The Importance of World Teacher’s Day
Today is World Teachers’ Day, a good day to remember those at the frontline of Education — teachers — who play the critical role of advancing the right to education and equipping students with 21st century skills.
Teachers play an important role in a person’s life. They impart values in a person that eventually shape the personality. Teachers lay the foundation of a civilised and progressive society. Their dedicated work, and the pain they encounter to ensure that students turn out to be enlightened citizens deserve high recognition.
More than 100 nations celebrate the World Teachers’ Day globally. As indicated by UNESCO, World Teachers’ Day speaks to a massive token of the mindfulness, comprehension and thankfulness showed for the fundamental commitment that educators make in advancement by teaching. To reach the 2030 Education Goals of universal primary and secondary education, the world needs to recruit almost 69 million new teachers. This ‘teacher gap’ is more pronounced among vulnerable populations, such as girls, children with disabilities, refugee and migrant children, or poor children living in rural or remote areas.
The India gap
Concerted efforts in India over the last few decades have significantly expanded the right to education. According to established statistics, India has now achieved universal primary education, reduced the number of out-of-school children by over 90%, and attained gender parity at both primary and secondary levels.
The Indian Constitution recognizes education as a fundamental human right and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act envisaged under Article 21-A provides for free and compulsory education of all children in the age-group of 6 to 14 years.
Nationally, certain programmes such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan have enabled the country to achieve significant progress in ensuring access to education.
However, can we ensure the right to education if there are not enough qualified teachers? The theme of this year’s World Teachers’ Day — “The right to education means the right to a qualified teacher” — implores us to answer just that.
It is necessary to examine this linkage because around the world, there is an alarming increase in teacher shortages, an expansion in contract teaching, lack of professional development for teachers, and an overall decline in teaching quality. All this ultimately affects the quality of education that students receive.
The quality and access to education is undermined by a teacher deficit. According to Educational Statistics published by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government Elementary schools had a shortfall of around 1 million teachers against a sanctioned strength of 5 million posts, with Jharkhand having the highest percentage of total vacancies (as of 2016).
Added to the challenge of number of teachers, is the issue of quality as reflected in poor student learning outcomes. In India, according to the Annual Status of Education Report conducted by Pratham in 2017, in the 14–18 years age group, only 43% were able to do a simple division correctly, while 25% could not read basic text in their own language.
The education challenges can become more serious when lack of teacher qualifications is combined with classroom overcrowding. According to the latest national data on elementary education in India (2016/17), the national Pupil-Teacher-Ratio for elementary education is 23 with state variations ranging from six in Sikkim to 45 in Bihar.
Investment in teachers is the need of the hour. As we celebrate World Teachers’ Day, let us come together in solidarity to give this relationship the respect and honour it deserves. The right to education also means the right to a qualified teacher.
Ketto & Education
Since its inception, Ketto has been a strong advocate of all students in India receiving high quality, relevant education, especially those whose boundless potential is overlooked and under-tapped. Click on the links below to view crowdfunding projects it has been involved with for gender equality causes. If you feel inspired, you can start your own project with Ketto as well.
Ketto Blog remains committed to inspiring and compelling social change to India’s most pressing problems through the power of great stories and engaging our audiences to take meaningful action.
