SKILLED TEACHERS: NEED OF THE HOUR.

Teachers are the fulcrum of the entire education system and play an important role in shaping and improving the quality of education in an educational institution. Teaching is a noble profession and all schools need good teachers to impart knowledge to its students. One cannot imagine a school without teachers. However, skilled teachers are hard to come by and it is a fact that India is facing dire shortage of trained teachers in the primary, secondary and higher education. A lot of focus has been given by the Narendra Modi Government on the training and professional development of teachers in 2016. In fact, in its last budget, the government had even launched a Rs. 900-crore scheme - Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Missions on Teachers and Teaching, a five-year training course after schooling for those aspiring to pursue a career in teaching. The programme was envisaged to beenfit nearly 20,000 teacher trainees studying  in Teacher Education Institutions.

Nevertheless, India still lacks qualified teachers especially at the school level that forms the basis of education. Madhu Mathur, Principal, Nirmala High School, Hyderabad, feels with the increasing number of Multi National Companies (MNC's) and their fat pay cheques, the salary expectations of teachers are also high and there is a dearth of good teachers in schools today. N. Revathi Raju, Managing Director, Sanskriti School, Hyderabad, agrees. "There is a lack of good resources, as the teaching is not a glamourous profession and lack of appreciation is also a factor. Besides, there is no teacher community to address their issues, and timely upgradation of knowledge is not happening", she said.

Teachers form the backbone of any educational institution and it is imperative to impart professional training and improve their teaching skills. They need to be updated with knowledge from time to time and must adapt to technology as well. While schools are plenty in number, it's teacher's skills are not matching the requirement. How do we address the issue of dearth of skilled teachers? Carol Joseph, Principal, Indus International School, Hyderabad, is of the opinion that the Education Board should engage in the preparation of teacher training modules and provide refresher courses for teachers periodically. He also stressed the need to impart professional development such as teaching methodology, and self-development programmes on how to develop programmes on how to develop empathy and self-esteem in teachers.

Just like students, teachers are also under tremendous pressure to constantly be updated with knowledge and strike a good work life balance between their profession and family life. "The Board must design a proper training programme for the teachers as it is necessary to go beyond textbook knowledge and know how to engage a child. Core training programs for teachers is the need of the hour. Stress buster programs and teacher skilled development courses conducted regularly also prove to be quiet effective", feels M. Narasimha Murthy, Executive Vice-Chairman, Global International School, Hyderabad.

Emphasising the importance of such training, Mathur adds, "We train our own teachers, provide counselling for them from time to time, as we feel they also need to grow along with the school. Besides, technical guidance, teachers are also trained on classroom discipline, teaching methodology and how to deal with adolescent students". Imparting proper knowledge is a tough job implementing such training schemes at the grass-root level is not easy. "However, with strict government policies in place for regular teachers' training, updated school curriculum and B.Ed courses, these gaps can be tackled to a large extent", concludes Raju.

As President Pranab Mukherjee rightly said, it is education that can lead to the trinity of progress, which are greater political participation, social emancipation and upward economic mobility.

The Right Kind of Education: The right kind of education begins with the educator, who must understand himself and be free from established patterns of thought; for what he is, that he imparts. If he has not been rightly educated, what can he teach except the same mechanical knowledge on which he himself has been brought up? The problem, therefore, is not the child, but the parent and the teacher; the problem is to educate the educator.

If he who are the educators do not understand ourselves, if we do not understand our relationship with the child but merely stuff him with information and make him pass examination, how can we possibly bring about a new kind of education? The pupil is there to be guided and helped; but if the guide, the helper is himself confused and narrow, nationalistic and theory-ridden, then naturally his pupil will be what he is, and education becomes a source of further confusion and strife. If we see the truth of this, we will realise how important it is that we begin to educate ourselves rightly. To be concerned with our own re-education is far more necessary than to worry about the future well-being and security of the child.  

To educate the educator - that is, to have him difficult undertakings, because most of us are already crystallised within a system of thought or a pattern of action; we have already given ourselves over to some ideology, or to a particular standard of conduct. That is why we teach the child what to think and not how to think.

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