TEACHERS
1. In the educational process which involves curriculum and evaluation, syllabus and textbooks, the teacher's role is supreme. The teacher occupies a vital position in the entire system of education. Even the best system of education may fail to achieve the desired ends in the hands of an incompetent teacher who cannot deliver the goods. Regarding teachers, the Education Commission* in their report say :
Of all the different factors which influence the quality of edu- cation and its contribution to the national development, the quality, competence and character of teachers are undoubtedly the most significant.
2. One of the major problems in Indian education is the provision of adequately qualified and trained teachers. It is known that the schools in India suffer from lack of adequately qualified and trained teachers. In India each State follows its own pattern of education and there is a wide diversity not only among teachers of different States with reference to their qualifications, both general and professional, but also between teachers in institutions under different managements in the same State. Again, because of a large number of schools in rural areas, the problem of supplying adequately qualified and trained teachers to schools in rural areas is also acute. Because of the importance of the teacher in the educational process and in the national efforts to improve the quality of education, detailed information has been collected regarding the qualifications, both general and professional, of teachers working in schools and also age and experience of untrained teachers working in schools at all levels. The Survey has also collected information regarding the qualifications and the workload of teachers teaching science in the secondary sections in the country.
3. Before proceeding further with the discussion on teachers from the findings of the Survey, it is worthwhile to recall the concept of primary, middle and secondary sections defined in earlier chapters since these concepts have relevance in the present context.
Primary, Middle and Secondary Sections: The group of classes at primary stage in a school constitutes a primary section. Similarly, the classes at middle stage in a school constitute a middle section and the classes at secondary stage in a school constitute a secondary section.
Thus the discussion in this chapter includes : Teachers in school sections of all categories together, teachers in primary sections, teachers in middle sections, teachers in secondary sections, and teachers teaching science in secondary sections.
TEACHERS IN PRIMARY, MIDDLE AND SECONDARY SECTIONS 4. In India, with a population of about 500 million, the total number of teachers working at primary, middle and secondary stages is approximately two million. To be exact, the total number of teachers working in 5,79,496 recognized school sections is 19,09,187. These teachers work in schools situated in urban as well as rural areas. A large majority of these teachers are working in the rural areas. Actually 70 per cent of the total teacher population are employed in rural schools-primary, middle and secondary. Statement 33 gives the number of teachers working in different sections in rural and urban areas. The 5,79,496 school sections comprise 4,55,681 (78.6 per cent) primary sections with 11,96,111 (62.6 per cent) teachers, 96,932 (16.7 per cent) middle sections with 4,35,939 (22.8 per cent) teachers and 26,883 (4.6 per cent) secondary sections with 2,77,137 (14.6 per cent) teachers.
* Report of the Education Commission 964-66, Ministry of Education, government of India, page 46
TEACHERS 65
STATEMENT 33
TEACHERS SERVING IN PRIMARY, MIDDLE AND SECONDARY SECTIONS
Stage of education Item Rural areas Urban areas All areas
1 2 3 4 5
Primary Sections 4,11,047 44,634 4,55,681
Teachers 9,30,770 2,65,341 11,96,111
Middle Sections 76,103 20,829 96,932
Teachers 2,76,816 1,59,123 4,35,939
Secondary Sections 16,285 10,598 26,883
Teachers 1,28,916 1,48,221 2,77,137
Total Sections 5,03,435 76,061 5,79,496
(Primary, middle
and secondary) Teachers 13,36,502 5,72,685 19,09,187
Men and women teachers 5. The women teachers constitute 21.7 per cent of the total teacher population in the recognized schools in the country. Amongst the male teachers 62.1 per cent are employed in primary sections, 22.8 per cent in middle sections and the remaining 15.1 per cent in secondary sections. Amongst the women teachers, 64.7 per cent are working in primary sections, 23.1 per cent in middle sections and 12.2 per cent in secondary sections.
Teachers under different managements 6. The teachers in India are employed in schools run by different managements. Among these managements, local body is the single largest employer, employing 48.4 per cent teachers followed by the Government which employs 20.7 per cent teachers while the private institutions employ 30.9 per cent of the teachers in the country. Amongst the private institutions, 2.3 per cent of the total number of teachers in the country are
STATEMENT 34
MEN AND WOMEN TEACHERS SERVING IN RURAL AND URBAN AREAS AT VARIOUS SCHOOL STAGES
Stage of education Sex Rural areas Urban areas All areas
1 2 3 4 5
Primary sections Men 7,97,153 1,30,822 9,27,975
Women 1,33,617 1,34,519 2,68,136
Middle sections Men 2,41,613 98,508 3,40,121
Women 35,203 60,615 95,818
Secondary sections Men 1,17,586 1,08,772 2,26,358
Women 11,330 39,449 50,779
Total Men 11,56,352 3,38,102 14,94,454
(Primary, middle
and secondary) Women 1,80,150 2,34,583 4,14,733
66 SECOND ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY
STATEMENT 35
TEACHERS SERVING UNDER DIFFERENT MANAGEMENTS AT VARIOUS SCHOOL STAGES IN RURAL AND URBAN AREAS
Stage of education Area Government Local Private Private Total
body aided unaided
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Primary Rural 1,80,280 6,10,736 1,34,460 5,294 9,30,770
Urban 52,909 1,21,123 76,130 15,179 2,65,341
Middle Rural 66,685 1,12,080 89,468 8,583 2,76,816
Urban 38,431 43,697 69,827 7,168 1,59,123
Secondary Rural 21,945 18,948 85,270 2,753 1,28,916
Urban 35,303 17,045 90,236 5,637 1,48,221
Total Rural 2,68,910 7,41,764 3,09,198 16,630 13,36,502
(Primary, middle
and secondary Urban 1,26,643 1,81,865 2,36,193 27,984 5,72,685
employed in private unaided institutions whereas the remaining 28.6 per cent are employed by private but aided institutions.
General qualifications of teachers serving in schools 7. The general qualifications of teachers teaching in the schools range from those who have not successfully completed even the middle school course to those possessing post-graduate degrees. In addition to the teachers in general education there are 'other' teachers engaged in the teaching of craft, music and physical education.
8. Of the total number of teachers employed in schools in India 22,907 (1.2 per cent) are teachers with 'less than middle pass' educational qualifications. There are 6 52,310 teachers (34.2 per cent) who have not got the matriculation certificate. These teachers are employed in primary, middle and secondary sections. 7,34,358 teachers (38.4 per cent) have passed matriculation examination only while 3,03,037 teachers (15.9 per cent) have got graduate and post- graduate qualifications. The remaining 10.3 per cent teachers have either passed intermediate only or are teachers of music, craft or physical education. It may be noted that teachers who are matriculates or less constitute the bulk of teachers, viz. 73.8 per cent of the total teacher population in the country. Of the teachers teaching in primary sections, 93 per cent are below metric or matric. Of the teachers teaching in middle sections, 62.8 per cent are either below matric (but middle pass) or matric. The corresponding percentage in secondary sections is 9.1.
9. A large majority of teachers working in secondary
STATEMENT 36
TEACHERS IN SCHOOL SECTIONS UNDER DIFFERENT MANAGEMENTS (ALL STAGES) ACCORDING TO THEIR EDUCATIONAL
QUALIFICATIONS
Qualification Government Local body Private aided Private unaided Total
1 2 3 4 5 6
Below middle pass 4,236 13,959 3,553 1,159 22,907
Middle pass but less than matric 87,724 4,48,597 1,08,880 7,109 6,52,310
Matriculate 1,82,559 3,58,296 1,78,515 14,988 7,34,358
Intermediate 30,053 43,351 42,407 5,800 1,21,611
Graduate 51,391 34,531 1,37,303 10,067 2,33,292
Post-graduate 23,363 4,402 38,846 3,134 69,745
Others 16,227 20,493 35,887 2,357 74,964
Total 3,95,553 9,23,629 5,45,391 44,614 19,09,187
TEACHERS 67
sections are graduate or post-graduate teachers (75.4 per cent), the corresponding figures for middle sections and primary sections being 17.4 and 1.5 respectively.
Professional Training of teachers 10. Because of the inadequate supply of professionally qualified teachers, untrained teachers are employed in many States and Union Territories. Of all the teachers working in the schools in India, 26.6 per cent have not received any type of training.
PRECENTAGES OF TRAINED AND UNTRAINED TEACHERS IN PRIMARY, MIDDLE AND SECONDARY SECTIONS
Category Primary Middle Secondary All school sections
1 2 3 4 5
Trained 73.7 75.2 69.6 73.4
Untrained 26.3 24.8 30.4 26.6
11. Amongst the women teachers, 77.0 per cent are trained whereas among the men teachers 72.5 per cent are trained. Section-wise, in the primary sections 73.7 per cent teachers are trained, in the middle section 75.2 per cent teachers are trained whereas in the secondary sections 69.6 per cent are trained teachers.
STATEMENT 38
TRAINED AND UNTRAINED MEN AND WOMEN TEACHERS SERVING All VARIOUS SCHOOL STAGES
Stage of education Professional qualification Men Women Men and women
1 2 3 4 5
Primary Trained 6,77,637 2,03,849 8,81,486
Untrained 2,50,338 64,287 3,14,625
Middle Trained 2,52,133 75,898 3,28,031
Untrained 87,988 19,920 1,07,908
Secondary Trained 1,53,365 39,445 1,92,810
Untrained 72,993 11,334 84,327
Trained 10,83,135 3,19,192 14,02,327
Total
Untrained 4,11,319 95,541 5,06,860
* Report of Education Commission, Ministry of Education, Government of India, page 84.
Backlog of Untrained teachers 12. As already referred to in a preceding paragraph, there are 5,06,860 (26.6 per cent) untrained teachers in various school sections in the country. This number represents the total backlog of untrained teachers. If teacher training is a must, steps have to be taken to clear the backlog of untrained teachers by providing training programmes of different types. Among the untrained teachers a wide variation is found between their age and experience in the teaching profession. Those who have been working as untrained teachers in schools over a large period of time will require a specially tailored training programme, whereas those who are far advanced in age may not be considered in the backlog at all. About clearing the backlog of untrained teachers, the Education Commission* suggest:
There is hardly any purpose in compelling teachers above the
68 SECOND ALL-INDIA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY
STATEMENT 39
UNTRAINED TEACHERS (ALL STAGES) ACCORDING TO THEIR AGE AND EXPERIENCE
Experience in years
Age in years
Up to 4 5-8 9-12 13-16 17-20 More than 20 Total
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Less than 20 31,227 844 16 - - - 32,087
20 - 24 1,47,807 16,466 592 17 - - 1,64,882
25 - 29 87,164 43,552 9,260 562 14 - 1,40,552
30 - 34 21,987 21,758 17,739 6,307 715 7 68,513
35 - 39 6,591 8,216 10,574 9,583 4,774 685 40,423
40 - 44 2,496 2,766 4,239 5,676 5,230 2,696 23,103
45 - 49 1,182 1,305 2,100 3,093 4,016 4,048 15,744
50 and more 1,415 1,283 2,154 2,522 3,961 10,042 21,377
Total 2,99,869 96,190 46,674 27,760 18,710 17,478 5,06,681
age of 40 years to undergo the full period of training. If they have had at least five years of service, they may be given only a short course and deemed trained.
Teachers below 40 years of age who have put in at least 5 years of service, need not be required to undergo the full training course. A shorter course, specially designed for the purpose, would be adequate.