Untrained teachers get 2 years to qualify:

Untrained teachers get 2 years to qualify: (The Hindu)

Bills passed for Untrained teachers

Context

• The Lok Sabha passed a Bill that offers untrained teachers teaching in schools’ time till March 31, 2019, to acquire B.El. Ed (Bachelor of Elementary Education) or D. El. Ed. (Diploma in Elementary Education) qualifications to hold their jobs as teachers.

Need to be done

• It was brought in through an amendment to the Right to Education Act, 2009, as a last chance to such teachers not to lose their jobs.
• The Compulsory Education (Amendment) 2017 Bill will now have to pass muster in the Rajya Sabha and get presidential assent after that to become an Act.

The rationale for the bill

• Many new schools had come up in the days of educational expansion under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the RTE.
• Faculties hired did not have requisite degrees, some having studied only till school.
• They were given five years to get trained but almost 6 lakh private school teachers and 2.5 lakh government school teachers still don’t have the required degrees.
• The qualifications are deemed necessary to ensure that teachers are well-qualified to ensure quality of education.

Steps already taken

• Rajasthan pasting photographs of all teachers in a school on the notice board with the caption “our respected teachers.”
• Manipur is using a tab that would mark attendance only within 50 feet of the school.