Success of the new education policy depends on how we recruit and assess teachers

Source: The post is based on the article “Success of new education policy depends on how we recruit and assess teachers” published in The Indian Express on 9^th September 2022.

Syllabus: GS 2 – Issues associated with education

News: The article discusses the problems related to the recruitment of teachers and measures that can be taken to improve the recruitment process.

What are the problems present with the recruitment of teachers?

The teacher recruitment process in the country is not efficient. The recruitment process varies from regions and types of schools.

This leads to multiple criteria and processes in hiring teachers which brings inequality in teacher quality.

The process is also inadequate in measuring the candidate’s competency.

The most common and widely taken test for teachers is the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) conducted at both the state (STET) and central levels (CTET). However, this test is required only for government school teacher recruitment at the elementary stage (Class 1-8).

The test has its drawbacks such as low pass percentages, poor test quality, lengthy test papers, etc.

What steps have been taken to tackle the issues?

NEP-2020 has recommended a revision of the existing test and supplementing it with other processes such as classroom demonstrations and interviews.

It has also recommended extending these processes to all stages of education in public and private schools.

What can be the further done to improve the teacher recruitment process?

There should be a comprehensive competency framework that provides details for the required skills that a teacher should possess.

There should be a proper guideline for judging a teacher’s competency (knowledge, skills) that contributes to the teaching-learning process.

The competency can be checked by taking tests and involving others methods of assessment like classroom demonstrations and teacher interviews.

The curriculum provided by NEP can be adopted towards providing training in classroom and making learning joyful.

What will be the benefits of adopting such holistic recruitment process?

There will be multiple long-term benefits to adopting such a holistic model of teacher recruitment.

First, it will contribute to a fair education for students from diverse sections of society.

Second, it will ensure uniformity in the quality of teachers recruited across the country.

Third, the recruitment process will also become reliable.

Fourth, it will help in checking a teacher’s ability in explanation of the concept and selecting appropriate study materials for the students.

Fifth, it will also help to evaluate a teacher’s empathy towards students.

Sixth, this will reduce the coaching culture as the assessment processes will be non-standardised, which cannot be easily studied from coaching materials and guidebooks.