Teaching: Love thy Profession!
We as a nation think that by celebrating teacher's day and awarding them with different honours, our duty is done. However, we forget that the real responsibility lies in converting this thankless job into a respectable one. And how is that possible. Given the fact that our teachers are poorly paid (till the Sixth Pay Commission was implemented), teaching as a profession has become nothing but only a means to grab a cosy government job.
The government on the other hand takes no step to attract those who truly want to teach. To make matters worse, the government has also not laid any guidelines which offer any accountability for teachers. This in turn has made our teachers lethargic and discouraged them from performing to their optimum. In this sorry scenario, it the children attending school who are the ultimate sufferers. 
The hope lies in a clear mandate of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which ensures that all schools and their teachers meet certain specified norms. According to experts, despite of challenges this was long due, in the field of education.
According to Kuldeep Aggarwal, Director, National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), one of the agencies earmarked by the Government to train primary school teachers under the RTE Act, ‘There are many training institutes but commitment towards it is seriously lacking. Now with the Act, we are asked to prepare many new teachers to teach more children joining school besides training the existing ones. The Director also says that the number runs into lakhs and it will surely not be an easy task.
Well it is no more than a mockery that in West Bengal, many primary level teachers are only Class 10 pass. This clearly indicates that teachers will have to be taught what education is all about. So teaching as a profession demands immense attention and has to come out to be a big mission.
In this serious state of affairs, various states have been indifferent and have not heard the wake up call as yet. Due to the laidback attitude and lack of dedicated approach, the deadline of 2017 to implement the Act appears to be pretty impractical.
Colleges offering Teacher's Training
After the Sixth Pay Commission was implemented, the take-home at starting for a primary school teacher is approximately Rs 27,000 and secondary school teacher is around Rs 33,000. Some of the colleges that offers teacher's training are as follows:
- Mount Carmel College of Teacher Education, Kottayam
- The Oxford Teacher Training Institute, Bangalore
- National Institute Of Technical Teachers' Training and Research, Chandigarh
- Bombay Teacher's Training College, Mumbai
- Graduate Basic Teachers Training College (Shikshan Mahavidyalaya) Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad
Apart from the above colleges, there are different teacher training institutes across India which offers Basic Teacher Training Certificate (BTC), Junior Basic Training (JBT), Diploma in Education (D.Ed), Primary Teachers Training (PTT), Bachelor in Education (B.Ed), among other courses.
Education: Lot of Promises to Keep!
If the states pull up their socks and show their willingness to ensure the required norms and rightly implement the Right to Education, the time will not be far when a sea change will be witnessed. The states might shelter themselves in the excuse that the poor and marginalised do not want to send their wards to school but the truth remains that it is the lack of opportunities which compel them to do so.
Every student wants a loving teacher and no training can teach a professional this particular skill. The curriculum must be more interactive and both the teachers and students must decide what to teach. For this a teacher has to be well read, sensitive and aware about the demands in education. This is the reason that teaching as a profession is suitable only for those who not only love imparting lessons but also affection.
Source: Prachi Srivastava
Date: 19th August, 2011