Varsities set to train teachers, NCTE to exit

NEW DELHI: Teacher training, the weak link of the Indian education system, is set to undergo a change. Training will be decentralised, with universities taking on the task of providing teachers adequate instruction and education across all levels.

The HRD ministry has suggested the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), the apex body for teacher education, be dissolved and the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993, be repealed. Instead, universities across the country will take on the task of ensuring adequate teacher education. A Cabinet note to this effect is being circulated.

The 7,000-odd institutes recognised by NCTE will now have to seek affiliation with central, state and deemed universities. This would mean the universities will be responsible for setting standards and maintaining them.

NCTE was set up by an Act of Parliament to ensure the “planned and co-ordinated development of the teacher education system throughout the country”. The statutory body was also charged with the task of regulating and maintaining norms and standards in teacher education.

Unfortunately, a committee headed by former education secretary Sudeep Banerjee found that the NCTE had failed in its endeavour. The committee found that not only had the NCTE been derelict of its duties, the apex teacher education body had promoted commercialisation and unplanned proliferation of teacher education institutes.

Teacher training institutes have mushroomed in states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The NCTE recognised much larger number of institutes in these states than required, while in states such as Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand, the sanction was much lower though the requirement of teachers was greater. Drawing attention to this unplanned growth, Maharashtra chief minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh wrote to HRD minister Arjun Singh. Mr Deshmukh said in 2006-07 alone, 250 new institutions offering diploma in education had been sanctioned by NCTE in the state.

Over the past few years, 300-400 institutes had been set up in Karnataka. Clearly, these states had reached saturation point. In its decade-plus of existence, NCTE seems to have allowed for unplanned growth and increased commercialisation of teacher education, this was not what the apex body was set up for.

“Clearly the obvious lack of planning while giving recognition to teacher education institutes indicated that NCTE’s regional committees were not consulting the states about their requirements or absorption capacities. This was an issue that the states were unhappy about”, a committee member said.
urmi.goswami@timesgroup.com