A Joint Open House Discussion was held by the Department of Educational Studies, Central University of Jammu (CUJ) and NCTE to discuss the National Education Policy (NEP) -2020 and the National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST).
As part of the programme, education experts across the country were invited to review and discuss the draft document on the NPST and to devise methods for its implementation.
The open house began with opening remarks by Professor Rama Maikhuri, Dean, and Professor R.C. Bhatt, Pro-Vice-Chancellor. The keynote speaker—Professor Annpurna Nautiyal, the Chancellor was a distinguished guest from Osmania University, Hyderabad.
Mr Rishabh Khanna, (Co-Founder and CEO, Suraasa), took charge of the technical session. Mr Rishabh presented the NPST document and its details defining the teacher skill requirements and teacher career progression for all teachers in India. During the presentation, he said,
“NPST places teachers at the centre of the education sector. We are saying that if teachers can grow, if teachers can progress, only then education systems will progress–that is what NPST is talking about and that is what has been the core of the entire NPST document. It is structured in a way that teachers can have continuous growth”
Moving ahead, there would be a pathway for teachers to grow fast and reach wherever they want to reach in their careers. The document covers three major areas
NPST led by NCTE hence becomes one formal document that covers teacher preparation, teacher recruitment, teacher skills, teacher appraisal as well as teacher promotion - everything in one.
The document outlines four areas of schooling, starting with the foundational stage, moving on to the preparatory stage, towards the middle stage, and finally the secondary stage. NPST document says that a teacher who joins any particular teaching level can stay and grow at that level without having the need to move to a different teaching level for their career progression. Speaking of which, Rishabh said,
“Teachers would be given continuous professional development opportunities with external accredited agencies and bodies. We want to move completely away from hours long continuous professional development sessions. We're talking about having focused professional development activities so that a beginner teacher can then move to become a proficient teacher, a professional teacher can become an expert teacher, and then finally an expert teacher can become a lead teacher.”
NPST identifies global skill requirements for an Indian teacher to become a global educator. The document states all of those requisite skills and put them under four areas - Core Values, Ethics, Professional Knowledge, and Competence. Keeping in mind the integration of technology, the document provides for a blended and flipped form of learning. The document assures that appropriate learning goals and outcomes are set using a curriculum framework and as a teacher grows and moves towards career progression, they should be able to set high expectations and develop challenging, yet achievable goals and outcomes for the classroom.
Moving forward, a teacher should take their competence to the next level. With the aid of NPST, teaching professionals would not be stuck in one place but grow continuously. Teachers would need to make our education system a global system & become a global workforce--so that India can truly be the global supplier of the best educators.
Bringing out critical reflections and recommendations with the vision of presenting India as a world-class source of qualified teaching professionals, the esteemed panel of the open house outlined their vision for the upcoming NCTE document.
