Teacher Education scenerio in Assam: A brief note from Zahangir Khan

Education is a decisive and a complex activity. Teacher education is perhaps more decisive and complex because it calls forth a series of promises to be fulfilled and poignancy to be translated in action well planned in and through contemplation. What one indeed expects from teacher education at the very outset is: Is it prepared from diverse and different perspectives of training and education of pre-service and in service teachers? At the same time it is equipped with realy qualified and devoted teacher educators who are in a very sound position of discharging their duties and responsibilities in boosting teacher preparation and teacher competency..Admittedly, as are the teachers so are institutions. An institution may have a very adequate and enviable infrastructure: buildings, playground, classroom, libraries and other facilities; but if there is an absence of minimum number of efficient, qualified, hard working devoted and sincere teachers, the whole purpose of education and teaching is terribly defeated. As there are lots of individual differences as well as similarities amongst learners in an academic institution from the psychological points of view. A good teacher knows how to deal with this heterogeneous class room climate. Necessarily, he/she is expected to stick to the golden principle of individualizing the instruction and teaching in judicious concurrence with and devotion to socializing the learners as best as possible. The greatest challenge of teacher education today is how to orient and train our teachers so that they may be justified to teaching or a grant unison of individualization without sacrificing quality and excellence in teaching learning under any circumstances whatsoever.

"The revelation of perfect child" as Rabindranath Tagore reminds us in his civilisation and progress, in order to creat the right atmosphere of joy freedom and creativity is the primary and mandatory need of the hour. Thinking, feeling, involving, having and loving are the five genuine and penetrating pointers and advancement in quality teaching. A radacal paradigmshift in teacher educationkeeping in view spontaneity, happyness, introspection and adventure in quest of the unknown and untraced, unearthed and undiscovered very transparent in vibrant, conjoint andteaching learning can no longer be stifled and relegated to the background by stuffing the learner with lifeless information and substandard dradgeries of details.
At the same time, teacher education is now at the critical juncture of eliminating excessive depends on memory-banks and crude craziness with computer fallouts. Let passivity in learning be eliminated and substantially replace by the fine tunings in teacher education that cares for sense and sensibilities, aesthetics and in-depth queries. Education is not a physical thing that can be delivered through post. Fertile the robust education is always created, rooted on physical and cultural soil of the child and nourished through interaction with parents, teachers, fellow students and community. The role and dignity of teachers in this function must be strengthened and underlined. There is mutuality in genuine construction of knowledge. In this transaction the teacher also learns if the child is not forced to remain passive. Since children really perceive and observe more than grownups, their potential role as knowledge creatores needs to be appreciated.
Admittedly, teacher education in the twenty first century looks forward to revamping in seven fold direction:(i)mapping the vulnerable areas of quality in teaching (ii) Restructuring the curriculum for school education (iii) revisiting and improving text-books and teaching learning materials (iv) individualising instruction for all round efflorescence of pupil-personality. (v) sensitizing the opposite approach for strengthening and mobilising social and aesthetic value (vi) caring and igniting pupils' creativity and critical thinking and (vii) exploring and fine-tuning the heartland of little learners with opposite and challenging strategies of teaching from time to time even under trying and unfavourable circumstances.
Let the teacher education be all the time spear headed by the education of nearness cordeality and sympathy for the learners under countless constraints in particular.
Pre-service teacher educaion holds a very prominent place in the area of education in general and teacher education in particular. That all education is pre-service education gives a very wrong signal in teacher education. It averts and, to a great extent, negates the very aims and objectives of teaching as a profession because it allows stagnation for the whole period of unemployment or the absence of recruitment and involvement in the profession of teaching.
Teacher education for in service teacher at the different stages of school education necessitates a fresh and through over-hauling. For this purpose the following points may be considered:
(i) Elimination of poverty in contant mastery and appropriate exercise thereof.
(ii) Regular systematic orientation in methods of teaching.
(iii) Exchange programmes for teacher with a view to ensuring quality and excellence in vulnerable institutions.
(iv) Special programme for proficiency in teaching for aesthetic and creative efflorescence.
(v) Pckage programme for teachers dealing with crucial and priority based issues and ideas on national and society solidarity.
(vi) Involement of teachers in scissoring heavy loads of learning and teaching.
(vii) Departure and dissociation from the existing pattern of training of pre-service and inservice teachers together as it calls forth constraints in desirable maintenance of quality and balance in teaching besides inviting unavoidable complex and delicacies.
(viii)fostering the spirit of improving the quality of teaching through igniting the importance of life long learning by appropriately manipulating the skills well formulated in terms of self-study and self experiments.
(ix) Steering the teachers attention towards right ideas, right concepts, right interpretation, right comprehension and right strategies whatsoever insignificant or marginal these might appear.
(x) The padagogic delebarations ought to be in perfect tune with learners abilities, proneness and contextual appeal in addition to the teachers 'own' models of imparting instruction well scanned under training schedule of acticities in diverse socio-cultural climate.
For the very dependable and sound programme of professional enrichment of teachers, the first andand formost ideas target area is to be well trained in how to learn the motivation maps and spurts of students and decide introducing teaching strategies accordingly. The end view therefore, is to launch vigorous and sustained teacher education progrmmes for committed and proficient teachers with all-encompassing evidence of enlivening competency and assured ascent of progress in different dimensions.
The teacher education for in service teachers poses an unphill task of evolutionary, diversifying and extending living visions of education for the enlightened all care should be taken to maintain a healthy climate of co-ordantion among the diferent stokeholders of training teachers education viz mossinary and private institution open universities and university department of education including advanced study centres in education and colleges under universities.