articleskoraput: Fwd: [focusorissa] Schools lack trained teachers

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From: ashok paikaray <ak_paikaray@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 7:47 AM
Subject: [focusorissa] Schools lack trained teachers
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Schools lack trained teachers

Bhubaneswar:1/December/2009

With more and more emphasis on quality education all over the country, trained teachers have come to play pivotal role.

Several surveys have pinpointed the sad state of primary and secondary education in the country.

Besides high drop out rates, low quality of teaching is a matter of concern for the Policy Makers.

Deterioration of quality is mainly due to untrained teachers, who largely man the primary and secondary schools through out the country.

Para teachers and Sikhsya Sahayaks employed in thousands by the State Government including Government of Odisha can not contribute to quality education and substitute qualified trained teachers.

With renewed stress on improvement of quality, there is a strong demand for trained teachers and a large number of private teachers' training colleges are promoted in different states.

Things are different in Odisha.

Here the establishment of private B.Ed. colleges has been banned by Law since 1988 during J B Patnaik regime.

That year the State Government enacted an amendment to the Odisha Education Act not to allow private B.Ed. colleges any more as there was little scope for trained teachers' employment.

No other state in the country has taken such lop sided step.

Although there is a sea change in the scenario in these 21 years, the State Government has stalked to its old policy.

This has resulted in Odisha having only 17 B.Ed. colleges, mostly in Government sector.

See the contrast!

West Bengal has got 127 B.Ed. colleges, where as Jharkhand has set up 54, Assam has 51 and Bihar has 47 B.Ed. institutions.

More and more B.Ed. colleges are being set up in all the states except Odisha.

National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) was created in 1995 to approve and regulate the quality and standards of the Teachers Training Institutions.

According to NCTE Act-1995, primary and secondary schools can not have teachers who are not qualified as trained teachers from training institutions approved by the Council.

Despite this schools in Odisha are committing the illegality of employing untrained teachers.

NCTE Act also stipulates that no approval or No Objection Certificate (NOC) of the State Government is any longer necessary for the NCTE to approve establishment of a Teachers Training Institution.

If any B.Ed. college gets approval of NCTE, the examining boards or the universities are bound to give affiliation to the college, said a legal expert.

As such the ban under the Odisha Education (Amendment) Act-1988 is not valid as the Central act enacted in 1995 overrides an old state act, said the expert on Law.

However private B.Ed. institutions are not coming up to NCTE for approval apprehending legal problems, feel educationists.

There is great demand for trained teachers through out the country including Odisha.

Hundreds of retired trained teachers from the state are finding employment in private B.Ed. colleges in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar.

Trained teachers coming out after passing are also having good career prospects, feel manpower planners.

Despite all this the State Government is not waking up to encourage more Teacher Training Schools in the state in private sector.

Although the headquarters of the NCTE Eastern Region, which gives the recognition is based here, nobody from Odisha is not daring to set up B.Ed. College in private sector.

When will the Government of Odisha wake up?