Once touted as a success, PTC colleges lose face, fail the state

In Gujarat, unlike other states, government primary school teachers are trained at Primary Teacher’s Certificate...

In Gujarat, unlike other states, government primary school teachers are trained at Primary Teacher’s Certificate (PTC) colleges, which provide a two-year post-HSC course of study. Once beacons of hope for rural Gujaratis, now PTC colleges have become nightmares featuring episodes of mental, physical and sexual abuse.

The February gang-rape incident in Patan is only the tip of the iceberg. Recently, 70 young women ran away from one PTC college and 23 from another, after allegedly being harassed and tortured by administrators and other officials of the institutions.

Such incidents signal fundamentally flawed policies that underlie the state’s PTC system. The proliferation of self-financed institutions (SFIs), compulsory hostel stays, internal marking systems and legal battles have all contributed to the deterioration of these institutions. “The recent incidents can be pinned down to two things: compulsory hostel stays mandated by the state Government and the large number of people with no background in education who have started PTC colleges,” says D G Gohil, managing trustee of the Vision Education Trust, which runs a PTC college here.

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The present mess in PTC colleges has its roots in a decade-old solution to an education crisis. In 1998, a shortage of 20,000 primary teachers forced the then BJP government to announce the Vidya Sahayak scheme that provided five-year fixed-salary contracts to PTC teachers. Massive recruitment drives made the popularity of PTCs soar. More than 90,000 appointments have been made so far. Eager to capitalise on the surging demand, self-financed PTC colleges opened across Gujarat. By 2008, there were 450 PTC colleges, 134 exclusively for women.

These stories of rape and harassment emerge while the number of available government teaching jobs declines. A senior official from the Education Department says, “In the coming year, not more than 3,000-4,000 teachers will be required.”

Thus, for this year’s 25,000 PTC graduates, the coming years are going to be difficult. As Gohil says, “For these students from the villages, PTC admission means getting appointed as Vidya Sahayaks near their villages, where they will have a steady source of income from the Government and can do some farming as well. Now, they will be forced to look for jobs in private schools in cities and towns.”

The NCTE, which has the power to dis-accredit institutions, is keeping close tabs on the situation in the state. Meanwhile, more and more students will continue to chase a shrinking number of teaching jobs in the state.

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