BENGALURU: Huge concessions on attendance and internship requirements, rampant corruption, part-time teachers passing off as full-time faculty, teacher training without as much as a computer lab, library or laboratory. This is the state of affairs at many private Teacher Educational Institutions (TEIs) in the country, surveyed by the Azim Premji University over two years.
“Many sub-standard, dysfunctional teacher education institutions” are functioning as “commercial shops”, run by those with no stake in education, says the report, ‘Corruption in Private Teacher Education Institutions’, released on Thursday.
The study was conducted in 2019-21 and covered 35 private TEIs across13 districts in five states: Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
The team found that 26 of the TEIs did not have required number of teacher educators and adopted corrupt practices to hide the shortage. Basic curricular requirements are neglected too. Almost all institutions allowed students with shortage of attendance to attend exams. More than 60% allowed students who had not completed their school internships to appear for exams. Average attendance was below 80% at more than 70% of the TEIs.
There are 17,503 TEIs in India with an intake capacity of 18.8 lakh teachers and 92% of these are privately run.
No libraries in 30% TEIs: Study
Four states — UP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu — account for 54% of all TEIs in the country. While 98% of private TEIs offer programmes to prepare elementary and secondary-level teachers, only 1% offer programmes to prepare pre-primary teachers and 7% prepare teacher educators.
The study found that most of these TEIs do not have basic instructional facilities. While more than 50% of the TEIs did not have curriculum laboratories, over 30% did not have libraries, computer laboratories or seminar halls. Many of them did not have dedicated faculty, and forced instructors to pose as full-time faculty during inspection visits, the reort says.
“The dysfunctional teacher education system is at the core of India’s problems in school education. Till we address this comprehensively, all efforts at improving the quality of our schooling is like treating the skin, while an aggressive cancer corrodes the body everywhere inside,” said Anurag Behar, vice-chancellor of Azim Premji University.
The report also points out that less than 13% of teachers from 12,363 TEIs who appeared for the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) held by CBSE in September 2016, an essential qualification to become an elementary school teacher, managed to qualify, showing up the effectivity of such training.
Apart from discrepancies in geographical distribution of TEIs, the report also suggests that there is an oversupply of teachers for some stages of school education and severe undersupply for others. Anecdotal evidence shows that teachers for subjects like mathematics, English and geography are in short supply, the report says.