High Court says only teachers who have studied English can teach it

Rajasthan High Court brings about a critical difference in the state's education system by creating a mandate that the teachers should have studied the subject that they are going to teach the kids.

Quite alarming that how the state earlier let teachers teach English or other optional languages or even History to upper primary classes without they having it studied previously or trained in.

This remarkable judgment by Rajasthan High Court has implications for the entire country because just like Rajasthan there are many other states in which teachers are appointed solely on the basis of their performance in Teacher's Entrance Test (TET). Only the people opting to teach either maths or science were specifically required to choose these subjects as options during the exam. However, there was no obligation on the teachers teaching languages or social science subject. Anyone can opt to teach English, Sanskrit or History, Civics without having prior education or training in these subjects.

This bizarre practice was curbed in Punjab and Haryana in 1998 and Jharkhand in 2003. National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) states that to teach in India the person is required to have cleared TET and have some degrees or diplomas. It nowhere mandates the prior knowledge of social science or languages the person intends to teach as a qualification criterion.

Relying on this ambiguity, states have been appointing teachers solely on the criteria of passing TET and not actually seeing if the candidate has the prerequisite knowledge to teach that subject or not.

Thankfully this aberrant tradition wrecking the Indian education system has been shunned. Further, NCTE has also gone a step ahead and had categorically clarified that teachers need to have formally studied the subject during their previous education.