MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)
(a): Under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) which is a centrally sponsored scheme
implemented to support the States/UTs for universalization of elementary education across
the country, a total of 19.48 lakh teacher posts have been sanctioned to ensure the pupilteacher
ratio, as stipulated in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE)
Act, 2009. Out of these 15.59 lakh teacher posts have been filled up as on 31st August,
2015. The PTR at national level is 1:25 at primary level and 1:17 at upper primary level as
per Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) data for 2013-14. The
recruitment and service conditions of teachers are primarily in the domain of State
Governments/UT Administrations and the Central Government is constantly encouraging
them to fill up all the posts of teachers.
(b) & (c): The Central Government conducts review of its programmes like SSA, Rashtriya
Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Mid Day Meal (MDM) through third party
evaluation by identified Monitoring Institutions. Additionally, Joint Review Mission (JRM),
comprising eminent experts and academics in the field of education also visit States/UTs
from time to time to review these schemes.
The Central Government collects information from all the schools (Government, Aided
and Private) every year about the enrolment, availability of teachers, facilities available,
teacher student ratio etc. through Unified District Implementation System (U-DISE)
maintained by National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA). The
status of these evaluations and monitoring is placed in the public domain on the Ministry’s
website.
Under 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 improving pupil-teacher ratios, academic support for teachers through
block and cluster resource centres, 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.
Further, Central Government has been taking up the issue of redeployment of teachers with
States/UTs in various forums and review meetings.
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 Surveys (NAS) have been conducted so far for class V
whereas three rounds have been conducted for classes III & VIII. These reveal improvement
in learning achievement levels of pupils, in various subjects. First round of NAS has been
conducted at Class X level, indicating that there is need for significant improvement in
learning levels.
(d): Through SSA, the Central Government supports States/UTs on early grade reading,
writing & comprehension, and early Mathematics programmes through a sub-programme
namely ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’ (PBBB) in classes I and II. Further the Government has
launched Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyan (RAA), 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.
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 NCERT has developed Performance Indicators for Elementary Education
(PINDICS) to track teacher performance and attendance in Government schools. PINDICS
have been shared with State Governments/UTs to assess teacher’s performance.
In the recent Meeting of Education Ministers on Teachers’ Education held at Vigyan
Bhawan, New Delhi on 8.2.2016 several steps for improvement of the quality of education
were discussed. These include internship for Teacher Education Programmes in Government
Schools; development of an accreditation framework for Teacher Education Institutions and
volunteerism involving retired teachers.
The National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005 provides the broad framework for
school curriculum development. The States/UTs have aligned their school education
curriculum with the provision of NCF. All States/UTs have either adopted textbooks
developed by the NCERT or revised their textbooks in accordance with the provisions of
NCF, 2005 and in conformity with the values enshrined in the Constitution.
In order to provide quality education to students at the secondary level, various
interventions are funded under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). These
include provision for : (i) additional teachers to improve Pupil Teacher Ratio, (ii) induction and
in-service training for Principals, Teachers , Master Trainers and Key Resource Persons, (iii)
Maths and Science kits, (iv) Lab equipments, (v) Special teaching for learning enhancement,
(vi) ICT facilities in schools, (vii) introduction of vocational education component at the
secondary level (viii) ‘Shaala Siddhi’ has been developed by National University of
Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), to enable schools to evaluate their
performance in a more focused and strategic manner.
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