‘Don't scrap B.El.Ed Programme': International academics from Cambridge, Wisconsin appeal to Edu Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

Indian Express

21-04-2025

Eminent professors of education from across the world, including Prof Michael Apple at University of Wisconsin, Prof William Pinar at the University of British Columbia, and Prof Robin Alexander, Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, have appealed to Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to cancel plans to discontinue the B.El.Ed (Bachelor of Elementary Education) programme, a four-year degree programme in elementary teacher education.
In a letter to Pradhan, they referred to the move as counter-productive.
'B.El.Ed. is a flagship teacher education programme that has endured for three decades and proved its worth. It has contributed to enhancing the status of elementary level teachers in India and to significant advances in the quality and outcomes of their teaching. We therefore appeal to you to cancel plans to discontinue the B.El.Ed . Where innovation promises an advance on existing arrangements, it is surely to be welcomed. To discontinue a programme renowned for its excellence is therefore counter-productive,' the letter read.
In February this year, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) issued draft regulations that specify norms and standards for teacher education programmes. The draft regulations said that the B.El.Ed programme will be discontinued from 2026-27 onwards, and institutions that were granted recognition for the programme will have to move to the new Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) before the start of the 2026-27 academic session.
The B.El.Ed programme was first launched by Delhi University three decades ago.
The letter to the Education Minister signed by 15 scholars of education from across the world, stated: 'We are alarmed to learn of renewed plans to abolish Delhi University's impressive Bachelor's Programme in Elementary Education (B.El.Ed.) and replace it with a uniform Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP). We urgently ask that these plans be reconsidered.'
ITEP is a four-year programme (BA B.Ed/ B.Sc B.Ed/ B.Com B.Ed) after class 12, which was launched in pilot mode in a few institutions from the 2023-24 academic session onwards. It will be offered as a regular programme for teacher education from the 2025-26 session onwards. It has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy 2020, which states that by 2030, 'the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a 4-year integrated B.Ed degree that teaches a range of knowledge content and pedagogy and includes strong practicum training in the form of student-teaching at local schools.'
Stating that B.El.Ed is renowned in India and abroad as an exemplary, world class teacher education programme, the scholars wrote in their letter: 'With its integration of broad-based academic instruction and pedagogical training, it offers a more advanced form of preparation for elementary school teachers than is typically available in many western countries.'
Referring to the strengths of the B.El.Ed programme, the letter added: 'Recognising schooling's vital role in preparing young people both for employment and for democratic citizenship, it endows teachers with the independence and confidence that thorough academic and professional training can provide. This distinguishes it from colonial-era programmes that deliberately sought to de-professionalise teachers and restrict their autonomy.'
As India's first comprehensive university level programme for elementary school teachers, B.El.Ed 'has also been a model for other programmes offered by prestigious private colleges of liberal arts and sciences nationwide,' the letter read. It added that the programme offers a dynamic combination of instruction in subject knowledge, educational theory, child development, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and linguistics, along with compulsory courses on story-telling, drama, gender, and inclusion.
The 15 signatories of the letter including Prof Edward Vickers, UNESCO Chair on Education for Peace, Social Justice and Global Citizenship, Kyushu University, Japan; Prof Michael W. Apple, John Bascom Professor Emeritus of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA; Prof Paul Morris, Professor of Comparative Education, UCL Institute of Education; Prof William Pinar, Tetsuo Aoki Professor in Curriculum Studies, Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Canada; Prof Yusuf Sayeed, Professorial Chair in Global Education Policy and Equity, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK; Prof Martin Carnoy, American labour economist & Vida Jacks Professor of Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education; Prof Robin Alexander, Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, and Professor of Education Emeritus, University of Warwick.
Prof Michael Apple and Prof Robin Alexander have previously been members of the editorial advisory board of the NCTE's publication – Indian Journal of Teacher Education.
Signatories also include Prof Ken Zeichner, Boeing Professor of Teacher Education Emeritus, University of Washington, USA; Prof Chaise LaDousa, Professor of Anthropology of Education, Hamilton College, New York; Prof Angela Little, Professor Emeritus, University College London, Institute of Education, UK; Prof Crain Arther Soudien, School of Education, University of Cape Town, South Africa.