Lok Sabha Question No. 4 (STARRED), answered on 2019-02-04
Subject: Shortage of Trained Teachers
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: DHARMENDRA YADAV, VINAYAK BHAURAO RAUT

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. †*4 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.02.2019

## Shortage of Trained Teachers

## †*4.  SHRI DHARMENDRA YADAV: SHRI VINAYAK BHAURAO RAUT:

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is aware of the falling standard of education in various States of the country on account of shortage of trained teachers;
- (b)  if  so,  whether  the  Government  is  aware  that  the  school  teachers  lack  basic  knowledge, especially in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government proposes to bring certain changes in the training of teachers keeping in view the future of the country and if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken/being taken by the Government in this regard; and
- (d)  whether  the  Government  has  issued  directives  to  the  State  Governments  in  regard  to  the standard of education and if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken/being taken by the Government to bring the standard of education at par in the cities as well as in villages?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

- (a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the table of the House.

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN PART (A) TO (D) OF THE REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 4 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.02.2019 ASKED BY SHRI DHARMENDRA  YADAV  AND  SHRI  VINAYAK  BHAURAO  RAUT  REGARDING SHORTAGE OF TRAINED TEACHERS

The  Central  Government  has  taken  several  initiatives  to  assess  and  improve  the  standard  of education in the country as follows:

1.        In order to focus on quality education, the Central rules to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act have been amended to include reference on class-wise, subject-wise Learning Outcomes. The Learning Outcomes for each class in Languages (Hindi, English and Urdu), Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Science and Social Science up to the elementary stage have, accordingly, been finalized and shared with all States and UTs. These serve as a guideline for State/UTs to ensure that all children acquire appropriate learning level.

2. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducts periodic national surveys of learning achievement of children in classes III, V, VIII and X.  Four rounds of National Achievement Survey (NAS) have been conducted so far for class V and three rounds for  classes  III  &  VIII.  These  reveal  improvement  in  learning  achievement  levels  of  pupils,  in identified  subjects  from  first  round  to  fourth  round.   Further,  a  National  Achievement  Survey based on learning outcomes  was conducted for Classes III, V and VIII on 13th November, 2017 with a sample frame upto district level to enable states/UTs to identify gaps in learning outcomes at  district  level  and  design  strategies  to  address  those  gaps.  Similarly,  NAS  for  Class  X  was conducted  on  5 th February,  2018.    NAS  Reports  show  students'  learning  levels  against  the expected  learning  outcomes  of  a  particular  grade  and      are  used  to  provide  feedback  to  the districts for further improvement.   The District Report Cards for the survey have been published and also shared with the Hon'ble Members of Parliament.

3. Section  23(2)  of  the  RTE  Act  has  been  amended  to  extend  the  period  of  in-service training  for  untrained  elementary  teachers  to  31st  March,  2019  in  all  the  States  and  UTs including the States of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. As per the above amendment, all untrained in-service teachers working in Government, Government- aided, and Private un-aided schools should acquire minimum qualification as laid down by an academic authority, authorized by  the  Central  Government,  by  31st  March,  2019.  The  National  Institute  of  Open  Schooling (NIOS) has been entrusted to conduct this training through ODL(Open Distance Learning) mode. The  online  D.El.Ed.  course  has  been  started  from  3rd  October,  2017.  More  than  13.7  lakh teachers have joined these courses, out of which 281118, 178102 and 7141 are from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra respectively.

4. A  four year B.Ed integrated course to bring about qualitative improvement in teacher education programmes in India has been conceptualised and regulations for this course has been published in official gazette on 22 nd November, 2018. The model curriculum prepared for this course includes crucial aspects like Gender, Inclusive education, ICT, Yoga, Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Health & Sanitation. The teaching specialization would primarily be for the primary levels and the secondary level.

5.     The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2018 has been notified on 11 th January, 2019. The said Act provides to empower the appropriate Government to take a decision as to whether to hold back a child in the 5 th class or in the 8 th class or in both classes, or not to hold back a child in any class till the completion of elementary education.  The Act seeks to improve the learning levels of children and will lead to greater accountability and improvement in the quality of education.

6. The  Central  Government  has  launched  an  Integrated  Scheme  for  School  Education  Samagra Shiksha, from 2018-19 which subsumes the erstwhile centrally sponsored schemes of Sarva  Shiksha  Abhiyan  (SSA),  Rashtriya  Madhyamik  Shiksha  Abhiyan  (RMSA)  and  Teacher Education scheme (TE). Under Samagra Shiksha, support is given to State Governments and UT Administrations  on  several  interventions  to  improve  teaching  standards,  including  inter  alia; regular in-service teachers' training, induction training for newly recruited teachers, training on ICT  Component,  Inclusive  Education,  Gender  Sensitization  and  Adolescent  Education  and remedial teaching for academically weaker students and for strengthening of teacher education institutions.

7. Government  of  India  has  decided  to    participate  in  the  Programme  for  International Students Assessment (PISA) to be conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2021. PISA is a competency based assessment which unlike contentbased assessment, measures the extent to which students have acquired key competencies that are  essential  for  full  participation  in  modern  societies.    Learnings  from  participation  in  PISA help to introduce competency based examination reforms in the school system and help move away from rote learning. The CBSE and NCERT are part of the process and activities leading to the actual test.

8. Rangotsav is an initiative of the Ministry aimed towards experiencing and celebrating the rich cultural diversity of India. The events were held from 7 th to 21 st December, 2018 in  schools, with    participation  of  students,  teachers  and  other  stake  holders.  Rangotsav  was    focused    on creating a non-judgmental platform for the participants to explore and express their artistic minds through dance,  music, theatre, painting craft  making etc. The fortnight-long event promoted a joyful learning environment with no restriction on expression of different forms of arts.  It is a gate way for each state to get exposed to the cultures, arts and languages of other States and UTs and  enrich the minds of students and enhance their thrust for knowledge.

## 9 . Performance Grading Index (PGI)

In  order  to  objectively  evaluate  the  performance  of  the  school  education  system  in  the States/UTs,  MHRD  has  designed  a  70  indicators  based  matrix  to  grade  the  States/UTs.    The indicators have been chosen after detailed stakeholder consultation and the information on these indicators is drawn from the inputs provided by the respective States/UTs.  This grading system will assist the States and UTs to identify the gap and design appropriate interventions to bridge them.

## 10. UDISE+ (UDISE plus)

Timely  and  accurate  data  is  the  basis  of  sound  and  effective  planning  and  decision  making. Towards  this end, the establishment of a well-functioning and sustainable Educational Management Information System is of utmost importance today. Therefore from 2018-19, it has been decided to launch the UDISE+ (i.e. UDISE plus application, so that it becomes an effective tool  for  decision  making.  The  entire  system  will  be  online  and  will  gradually  move  towards collecting real time data.

## 11 . Project DIKSHA

In order to provide supplementary learning material for students and for upgrading the skills of teachers, MHRD has developed a dedicated Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing(DIKSHA) platform.  The high quality e-learning material both for students and teachers are being uploaded by Ministry and States/UTs on this portal.  This is expected to substantially augment the knowledge base of the students and technical skills of teachers at no additional cost.

12 . The Central Board of Secondary Education( CBSE) has undertaken various examination reforms for 2019 examination to promote competencies and quality of learning as follows:

- i. Change  in  design  of  question  papers  with  nearly  33%  increase  in  internal  choice  in  all major subjects for classes X and XII and introduction of objective type questions.
- ii. The  learning  outcome  developed  by  NCERT  for  each  class  to  help  teachers  direct  their teaching learning in the desired manner and enhance the quality of learning in schools have been introduced in CBSE affiliated schools.
- iii. Experiential learning has been introduced from 2019-20 to promote self thinking, creativity and effective study skills among students.
- iv. In  order  to  promote  life  skills  and  value  education,  CBSE  has  integrated  health  and physical education with academics, as every school has to provide one period per day for sports.
- v. The  marking  scheme  has  been  changed  to  give  priority  to  creative,  correct  and  relevant answers given by students other than the ones mentioned in the marking scheme.
- vi. More  than  1  lakh  teachers  of  CBSE  affiliated  schools  have  been  trained  for  classroom learning, life skills, sports mainstreaming etc.

## 13 .   Curriculum Review

The NCERT has undertaken review of Syllabi and Textbooks developed by the NCERT as a follow up of the National Curriculum Framework-2005 in 2017-18. All the textbooks of NCERT developed  as  a  follow-up  of  the  NCF-2005  have  been  reviewed  for  updating.  A  portal  for teachers' suggestions on the NCERT textbooks was created. Suggestions received from teachers were analysed and incorporated if found appropriate in this review. Further, national initiatives such  as  Clean  India,  Digital  India, Beti  Bachao  Beti  Padhao, Demonetization,  etc.,  have  also been given space in the reviewed textbooks in integrated manner.

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