The AP Private Schools Association (APPSA) expressed its reservations against the directive of the School Education Department asking teachers to take the Training Needs Identification Test (TNIT) to train them in the CCE (Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation) pattern.
Most of the teachers of our schools are already trained in the teaching and evaluation procedure in the CCE pattern, being implemented in our State from the present academic year.
The training sessions were conducted, on the request of the association, by the State-level resource persons during the beginning of this year as also during last year, APPSA president K.S.N. Murthy said.
The teachers have to shell out Rs.300 for the online test. Further, Internet connectivity is not up to the desired level in rural areas. The teachers may have to travel long distances to take the online test.
The private schools are not in a position to spare the teachers for a lengthy training programme at this juncture as it would disturb the academic schedules.
He said even government teachers were opposed to taking the test as they were already qualified in D.S.C. and Teachers’ Recruitment Tests and wondered why they had to take this test again.
Mr. Murthy said private teachers had attended refresher courses organised by the association or the school managements.
The teachers are busy with the schedules of projects, records, notebook verification and other activities and the SA-I examinations are fast approaching.
Further, the academic year will end early by March 2017, according to the academic calendar.
The APPSA secretary, however, said the association was not against the training programme was worried about the disruption of the academic schedule due to the training programme. He appealed to the Commissioner of School Education to arrange a crash course, spanning two to three days, to the private school teachers, without conducting any examination.
The training programme could be conducted through MANA TV as was done in the past.
