60% of state’s school teachers not college-pass!

Hemali Chhapia | TNN

Mumbai: The number of graduates in the state is rising, but most of our children continue to be taught by Class X and high school dropouts. Fresh government data reveals that almost 60% teachers in government and aided schools have never gone to college.

The severity of the problem can be gauged from the fact that the majority of schools in the state are public institutes.

Worse, teachers with higher academic qualification are stepping out of schools to pick an alternative profession. Between 2005-’06 and 2007-’08, the state largely recruited teachers who had just cleared Class X or high school (class XII). Till four years ago, minimum academic qualification for an aided/government school teacher was Class X with a diploma in education (DEd). In 2004, the state upped the minimum qualification bar to Class XII plus DEd.

Shockingly, the number of graduates taking up teaching has far from improved, and as educationist J M Abhayankar pointed out, “Besides, the state too has not made any attempts to better the academic levels of their teachers’’. Picture this: a teacher who starts in the basic monthly salary scale of Rs 4,500 to Rs 7,000, is entitled to a senior scale salary of Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 after nine years. “However, there is no additional qualification required to avail of the senior scale remuneration,’’ he added.

Some time in the late 1960’s, then education minister Madhukar Chaudhari had presented a paper on how many school teachers were merely class seven-pass.

‘Teaching is not an attractive profession’

Mumbai: In the last four decades, the state has done precious little to improve the academic qualification of its teachers. Educationist J M Abhayankar noted that the state earlier used to provide an incentive to teachers who would complete graduation with a first class, but that scheme was stopped.

What’s worse, Maharashtra is not the only state that paints such a grim picture. The Delhi-based National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), which mapped the 2004-06 data of teachers’ academic achievements in its report, noted, “Irrespective of the type of school, the qualification of a good number of teachers is below secondary level.’’

While over 56% of state teachers are either merely school or high school qualified, Mumbai has 46% of its teachers who have never received collegiate education. Similarly, 52.39% teachers in Pune and 57.09% in Nagpur are either class X or class XII qualified. NIEPA senior research fellow N Govinda opined, “Most state governments insist on recruiting D.Ed. students and not so much graduates or B.Ed (Bachelors in Education). Besides, there is no growth for primary level teachers. It’s a dead end.’’ At most, a primary teacher can become the head of the primary school, so a lot of them drop out of the profession if they have high academic qualifications.

But a secondary level teacher can scale up to occupy the position of a Block level officer or a district officer.

In a span of a year, data reveals that Maharashtra largely recruited class XII pass-outs for its schools. But state level educationist Heramb Kulkarni said that schools must be equipped with not just graduate teachers, but faculty who have specialised in a particular area of knowledge must be appointed to teach that subject. “A student asked his geography teacher, if the moon affects the ocean tides, why doesn’t it not affect the water stored in the well of my house. But the teacher had no answer.’’

hemali.chhapia@timesgroup.com