Preparing Teachers for the Universalising of Education in India in the 1990s

Abstract

In 1986 the Federal Government in India adopted a National Policy on Education after a decade's debate on how to more effectively universalise elementary education. The preparation of teachers is to be central. New attitudes as well as skills are recognised as having to be developed. Many Indian children attend private schools and many others do not attend school at all. The implementing of the NPE aim to equalise educational opportunity is an immense challenge to teachers, especially when working with the disadvantaged sections in society such as women, the disabled, the lowest caste and the scheduled tribes. This follows since, traditionally, teachers worked with the privileged, highly motivated school‐attenders rather than with the school drop‐outs or the non‐enroilers. Teachers will now be expected to be concerned with the development of both the whole person and the community.