The sad state of teachers' training

IT is bad news that 78 percent of the seats in the 14 government-run teachers' training colleges are lying vacant, as more and more admission seekers now prefer private TT colleges, the number of which has increased manifold in the last few years.
The development is particularly worrying, given the poor standard of teaching at the school level, which is adversely affecting the overall quality of education. The decision makers have identified the acute shortage of good teachers as the prime reason behind the schools performing well below the desired level. The situation has worsened to the point where the efficacy of the entire system of education can be questioned.
The malady has been rightly diagnosed and the remedy is also not unknown. We need to produce well-trained teachers, capable of imparting reasonably good quality education at the primary and secondary levels. And there is little doubt that the teachers' training colleges have to play the pivotal role there. However, things must have gone awfully wrong at some point or the other. Otherwise, why should the government TT colleges fail to attract the prospective teachers?
The presence of rival private institutions specialising in the same field is a demand-driven reality. In fact, these could have ensured healthy competition by breaking the monopoly of public colleges. But the reasons that have been cited for the poor turnout at the government-run colleges speak volumes of the degeneration that has already taken place in this important field. Obviously, we cannot but feel squeamish if enrolment in private colleges increases only because some of them are engaged in the business of selling certificates. It is far from desirable that the future teachers will not undergo a rigorous training programme to improve their skills. The private TT colleges are reported to be too lax in their approach to the issue of imparting the right kind of training to the future teachers.
The education authorities should go beyond complaining that the private colleges are not performing well. If that is true, how could such a great number of private TT colleges get the permission to operate in such an important area of education? The authorities have to make sure that teachers' training does not become a saleable and cheaply available commodity. If the private TT colleges can be made to comply with the rules and regulations, only then we can achieve our target of educating the future educators. Simultaneously, maximum utilisation of space in the government-run colleges will have to be ensured coupled with quality assurance.