Panel doubtful of achieving elementary education goal

“At the current pace of progress being made towards the goal of universalisation of elementary education, the committee has serious doubts about achieving the goals by the year 2010,” the Parliamentary Committee relating to the Human Resource Development Ministry said in its latest report.

Expressing concern at the under-qualification of teachers affecting the quality of teaching, the panel headed by Oscar Fernandes said 44 per cent elementary school teachers possessed only up to higher secondary level education.
Pulling up the ministry for not filling up the vacancies with regular teachers and instead recruiting para-teachers on ad-hoc terms, the committee said engaging para-teachers should not be considered as a viable option as unlike regular teachers they might lack the desired commitment towards the students.

Expressing concern about the vacancies of more two lakh teachers in the country, the panel said every effort should be made to recruit regular teachers so that quality of education was not compromised.

Identifying teachers’ training as a grey area, the committee observed that teacher training in the right perspective would be one of the most crucial components for providing quality education for our children.

“The committee is also not clear on the total number of backlog vacancies and new recruitments needed for better training programme. Innovative ways for augmenting infrastructure availability should be adopted for improving teacher training,” the panel said adding a proper assessment of targets and harmonised action plan should be evolved.