Teachers Appointment Procedure

Teachers Appointment Procedure

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 2165
ANSWERED ON: 01.01.2018

Appointment Procedure of Teachers

Shri. SUSHIL KUMAR SINGH

Will the Minister of
HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:-

(a) whether it is a fact that the students studying in different educational institutions are deprived from quality education due to discrepancies in the appointment procedure of teachers in the country; and

(b) if so, the effective steps taken/ proposed to be taken by the Government to bring transparency in appointment procedure to make the teachers accountable and to provide quality education in the educational institutions?

ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE
DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI UPENDRA KUSHWAHA)

(a) & (b) : The recruitment, service conditions and deployment of teachers are primarily in the domain of the State Governments/UT Administrations. However, the Central Government through the centrally sponsored schemes of Sarva Shiksa Abhiyan (SSA) at elementary level and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) at secondary level provides assistance to the State Governments/UTs for additional teachers to maintain appropriate Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) as per the prescribed norms for various levels of schooling. Further, the Central Government has been consistently pursuing the matter of expeditious recruitment and redeployment of teachers and to implement norms of the RTE Act 2009 with the States and UTs at various forums. Advisories to implement the norms of the RTE Act have also been issued to States and UTs from time to time.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 in its Schedule lays down PTR for both primary and upper primary schools. At primary level, the PTR should be 30:1 and at the upper primary level it should be 35:1. As per the Unified District Information System For Education (UDISE) 2015-16, the PTR at national level for primary schools is 23:1 and upper primary schools is 17:1, which is better than the norm laid down in the RTE Act, 2009. As per RMSA norms, PTR at secondary level should be 30:1. As per UDISE 2015-16, the PTR at Secondary Level is 27:1.

The Central Government has notified the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) as the Academic Authority at the national level for teacher education and qualification. NCTE has prescribed teacher qualifications as per Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. It has also made it mandatory that all persons holding teacher qualifications as laid down by the NCTE must also pass a teacher eligibility test (TET). This ensures that qualified persons are appointed as teachers so as to improve the quality of education.

Further, Section 23(2) of the RTE Act has been amended to extend the period for training of untrained in-service elementary teachers to 31st March, 2019.

As per above amendment, all untrained in-service teachers working in Government, Government aided, and Private un-aided schools should acquire minimum qualification as laid down by an academic authority, authorized by the Central Government, by 31st March, 2019. The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has been entrusted to conduct this training through ODL(Open Distance Learning) mode. The online D.El.Ed. course has been started from 3rd October, 2017.

Further, under SSA and RMSA, support is provided to the State Governments and UT Administrations on various interventions to improve teaching standards, including inter alia; induction training and regular in-service teachers’ training, including training on ICT Component, Inclusive Education, Gender Sensitization and Adolescent Education. Under both SSA and RMSA, the focus is to give subject specific, need based and relevant in service teacher training to both elementary and secondary teachers for their professional development.

In order to focus on quality education, the Central RTE Rules have been amended on 20th February, 2017 to include reference on class-wise, subject-wise Learning Outcomes, to serve as a guideline for States/UTs to ensure that all children acquire appropriate learning levels. The Learning Outcomes for each class at elementary stage in Languages (Hindi, English and Urdu), Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Science and Social Science have been finalized and shared with the States and UTs.