International Journal of All Research Education and Scientific Methods (IJARESM), ISSN: 2455-6211 Volume 9, Issue 3, March -2021, Impact Factor: 7.429, Available online at: www.ijaresm.com IJARESM Publication, India >>>> www.ijaresm.com Page 249 The Quest for Quality Education: an Analysis of Professional Qualification of Teachers in Schools of Basanti Block, Indian Sundarban Delta Sneha Ghosh 1 , Tuhin Ghosh 2 1 Ph.D. Research Scholar, School of Oceanographic Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India 2 Professor &Director, School of Oceanographic Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India -------------------------------------------------------------------*****************---------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT Education is a tool to reshape cognitive development of learner and quality is an assimilated part of education. The concept of Quality in Education started to modify and re-establish after World Conference on Education for All scheduled in Jomiten, Thailand on 1990.After ten years of it,World Education Forum held on 2000 in Dakar reshaped the prolonged the concept of quality education. This concept is conceptualized as Input-Process- Output model by some researchers and quality eludes the ratio between input and output. Input refers to resource of learning and output speaks about learner’s growth and development through learning experiences . Quality improvement is an important task for any institution which lies on the top of the most agendas of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Quality of a school is classified into Quality of consumable input (physical infrastructure: building, drinking water, toilet etc) and Quality of non-consumable input (Number of teachers in school, teaching-learning materials supported by teacher, teacher’s efficiency etc). Ward (2007) described that teachers are the most important ingredients for teaching-learning process and many commentators marked teachers as most crucial input component even before physical infrastructure. “Professional development” for teachers is a key mechanism for improving teacher’s efficiency and student’s achievement.Though Government of India focussed their attention in professional strengthening of teachers, it is overlooked as a parameter of assessing quality of any institution. In India, a ten-point grading scale (where1- lowest grade; 10-highest grade) is constructed by RTE (Right to Education) to assess quality of individual school where only Physical infrastructural component are taken into account as indicator of grade. Several studies denote that professional development of teacher positively influence student’s achievement of both elementary and high school levels. In this Context, an endeavour has been made to explore the quality of school Education with respect to professional qualification of teachers in Basanti Block, South 24 Parganas district of the state of West Bengal in India. Additionally, this article aims to construct a new grading scale to assess quality of schools considering professional quality along with indicators suggested by RTE. The basis of this study is official secondary data available in public domain and represented after use of Statistical technique and graphical analysis. It is also found that there is prominent imbalance in teacher strength and professional qualification of teacher over the region.This article has a holistic view to suggest a more comprehensive idea of assessing Quality which strongly suggest an essentialist perspective might be useful for future school planning and management programs for providing better quality of education to pupils. Keywords: Grading, Indian Sundarban Delta, Professional Quality, Right to Education. INTRODUCTION Quality in education relates to the quality of teaching-learning process undertaken by teachers which haveconsiderable impacts on the learners. Many research agendas have focused on teacher’s professional development. Teacher’s professional development has been a matter of concern in many countries and has been affected by changes in professional perceptions (Sugrue, 2004).Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE), sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), vocationalization of secondary education also focuses their attention to quality education considering supply of quality teachers in large numbers. Many committee and commissions like University Education Commission (1948-49), Secondary Education Commission (1952-53) , Ford Foundation Term (1954), Pires Committee (1956), Education Commission of 1964-66, National Policy Statement on Education (1968), First Asian Conference on Teacher Education (1971), Efforts of Indian Association of Teacher Educators (IATE), National Commission on Teachers- I (for school teachers) of 1983-85, The National Policy of Education (NPE) in 1986 , Acharya Ramamurti Committee (1990), Yashpal Committee (1993), The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005 , National Knowledge Commission (2007), Right to education act 2009,National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE)