Teachers! Teachers!! Where are you????

This is come complaints I hear or I read in newspapers is about ‘Poor Teaching Standards’ in Schools, especially in Government Schools across India. This may be true even in other countries too.

A couple of months ago, I was asked to conduct a training workshop for Primary School teachers on Puppetry. Well, during the workshop I came to know that many of the teachers lacked passion for teaching. More over, many had very limited subject language. Many teachers who taught English as a language and also other subjects through English were not clear about ‘Be Forms, Do Forms and Have Forms’.

Though they enjoyed my workshop but also asked me to take up a session on Teaching English. I did give them some basic tips about making English language interesting but the pity is when I think about the helpless students trained under such teachers.

I came across this interesting article in Times of India wherein more than 10,000 CONTRACTUAL SCHOOL TEACHERS IN BIHAR have failed a competency test. The test conducted to assess teacher’s ability to teach. Around 24% teachers have failed in English, Mathematics, Hindi and General Knowledge for up to class 5. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/contractual-school-teachers-in-Bihar

Bihar state is conducting such assessment test from 2008; I hope other states in India also follow it. I look this like this; such test will at least motivate teachers to brush up, attend refresher courses and workshops for which government spends huge public money, and push them to be constant learners.

Interestingly, quite construct to this I also came across more interesting article on ‘When and how English should be taught in Schools’. The Annual Status of Education Reports brought out each year by Pratham. The figures indicate that about half of all rural children in Class 8 can read a set of simple sentences and of those who can read about three-fourths can explain the meaning of what they have read. These numbers range from about 90% of children being able to read in Mizoram, Nagaland, Kerala to around 50% (Bihar, Maharashtra, Assam, Karnataka) to much lower numbers in Gujarat (35%). http://www.hindustantimes.com/comment/analysis/when-and-how-english-should-be-taught-in-schools/article1-1166370.aspx

Well, I just know that all those who love teaching are not into main stream of teaching profession either in School or Colleges!!!