanistic way of student learning. Thus, there arises a problem of alienating the people from their roots. Also teachers educated in bigger cities do not want to go to remote areas for their teaching assignments.
 The teachers who are produced today will teach the present and the next generation. At the present rate of knowledge explosion, it will not be fair when the knowledge of skills developed today will become obsolete in due course of time. Thus they will need to update their knowledge and skills. The teacher education today fails to provide an extensive and effective system of continuous education. So the pre-service teacher education programme should find a continuum in later in-service programmes (Nisha Singh, 2001).
 Major lacunae in the current teacher education programmes are:
o Less duration of teacher training programmes
o Less duration of the professional preparation of teacher educators
o No post-internship in teacher training
o Low quality of the professional preparation of teacher educators
o Non-availability of adequate quantitative and qualitative research in education
o No importance to research and development in teacher education
o Inadequate number of Centres for Advanced Studies in Education
o Absence of an Education University
Encountering the Challenges
 An assessment of already existing teacher training institutes besides accreditation should be undertaken.
 NAAC Accreditation should be made compulsory for all teacher education institutions.
 The institutions that are doing pioneering work in teacher education area should be declared models and their assistance may be sought in upgrading standards of other teacher training institutions.
 There are universities separately for languages and all professional courses such as engineering, medicine, agricultural, law, etc except for education. So the government should take steps to establish a separate university for education, which could do a collective work in terms of teaching, research and extension.
 A communication network should be made among all the teacher education institutions for sharing of information resources for research, development and extension. The human and material resources should be shared among institutions so that the best of the talent will not be restricted to one area but will benefit all.
 The inclusion of the below mentioned missing components and emerging areas in the present teacher education curriculum could make the teacher education programme more meaningful:
- Adult education
- Civic and citizenship education
- Classroom ecology
- Comparative education
- Developing scientific temper
- Disaster management education
- Economics of education
- Education administration
- Education for international understanding
- Education for national and emotional integration
- Education for peace and disarmament
- Education for rural development
- Education statistics
- Entrepreneurship education
- Environmental education
- Ethics in education (Teacher ethics and teaching ethics)
- Guidance and counselling
- Health education with special reference to HIV/AIDS
- Human rights education
- Inclusive education
- Information and communication technology (ICT) in education
- Learning disabilities and learning needs of the disabled (Special education)
- Learning to live together
- Life skills
- Need based and value based education
- Population education
- Rural learning needs
- Socially Useful Productive Work
- Student diversity
- Value education
- Women’s studies and women’s education
- Yogic education
 The quality of preservice training should be improved with the incorporation of recent development in Pedagogical sciences and information technology. A more rigorous training and realistic work experience is needed. Thus there is need to increase the duration of the preservice training.
 School is a part of community and it should not be isolated from its whole. The teacher education should seek the support of the community in pursuing the objectives of education.
 The personality and aptitude of teachers are important and thus it should be assessed before entry into teacher education institutions and also while recruiting the teachers. Their positive attitude can make education a pleasure for the learners.
 The quality of teaching materials leaves much to be desired. There is need to improve on this method. Modern technology should be used in daily classroom transaction, which will help in developing more effective teachers.
 The teachers and teacher training institutions should be actively involved in taking decisions and policy making at government level. This will reduce the gap between policy and its implementation.
 Media today is continuously stimulating our senses and this media is luring students. The learning in school has to be more attractive and interesting to be meaningful for learners. The teacher is not merely to teach but to inspire the learners to seek knowledge, arouse curiosity, sustain interest and increase the span of attention. He has to be friend, philosopher and guide and not merely dispenser of knowledge. The teacher education institutions, therefore, should equip them for this new role by training the teacher trainees in the usage of educational technology or instructional technology or information and communication technology (ICT).
 The organisation of a variety of co-curricular activities like house systems, school assembly, celebration of days, college magazines and journals, dramatics clubs, literary associations, cultural festivals, games and sports should form an integral part of the curriculum of a teacher education programme. Besides making the life in a professional institution lively and interesting, it equips the prospective teachers to make curriculum transaction in schools interesting and child centered.
 The illiterates of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. This type of attitude is lacking with the teacher community. The teacher trainees should be taught to update their skills and knowledge and practising an appropriate value system as quality individuals from a quality institution to build a quality India.
 The School Experience Programme constitutes the most important component of a teacher preparation programme. This should be done sincerely with full duty conscious on the part of the student teachers, teacher educators and the school teachers. The evaluation of the student teachers performance in the school experience programme should be the joint responsibility of the teacher educators, school teachers and the head of the school.
 In our country the concept of post-course internship, has not yet gained currency in the context of teacher preparation programmes, although it forms an integral part of many other professional programmes. Post-course internship provides an opportunity to a prospective professional, to gain practical experience under the watchful eyes and guidance of experienced professionals. This could be made compulsory and the duration may be fixed at least six months and if necessary it could be extended up to one academic year. During internship, the student teachers may be paid a reasonable amount of stipend, as they will be required to work as full time regular teachers. The student teachers should be eligible for the award of ‘Degree’ after the successful completion of post course internship.
 The vacation period of one and-a-half to two months, being a part of the total duration of the 2 years D.T.Ed and 4 years Integrated Course (B.A.Ed., B.Sc.,Ed) programmes should be effectively utilized to enhance the rigour of the teacher preparation programme by planning and arranging summer works like education tours, community living and community work, home study works and assignments.
Conclusion
The importance of teacher training is also reflected in the Supreme Court judgement. A piece thereof may be quoted here. “Teachers should be subjected to rigorous training with rigid scrutiny of efficiency. This training needs to have greater relevance to the needs of the day. The ill trained or substandard teachers would be detrimental to our educational system if not a punishment to our children. The government and the University must, therefore, take care to see that inadequacy in the training of teachers is not compounded by any extraneous consideration.”
The importance of teachers and their training is increasing. This fact is being realised and thus we need to bring changes for its improvement. The job of the teacher training institutions is to instil quality training through quality education, preach universal brotherhood, develop a sense of patriotism, encourage them to be innovative and acquire holistic knowledge. Teacher training institutions should be open to all, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, sex or status. Politicians with questionable ethics, unscrupulous money launderers, self-proclaimed religious leaders, uncommitted, self-serving socialites and pseudo-intellectuals, should be kept out of this field. Then the quality of teacher education will improve and we can scale high in higher learning.

Reference
National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), (2003) Elementary Teacher Education – A Blue Print of Process Management, New Delhi.
Nisha Singh, (2001) Teacher Education – Changing Perception for the Next Millennium, New Frontiers in Education, 31(3).
Prasad, V.S. (2004) The Peril and Promise of Higher Education in India, University News, 42(32) August 09.