Lok Sabha Question No. 1281 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-12-07
Subject: Poor Teaching Standards
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: JYOTIRADITYA MADHAVRAO SCINDIA, PINAKI MISRA, RAJESH VERMA, KAMAL NATH, ANANT KUMAR DATTATREYA HEGDE, ABHIJIT MUKHERJEE, RAJAN BABURAO  VICHARE

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1281 TO BE ANSWERED ON 07.12.2015

## Poor Teaching Standards

## 1281.   SHRI JYOTIRADITYA M. SCINDIA:

SHRI PINAKI MISRA:

SHRI RAJESH VERMA:

SHRI KAMAL NATH:

SHRI ANANTKUMAR HEGDE:

SHRI ABHIJIT MUKHERJEE:

SHRI RAJAN VICHARE:

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

- (a)  whether  the  Government  is  aware  of  the  poor  teaching  standards  in  the  schools particularly in Government primary schools in rural areas;
- (b)    whether  the  educated  and  prosperous  sections  of  the  society  are  reluctant  to  get  their children enrolled in Government schools due to the poor standard of education provided in these schools; and
- (c)  if so, the steps taken/being taken by the Government to improve the teaching standards in schools in all the States in the country including Maharashtra?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a)  &  (b):  The  National  Council  of  Educational  Research  and  Training  (NCERT)  conducts periodic national surveys of learning achievement of children in classes - III, V and VIII. Three rounds  of  National  Achievement  Surveys  (NAS)  have  been  conducted  so  far.  These  reveal improvement in learning achievement levels of pupils, in various subjects. No research study or indicator is available with the Government for finding out the socio-economic level of parents of the children enrolled in Government schools.

(c): Under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the State Governments and UT Administrations are supported  on  several  interventions  to  improve  teaching  standards,  including  regular  in-service teachers'  training,  induction  training  for  newly  recruited  teachers,  training  of  all  untrained teachers  to  acquire  professional  qualifications  through  Open  Distance  Learning  (ODL)  mode, recruitment  of  additional  teachers  for  better  pupil-teacher  ratios,  academic  support  for  teachers through block and cluster resource centres, a continuous and comprehensive evaluation system to equip the teacher to measure pupil performance and provide remedial action wherever required, and  teacher  and  school  grants  for  development  of  appropriate  teaching-learning  materials,  etc. The Right of Children  to Free  and  Compulsory  Education  (RTE) Act,  2009 specifies  statutory duties and responsibilities of teachers and lays down the minimum qualifications for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher in elementary schools.

The  Central  Government  has  launched  the  'Pandit  Madan  Mohan  Malviya  National Mission on Teachers and Teaching' in December, 2014 with a vision to comprehensively address all issues related to teachers, teaching, teacher preparation, professional development, curriculum design, research in pedagogy and developing effective pedagogy.

The Central government through SSA has supported States/UTs on early grade reading, writing & comprehension, and early mathematics programmes through a sub-programme namely 'Padhe  Bharat  Badhe  Bharat'  (PBBB)  in  class  I  and  II.  Further  the  Government  has  launched Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyan (RAA) programme on 09.07.2015, inter alia, as a sub-component of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), to motivate and engage  children  of  the  age  group  from  6-18  years  in  Science,  Mathematics  and  Technology through observation, experimentation, inference drawing, model building, etc. both through inside and outside classroom activities and processes. Under SSA, in Maharashtra, other than funding for  PBBB  &  RAA  programmes,  Rs.  35  lakhs  have  been  approved  in  2015-16  for  developing supplementary readers ten each in 4-5 tribal languages under Learning Enhancement Programme, and Rs. 35 lakhs per district has been approved under the head of Innovation for initiating school based/teacher led innovative practices using technology to improve learning outcomes of children in classes III- VIII.

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