Select Primary teachers like IAS officers - Kalam

Updated on: Wednesday, July 08, 2009

New Delhi: In India, primary school teachers should be selected the way civil service officers are to ensure that they are qualified and equipped to groom young children, former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said on Tuesday.

Kalam was speaking on Capacity Building in Young Minds for the Central Institute for Educational Technology (CIET) lecture series at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi.

'Like an (Indian Administrative Service) IAS fellow has to go through a preliminary exam, then a main exam and then an interview. Primary school teacher will have to go through similar process,' Kalam said.

In his jovial style, the former president also emphasized the need for a better system of evaluation for students.

Asked if the class 10-board examination, which the HRD ministry has proposed to make optional, put undue pressure on students, he told sources 'I believe teachers can play very important role in this and also the curriculum (matters). For example, I am concerned with primary education? Nobody has to take students to the schools, they rush to the schools.'

This, he explained, was because of a more relaxed environment, where students were allowed to be creative, take part in art, painting and not feel pressured by teachers.

He said: 'Unless teachers take initiative and don't inculcate the natural endowment of children to be bold and different from one another - something will continue to lack in our system.'

'Via the national curriculum 2005, we have tried to cease the current Darwanian system. Teachers and education department officials should commit to the child rather than the system,

Select Primary teachers like IAS officers - Kalam

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