States to conduct Teacher Eligibility Tests (TET)

Standard of School Education

 States to conduct Teacher Eligibility Tests (TET)

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducts periodic National Learners’ Achievement Surveys. This is an important source of information on the trend of learning levels of the children at the elementary level. Two rounds of surveys have been completed by NCERT and these surveys have revealed improvements in the overall learning levels.

NCERT has commenced the third round of Achievement Survey. The findings of the third round conducted recently for class V indicate that there is enhancement in the level of achievement in most States. In Language, there has been an improvement in learning achievement in 24 States/UTs, whereas, in Mathematics, 14 States shave improved learning levels. In Environmental Studies, 24 States/UTs have shown an improvement in learning level. Further, the overall differences in achievement between boys and girls as well as urban and rural students has reduced.

The centrally sponsored scheme “Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) “ was launched in 2009 to enhance access to secondary education and to improve its quality. It seeks to ensure quality of education imparted at secondary stage and reduce disparities related to gender, socio-economic status, geographical location and disability.

Availability of professionally qualified teachers is an important element of quality. In consonance with the provisions of Sec. 23 of the RTE Act, 2009, The National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) has laid down the minimum qualifications for a person to be eligible to be recruited as a teacher in primary and upper primary schools. In addition to prescribing teacher qualifications under section 23 of the RTE Act, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has also laid down the requirement for States to conduct Teacher Eligibility Tests (TET), and only persons who qualify the TET are eligible to be considered for teacher recruitment. It is expected that this measure will significantly improve the quality of teachers who are recruited in the elementary education sector.

Under RMSA, there is provision to appoint subject wise teachers in secondary schools. Several interventions including subject wise teachers, in-service training of teachers every year, leadership development programme of head of the secondary schools are being provided under RMSA to enhance the quality of secondary education.

This information was given by Dr. D. Purandeswari, Minister of State for Human Resource in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

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