Report

Teachers as Contemporary Education Dialogue

10(2) 293–299
Professionals: © 2013 Education Dialogue Trust
SAGE Publications
Accountable and Los Angeles, London,
New Delhi, Singapore,
Autonomous? Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/0973184913485021
http://ced.sagepub.com

Review of the Report

of the Justice Verma
Commission on Teacher
Education. August 2012.
Department of School
Education and Literacy,
Ministry of Human
Resource Development,
Government of India

Indira Vijaysimha

Concerns about the professional development of teachers have a political

dimension as governments around the world engage in the discourse on
global standards and want to improve the quality of their school educa-
tion. Increasingly, teachers are feeling the pressure of securing high
achievement scores and large-scale assessments of student learning by
external agencies are increasingly used as indicators of teacher quality
and as evidence to argue for improved teacher preparation programmes.
In India, the issue of teacher training was flagged early in the policy
discourse around Indian education, and the Education Commission of

Indira Vijaysimha is Associate Professor at Azim Premji University, Bangalore,

Karnataka, India. Her research interests include Professional development of
science teachers and curriculum development. E-mail: indira@apu.edu.in

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294 Indira Vijaysimha

1966 discussed this subject. Between 1995 and 2000, the number of
teacher education institutes in India increased seven-fold, and much of
this expansion occurred in the private sector. This has led to a sharp
decline in the quality of teacher education programmes, and the recent
report of the high-powered commission on teacher education, constituted
by the Supreme Court, is timely and its recommendations need to be
taken seriously. The members of the commission included eminent edu-
cationists like Goverdhan Mehta, M. Anandakrishnan, R. Govinda,
Mrinal Miri, A.K.S. Sharma and Poonam Batra. The long and consistent
stand on teacher education taken by the members is clearly seen in the
report.
The commission, chaired by Justice J.S. Verma, tabled its report in
August 2012. Subsequently, the Central Advisory Board on Education
(CABE), the highest advisory body to advise the central and state gov-
ernments in the field of education, at its 60th meeting, approved the
recommendations made by the commission. Acknowledging that
teacher education is a subject of great national importance, the com-
mission has underlined the need to establish a national-level academic
body that can continually review teacher education programmes and
look into the development of resources, both human and material,
required to run these programmes. Signing off the report, Justice Verma
writes:

I do hope this report will get the attention due to it because of the Supreme
Court’s intervention in a long overdue exercise of great importance to the
nation’s future: and let me hope, it will not meet the fate of the earlier unim-
plemented Report on Fundamental Duties (1999), which too was at the behest
of the Supreme Court. (Vol. 1, Preface, p. viii)

Amen to that!
The terms of reference for the commission included a consideration
of whether in the context of the provisions of the Right to Education Act,
2009, the procedures and norms laid down by the National Council for
Teacher Education (NCTE) for various teacher education courses are
adequate or in need of review. The commission also considered the need
for reforms in teacher education, reviewed the adequacy of enforcement
of existing norms for teacher education, and assessed the existing prac-
tice of appointment of members of the NCTE. Further, the mandate for

Contemporary Education Dialogue, 10, 2 (2013): 293–299

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Teachers as Professionals 295

the commission also included evolving standards and norms for evaluat-
ing teacher performance. Finally, it reviewed whether the 291 institu-
tions in the western region qualify to be recognised as teacher training
institutions.
The chapters of the report thus deal with the quality of pre-service and
in-service teacher education, teacher performance and teacher audit, the
need for strengthening the regulatory functions of the NCTE, and the
outcome of the review of 291 D.Ed institutions in Maharashtra. Overall,
the report analyses the state of institutional provisions for teacher educa-
tion, the quality of instruction provided in these institutions and the regu-
latory role and function of the NCTE. It has come out with a wide-ranging
set of recommendations, which, if implemented in the intended spirit,
has the potential to have a positive impact on the state of school educa-
tion in the country.
In terms of the institutional structure for teacher education, the report
points out that while the secondary teacher education programmes are
affiliated to universities, the programmes that prepare teachers for ele-
mentary schools and early childhood education are not considered to fall
under the purview of higher education and are organised separately. It is
also the case that the institutions for teacher education are typically iso-
lated from the departments of higher education within the university sys-
tem. The quality of entrants into these institutions, the quality of the
curriculum content, the quality of the teacher educators, and the quality
of the teacher preparation mode are all matters of concern, and have duly
been raised by the Justice Verma Commission report. Further, the report
points to the lack of adequate institutional capacity for the preparation of
teacher educators. There are two aspects to this problem: first, a paucity
of institutions that offer postgraduate programmes in education; and sec-
ond, the inadequacy of the one-year M.Ed programme that is currently
the most common programme for the preparation of teacher educators.
The National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE),
2009 has already highlighted some of the concerns around the M.Ed pro-
gramme, such as its generalist nature and its short duration, and has rec-
ommended that a much more comprehensive, two-year programme be
made the norm. The NCFTE recommends that the two-year M.Ed pro-
gramme provide training and education for specialised streams. The
Justice Verma Commission report reiterates these recommendations. In
order to attract a wide range of talent to the field of teacher education, the

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NCTE should develop broad-based norms for the qualification of teacher

educators. Pointing out that 90 per cent of the teacher education institu-
tions are in the private sector and that 80 per cent of children are in
government schools, the commission recommends that the government
should increase its investment for establishing teacher education institu-
tions and expand the institutional capacity of teacher preparation, espe-
cially in the eastern and north-eastern regions of the country. Additionally,
the commission has recommended that teacher education should be part
of the higher education system and that institutions should be located
along with other higher education departments in a multi- or interdisci-
plinary environment. The duration of teacher education needs to be
increased in keeping with the recommendations of the Education
Commission of 1966.
Regarding the quality of instruction in teacher education programmes,
the Justice Verma Committee finds the situation to be stultified and
largely unchanged over the past half century. Teaching is reduced to a set
of techniques that have to be mechanically applied irrespective of the
subject being taught, the specific circumstances of the students in the
class, and the peculiarities of different school settings. Typically, the
duration of teacher education programmes is too short to allow for ade-
quate engagement with the disciplinary bases of school subjects. The
practice-teaching component in current programmes does not provide
enough time for student teachers to develop as reflective practitioners. A
crucial aspect of teacher education whose importance is given its due
recognition in the report is the development of appropriate attitudes and
dispositions on the part of teachers. Teachers need to be prepared to care
for children and have to be taught to act in accordance with various con-
stitutional provisions. In the typical teacher education programme, stu-
dent teachers don’t have to reflect on the moral, ethical and legal
dimensions of their work. Further, due to the poor quality of instruction,
student teachers are forced to rely on inadequate examination guides to
pass their examinations. The commission does not recommend distance
or blended learning programmes as the mode of delivery for initial
teacher preparation programmes, as these will be inadequate in address-
ing some of the important dimensions of teacher education discussed
earlier. Instead, the commission suggests that these modes should be uti-
lised for delivering programmes of continued professional development
for in-service teachers.

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Teachers as Professionals 297

In connection with the need for continued professional development,

the commission has reviewed the different views on in-service teacher
education. Regarding the view that teachers should be personally respon-
sible for professional development, the report suggests that teachers may
have limited financial resources to invest in further professional devel-
opment. Teachers’ organisations also may not promote continued profes-
sional development of members since they essentially function as trade
unions. Thus, the suggestion is that the state should shoulder the respon-
sibility for this, as any such investment is an investment in children’s
education. The commission makes a welcome recommendation for the
universal provision of in-service teacher education to all categories of
educational personnel working in both government and private schools.
It should be obligatory for all teachers to participate in the in-service
teacher education according to their convenience. In-service teacher
education should also be linked to appropriate professional incentives
for teachers. In order to improve the quality of in-service teacher educa-
tion, the government should create a policy framework and also develop
a National Action Plan for the implementation of the same. This will
entail the strengthening of the existing teacher training institutions that
impart in-service programmes at the elementary and secondary levels.
It is logical to think that in-service programmes for teacher develop-
ment should be based on some form of assessment or appraisal of teacher
performance. The report discusses this aspect and recommends that the
central government, in consultation with the state governments, develop
a framework for the assessment of teacher performance along the guide-
lines suggested by the report.
The NCTE thus needs to play a strong regulatory role in this scenario
by creating a standing committee for the periodic review of the curricu-
lum and of the norms and standards of the teacher education programmes
offered by various institutions. It is recommended that approval should
be given for programmes and courses, and not only for institutions as
such. The NCTE should also work in close coordination and collabora-
tion with state governments, universities, the University Grants
Commission (UGC) and the Distance Education Councils in deciding
the norms and quality parameters concerning teacher education. In order
for the NCTE to function effectively as a regulatory body for teacher
education, the commission recommends that the central government
develop guidelines for the appointment of members to the council. The

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commission also has made detailed recommendations for strengthening

the functioning of the NCTE as the apex body responsible for instituting
timely norms and standards for teacher education across the country.
In conclusion, it can be said that the Justice Verma Commission on
Teacher Education has comprehensively reviewed the various issues and
concerns related to teacher education in the Indian context, and its rec-
ommendations are in keeping with the existing policy framework for the
universalisation of quality education. However, as Justice Verma has
said in the report, such exercises can have the desired effect only after
implementation. Although a host of problems in the current state of
teacher education have been identified, there are no new insights in the
report. The report makes a strong case for the creation of norms and
standards in programmes for the preparation and continued professional
development of teachers. Sthabir Khora in his book Education and
Teacher Professionalism: Study of Teachers and Classroom Processes
(2011) points out that teacher professionalism is situated in a context
characterised by the pull and push of the state, the market, and the com-
munity. As Geoff Whitty writes, ‘There is a struggle among different
stakeholders over the definition of teacher professionalism and profes-
sionality for the twenty-first century’ (Whitty et al., 1998, as cited in
Day, 2007, p. 597). The danger is that in a strongly standards-driven
system, there may be a significant loss of teacher autonomy and conse-
quently teachers may lose their personal motivation to work with chil-
dren. We seem to be moving towards a more instrumental and technical
aspect of professionalism, and the classical notion of autonomy as an
essential part of professionalism is weakening. Interestingly, Professor
A.K.S. Sharma in his note (Vol. III of the report) alludes to the notion of
the teacher as a ‘guru’ and says that there are aspects of pupil care inher-
ent in the notion of ‘guru’ that can be recovered for our times. However,
also inherent in the idea of ‘guru’ is a strong notion of autonomy, but
Professor Sharma does not discuss this in the context of present-day
teacher professionalism. Perhaps the august members of the commission
are addressing the existing situation where professional accountability
needs to be prioritised before autonomy can be achieved, and have wisely
recommended the need to periodically review the norms and standards
of teacher education. Reading the report optimistically, we can hope that
a strong teacher education system will restore faith in our teachers and
pave the way for their professional autonomy.

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References
C. Day (2007). School reform and transitions in teacher professionalism and
identity. In T. Townsend & R.J. Bates (Eds), Handbook of teacher education:
Globalization, standards and professionalism in times of change (pp. 597–
612). Dordrecht: Springer.
Khora, Sthabir (2011). Education and teacher professionalism: Study of teachers
and classroom processes. Jaipur.

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