The fourth edition of Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey, 2016, was launched recently in the Capital. According to the survey, teachers feel that only 55 per cent of the students are actively engaged in learning. Students from Government schools are far less engaged (51 per cent) than those in private schools (67 per cent). Moreover, student engagement is perceived to drop from the school level (61 per cent) to higher education level (50 per cent).
While the teachers (73 per cent) feel that participation in extra-curricular activities has improved in the past five years, they perceive a noticeable decline in students’ values and ethics (42 per cent) and discipline (38 per cent).
In private schools across India, excessive use of personal gadgets by students (27 per cent), lack of parental support (24 per cent) and too much pressure to perform (15 per cent) are identified as top factors for low student engagement. lack of parental support (43 per cent) is a much bigger barrier to student engagement in Government schools, followed by challenges faced by students outside of school/ college (13 per cent) and their past performance (11 per cent).
Only 49 per cent of respondents feel that they receive adequate training to enhance learner engagement levels and inquisitiveness. Adequacy of teacher training is perceived to be much higher among school teachers (70 per cent) than higher education teachers (30 per cent).