In order to improve the standard of education in the state, and to impart skill development to the teachers, the Punjab government is all set to create a separate team called ‘Teacher Educators’ for providing training to the teachers.
The policies and rules have been already laid down, for which the official notification will be released soon. Currently, there are no professional educators, for now, to be termed as ‘Teacher educators’, due to lack of specialized trainers providing pre-service and in-service training to over 1 lakh teachers of different subjects working in around 20,000 government schools.
Looking at the current situation of underqualified and untrained teachers, the Education Department observed teachers who belong to State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) being employed with little or no training, and their transfer would not provide any solutions, instead create problems for them to adjust and so for the students.
Once the scheme for training teachers starts to function, only qualified teachers will be hired as per the norms laid down by National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) for being the teacher educators, and the ones currently working with SCERT and DIET will be provided time for continuing education and complete it.
Establishing this team will help the department to obtain academically qualified teachers which will eventually improve the standard of education.
Speaking of the importance of the team being created, Punjab’s Education Minister O P Jain said ” The training of teachers is a major area of concern for us. Separate cadre will help the government in addressing the issues.”
Adding to that point, Washington Singh, general secretary of master cadre says, “Creation of a separate cadre of the educator was a much-needed step. All the posts in the new cadre should be filled through direct recruitment.