Improving Quality of Education by Empowering Teachers

Improving Quality of Education by Empowering Teachers

Teachers are an essential part of our education system but are the ones who are most burdened with admin work, large class load and portion completion; least supported, they do not have any back-up, are exposed to low flexibility, and have minimal resources. Most importantly, they are the least celebrated and get low salaries.

Govt of Maharashtra spends almost Rs 60 thousand crore per annum on education. But still, government schools suffer from a low image.

Stories of Teachers:

Here are the stories of two teachers who couldn't give their best in the classroom because of unrelated work.

Manisha madam is a teacher in a govt school. She faces many challenges in delivering primary education.

Overdose of teaching programs

multiple stakeholders, Multiple programs & reporting – Amrit Mahotsav, PM Birthday, Tree plantation, contests etc.., Multiple visitors

Work Unrelated to teaching

Aadhar card, Caste Certificate for students, Maintaining Voter list, Panchnama, Support community events, Book distribution etc.

Stories of Teachers

Admin and Paperwork

Mid-day meal, Book and uniform distribution, Infrastructure, Social categories of students, Attendance allowance etc.; the same data was asked for many times, differently - then audited; Data was asked for multiple years - sometimes through the system & sometimes on paper.

Lack of Focus → Leads to → Lack of Motivation

Isolated and burdened - Teachers are the fall guys; Loses in student

enrolments are blamed on teachers. There are very high expectations;

teachers are expected to have high skills and moral values and be role models for students. There is a minimal upside.

Saima madam is a teacher in a low-income school in

Mumbai slums. The challenges teacher face here is very different.

Reluctant Teacher

Salaries are very low, Rs 8-15 the pm. Girls are not allowed to travel for work. No, leave policy. Who wants to be a teacher?

Overworked

A large number of classes + doubling up for absentee teachers/ shortfall; 70+ students in a class. Exams, Fees Collection, Book distribution, Sports day, calling parents, Door to Door survey for admission etc.

Undertrained

Most teachers are graduates with no teacher training. It is challenging to find experienced/ trained teachers in the community.

-Under-resourced Environment + Lack of Motivation

-Poorly paid and burdened with work- it takes work to carry your motivation daily.

Challenges faced by teachers

Challenges-faced-by-teachers

Despite the hype about technology advancements, AI/VR, policy decisions in NEP 2020 and other initiatives, challenges continue to exist for Manisha madam and others-

Discouraged Community

  • Lac of empowerment to maintain a consistent teaching schedule
  • Perpetual distraction with unrelated tasks.
  • Low Learning outcomes amongst pupils - blamed on teachers.

Deficient Infra/ Low resources

  • Large and ad hoc admin and paperwork
  • Limited data is available on programs and their efficacy for driving improvements.
  • Lack of IT systems with a holistic approach.

Fragile government support

  • Lack of well-articulated framework - to restrict ad hoc programs, visits, and un-related tasks
  • Limited avenues for recognition and awards for teachers at various levels – school, cluster, block district, state and nation.

tickLinks to the aid

There are many such cases where teachers have to put their efforts and time into irrelevant things; thus, their focus on student development is sometimes lowered. We are changing this scenario with the help of the Vinoba app, which encourages teachers, supports them, and strives to increase teacher engagement. To get ready for a 35-minute class, a lot of planning and work is required of the teachers. To give students a positive learning experience, a variety of content is needed, including lesson plans, worksheets, case studies, films, and experiments. To make the learning relevant, it must be integrated with the local context as well as the current context. It must provide material for both students who are ahead of the class and those who are falling behind. The teacher must use some of the material, while other portions must be distributed to the students as assignments or PowerPoint presentations.

For Board of Secondary Education Class 1–10th, tickLinks contains over 9,500 excellent lesson plans for teachers that span Math, EVS, Science, and SST. Using the NCERT recommendations, tickLinks offers lesson plans for the Central Board of Secondary Education. There is a Hindi version of these plans as well. With a coordinated educational program and resources, tickLinks assists teachers in providing students with explicit learning objectives. Their preparation time for the class is cut down, and the lessons are more effective. We concentrate on meeting the teacher's needs by speeding up class preparation and enhancing learning.

Stories of Teachers
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