Hartog Committee, 1929
During this period, the freedom struggle movement was going through incidents like the Jallianwaala Bagh Massacre and the Khilafat Movement. Hence, the education system did not get much attention. The political situation and societal atmosphere were instrumental in the appointment of a commission headed by Sir Philip Hartog, called Hartog Committee of 1929. This Committee was especially appointed to review the education system.
The commission expressed its deep concern over the poor quality of primary education and the substandard quality of teacher training of primary teachers in the country. It was found that among the existing primary teachers, only twenty-eight per cent had their middle school education and forty-four percent were untrained teachers. The commission suggested the following measure to improve the quality of teachers at the primary level. These were:
- Quality and standard of teacher training should be increased.
- The duration of teacher training course should be more ∙
- Adequate teaching faculty should be appointed in teacher training colleges
- In-service courses, refresher courses and conferences must be arranged for working teachers for professional growth
- Service conditions must be improved to attract and retain teachers in the teaching field
These recommendations brought new dimensional change in the teacher training and quality of teaching in schools. The need of professional course was emphasized by the committee to improve the teaching-learning process in schools. In rural areas, teachers who were aware of the rural culture should only be appointed was another comment of the commission. The level of education was a detrimental factor in duration of the course of teacher-training course. Accordingly, pre-primary and primary teacher training was of two year duration, three years for middle school training and two years for non-graduates in high school training course. The recommendations of Hartog Committee were adopted by the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) in 1943.
The impact of Hartog Committee helped thirteen out of eighteen existing universities to open teacher education departments by 1932 and in the history a new degree named B.Ed. was started by Andhra University and M.Ed. degree was started by Bombay University for the first time in 1936. Similarly, the Spence Training College at Jabalpur started preliminary research activities at B.T level. Hence, the recommendation really provided a new direction in the teacher training sector of the country.