HYDERABAD: Only 50 teachers from the state have registered themselves with National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) after the nodal agency opened the registration facility for unqualified and untrained in service teachers a fortnight ago. While officials are certain that the number of registrations will increase in the coming days, many in the teaching community already feel the government diktat is impractical. “The process has just begun and the number will increase. All DEOs and MEOs have informed schools and the target is to achieve 100 per cent registration. Committees of MEOs have also been formed to scrutinise each application.
Most applicants will be uploaded between September 7 and 14,” said Anil Kumar, regional director of NIOS. He clarified that the registration was low as schools can only enrol their teachers. Telangana has over 4,051 untrained teachers who need to be registered by September 15 and then get trained within two years to be able to continue teaching. Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Medchal together account for 1,032 untrained teachers. Hyderabad tops the list with 582 untrained teachers followed by Nizamabad and Nirmal with 483 and 371 respectively. According to MHRD, pan India 5-6 lakh private schools teachers and 2.5 lakh government school teachers do not have the requisite degrees. In Telangana, surprisingly, all government school teachers are trained.
Under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, these teachers will now get time till 2019 to acquire the prescribed minimum qualifications for firming up their appointments as Parliament passed a bill in this regard recently. The untrained teachers need to acquire B.El.Ed (Bachelor of Elementary Education) or D.El.Ed. (Diploma in Elementary Education) qualifications to hold their jobs as teachers. The deadline has been set as March 31, 2019. Though only 17 months are remaining, the duration of D.Ed or B.Ed courses is two years. “In Telangana, nearly 1.8 lakh teachers in private schools are untrained as per an estimation. With only 17 months left, when will their training begin?
More importantly, why will any untrained teacher go for training when there is a fear that they could possibly lose their current jobs,” questioned Nagati Narayana, an education activist. Untrained teachers in private schools are a worried lot. Such schools have a reputation of hiring even graduates at paltry pays to cut costs. Often freshers too, while looking for jobs, join schools and earn up to `5,000-`8,000 per month. Shalini Sharma, who holds a BA degree, has been teaching kindergarten students at a school in Shaikpet for the past three years is worried about her job.
“Till now there has been no word from my school. I am worried that they might dismiss me. In our schools, only teachers who teach in classes 6 and above have B.Ed degrees rest all are post graduates and few like me even graduates,” she said. Meanwhile, NIOS officials have reiterated that any teacher who does not complete the training will be barred from teaching in schools from April 1, 2019. Kumar said that as the training is a non-vocational one to be undertaken either by open or distant mode, teachers would continue to teach during the period.