With summer holidays approaching, a select mix of knowledgeable educationists, teacher trainers and principals recommend a miscellany of extra-curricular reading for teachers and educators – Summiya Yasmeen In under-appreciated perquisite of the teacher’s job is the long summer break which normatively extends to eight weeks in India. With school summer holidays beginning this month (April), this hiatus offers the country’s overworked 8 million school teachers a great opportunity for extra-curricular reading. It’s an open but seldom discussed truth, that most of our school teachers are notoriously ill-read. Ask any teacher you know what non-prescribed book she is reading currently. The most likely answer is a non-committal mumble. The great majority of them don’t read beyond prescribed textbooks they are hired to teach, and in some cases don’t even read them in entirety, focusing on selected chapters and photocopied notes passed on by their predecessors. But with the gradual shift from traditional rote learning to interactive pedagogies the world over, this teacher knowledge deficit is beginning to show up in classrooms across the country as children score poorly on 21st century skills of creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and problem-solving. “It’s sad but substantially true, that the overwhelming majority of school teachers in India don’t read anything beyond board-prescribed textbooks. There’s a conspicuous deficit of reading for pleasure in school staff rooms, as in most homes across the country. Even in the best private schools equipped with well-stocked libraries, teachers seldom read. This is unfortunate as reading equips teachers with competencies and confidence to go beyond set curriculums and stimulate the creative thinking and innovation capabilities of their students. And most important, a well-read teacher is an excellent role model for her students, encouraging them to develop the reading habit,” says Prof. Geeta Kingdon, chair of education economics and international development at the Institute of Education, University College, London and president of the City Montessori School, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh’s top-ranked co-ed day school in the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2018-19. More than a decade ago in 2007-08, Prof. Kingdon conducted a study titled SchoolTELLS Study — Understanding Teacher Capabilities in rural Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Other than important revelations about teachers’ subject matter knowledge and classroom management capabilities, the study found that less than 5 percent of teachers read non-prescribed books, and even these were religious texts such as the Bhagwad Gita and Ramayana. “Unfortunately, there is widespread apathy among teachers. World Bank surveys of teacher truancy and teachers’ time-on-task indicate high teacher absenteeism of almost 25 percent in government schools, and low time expended on teaching tasks. If public school teachers attend school, assign homework, assess pupils, monitor extra-curricular activities and ensure good learning outcomes, they will also develop the inclination to read to expand their knowledge and horizons and introduce teaching-learning innovations in their classrooms,” says Kingdon. A commonly advanced excuse for school teachers being ill read — especially in rural India — is the conspicuous lack of public and school libraries. According to Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report…
