Days before Teachers’ Day, the teaching community has collectively voiced their opinion on the current engagement level of Indian students and also identified the critical enablers to enhance student engagement through the fourth edition of Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey, 2016. In Madhya Pradesh, teachers feel that 47 per cent students are not actively engaged in learning.
The survey carries significant insights from teachers that can contribute towards the larger vision of the Government of India towards ensuring quality inclusive learning and improving the learner outcomes in India.
The Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey 2016 was conducted across the country in July-August 2016. In Madhya Pradesh, it covered 20 cities – Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Ujjain, Jabalpur, Anuppur, Betul, Burhanpur, Guna, Katri, Khargone, Manawar, Mandleshwar, Mandsaur, Ratlam, Rewa, Sagar, Satna, Sehore and Vidisha.
National findings show that teachers feel that only 55 per cent of the students are actively engaged in learning. The survey highlights the significant variation in student engagement–by institution, level and States. Teachers opine that students from government schools are far less engaged (51 per cent) than those in private schools (67 per cent). Further, 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).
The teachers (29 per cent) feel that excessive use of personal gadgets by students and lack of parental support (12 per cent) are the key deterrents to student engagement. The survey included 12 key inhibitors to engagement.
Particularly, 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).