A delegate speaks at the International Conference on ICT in Teacher Education in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Jai Prakash

The state education department has decided to hire the services of government-owned teachers’ training centres to groom teachers working in government schools.

The decision, taken a day after the state government announced it has approached the World Bank for a loan to impart training to teachers in government schools, aims to ensure improvement in the standard of education in Bihar.

Experts from Nalanda Open University (NOU), State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and Bihar Board of Open Schooling & Examination (BBOSE) will train teachers from government schools at their centres in Patna.

This issue was discussed on the second day of three-day international conference on “Use of information communication and technology and open distance learning in teacher education” at a city hotel on Thursday.

A.K. Pandey, director, research and training (education department), said: “Teachers working in government schools will be provided training by the NOU, SCERT, and BBOSE experts.”

According to sources in the education department, around 40,000 untrained teachers are working in various government schools. They would be provided training in the first phase. Delegates from other states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha, too, raised the problem of untrained teachers in government schools.

Gujarat is one of the few states in country that doesn’t face the problem of untrained teachers. A number of teachers’ training centres, both government and private, are operational in the state. T.S. Joshi, additional director, primary and secondary education, Gujarat government, said: “Since 1992, successive governments have stressed teachers’ training programme and because of their initiatives, more 2,000 teachers’ training centres are functional in the state at present.”

Compared to Gujarat, Bihar has very few teachers’ training centres. Most of such institutions were closed after the 1990s.

The speakers also discussed the huge shortage of teachers in Bihar schools and the falling student-teacher ratio in the state. Most of the schools are run by one or two teachers. As a result, they open for less than 100 days in a year. To meet the norms stated under Right to Education Act (RTE), Bihar needs at least three lakh teachers.