This framework will facilitate the selection of quality teachers at the entry level — or beginner teachers. It emphasises competencies and skills as selection criteria through multi-level selection process for holistic assessment of candidates. The focus is on beginner teachers as we believe that concentrating on quality standards at entry level will ensure a gradual improvement in the pool of teachers in the system.

Background and Context

The quality of learning to a large extent depends on the quality of teachers. Vegas and Ganimian’s study (2011) on teacher policies states that recent research in India and across the globe on​‘quality and learning’ has shown that teacher effectiveness is​“the most important school-based predictor of student learning and that several consecutive years of outstanding teaching can offset the learning deficits of disadvantaged students…” (as cited in Ramachandra, Beteille, Linden, Dey, Goyal, & Chatterjee, 2015). 

The annual learning assessment surveys of Pratham India (ASER Survey), large scale surveys executed by National Achievement Survey (NAS), State Achievement Survey (SAS) and the Educational Initiatives (EI), the periodic surveys conducted by Azim Premji Foundation on learning levels of children tell us in different ways that all is not well with what our children are able to learn in our education system. Hiring more teachers may not solve the learning problem. The need of the hour is to hire teachers who not only fulfill the qualification criteria but also fulfill the basic skills and competency criteria. The quality of teachers greatly depends on the means deployed for selection, procedures used for training, and the strategies adopted for recruitment.