The Supreme Court on Thursday (September 3, 2026) emphasised the importance of educating elementary school teachers, saying the development and lives of children, and even the future of the nation, depended on the quality of training given to these educators.
Narasimha, heading a Division Bench, observed. The apex court observed that there was no human resource or value higher than the development of a student’s mind and character. They include the government, the local authority, the neighbourhood school, the parents/guardians, and finally, the teacher.
The top court referred to judicial precedents that five duty-bearers safeguard the fundamental right to elementary education recognised in the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009.
“Though free and compulsory elementary education to all children aged 6 to 14 years has now attained the status of an enforceable fundamental right, we have not bestowed on teacher education the attention that it deserves… The development of a child, for that matter, the life of a child is integrally connected to the role of an elementary school teacher,” Justice P.S. “Therefore, the elementary school teachers have the most important role in nation-building and as such, they have to be treated with utmost respect and care,” the court said ahead of Teachers’ Day celebrations on September 5. Upholding the Council’s move, the apex court said, “we fail to understand as to how a regulatory measure of a statutory body, empowered to achieve planned and coordinated development of teacher education system in the country, could be restrained from calling upon the TEIs to file Performance Appraisal Reports”.
