APPENDIX O-- A NATIONAL EMERGENCY PLAN FOR THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS IN CERTAIN SPECIFIC SUBJECTS AS WELL AS IN GENERAL EDUCATIONAL METHODS ON THE LINES OF THE EMERGENCY TEACHERS TRAINING SCHEME TRIED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AFTER WORLD WAR II
(1) One of the chief problems facing the various State Govern- ments and local bodies is the difficulty of getting adequately trained teachers. Even teachers who have undergone training in the training colleges and schools find their training inadequate on account of the changes in the curricula practically all over the country. New subjects like crafts and social studies have been introduced. The duration of the teaching of English has been shortened, necessitating the development of a new methodology. New techniques have also been developed on account of the adoption of the Basic system. Besides the number of High schools has increased four or five times over the number in the pre-war years. But facilities for the training of teachers have not correspondingly increased. This increase in the number of institutions will be found to be small when compared with the vast plans of expansion, that have been drawn up by every State Government. The paucity of adequately trained teachers may turn out to be one of the worst limiting factors in the progress of the plan. In fact if these aspects are taken into consideration, it would seem that the country is on the verge of an emergency in the matter of the training of teachers.
(2) In the United Kingdom an emergency which had arisen for different reasons (viz. demobilisation of large personnel who were keen to join the teaching profession) was tackled by arranging a large number of emergency training centres under a well-thought-out plan for a specific period. It seems necessary that both the Central and the State Governments of India should formulate a similar National Plan for the training (and retraining) of teachers. At present the following sporadic attempts are being made to tackle this problem.
(a) In some States like Uttar Pradesh, private colleges have been permitted to start Training departments, though perhaps with inadequate equipments and training facilities.
(b) Some State Governments have opened new Training colleges and increased the number of seats in the existing ones.
(c) The American Education Foundation has decided to run a few courses for teachers in General Education Methods in selected parts of India.
(d) The British Council is also organising some training courses for teachers in English.
(3) The problem is however far too large to be satisfactorily solved by these means unless they are properly coordinated into a
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bigger National Plan. It is suggested therefore that to begin with, the Plan should cover only the High school teachers and the instructors of the Training schools. An assessment of the require- ments of teachers, and a survey of the places in which such training is necessary, should be carried out. The Union and the State Govern- ments should select a large number of Training centres all over the country at which two kinds of courses may be conducted, one connected with general methods of education and the other with specialisation in certain subjects. It should not be difficult for the Union and the State Governments to spare some funds for obtaining a large number of teachers in English through the British Council. Likewise, the United States and other countries could send specialists in Science, Elementary Engineering and Advanced Crafts. For other subjects like Social Studies, Fine Arts and Crafts, the Humanities etc., specialists in the country could be easily available. Managing Committees of the High schools will themselves be keen on sending their teachers for such training, and the cost would be distributed in such a way as to reduce the burden on the States.
(4) These ideas have been put forth with a view to stimulating discussion and to emphasise the urgency of this question. If however as a result of discussion it is felt that the problem is not quite as urgent and that the training of teachers in different subjects could be left to the resources of the various States, the Board would perhaps like at least to send out to the States some useful suggestions for expediting the process of training.
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