A Threat for the future generations of the Country due to Crisis in Quality Teachers and Education: Problems and

Solutions
Archana Nath and Ritesh Kumar Abstract: Over the past two decades, Indian societies have undergone tremendous transformations in social, cultural, economic and technological spheres leading to new demands and challenges for its citizens. In order to maintain and face these changes and challenges quality education and teachers can play a leading role. Most of the schools, private or government, are dependent upon untrained teachers or teachers trained previously in older teaching methodologies with little updation and they will be causing more harm than good to the future generations of this country. Today, the efforts the parents and have to take clearly show the crisis of quality teachers prevailing in the country and that only placement of high quality teachers by proper planning in teacher education can help us in shaping our society in order to solve the national challenge. Thus, it is very imperative to discuss on the topic. The present paper examines the key role teachers can play in providing quality education. This paper discusses on what and why of quality education and how one can achieve this. Special emphasis is being given on teacher education as it is not only the backbone of our society but also it shapes the future generation. This paper also throws some light on how quality teachers can be produced, which can ultimately bring quality education in the society. In this context, the role of Government is crucial and this has also been highlighted in the paper. (Key words: Quality teacher, quality education, shaping future generation) Introduction Whenever the term education, quality, quality education, quality teachers, etc. are discussed it is very important to understand those terms first. Many researchers, educators and politicians have tried to define these terms and lot many definitions are available

from the literature too. Eeducation in the broadest sense may be defined as any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education). Quality may be defined as a reflection of outcome of any task performed within the boundary of social structure. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/quality). Similarly, quality in education is the ongoing process of building and sustaining relationships by assessing, anticipating, and fulfilling stated and implied needs (http://www.qualitydigest.com/html/qualitydef.html). Teacher Education is also an open and dynamic system, and it is a continuous process. Teacher education is now a national challenge. Nation is succumbing to better teacher education and quality teachers crisis. High quality teacher education can only help in meeting the challenge and overcoming the crisis of quality teachers. Education has always been the foundation of any society and in the recent times it has assumed greater importance. Education, in fact, is not only the mirror of society it is also a factor influencing the development of the society. Education must help young people and children to develop themselves as persons. Now the talk of quality education has started. It is merely because education over the last decades has lowered in quality. Quality education should not be regarded as a process of consumption but as a process of interaction between teachers and students then only the purpose of education will be fulfilled. From the above discussion it is realised that there is a need for improving quality in education. There is also an urgent need for quality teachers in the society. Increasing number of drop-outs in schools at the primary level and poor performance of students at the rural levels that constitute major part of Indias population shows the actual picture of the degrading quality of education. Now the question arises how teachers can improve quality and what teachers can do to improve quality. To this it is felt that by having and applying three things such as, quality awareness, professional freedom and professional ethics in life teachers can achieve their goal of quality improvement. Quality awareness is one of the tools that teachers can apply advantageously for their personal progress as well as quality in education. This tool can help in critically

examining our teaching, methods used and finding for alternative ways of teaching which would finally lead to the improvement in the quality in education. Professional freedom is another tool that is a critical one that can help in developing quality in education. Professional freedom will allow teacher, who are close to students, to adopt methods of teaching most suitable for an optimal learning. Professional ethics in teachers is yet another factor that influences the quality in education in the society. Teachers are guardians of students next to their father and mother. Teachers should care for the students just they do for their children and this behavior will help a great deal in fulfilling the objective of education and also avoiding of any unethical practices. Besides these three things government initiatives is another thing that is required in order to get quality in education. The education authorities and government initiatives must ensure that teacher receive a good initial teacher education to prepare them for their work as a teacher. Here comes the role of teachers training institutions. Highly qualified and knowledgeable and quality teachers in the training institutions can produce good and quality teachers ready for shaping future generations. In-service training offered to teachers must be of high quality and not merely routine meetings and conferences as one observes in the present time. Teacher Education: A National Challenge Although defining and measuring teacher quality remains difficult, a growing consensus is developing about some of the characteristics of high-quality teachers. Research studies have found that teachers more effectively teach and improve student achievement if they themselves have strong academic skills (Ehrenberg and Brewer 1994, Ferguson and Ladd 1996, and Hanushek 1996), appropriate formal training in the field in which they teach (Ingersoll 1999), and several years of teaching experience (Murnane and Phillips 1981). In the modern times teachers are expected to perform many different tasks and roles and thus it is believed that substantial improvements and reforms in teacher education are required. So, high quality teacher education for high quality education and training must be part of education policy.

There are six key factors that can bring dramatic changes in the quality of teachers available in the society for training the young minds of the country. Each one of them is discussed in brief below: Quality control and quality enhancement in teacher education Do teachers make a difference? The answer to the basic question is vital to the process of quality control in teacher education. If the influence of the teachers on the learning outcomes of children and youth is negligible in relation to other influences, the need is reduced for effective quality control in teacher preparation, certification, employment and retention. If, on the other hand, schools and teachers are seen as the key influences on the achievement of children and youth, effective quality control in teacher education becomes a matter of critical importance. Our society has reached to such a situation that we are facing shortages in quality teachers nationwide. Use of ICT in Teacher Education "Teacher education institutions may either assume a leadership role in the transformation of education or be left behind in the swirl of rapid technological change" (UNESCO, 2002). Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to enhance access, quality, and effectiveness in education in general and to enable the development of more and better teachers in particular. As computer hardware becomes available to an increasing number of schools, more attention needs to be given to the capacity building of the key transformers, in this process, namely, teachers. ICTs are one of the major contemporary factors shaping the global economy and producing rapid changes in society. They have fundamentally changed the way people learn, communicate, and do business. However, use of ICT as a medium has not yet taken momentum in India. The availability of resources is a major obstacle to the widespread integration of ICTs in education.

There are some policy suggestions for effective ICT teacher education. These include providing training programs for teachers, making ICT a priority, modernizing training and the curricula and mainstreaming ICTs in all subjects. ICT impact both learners and teachers. ICTs in education are not transformative on their own. Transformation requires teachers who can use technology to improve student learning. The professional development of teacher educators in the area of ICT integration is essential. Unless teacher educators model effective use of technology in their own classes, it will not be possible to prepare a new generation of teachers who effectively use the new tools for teaching and learning.

SWOT Analysis of Teaching Practices SWOT analysis is an analytical tool, widely used in strategic and planning management areas, of which S stands strength, W is weakness, O is the chance or opportunity, and T is the threat. It is mainly applied as an instrument in corporate strategy, also adapted to public and private areas of strategic researches. SWOT analysis is a general technique which can be applied across diverse functions and activities. Performing SWOT analysis involves generating and recording the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats relating to a given task. It is customary for the analysis to take account of internal resources and capabilities (strengths and weaknesses) and factors external to the organization (opportunities and threats). SWOT analysis offers several benefits. Research Potential and Teachers Education Teachers obviously, need to be good at teaching, instructing and making presentations, but they also need to have good listening skills to understand the problems a pupil may be having. They need to be able to analyze (for example) the reasons why a potentially bright student is not making progress, to have good writing skills, and be able to plan the next terms work. This means that a teacher should have research bent of mind in order to assess the situation and make decision accordingly. So, the teacher education should also incorporate this in the training curriculum to enable the potential teachers to develop such skills through proper training.

Value Inculcation in Teacher Education Education can be viewed as the transmission of values and accumulated knowledge of the society. In primitive cultures, education was more informal and was of enculturation. With societies growing more complex and also the growing complexity in the knowledge to be passed on, school/college system has come in. In this process, teaching and learning, things out of context have become prevalent. With knowledge explosion, education has been restricted to transmission of filtered knowledge, leaving aside the human values (Sivaswaroop 2004). This has led to preparation of specialists who are poorly connected both to their neighbours and to their surroundings. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1949), Former President of India opined, If society is not to disintegrate into an aggregate of individual specialists, we should endow the youth with a central code of values, transmit to them a cultural heritage. It alone can serve as a cohesive force in a society, which is getting splintered by ones specialization. In the Report submitted to UNESCO by the International Commission on Education for the 21st Century entitled Learning: The Treasure Within, four foundations or pillars of education were reported viz. learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together, and learning to be.

Present education is emphasizing more on first point, little on second point, but almost nil on third and fourth aspects. But in the globalizing society, multi-dimensional capabilities are required. For multi-dimensional or whole development of an individual, it is essential that one should be educated in values also. Value education is education in values and education towards inculcating values. This value inculcation should be part of a shared curriculum rather than an exclusive curriculum (Dave 2001).

Value sensitization has to be learnt, re-learnt and reinforced throughout ones whole lifetime. Unless value learning is made a life- long process, values will not survive and values will not become functional (Dave 2001). Assessment and Accreditation of Teacher education Institutions Accreditation can be described broadly as a peer evaluation process. Institutional accreditation refers to the evaluation of the entire institutions and this is performed by regional accreditating agencies. NAAC in India does this job of evaluation of teacher education institutions. Teaching being a profession and teacher being a professional, the system of assessment and accreditation of teacher education institutions by an independent body such as NAAC is being made an effective instrument for raising of quality of teacher education programmes and for enabling institutions in using their physical and instructional infrastructure optimally and professionally.

Accreditation serves several purposes in the society. Firstly, as a service to the public, it provides guidance about the institutions or program which has attained at least minimal quality according to accreditation standards. Secondly, accreditation fosters institutional self-improvement, through the self study associated with the accreditation process and also it motivates the non-accredited institutions to improve their programs. Thirdly, accreditating agencies set and monitor standards among the training institutions, thus encouraging higher professional quality among students and teachers. Thus, accreditation can have a powerful influence on an institutions ability to attract competent teachers and students. Conclusion High quality teacher education and training can help in establishing a knowledgeable society. It can transform society into dynamic learning system. It can also help in integrating society for the purpose of social cohesion and economic prosperity. Above all, the very objectives of the seminar will be served and taken care of very well if six key factors as discussed above are strictly implemented, followed and monitored.

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