Present Situation of Teacher Training

Teacher training in Nepal does not have a long history. People began to feel that teachers needed training only after modern education started in the country. Knowing a subject well and being able to teach it so that children understand are two different things. The way to explain, the skill of running a class and the ability to understand pupils all come from training.

The very first teacher training in Nepal was the training given in 2004 BS to the teachers of the basic schools started by Rana Prime Minister Padma Shumsher. As the years passed, new training centres opened, older ones were joined together and the way training was delivered kept changing. The sections below meet these centres and programmes one by one, in the order they appeared.

Influenced by the Gandhian education of India, the Rana Prime Minister of the time, Padma Shumsher, set up basic schools in 2003 BS. New schools needed teachers who could teach in them. So, in 2004 BS, the Basic Teacher Training Centre was established at Tahachal in Kathmandu to prepare teachers for these schools.

Teachers at this centre received a training course lasting 10 months. The trainees could live at the centre, because the training came with residential facilities.

After the political change of 2007 BS, the National Education Planning Commission was formed to reshape the country's education. Following the recommendation of its report of 2011 BS, the National Teacher Training Centre (also called the National Teacher Education Centre) was established in 2011 BS. The earlier Basic Teacher Training Centre was converted into this national centre.

This centre gave training of different lengths to two groups of teachers. New teachers received six months of training, while teachers who were already in service received three months.

The College of Education was established on Bhadra 24, 2013 BS, to prepare secondary school teachers, head teachers, education inspectors and education administrators. A Normal School was opened as one branch of this college, and its job was to train teachers.

The Normal School was only in Kathmandu, and teachers from every corner of the country could not all travel there for training. So trainers from the College of Education began going out to different places to train teachers where they were. Because the training travelled to the teachers, it was called the Mobile Normal Training Programme.

Mobile training was useful, but it was not permanent. On the recommendation of the report on the plan for an all-round national education system, 2018 BS, the mobile training centres were turned into permanent Primary Teacher Training Centres. In 2021 BS such centres were set up in different parts of the country.

Teachers in remote mountain and hill areas found it hard to reach distant centres. To train them, Remote Area Teacher Training Centres were established in 2022 BS. This training was run in districts such as these:

• Sankhuwasabha
• Dolakha
• every district of the Karnali zone
• Sindhupalchok
• Rasuwa
• Gorkha
• Manang
• Bajhang
• Bajura
• Darchula
• Okhaldhunga and other districts

After the National Education System Plan of 2028 BS was put into practice, the certificate level of Tribhuvan University was divided into four semesters. A teacher who completed the two semesters of the first year received an A Level training certificate. A teacher who completed all four semesters received a certificate showing that they had passed the certificate level.

At that time there were also teachers who had not passed the SLC but wanted to stay in teaching. The Faculty of Education gave them a 10-month training course, which was called B Level training.

Some teachers could not come to a training centre, because they could not leave their school, the journey was too long, or for other reasons. For such teachers, the trainers went to the place where they worked and trained them there.

A separate programme was also made to bring more women into teaching. The training designed for women already working as teachers, and for women who had passed class 8 and wanted to become teachers, was called Women Teachers' Training.

After the change of 2046 BS, the number of teachers grew sharply, and it was not possible to give every one of them a long 10-month course. So shorter basic teacher trainings were started, with courses of 150 hours, 180 hours and 330 hours. Although it is known as the 150-hour training, it covered these three different lengths.

Many schools in remote areas were being run by only a few teachers, who could not easily leave their school to attend training. To give them a chance to be trained, the Government of Nepal, with the help of the American government, started the Radio Education Teacher Training programme in 2035 BS.

Once the programme was ready, Radio Nepal began broadcasting it on Bhadra 4, 2037 BS. Teachers could now learn by listening to the radio without leaving home. This regular programme was merged into the National Centre for Educational Development in 2050 BS.

Following the recommendation of the National Education Commission report of 2049 BS, the National Centre for Educational Development (NCED) was established in 2050 BS. All the training centres that had been running separately until then were merged into it, so teacher training came under one body. The trainings run under NCED were these:

• Pre-service teacher training
• In-service training
• Special training
• Lower secondary and secondary teacher training
• Management training
• Teacher Professional Development training (TPD)

This training was given at training centres in semesters of five months each. The programme has not been run since 2066 BS.

Teachers in service received a 10-month training in three phases. The long middle phase was run by distance learning so that teachers did not have to stop teaching:

• First phase: 2.5 months, 330 hours of face-to-face classes.
• Second phase: 5 months, 660 hours by distance learning.
• Third phase: 2.5 months, 330 hours face to face again.

Adding the three phases gives 2.5 + 5 + 2.5 = 10 months and 330 + 660 + 330 = 1320 hours. Pre-service training is taken before a person becomes a teacher, while in-service training is taken while a person is already teaching. That is the main difference between the two.

Special training was for teachers who had completed four or five years of service, and for teachers who had finished the 150-hour training but could not go on to further training. They were given 2.5 months of face-to-face training and 180 hours of face-to-face training.

Teachers of the lower secondary and secondary levels are trained in various subjects in three modules: 2.5 months (330 hours), 5 months (660 hours) and 2.5 months (330 hours). The training uses both face-to-face and distance learning methods.

A good school also needs good management. So NCED arranged a one-month management training for head teachers of primary, lower secondary and secondary schools, which are now called basic and secondary schools. It also gave the training they needed to school inspectors, staff and other administrators.

Under the present structure, the work that NCED used to do is carried out by the Centre for Education and Human Resource Development, which comes under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Teacher Professional Development training began when the School Sector Reform Programme was put into practice. It has been continued under the later School Sector Development Programme as well.

One 15-day module is given at an Education Training Centre. The training is run by experts and is built on practice, projects and instruction. For example, a teacher may learn a new way of running group work and then try it out in their own class. Because teachers get the chance to train while staying at their own workplace, this training has proved useful.

Putting the main events in order of year shows how teacher training developed:

Teacher training, which began in 2004 BS, has come a long way, and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology still carries it on today. Such training is needed not only by teachers but also by education administrators.

To make teachers effective, training should use new technology and include modern tools and knowledge. The training given to teachers is an investment in education. So teachers must use the skills and knowledge they gain in training successfully in the classroom, so that this investment is not wasted.