Aiding teachers’ professional growth

The NCTE (National Council for Teachers Education) recently released a draft of the National Professional Standard for Teachers (NPST). This is in accordance with the implementation of the New Educational Policy, which highlighted the need to improve the quality of teaching professionals, to design pre-service teacher education programmes and set standards for professional growth and pay scale.

The NPST focuses on preparations, practice and performance improvement of the grades of teachers.

Professional standards

In the context of learning, standards are defined as learning outcomes but in a professional context, standards are defined as competencies, including the expectations of the parents, learners and other stakeholders from the teachers.

A striking feature of the NPST draft is the space it provides for professional of teachers. As per NEP 2020, the schooling system will be broadly categorised to follow the 5+3+3+4 (Foundational, Preparatory, Middle Level and Secondary Level) pattern.

The draft policy of NPST clearly states that teachers in all school levels have the potential for growth within each level (Primary to Middle School or High School to Higher Secondary).

It stresses the need for an annual assessment of teaching quality in every school by NCTE. This assessment is based on continuous professional development and made 50 hours of professional skilling attendance, either online or offline, mandatory.

The entry-level professional is labelled a ‘beginner teacher’ who has minimum standards set by NCTE and is trained or prepared by teacher training institutes like nurseries, anganwadis, kindergartens, Diploma in Education, teacher training certificate course, Bachelors of Education or Master of Education.

Once the beginner settles into their job and reaches the required level of performance, they will be guided towards the next career stage, the ‘proficient teacher stage’. Here, the teacher is expected to be professionally independent while using various teaching and assessment skills.

Once the proficient teacher reaches the optimum level of performance, she/he will be guided to prepare for the next career stage that is an —'expert teacher'. An expert teacher is expected to demonstrate a higher level of performance with a collaborative style.

Once they display exceptional leadership, the teachers will be guided to move towards the role of a lead teacher. At this stage, teachers are expected to deliver highly valued inputs in the teaching-learning process, particularly with regard to constitutional values, professional ethics, commitment to students and community and responsible and ethical use of technology.

(The author is the principal of a residential school in Udupi)