Teacher Quality and Education Policy in India

Understanding the Relationship Between Teacher Education, Teacher Effectiveness, and Student Outcomes

Preeti Kumar, Alexander W. Wiseman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000376050
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Educational Policy

By drawing on quantitative data and qualitative analyses of five major national education policies implemented in India over the last 15 years, this comprehensive volume explores their impact on teacher quality and perceived effectiveness, explaining how this relates to variations in student performance.

Responding to a national agenda to increase the quality of the Indian teacher workforce, Teacher Quality and Education Policy in India critically questions the application of human capital theory to Indian education policy. Chapters provide in-depth and strategically structured analyses of five national policies – including the recently approved National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 – to see how Indian policymakers use teacher quality as a driver and measurement of education and national economic development. Ultimately, the text offers evidence-based policy recommendations to improve teacher quality in India, suggesting that while all five policies have contributed significant frameworks and recommendations for teacher quality reform, they have failed to move beyond a symbolic function.

Given its rigorous methodological approach, this book will be a valuable addition to the under-researched question of education policymaking in postcolonial contexts. It will be an indispensable resource not only for scholars working on policymaking in the Indian context, but also for those working at the intersection of education, teacher development, and policymaking in developing countries.

1 Introduction

The Impact of National Policy on Teacher Quality in India

Decades of research have shown that education has a major role to play in the economic growth of countries (Lin & Yang 2009; Mathew, 1987; Sanders & Barth, 1968). In India, the quality of education is better than most of its neighboring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh (Kingdon, 2007) although lower in comparison to other Asian countries like China and Korea, for example. As these countries have a higher level of economic growth than India, it brought forth the question of the connection between education and economic growth (Kotaskova et al., 2018). Research has repeatedly shown that India’s economic strength and the social well-being of its people are closely linked to its education sector (Goel, 1974; Mukherjee, 2009; Tilak, 2005). Since India’s independence from Britain in 1947, education specifically has been a chief contributing factor to the nation’s development and also a major concern of the Indian government. These concerns and the importance of education in India are, not surprisingly, reflected in its curriculum frameworks and education policies. These frameworks and policies reflect the fact that Indian educational administrators, policymakers, and the general public hold teachers primarily responsible for student learning, and, therefore, the training and professional development of teachers are deeply embedded in India’s national education policies.

Despite the widespread belief that improving education through the development of teacher quality enhances learner performance (Darling-Hammond, 2000, Goldhaber & Anthony, 2003; Seebruck, 2015; Sirat, 2016) policy analysts worldwide have surprisingly little empirical data on which to base this assumption. Even though India’s low-ranking performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2009 has been blamed on poor teacher quality (Chhapia, 2013; Edwards, 2017) there have been few attempts to analyze India’s performance on PISA 2009 on the basis of teacher quality variables. In fact, there is relatively little empirical research on the impact of teacher quality on Indian student performance and the role that national education policy plays in developing teacher quality in India. The relationship between national education policy, teacher quality, and student outcomes is underexplored more broadly as well, but India provides a remarkable test case to examine these connections.

The focus on teachers as part of Indian national education policy is evident in the five key policy developments from the early 21st century. First, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in India made a decision in 2004 to revise the existing National Curriculum Framework (NCF) to improve teacher quality through revamping the existing teacher education with a vision to prepare every child in the country to grow both in India’s fast-changing world and in the global economy (NCERT, 2005). Second, the vision of the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE) 2009, drafted by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), was intended to transform teacher educational institutions into centers of research and practical training to improve teacher education and quality in the country (NCTE, 2009). Third, is the Draft National Education Policy 2016 by the Government of India, which seeks to “address the unfinished agenda relating to the goals and targets set in the previous national policies on education and the current and emerging national development and education sector-related challenges” (GoI MHRD, 2016, p. 6). Next are the Drafts of the National Education Policy 2019 and the Draft of the National Education Policy 2020. By the Government of India that reinforces the importance of quality education in India and provides an India-centric framework for developing the education sector in the country (GoI MHRD, 2019; GoI MHRD, 2020).

Although few in number, previous research studies have established the relationship between teacher quality and student outcomes in India (Azam & Kingdon, 2014; Muralidharan & Sundararaman, 2011; Singh & Sarkar, 2012). Azam and Kingdon’s study (2014) on Indian teacher quality in private schools suggested that teacher quality matters a “great deal” (p. 4) in students’ achievement, and also that within schools teacher quality varies, impacting student scores. Muralidharan & Sundararaman (2011) showed how teacher incentives like performance pay help increase student performance, while Singh and Sarkar (2012) showed how teacher practices in the classroom affect Indian student performance. In each of these studies, teacher quality or factors related to teacher quality are shown to positively influence Indian student achievement.

Additionally, for the first time, two Indian states, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, participated in the international assessment of student performance known as the Programme for International Student Assessment (i.e., PISA) in 2009. The embarrassing results (Chhapia, 2013), where India ranked second to last amongst 73 countries, resulted in India opting out of the 2012 and 2015 cycles of the PISA assessment (OECD, 2010). The 2009 results revealed that not more than 15% of Indian children (15 years of age) who participated in the testing could perform basic mathematics skills. These relatively low performance results were considered by the Indian public and educational community to shed a harsh light on education quality in the country (OECD, 2010).

Furthermore, an article in a leading Indian newspaper, The Times of India, publicized the poor performance on PISA 2009 by stating that an eighth-grade Indian student is at a similar mathematics level to a third-grade South Korean student (Raghavan, 2013). Likewise, this article argued that an eighth-grade Indian student in reading was also, on average, equivalent to a second-grader in Shanghai. Questions among the Indian public and educational community immediately arose following this highly public article related to the quality of Indian teachers, and teachers were blamed for the poor performance of Indian students as a whole (Rao, 2013).

BRICS and the Global Consensus on Teacher Quality

India is one of the original members of the BRICS group. BRICS is an acronym used for the association of five developing economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. These five countries are distinguished from other emerging economies based on their demographic and economic potential to rank among the most influential countries in the 21st century. Due to an understanding of the importance of education for further improving their economies, BRICS countries are active in improving the quality and equity of education in their quest for academic and economic excellence (Shaikh, 2019). Each of the BRICS countries, however, also have country-specific concerns about their education sectors, and what characteristics of their educational systems might be affecting or inhibiting the quality of education nationwide. In Brazil, for example, although education is compulsory for children until the age of 17, most children do not continue on to higher education, thus limiting their chances of acquiring skills for high status, high-earning jobs and labor market productivity overall (Shaikh, 2019).

Other BRICS countries also have concerns about educational quality. For instance, Russia’s education system is criticized for being more accessible to the urban rich. School curricula in Russia is focused on preparing students to get good grades on the centralized exams and is much less focused on authentic student learning and development (Francesconi et al., 2019). In China, the quality of education is geared towards standardized tests and test taking, but Chinese students are often critiqued for not being adequately prepared to face the real world outside of school (Mok, 2016). And, South Africa is lagging behind in numeracy and literacy skills with the apartheid system still impacting education quality (Sayed & Motala, 2019; Shaikh, 2018). Likewise, India is facing issues of inadequate education infrastructure and poor teaching, which critics suggest hampers not only student performance, but also access to education in the first place (Shaikh, 2018).

The BRICS are also confronted with disparities in the quality of schooling at all levels, especially between rural and urban areas and in schools serving poor households (Maiorano & Manor, 2017). BRICS educational policymakers and educators realize that there is a dire need for the provision of quality teaching and learning in literacy and numeracy, supported by ongoing, evidence-based, teacher preparation and professional development (Vos & de Beer, 2018). In fact, this is a concern that is not only prevalent in BRICS countries. There is increasingly global concern and recognition that quality teachers are pivotal to quality education (Azam & Kingdon, 2014; Darling-Hammond, 2000; Hanushek & Rivkin, 2003). Researchers worldwide have repeatedly found that teacher quality impacts student performance (Abe, 2014; Fong-Yee & Normore, 2006; Goldhaber & Anthony, 2003; UNESCO, 2006). In fact, Goldhaber (2016) stated that teachers are the single most important school-related factor in student achievement and, thus, it is not surprising that the idea of teachers having the foremost impact on children’s learning has moved to the forefront of public opinion and national policy, where it remains.

Commenting on teachers occupying a central role in schools as well as in a nation’s education policy, Hanushek and Rivkin (2006, p. 1053) stated, “there is a prima facie case for the concentration on teachers, because they are the largest single budgetary element in schools”. In addition, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) set forth the assertion that among the school variables that are “open to policy influence, teacher quality is the single most influential factor in determining student achievement” (2005, p. 2). Therefore, the role of teachers in student learning is given dominant status in public and policy-related discussions about education and its impact on social, political, and economic development.

The Varying Standards for Teacher Quality

Given the global consensus on the specific importance of teacher quality in influencing the overall quality of education in every national educational system, it is surprising that there is no “standard” definition or measurement of teacher quality (Goe & Stickler, 2008; Mastekaasa, 2011). In fact, attempts to measure or estimate levels of teacher quality often lead to further questions that are neither specifically nor consistently answered. Thus, Goe and Stickler (2008, p. 1) comment:

While many studies attest that some teachers contribute more to their students’ academic growth than other teachers, research has not been very successful at identifying the specific teacher qualifications, characteristics, and practices that are more likely to improve student learning. Unfortunately, this is just the information that education policymakers need the most.

In fact, national educational systems, independent researchers, professional associations, and educators themselves around the world conceptualize and measure teacher quality in a variety of ways. Often, teacher certification and professional development are used as a component to define teacher quality. Wiseman and Al-bakr (2013) presented teacher licensing, or certification, as a “ubiquitous component of national education systems and pre-service teacher education around the world” and that the education systems in the Arabian Gulf states are “actively seeking to measure teacher quality through teacher certificati...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• 1. Introduction: The Impact of National Policy on Teacher Quality in India
• PART I: The Indian Education System and Teacher Quality
• PART II: Examining Indian Education Policies for Teacher Quality
• PART III: Moving Beyond Policies for Indian Teacher Quality
• Index