18. From the point of view of general qualifications, school teachers in India range from those who have not completed the middle school course to those possessing postgraduate degrees. Table IV brings out the position about the educational status of teachers in 1965-66 according to the Second All India Educational Survey.
Table IV. Educational Status of Teachers- 1965-66
Teachers Teachers
Qualifications in in in Total
Primary Middle Secondary
Sections Sections Sections
1 2 3 4 5
1. Below middle pass 22,907 22,907
(1.9) (1.2)
2. Middle pass 5,94,354 57,085 871
(49. 7) (13.1)
3. Matriculate 4,93,682 2,16,429 24,247 7,34,358
(41.3) (49.7) (8.7) (38.4)
4. Intermediate 55,505 51,560 14,546 1,21,611
(4.6) (11.8) (5.2) (6.4)
5. Graduate 16,618 65,025 1,51,649 2,33,292
(1.4) (2.5) (20.7) (23.6)
6. Others* 11,752 34,741 28,471 74,964
(1.0) (8.0) (10.3) (3.3)
TOTAL 11,96,111 4,35,939 2,77,137 12,09,187
(100.0) (100.0) (100.0)
*Figures within parentheses indicate percentages of teachers of
music, craft and physical education.
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Of the total number of teachers employed in schools in India during 1965-66, according to the Second All India Educational Survey, 22,907 (1.2%) were teachers with less than middle pass educational qualifications. There were 6,52,310 teachers (34.2%) who did not have the matriculation certificate. The number of teachers, who had passed matriculation examination, was 7,34,358 (38.4%), 1,21,611 (6.4%) were intermediates and only 3,03,037 teachers (15.9%) had graduate and postgraduate qualifications. It may be noted that teachers who are matriculate or less, constituted the bulk of teachers, namely, 73.8 per cent of the total teacher population in the country.
19. The Education Commission, after analysing the growth of qualified teachers over the period 1951-66, observed that the number of unqualified teachers is being reduced very slowly. The Commission observed that, at the present rate, it may take 20-25 years to ensure that every teacher has had at least 10 years of general education. If the quality of education is to be improved, the qualifications of unqualified and under-qualified teachers will have to be upgraded. This can be done through a big programme of correspondence courses or part-time courses or morning and evening courses. This programme would involve, among other things :
(a) giving study leave to teachers for short durations
(b) linking the increase in emoluments with improvement in qualifications ; and
(c) appointment of teachers in leave reserve who could relieve the teachers going on study leave.
Professional Advancement of Teacher Educators 20. The staff of training institutions, whose number is estimated to be, about 15,000 or so are inadequately prepared for their tasks. For instance, 40 per cent of the staff in secondary training colleges have only B.A. degree in addition to the B.Ed.; 58 per cent hold a master's degree in education or in an academic subject ; and only 2 per cent have a doctoral degree.
21. The conditions of training institutions for primary teachers is very depressing and their standards even more unsatisfactory than those of secondary training institutions. The majority of the staff is recruited from among teachers of secondary schools. These have been trained for the work at the secondary stage and are, in consequence, inadequately trained for preparing teachers for primary schools.
22. The Education Commission have recommended that the staff of the training colleges should have a double master's degree in an academic subject and in education and a fair proportion, say, 10 per cent, should also have a doctorate degree. They should also have studied teacher education as a special subject at the M.Ed. or through a special education course. In regard to the staff of training schools, the Education Commission have recommended that they should have, besides the B.A. degree, a master's degree either in education or in an academic subject and should be entitled to receive the same scale of salary as lecturers in arts and science colleges and two advance
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increments, in recognition of the professional training. The following programmes will have to be taken up :
1. Provision of further education, research and doctoral courses for the existing staff of training institutions in university departments of education/schools of education and other appropriate teacher education institutes.
2. Training of qualified people as teacher educators by providing additional facilities in university departments of education/schools of education, etc.
3. Provision for the appointment of additional staff in teacher education institutes as leave reserve to replace the staff going in for higher education.
4. Provision for leave salary and fellowships for teacher educators going in for further education and for entrants to training institutions.
5. Strengthening university departments of education/schools of education for providing specialised courses.
Educational Research 23. The quantity of educational research is small and its quality is also poor. There are inadequate facilities for research in training colleges and also there are few competent people to guide it. Ancillary services like documentation and computation have not been developed. There is not a single journal exclusively devoted to educational research. There is no central clearing house and as such there has been considerable duplication of work. The Education Commission have suggested the setting up of a documentation centre and a National clearing house in educational research. Further, it has also been suggested that education research in teams and in inter- disciplinary fields should be developed. In order to make research functional, it has been suggested that officers of the Education Department, working in the field, should be brought together with research workers in the training colleges and in the universities. Some beginning will have to be made in the Fourth Plan to promote educational, research.
Development of Special Courses and Programmes 24. New courses for the training of headmasters and training experts in evaluation, curriculum construction, guidance and counselling, teacher education, educational administration, statistics, educational planning and finance etc. specialist teachers for handicapped and talented children etc., will have to be developed in the Fourth Plan. There will have to be two-year M. A. in Education Courses and M. Ed. courses in special subjects and also two-year B. Ed., training courses etc. The Education Commission has recommended these courses and have observed that details of these courses should be worked out.
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State Boards of Teacher Education 25. The Education Commission has suggested the setting up of State Boards of Teacher Education so that a bridge is created between the institutions of teacher education under the Education Departments and the institutions which are within the fold of universities. The State Government of Maharashtra have already implemented this programme and the Gujarat Government are taking it up for implementation in the Fourth Plan. It may be necessary to encourage the other State Governments to take up this programme. The All India Association of Teacher Educators could assume the role of bringing about the desired coordination among the State Boards till the question of the setting up of the National Board of Teacher Education could be considered.
Production of literature on Education 26. The availability of suitable literature in training institutions in regional languages is of vital importance for improving the quality of teacher education. Under this scheme, it should be possible to write suitable manuscripts by individual authors, teams of authors and institutions and publication grants should be available for this purpose. Translations or adaptations from standard books may be encouraged to augment the supply of literature. In this connection, it may be useful to carry out a survey of existing literature available to teachers by the State Institutes of Education and the University Grants Commission.
State Institutes of Education 27. To cope with the programme of the revision and upgrading of curricula, preparation of text books, general reading materials, teachers' hand-books and audio-visual aids and the introduction of improved evaluation techniques, the State Institutes of Education will be strengthened. It is proposed to provide a sum of Rs. 2 lakh per year for 20 State Institutes for the developmental activities. The total cost during the Fourth Plan will be about Rs. 3. 00 crore.
Strengthening of State Institutes of Science Education 28. In some of the States, the Institutes of Science Education have not been set up so far and in others, the institutes are not staffed and equipped properly. The State institutes units of Science education will be established as integral parts of the State institutes of education in all the States by the end of the Fourth Plan to develop curriculum in science and mathematics, prepare better text books, teachers' hand-books, etc., organise in service training courses and generally to assist the State Directorates of Education in all matters relating to the teaching of science in schools. It is proposed to provide for the development of the institutes a sum of Rs. 3 lakh every year. The cost of 20 institutes will come to Rs. 3. 00 crore.
Pre-primary Teacher Training 29. An outlay of Rs. 1 crore is suggested for pre-primary teacher training programmes.
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STATEMENT I
List of Schemes and Outlays for Teacher Education in the Fourth
Plan-1969-1974
Sl. Name of the Scheme Revised
No. by the
Steering
Committee
1 2 3
1 Expansion of Training facilities
(i) Training Schools 36.00
(ii) Training Colleges/University Departments of Education
2 Correspondence Courses
(i) Elementary School Teachers 7.00
(ii) Secondary School Teachers 3.75
3 In-service Programmes
(i) Elementary School Teachers 9.00
(ii) Secondary School Teachers 5.00
4 Improvement of existing institutions
(i) Training Schools 22.35
(ii) Training Colleges and University Departments of
Education 7.50
5 Up-grading the academic qualifications of teachers
(i) Elementary School Teachers 8.00
(ii) Secondary School Teachers 6.00
6 Professional advancement of teacher educators 3.00
7 Educational Research 1.00
8 Development of Special Courses and Programmes 2.00
9 State Boards of Teacher Education 0.40
10 Production of reading materials, text-books etc. for teachers 2.00
11 State Institutes of Education 3.00
12 State Institutes of Science Education. 3.00
13 Development of pre-primary education Research and Training and
Pilot Project. 1.00
TOTAL 120.00
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STATEMENT II
List of Schemes and Outlays for Teacher Education in the Draft Outline
of Fourth Plan
Sl. Name of the Scheme Outlays Targets
No. (Rs. crores)
1 2 3 4
Rs.
1 Training of Elementary School Teachers
(a) Full time expansion 35.00 60,000 additional seats,
(b) Improvement of existing Training
Institutes. 14.00 Improvement of 1.3
lakh seats.
(c) Correspondence Courses for
Training untrained teachers. 6.00 Correspondence cour-
ses for 1. 4 lakh
teachers
(d) In-service Training Courses 5.00
TOTAL 60.00
2 Secondary Education
(a) Full time expansion of training
facilities 21.00 Training of 56,000
teachers.
(b) Improvement of existing training
institutions 3.00 Improvement of 150
training colleges.
(c) Correspondence Courses for
training untrained teachers. 2.00 Correspondence Courses
for 17,660.
TOTAL 26.00
3 State Institutes of Education 2.00 Strengthening of 15
Institutes.
4 Pre-Primary education (training of
teachers, research (etc.) 2.00
5 State Institutes of Education 2.00
TOTAL 6.00
GRAND TOTAL 92.00
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