May 2010 Dialogue

Panel Discussion on Teachers and Para-teachers: Professionalism and Performance

STUDENT FIRST! Dialogue Series on Quality Education for All
Regular teachers are being replaced by para-teachers in many government schools in India since late 1990s. Para-teachers are paid around a fourth of the salary of regular teachers. Most have graduate degrees but no formal teacher training. Research shows that they perform as well as their counterparts and are about three times more cost effective than regular teachers (EPW March 20, 2010). The Right to Education Act, if implemented, will rule out para-teachers as schools must only have professional and permanent teachers by 2015. On the other hand, India needs 10 lakh teachers to fill the vacancies and get pupil - teacher ratio down to 30:1. *Who will replace para-teachers?* *Is excluding them the only option?* *How can teachers be made accountable?* *What can be done to meet the demand for teachers?*
School Choice Campaign and India Habitat Centre invites you to an open forum discussion on Teachers and Para-teachers: Professionalism and Performance
SPEAKERS: Ram Pal Singh, President, All India Primary Teachers' Federation Sudhanshu Shekhar Patra, Ph.D Scholar, National University of Educational Planning and Administration
Wednesday, 5 May 2010 \| 6 - 8 PM Casuarina Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India
About the School Choice Campaign School Choice Campaign (SCC) advocates policy reform ideas to improve quality and access to education especially for the poor. STUDENT FIRST! Dialogue Series on Quality Education for All is a monthly forum for debate in collaboration with India Habitat Centre by the nation’s foremost experts on national education policies and solutions to problems of quality in the education sector.

	To confirm participation: Email: [email protected] Mobile: +91-9953059097 www.schoolchoice.in

An open forum discussion on Teachers and Para-teachers: Professionalism and Performance was organised on 5 May 2010 at the India Habitat Centre. The panelists of the evening were Mr Ram Pal Singh, President, All India Primary Teachers' Federation (AIPTF), Mr Ajit Singh, Director, Professional Development Projects, AIPTF and Mr Sudhanshu Shekhar Patra, Ph.D Scholar, National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NEUPA). Moderating the program was Mr Jan SJ Rao, Associate Director, School Choice Campaign.

Mr Ajit Singh stated that the efficiency of para teachers starts to decline over time as their motivation levels decrease tremendously. They are paid much lower salaries than regular teachers and denied other benefits and are exploited despite performing if not more, equally as their counterparts. He recommended that para teachers be regularised and the practice of recruiting them be stopped. Mr Sudhanshu Patra from NUEPA brought invaluable insights from his field study in Orissa. He highlighted the need to improve teacher training programs and the necessity to provide performance based incentives to motivate teachers.

The open forum brought to light critical issues of cultural sensitivities of para-teachers, their cost-effectiveness and role within the RTE landscape.