Indian Education Commission (1882-83)
The commission known as Indian Education Commission or Hunter Commission was appointed by Lord Rippon and Sir William Hunter to study the education system prevailing in the country submitted their report in 1882. The commission emphasized the need to open more normal schools to train teachers. They suggested opening at least one normal school under a divisional inspector. The pattern of curriculum followed by the institutions was different from each other. The commission had given freedom to provinces to select their own syllabus and curriculum that suited their situation and need.
Apart from pedagogical theory, practical classes were organized as part of teacher training. Physical sciences and their relation to medicine, agriculture, and book keeping, were some of the subjects taught apart from theoretical subjects. The commission suggested opening training centers separately for elementary and secondary school teachers. They also emphasized that the subjects to be taught for secondary school teachers should be rich in content than the courses for elementary teacher training. They suggested that teacher training at secondary level should conduct practice teaching to make the students aware about practical situations of real teaching.
The recommendations of Hunter Commission expanded the scope of teacher training institutions in modern India and as a result, teacher training colleges were set up at Allahabad, Lahore, Madras, Kurseong and Rajamundry. Out of these colleges, the colleges at Madras and Rajamundry were created by upgrading the normal schools. The college at Madras was set up exclusively for teacher training programmes of secondary school teachers. By the end of the 19th century, some essential things in teacher training had been established. Pedagogical courses had replaced general education, examinations and certificates in teacher training had been instituted and practical aspects in planning and teaching were emphasized.
At the start of twentieth century, more and more teacher training schools opened in the country. The admission criteria, duration of the course varied fromplace to place. For example, teacher training course at Jabalpur College was for two years but in other places, it was of one year. Teacher training programme at elementary level had two year duration in Uttar Pradesh while four years in Assam.
In Madras and Bengal, training centers were set up exclusively for training teachers of elementary and secondary level. College at Madras and Bengal concentrated on content-cum-professional course pattern of teacher training. The normal school started converting to training centers for teacher courses. The ownership of teacher centers were distributed even to private parties and hence, the end of nineteenth century is marked by the emergence of teacher training organizations under private sector.
The beginning of twentieth century is marked by the remarkable contribution of the then Viceroy Lord Curzon, who took keen interest in the development of education and teacher education in the country. He appointed a commission to enquire about the working pattern of the universities of the country, standard of education provided by the universities and so on. As a result, the commission came up with Universities Bill in 1903 and suggested possible solution to improve the quality of teaching at the university level.
In 1904, government resolution on educational policy was published. The educational policies of Lord Curzon emphasized the need of teacher training in the country. It recommended to complete the training of teachers in the ‘art of teaching’, a prerequisite to improve the quality of teaching. The commission suggested setting up of practicing schools near the training colleges for conducting practice teaching as part of the training to develop behavioural skills in practical situations. It believed that the theory and practical component of teacher training courses should be properly linked to bridge the gap between theory and practical situations of real classroomatmosphere. It also suggested to provide one year teaching training programme for graduates and two-year training for undergraduate leading to University degree in teacher training.
The recommendations of Lord Curzon showed the way to open more schools and teacher training institutions and practicing school were attached to these training centers. By 1907, universities started awarding teaching degrees, except Bombay University and UP. Bengal awarded L.T Degree and Punjab awarded B.T Degree in Teaching. In 1913, the Government of India published another resolution with major suggestion as ‘no teacher will be allowed to teach without a certificate in teaching’, which again emphasized the need for teacher training in the country. The resolution suggested that teachers should have passed the middle vernacular examination and undergone a year’s training. It suggested periodical repetition and improvement of courses for teachers. As a result of this recommendation, more training colleges were set up but it failed to implement some of the recommendation due to the onset of World War I in 1914.