Improving Teacher Motivation is Key for the Indian Education System...!!!

There are many issues in education system in India, and one of the big ones is the lack of focus on the quality of education. India has been focused on what we call the inputs to the education system – student enrollment rates, building schools, books/meals, providing teachers etc). Although all these inputs are important, India’s focus has to change from inputs, to outputs of its education system – student outcomes, quality of education.

Although the student enrollment rates have signficantly increased in the India in the past decade, the drop out rates, and repetition rates are also very high. Enrollment doesn’t mean attendance, and attendance does not mean that the students are actually learning in school.

Why is Teacher Motivation Low in India: One of the main reasons for the poor quality of education in India is low teacher motivation. There are a few reasons for this:

Low accountability in the system: The education system in India is very centralized, with very poor monitoring ability. The people who have the power are sitting in their office in urban, while the local community in the rural areas who know what the issues are, and have the monitoring capability, have no power or voice. As a result, issues like teacher absenteeism (rates in India are highest in the world) go unnoticed, or unaddressed. In some instances, the teachers have one or two additional jobs on the side, that they attend to while being absent from school.

Poor incentives / salary structure: The teacher unions are powerful in India. Due to the centralized nature of the education system, and because of the power of the teacher unions, the salary structure is such that neither does a teacher get a raise for a good performance, nor does he/she gets fired for poor performance or for being absent in school. The teacher salaries are based on seniority, years of service. Hence, there is no motivation for the teacher for performing better.

Other: Sometimes, poor school infrastructure make the working conditions difficult for teacher to teach under. Also, the teachers are not being paid on time, and lack of student interest/attendance, only add to the lack of motivation for the teachers in India.
What Needs to be Done:
Incentives for Teachers: The teacher salary structure needs to be changed from a seniority-based to performance based. One idea would be given a base salary to teachers, and a bonus based on their performance which can be measured by either their attendance rates, student achievement levels, or both. Also, it is critical that the teachers are paid well and on time.

Better Environment to Work In: It would be for the benefit of both the teachers and the students that government spend money on improving the school infrastructures, books/materials etc. It is important that the school environment is such that the teachers and the students would want to go to school everyday.

Decentralization of the Indian Education System: The local community needs to be empowered with administrative powers, for a better monitoring system. This will need some legislative changes, but it is required. This is the only way to get rid of corrupt government education inspectors, and add some accountability in the education system.
Conclusion: Improving teacher motivation in India will need a mix of the “carrot approach” (incentives) and “stick approach” (accountability). While teachers take a lot of the flak in India and rightfully so (due to high absenteeism rates, and lack of moral accountability), it is important to learn what the real issues are, and tackle the root cause of those issues. Teachers are key to improving the quality of education. And it is vital that while addressing teacher issues in India or elsewhere, we make them a part of the solution and not the problem.
Pritamkabe

Condition of Government Schools in India...!!!

Although India is amongst the ten fastest growing economies in the world, it still has a third of the world’s illiterates. According to global education report of 2004, India’s ranking was 106 out of 127 countries in the education sphere. With 34 per cent of the illiterate population in the world, India has the largest number of illiterates by far – with second placed China at 11 per cent. Sixty years after independence, with 40 per cent of its population under 18 – India is now confronting the perils of its failure to educate its citizens, notably the poor.

India, being a mixed economy, needs government intervention in the area of education because education driven by profit motive cannot benefit the masses. But the condition of government schools in India is pathetic. Except for two or three states, all the Indian states have poor educational statistics. More Indian children are in school than ever before, but the quality of government schools has sunk to spectacularly low levels. The children in these schools come from the poorest of families — those who cannot afford to send away their young to private schools elsewhere, as do most Indian families who have the means.

India has long had a legacy of weak schooling for its young, even as it has promoted high-quality government-financed universities. If in the past, a largely poor and agrarian nation could afford to leave millions of its people illiterate, that is no longer the case. Not only has the high growth ensured that we have a shortage of skilled labor, the nation’s many new roads, phones and television sets have also fueled new ambitions for economic advancement among its people — and new expectations for schools to help them achieve it.

Even though many children attend schools, they remain ill-equipped. A survey in 2007which was conducted across 16,000 villages, found that while many more children were sitting in class, vast numbers of them could not read, write or perform basic arithmetic, to say nothing of those who were not in school at all.

The attitude of the concerned authorities towards the plight of children is callous, indifferent and inhumane and the authorities seem to have lost all sense of responsibility and duty towards the lakhs of children.

There are many reasons for the failure. First of all, there is an acute shortage of teachers. Children often don’t get a support from their parents. Parents seem to be indifferent to their child’s learning and only see them as additional hands for work. There is also longstanding neglect, insufficient public financing and accountability, and a lack of motivation among some teachers to pay special attention to poor children from lower castes. Even basic amenities like water and electricity are not being provided.

There is a need for urgency. Education levels need to be improved. India with the second largest population in the world cannot develop with such a bad indicator. Furthermore, illiteracy leads to other problems such as poverty and unemployment. To start with, we need to learn from Indian states like Himachal Pradesh and Kerela who have almost universal literacy rate. Attitude of people there is very different from those in other regions. People are aware of the massive benefits and the government invests huge amounts to educate people. We personally should contribute by taking a task of teaching atleast one child either through an NGO or at home. Awareness needs to be generated and the state of government schools needs to be improved. Proper incentives should be given to teachers and public expenditure should be increased for education.

Aparna Vyas