Teacher Eligibility Test and Teachers’ Quality

Authors

  • Neelam Dalal Paper discusses about the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) in general and its introduction in India particular. With the passing of Right to Education Act, 2009 (RTE, 2009)TET has been introduced arguing that this qualifying test can help in improving the quality of teachers’ right from the recruitment stage for elementary school level. The paper argues that as RTE, 2009 is defined as a fundamental right, thus various sections of it (and their interpretation) puts a significant and important responsibility on State vis-à-vis quality of teacher education. Paper debates that state seems to be fulfilling a little part of its responsibility by merely focusing on TET and leaving the major and fundamentally significant portion which deals with the teacher education programmes and institutions. Paper tries to locate and establish the distinction between measuring and developing/enhancing the teacher quality. It further argues that TET can be one of the tools to measure the quality of aspirants; it will not help in building those skills which indicate ‘quality of a teacher’. Further the paper strongly argues that day –today engagement in the field (during teacher education programmes) prepares a teacher, it refines her skills and quality, hence improvement in teacher education programmes and institutions is the need of the hour. Paper ends with discussing broader patterns of CTET in India and implications of the same.

Keywords:

Teacher Eligibility Tests, Teachers’ Quality, Quality Measurement, Quality Enhancement, Teacher Education

Abstract

Paper discusses about the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) in general and its introduction in India particular. With the passing of Right to Education Act, 2009 (RTE, 2009)TET has been introduced arguing that this qualifying test can help in  improving the quality of teachers’ right from the recruitment stage for elementary school level. The paper argues that as RTE, 2009 is defined as a fundamental right, thus various sections of it (and their interpretation) puts a significant and important responsibility on State vis-à-vis quality of teacher education. Paper debates that state seems to be fulfilling a little part of its responsibility by merely focusing on TET and leaving the major and fundamentally significant portion which deals with the teacher education programmes and institutions. Paper tries to locate and establish the distinction between measuring and developing/enhancing the teacher quality. It further argues that TET can be one of the tools to measure the quality of aspirants; it will not help in building those skills which indicate ‘quality of a teacher’. Further the paper strongly argues that day –today engagement in the field (during teacher education programmes) prepares a teacher, it refines her skills and quality, hence improvement in teacher education programmes and institutions is the need of the hour. Paper ends with discussing broader patterns of CTET in India and implications of the same.

References

Aggarwal, Yash .n.d.Quality Concerns in Primary Education in India -Where is the Problem?. N.U.E.P.A. retrived from http://www.dise.in/Downloads/Reports&Studies/Quality%20Concerns%20in%20Primary%20Education.pdf

Batra, Poonam .2014. Problematising teacher education practice in India: Developing a research agenda, Education as Change, 18:sup1, S5-S18.

Batra, Poonam. 2005. Voice and agency of teachers: A missing link in the National Curriculum Framework. Economic and Political Weekly 1–7 October:4347–4356.

Boyd, Donald J. Grossman, Pamela L. Lankford, Hamilton. Loeb, Susanna. & Wyckoff, James.(2009). Teacher Prepration and Student Achievement.Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 31(4).416-440.

Chaudhari, Abhishek, Panel to monitor first Teachers Eligibility Test, Times of India, 19th November, 2013. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Panel-to-monitor-first-Teachers-Eligibility-Test/articleshow/26003706.cms

Dyer,Caroline. Choksi ,Archana. Awasty , Vinita. Iyer , Uma . Moyade ,Renu. Nigam, Neerja&Purohit, Neetu. 2002. Democratising Teacher Education Research in India, Comparative Education, 38(3), 337-351.

Goldhaber, Dan &Anthony , Emily. 2007. Can Teacher Quality Be Effectively Assessed? National Board Certification as a Signal of Effective Teaching.The Review of Economics and Statistics, 89(1), 134-150

Goldhaber, Dan & Hansen, Michael .2010. Race, Gender, and Teacher Testing: How Informative a Tool Is Teacher Licensure Testing? .American Educational Research Journal.47(1).218-251.

Kaushik, Manu. (2013). Teacher training: A higher standard. Business Today. 6th June, 2013. http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/delhi-university-b.-el.-ed programme/1/190795.html

Kremer, M., Chaudhury, M., Rogers, F.H., Muralidharan, K. & Hammer, J. 2005. Teacher absence in India: A snapshot. Journal of the European Economic Association 3(2–3):658–667.

Ministry of Human Resource Development. (2010). Report of the International Seminar on Pre-Service Elementary Teacher Education.Retrived fromhttp://www.teindia.nic.in/Files/TEVikram/International%20Conference/International_Conf_Issues-Orissa-Oct-2011.pdf

N.C.E.R.T. (2005).Position Paper on National Focus Group on Teacher Education for Curriculum Renewal, New Delhi. Retrived fromhttp://www.teindia.nic.in/js/NATIONAL_FOCUS_GROUP_on_TE_for_curriculum_renewal.pdf

National Research Council. .2001. Testing teacher candidates: The role of licensure tests in improving teacher quality.Committee on Assessment and TeacherQuality.Mitchell, K.J., Robinson, D.Z., Plake, B.S., and Knowles, K.T., editors. Board onTesting and Assessment, Center for Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciencesand Education, Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

NCTE (National Council for Teacher Education). 2009. National curriculum for teacher education: Towards a humane and professional teacher. New Delhi: NCTE

Podgursky, Michael. 2005. Teacher Licensing in U.S. Public Schools: The Case for Simplicity and Flexibility. Peabody Journal of Education.80(3). 15-43

Pratham. 2005. Annual Status of Education Report, Pratham Resource centre, Mumbai. Retrived from

http://www.prathamusa.org/sites/default/files/Aser_2005_Report.pdf

Ramachandran, Vimla. 2005. Teacher motivation in India. New Delhi: Educational Resource Unit.

Siddiqui, Mohd. Akhtar . (2012). Quality Teacher Education: A critique on the role of NCTE. University News. 50(29), 16-22. Online available at http://mohdakhtarsiddiqui.blogspot.in/2012/07/quality-teacher-education-critique-on.html

The Bachelor of Elementary Education ProgrammeReview Report. July 2013. Faculty of Education, University of Delhi.

UNESCO. 2005. Teachers and Educational Quality: Monitoring Global Needs for 2015, Retrived fromhttp://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/teachers06-en.pdf

Downloads

Published

2015-07-31

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 8 (2015): JULY 2015

Section

Articles

License

Copyright Notice

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher. The Editors reserve the right to edit or otherwise alter all contributions, but authors will receive proofs for approval before publication.

Copyrights for articles published in World Scholars journals are retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the journal. The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. It is the author's responsibility to bring an infringement action if so desired by the author.