Education players spot training opportunity in teacher shortage

India faces a shortage of 1.2 million teachers, according to the estimates by United Nations’ Children Education Fund, while data from the advisory firm Parthenon Group suggests it needs eight million higher education professionals over the next three years to sustain growth.

This pressing requirement is making players in the education sector introduce and expand opportunities to create a pool of trained professionals.

Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Tiss) and Azim Premji Foundation are collaborating and setting up the Azim Premji School of Education in Hyderabad for producing professionals in the field of education.

S Parasuraman, director, Tiss, said the school, which would start with about 150 students in the first batch, would primarily focus on teacher training to enhance the quality of elementary education, masters in education, bachelors in education, and deal with research policy, pedagogy and research at doctorate levels.

“The aim is to shape thinking on leadership, policy and technology issues, all dealing with education. We will start with 150 students and as we bring in more faculty, the numbers would keep increasing,” said Dileep Ranjekar, CEO of Bangalore-based Azim Premji Foundation, which would provide the financial support to the venture.

Like the School of Education, quite a few other players are also looking training education professionals.

“Right from those working in the pre-school domain to higher education levels in different capacities, training is crucial to bring some quality in our system. Professionals have to acquaint themselves with the latest tools and that can come only through training modules,” said Snehalata Deshmukh, former vice-chancellor of Mumbai University.

Tiss, which currently has about 1,700 students across all disciplines including education, plans to produce about 800-100 students from each of its four campuses in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Guwahati, and Tuljapur (in Maharashtra) in the next six to eight years, said Parasuraman.

“People who will work in education sector as policy makers, teachers, programme planners, etc, all need to develop an ability to set a measurable goal, have a right mindset and ability to involve other stakeholders in their jobs. All these skills can be built through training,” said Garima Gupta Kapila, city director (Mumbai), Teach For India (TFI), a not-for-profit organisation working in education.

Ranjekar said the Azim Premji University in Bangalore, which will be focused on education and development, will start three programmes from this academic year, including masters in education, masters in development and masters in teacher education. “We would be enrolling about 200 students.”

Kapila said TFI is providing 5-week training to young professionals looking at careers in education. “After the training, these professionals get to work as teachers in municipal schools for two years, after which they can become policy makers in education,” she said.

To strengthen education systems at rural and district levels, the Azim Premji University would set up about 600 district institutes and 30 state institutes in the next 15 years across India.