DIMAPUR, Nov 10 - Forty-two per cent of around 24,000 government teachers in Nagaland are untrained while 15 per cent of government schools numbering 172 primary and middle schools are being run by single teachers.
This was disclosed by Nagaland Minister for School Education and SCERT Yitachu while addressing a national seminar on �quality teacher education: issues and challenges of two year B.Ed programme� at Meriema campus of Nagaland University. This has been a major stumbling block to provide quality education, Yitachu said.
He also said it would take 10 to 15 years to train up all untrained teachers since the current intake for B.Ed course in the State is less than 1,000 annually. The Minister said it is a serious matter that recruitment of unqualified teachers in Education department has become a source to solve the unemployment issue, compromising the careers of students.
He also lamented that though Right to Education (RTE) Act of the Central Government has improved infrastructures besides upgrading and opening of new schools, the enrolment in 622 schools in the State were below 30 students.
Yitachu also expressed concern that the No Detention Policy has affected the education system in the State, where students get promoted to higher classes despite their dismal performance. In order to tackle the issues, particularly to provide quality education, he said the State Government has taken the initiative to train the untrained teachers, wherein in-service teachers are given B.Ed training.
Despite the need for more institutions to accommodate in-service teachers to be trained, he said the government would not be able to encourage opening of more B.Ed colleges in the State, keeping in mind that institutions would only become commercialised and not focussed on imparting quality training.
Dean, Faculty of Education, SV University, Andhra Pradesh Prof PA Reddy, in his keynote address, maintained that in order to sustain growth and development, quality education was a must and which placed great responsibility at the hands of teachers. He, however, added that the goal could only be achieved with trained teachers.
