Continuous Training for Teachers is Inevitable

The education department of the union government released the report of the 2021-2022 ' Performance Grading Index. 2.0'.The ranking of Maharashtra slipped from the 2nd to the 7th grade. This is an assessment of the district-level performance of school education throughout the country.

83 indicators are designed to grade the performance of all the districts in various areas. Data in to be filled in online, and a portal is designed to collect and analyze it.
This helps us to identify the gaps at the district level and take steps to improve the performance. All the aspects of the education system are covered. Infrastructure, teaching, learning, facilities provided, safety and security features, use of digital learning, systems to monitor the attendance of students, quality of education, professional development, funds, and leadership development, all such aspects are assessed carefully. Such evaluation helps to prioritize the areas of intervention to reach higher grades. (Of course, higher grades imply enhanced performance. )

We have 14.9 lakh schools,95 lakh teaching fraternities, and approximately 26.5 crore students in our country. Thus this exercise deals with the huge system of education.

One of the surprising features of the report is that Maharashtra scored 65.8/ 240 when learning performance and quality is judged, but scored 73.6/100 when teachers' training and education is assessed and the score for the infrastructure was is73.4/190

This sounds very confusing. If teachers' training and education are good, how is it that students do not get benefitted from learning and its quality does not match it? Somewhere something is amiss. How does training not get reflected in quality learning?

Whenever one meets parents (the focus is on schools ), they have one prominent point to express, their displeasure about teaching. Most of the time, even students are not satisfied with the process of teaching.

This is one area where a lot of improvement is expected by parents and students alike.

Teaching as a profession was treated to be a noble profession, but now it has become very demanding and challenging too. The imperative of learning some technical skills in a very short period was an added feature of the Corona phase. All had to struggle and master it.

Going online was the only channel to reach students. Many could succeed, but the need to develop a new pattern was certainly highlighted, it should combine the traditional method and digital technology which provides many effective platforms to minimize the repetitive and unnecessarily time-consuming exercise.

Teachers with appropriate training are appointed, but every field and subject matter keeps evolving. So teachers too need to be aware of the change, sometimes new topics that probably were not part of the then curriculum are added and one requires proper training.

As the needs of society change, the expectations of parents and society change. Our schools are expected to prepare the foundation of future careers, thus the focus of schools' education shifted to a considerable extent. Obviously being the most important component of the system, teachers have to equip themselves with a new set of skills and become the instruments of change. So there has to be a continuous process of training or learning by teachers also. Now in this era of the availability of remote teaching and learning platforms, the old pattern of training need not be followed. Small but effective modules may be developed, and all can take these courses online to a great extent, whenever necessary interactive sessions may be organized. Various types of courses may be incorporated and made mandatory. A teacher engaging in a particular class and teaching some courses, ought to get oneself certified. Some modules may be information-based, and some may be practice-based. Special programs would have to be designed and implemented in the state.

Even professionals from different fields may be requested to be a part of the system. An architect or a civil or mechanical engineer who uses some principles taught at the school level, in their day-to-day work, can approach it from a very different perspective. This can help students see abstract concepts translated into concrete examples. A surgeon who actually deals with the human body would be able to deal with some topics in a very effective way. A banker, a railway engineer, a writer, a media person, a soldier, all from a variety of professions can give a very interesting insight into different topics. Probably many would love to help and interact specially with students happily. Teachers would be benefited equally,they would get a better grasp of the concepts and it would break the monotony.
If the attention is not paid to upgrading teaching process which is a continuous activity, the teachers would loose the status they once enjoyed in the society. They definitely need to stay ahead of the gen next,who has everything at their fingertips or there is a danger of making the education system redundant.
In the area of administration at the government level and at the unit level many useful systems are working effectively. There is a need to overhaul the human resources to suit the new era.