Latest news with #PankajArora
Hindustan Times
7 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
NCTE rules out four-level CTET before 2027
New Delhi: The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) chairperson Pankaj Arora has dismissed media reports claiming that the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) will be expanded to four levels including, for the first time, classes 9 to 12 from this year or next. He clarified that such changes will be considered only after 2027, when the first batch of the four-year Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) graduates. The 4-year integrated will, by 2030, become the minimal degree qualification for school teachers. (Representational image) Arora said the NCTE, the statutory body that prescribes minimum qualifications for school teachers, has not issued any directions to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in this regard. Currently, the CBSE conducts the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) in two papers — Paper 1 for teaching aspirants of classes 1 to 5, and Paper 2 for those aiming to teach classes 6 to 8. For teaching classes 9 to 12, candidates are generally required to hold a postgraduate degree in the relevant subject, a Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree, and qualify in recruitment examinations conducted by the respective central or state recruiting bodies, as there is presently no CTET for these levels. 'Media reports claiming that CTET will include classes 9 to 12 from this year or next are incorrect. We have neither issued any official notification nor instructed CBSE to conduct CTET at four levels. The system is not yet ready, as we have not prepared teachers for all four stages of schooling. We are likely to introduce the four-level CTET only after the first batch of ITEP graduates in 2027,' Arora told HT. CBSE officials did not respond to HT's queries. In line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, NCTE launched the ITEP in the 2023–24 academic session. ITEP is a four-year dual-major programme that combines teacher education with a chosen disciplinary subject. Based on their specialisation and pedagogy, ITEP graduates will be equipped to teach across all four stages of the NEP's 5+3+3+4 school structure: the foundational stage (three years of pre-school/Balvatika plus classes 1–2), the preparatory stage (classes 3–5), the middle stage (classes 6–8), and the secondary stage (classes 9–12). 'The 4-year integrated … will, by 2030, become the minimal degree qualification for school teachers,' says the NEP 2020. '...TET will also be extended to cover teachers across all stages (Foundational, Preparatory, Middle, and Secondary) of school education.' Currently, Anganwadi or Balvatika teachers are being recruited by state governments under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, usually based on minimum qualifications like Class 10 or 12 pass, with short-term training in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) provided after joining. An Anganwadi is a community-based centre that provides nutrition, health services, and early play-based learning for children aged 0 to 6 years, while a Balvatika is a pre-school class within the school system focusing on formal learning readiness for children aged 3 to 6 years. NEP 2020 mandates that by 2030, all Anganwadi and Balvatika teachers must have the prescribed ECCE qualifications, ideally through the 4-year ITEP (foundational stage) or an equivalent diploma/degree, with existing workers receiving transitional training of six months to one year. ITEP, launched in 2023–24 in 57 Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs), has expanded to 19 central universities, 21 state universities, 7 National Institute of Technology (NITs), 3 Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), and 14 colleges by 2025-26, with admissions through National Common Entrance Test (NCET) conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA).
The Hindu
13-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
NCTE is reviewing its ‘approved' draft regulations for overhauling teacher training programmes
Following calls for wider consultation and deeper reflection on the National Council for Teacher Education's (NCTE) proposed overhaul of teacher training regulations, NCTE is reviewing the draft regulations that were earlier passed by its council in March. 'We have gone into a larger consultation with the Ministry of Education (MoE), stakeholders, and experts before finalising the draft NCTE (Recognition Norms and Procedure) Regulations 2025,' NCTE Chairperson Pankaj Arora told The Hindu. NCTE had come up with the new regulations for teacher training institutes after a gap of ten years, with the last revision being in 2014. The new draft regulations have been proposed to align with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The earlier approved draft, which has now gone under the scanner, outlines the process for recognising institutions for teacher education programmes, and also addresses the transition of existing teacher education programmes into new ones aligned with NEP 2020. NCTE had received up to 6,774 feedback responses between February 20 and March 8 when the draft was made public for comments, before it was approved by the council. In the minutes of the 63rd General Body meeting of NCTE held on March 19 and released on March 24, accessed by The Hindu, the NCTE council had accepted the recommendations of the expert committee and approved the NCTE (Recognition Norms and Procedure) Regulations, 2025. The council also decided that after approval from the Education Ministry and legal vetting from the Ministry of Law, the regulations will be notified in the Gazette of India. 'It is an evolving process and will not get done in one shot. We have not yet issued the Gazette Notification, so it is not finalised. It will be notified by the Ministry of Law after MoE approval,' Mr. Arora said. Padma Sarangapani, former NCTE member and professor, Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, said that in its current form, the draft regulations seem to offer no flexibility in deployment of teachers within broadly primary stage and middle/secondary stage as is the current practice. This is because the new regulations propose five segmentations in teacher education specialisations — first, being Foundation teachers from preschool to Grade 2, Preparatory for Grade 3, 4, 5 who are subject teachers in two subject areas — any two from language, maths, environmental sciences, arts, physical education, Middle school teachers for Grade 6, 7, 8, specialised in two subject areas aligned to the liberal discipline subject, and a similar structure is proposed for Secondary School teachers (Class 9, 10). 'It will also be difficult to fulfil all the deployment requirements in rural and remote areas. Generally, the proposal is not aligned to trends in the teacher labour market,' Ms. Sarangapani said. 'Private schools will not find it practical to employ teachers for such specific stages. Teachers will also not find it satisfying from a career point of view to be boxed into narrow specialisations, and at differential salaries,' she added. Teacher demand-supply gap Mr. Arora told The Hindu that NCTE has constituted an expert committee to look into the demand-supply gap of school teachers in the country. The committee consists of members from MoE, NITI Aayog, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), University of Delhi, State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERT). 'The committee will map needs according to various teacher training programmes, and specifically look at issues in rural and tribal areas and submit a report to NCTE within six months,' he said. Time extension for overhaul Noting that there are over 13,000 teacher training institutions under NCTE purview, Mr. Arora said they have been given a year's extension to transform into multidisciplinary institutions as required by NCTE under NEP 2020. As per the requirements of the Integrated Teacher Education Programme, which requires a dual degree study of B.A, or along with the teacher training institutes are expected to introduce and courses, additional infrastructure, library facilities, and faculty to support two additional Bachelor's degrees as per ITEP requirements. 'While all institutions are expected to gradually transition by 2030, we have allowed them until 2026-27 to start introducing the new ITEP degree. We are pushing the implementation period by a year, as institutes have been demanding more time to ramp up their facilities,' Mr. Arora said. Derecognition of institutes In the performance appraisal review of teacher training institutes conducted by NCTE in May and June, the regulatory body derecognised up to 2,224 institutes for their failure to fill appraisal forms. Of these, 872 institutes belong to the Southern region, 686 are from the Western region, 637 are from the Northern region, and 29 are from the Eastern part of the country. 'These are only the institutes which did not fill out appraisal forms. NCTE is also conducting online inspections of teacher training institutes for their inability to meet standards in terms of appointing faculty, number of students, infrastructure and library facilities,' Mr. Arora mentioned. NCTE has shifted from offline to online mode of checking by monitoring institutes, which includes tracking GPS coordinates of institute buildings, cross-checking faculty PAN information with institutional appointments, as the salaries have been tied up to PAN cards through Income Tax department, and so on, he explained. NCTE conducts this performance appraisal review every other year. 'At places, we found that one teacher was drawing salary from multiple institutes; we want to weed out such malpractices,' he said.
The Print
06-07-2025
- Business
- The Print
RTI activist sought details of govt tenders. Haryana govt buried him under 37,443 pages
What he received in return was a staggering 37,443 pages of documents, weighing over 108 kilograms, after submitting a cheque and demand draft to pay a hefty Rs 80,000 in fees. Pankaj Arora, a local book depot owner filed a Right to Information (RTI) application with the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), seeking details of tenders, staffing, and expenditure. He now virtually finds himself buried under a mountain of papers! Gurugram: In a bizarre case in Haryana's Kurukshetra, an RTI activist's pursuit of transparency has turned into a paperchase—quite literally. Yet, Arora claims, the response is incomplete, with thousands of irrelevant pages dumped to obscure alleged irregularities. He also said, the banks informed him, the department has failed to encash the cheque and demand draft. Also Read: This Haryana information commissioner is striking terror in the hearts of govt officers A mountain of paper, but little clarity On 30 January 2025, Arora, who runs Mehar Book Depot in Sector 13, filed an RTI application with 15 pointed queries. He sought details of tenders issued by the PHED between January 2023 and January 2025, contractor licences, employee records under the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Yojana, GST payments, and departmental expenditure, among others. His aim: to uncover what he alleges are financial and procedural irregularities in the PHED. The department's response, however, was anything but straightforward. On 3 February, Arora received two letters from the Executive Engineer (XEN). One instructed subordinates to calculate the number of pages and fees, while the other demanded Rs 85,000 for rendering him the information. 'They sent two letters on the same day, contradicting each other. It felt like a deliberate attempt to confuse,' Arora told ThePrint. The fee was later reduced to Rs 80,000. Arora sent a demand draft for Rs 10,000 and a cheque for Rs 70,000. But, the department delayed the response for months. It was only after Arora escalated the matter to the governor, chief minister, chief secretary and Kurukshetra's deputy commissioner (DC) that the PHED acted. On 6 June, following the DC's intervention, the department dispatched a quintal of documents—37,443 pages—to Arora's doorstep, through one of its employees. Arora alleged the response is a classic case of information overload meant to obfuscate. 'Thousands of pages are irrelevant—copies of contractor agreements and other documents I never asked for,' he said. He claimed the department failed to provide critical details, such as specific tender processes, GST payment records, and audit reports, which were central to his RTI query. 'They're hiding a multi-crore scam in tenders and recruitments,' Arora alleged, adding he has now appealed to the State Information Commission, which has accepted his plea. What adds to the controversy is Arora's claims the Rs 80,000 he sent the cheque and the DD for was never encashed and deposited in the government treasury. 'I paid Rs.10,000 through a demand draft from PNB and Rs 70,000 via a banker's cheque from the Little Millennium School, both in my name. The bank confirmed the funds weren't deposited,' he said. Demand drafts and cheques typically expire after three months, raising questions about the department's handling of the payment. PHED defends its actions Sumit Garg, the Executive Engineer at PHED Kurukshetra, defended the department's response. Speaking to The Print on Sunday, Garg said, 'We provided the information as per the RTI application. Compiling nearly 40,000 pages took significant effort and over two months. The fee was calculated at Rs 2 per page, as per government rules.' Addressing the non-deposited payment, Garg claimed the issue arose because the demand draft and cheque were issued under the name of Mehar Book Depot and Little Millennium School, and not in Arora's name. 'We've asked him to validate the payments,' he added. Garg also dismissed Arora's request for digital records, stating, 'The RTI didn't specifically ask for digital copies.' Arora, however, insists he had requested digital formats to reduce paper use, in line with the government's paperless initiative. 'They ignored my request and sent a quintal of paper to intimidate me.' He also claims this is a record in Haryana—no RTI applicant has ever received such a voluminous response. 'It's a deliberate tactic to discourage activists. They thought I wouldn't pay Rs. 80,000, but I did. Now, they've buried me in useless papers,' he said. The activist has escalated his fight to Chandigarh, where his appeal is pending before the State Information Commission. For now, Arora remains undeterred, vowing to pursue the truth, even if it's buried under a mountain of paper. Also Read: Why UPSC has returned Haryana govt's proposal for promotion of 27 of its officers to IAS
Indian Express
06-07-2025
- Health
- Indian Express
Haryana dept supplies RTI applicant with 40,000 pages, he says ‘not enough'
The Public Health and Engineering Department in Haryana's Kurukshetra has supplied documents running into 40,000 pages to a man who had filed an application under the RTI Act seeking specific details. Kurukshetra resident Pankaj Arora, who had filed the application, now claims a large portion of the documents was irrelevant to his original queries. Arora had approached the Haryana State Information Commission, alleging delays and incomplete disclosures under the RTI Act, despite having deposited a fee of Rs 80,000 with the Public Health and Engineering Department in Kurukshetra in February and March this year. Following his request, the department provided him the a massive trove of documents — approximately 40,000 pages — on June 5 this year. The RTI application, filed on January 30, was submitted to the Executive Engineer of the department along with the prescribed postal order fee. Arora had sought records on 15 specific points, including: details of tenders floated between January 1, 2023 and January 1, 2025, licenses issued to contractors, staffing details across permanent, contractual, and outsourced categories, revenue earned, project-wise expenditures at various levels, and GST submissions by contractors. According to official records, the State Public Information Officer-cum-Executive Engineer issued a letter on February 3 demanding a documentation fee of Rs 80,000, calculated at Rs 2 per copy for 40,000 pages. On the same day, the Executive Engineer sent a separate letter to departmental juniors instructing them to process the RTI request within the stipulated time. 'Please note the consequences on account of any delay on your side, you will be personally responsible for the same,' the letter stated. Arora recounted, 'When I did not receive the information despite depositing a fee of Rs 80,000 with the department in February and March, I had to appeal to the Governor, Chief Minister, Chief Secretary, Engineer-in-Chief, and other senior officials, alleging the officers were deliberately withholding information. Only after intervention from the high-ups, the department sent the documents—roughly 40,000 pages weighing one quintal and 8.2 kilograms — in June this year.' Arora claims that the reply was not only incomplete, but included voluminous irrelevant material, with 'core queries being completely avoided.' Responding to the allegations, Executive Engineer Sumit Garg told The Indian Express that the department had provided all the information as per the RTI Act and at the earliest possible time. 'The applicant has deposited a demand draft of Rs 10,000 issued in the name of a book depot, while the bank cheque deposited by him belongs to a school. We have requested the applicant to confirm whether both belong to him,' Garg said. Arora confirmed that both the book depot and school in question are under his ownership. Asked about his motive for seeking such voluminous information, Arora explained, 'I had received inputs that norms were being flouted in the execution of development works, and nepotism was being practiced in the recruitment for junior-level contractual posts.' Sukhbir Siwach's extensive and in-depth coverage of farmer agitation against three farm laws during 2020-21 drew widespread attention. ... Read More
Hindustan Times
11-06-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
NIOS plans to launch AI chat bots, mentor-mentee app to help students
New Delhi: The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is planning to launch Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots in languages and a mentor-mentee based app to help students by 2027, open board chairperson Pankaj Arora said on Wednesday. 'Open schooling in future integrates its functioning with are developing AI-driver learner resource centre to provide virtual mentors to every student. It will be very useful for students coming from remote areas and marginalised background,' said Arora while addressing the event on the first day of the two-days academic consultation meet on 'education without walls in line with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020,' He said that NIOS is planning to bring chatbots in different languages to help students get resolutions of their queries in their own languages, not necessarily in Hindi and English. 'We are also planning to introduce a mentor-mentee model-based app for our students. We want to bring virtual mentors for students from whom they can discuss their course materials and other questions. We are aiming to launch both by 2027, but we are hoping that we will bring both of them very early,' he told HT.
