NEW DELHI : Schools across India are not getting the qualified teachers as 90 per cent of the candidates aspiring to become teachers fail even in the basic tests that they have to undergo.
The minimum qualification fixed for teachers under the Right to Education (RTE) Act has brought out the shocking phenomenon of 91 per cent candidates aspiring to teach in the elementary section of class VI to VIII flunking the basic teacher eligibility test (TET) conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) this year.
The RTE Act, enforced from April 1, 2010, had set the deadline of March 31 this year to meet the teacher education and quality targets with the central TET mandated to ensure a national level benchmark for teaching quality, but very few are able to qualify.
Parents and the state governments are worried over another provision of the RTE Act envisaging promotion of students in every class without examination badly hitting standard of education, but little do they realise that it is becoming still worse for want of the trained teachers.
There are 5.04 lakh vacancies of teachers in India’s 14 lakh elementary schools because the qualified teachers are just not available, according to the annual assessment carried out by the National University for Education Planning and Administration under the Human Resources Ministry.
Since the RTE Act mandated basic qualifying tests for the school teachers in India, over 95 per cent candidates taking the national exam have been failing. Last year’s pass percentage for CTET was just 5.
The fact that 91 per cent of candidates were found unfit to teach in the elementary sections of class VI top VIII demonstrates the missed targets under the Act guaranteeing free and compulsory education to 6 to 14 year olds. Candidates flunking the tests are no novices. Those who sat for TET are graduates and who have passed or are appearing in the final year 2-year diploma in elementary education exam.
Candidates who took the primary-level teachers’ test this year is better but still poor at 17.9 per cent. Those taking the primary teacher’s test for classes I to V need to be senior secondary or its equivalent with at least 50 per cent marks and passed or taking the final year exam of of the the 2-year diploma in elementary education.
