Latest news with #RecognitionNormsandProcedure
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.
Indian Express
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Opinion Teacher education in India needs much more than a one-size-fits-all formula
Teacher education in India is at a crossroads. The National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) has proposed changes in the duration of teacher education programmes, structure, curriculum and rules in the Draft NCTE (Recognition Norms and Procedure) Regulations 2025. The major recommendations are to discontinue the Bachelor of Elementary Education Programme ( from the next academic year and reintroduce the one-year Bachelor of Education ( the one-year Master of Education ( and the Master of Education (part-time) teacher education. It also dropped M.A. in Education from the eligibility criteria for teaching the teacher education programmes and made an with Ph.D. in Education the only eligibility criterion. Aimed at implementing the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP-2020), the draft regulation needs to be seen in light of the changes, demands, and supply of teachers in the school education sector. According to the latest UDISE (Unified District Information System for Education) 2023-2024 Report, there are 1.1 lakh single-teacher schools out of 14.72 lakh schools in India. According to the Right to Education Act, 2009, a minimum of two teachers per school is mandatory to ensure quality school education. Undoubtedly, India needs more teachers at the school level. There is also an increase in demand for international curricula. This is reflected in the growing number of International Baccalaureate (IB) and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) schools in recent times. A report in the Financial Express in December 2023 mentioned that between 2019 and 2023, India witnessed a 31 per cent surge in International Baccalaureate schools. Currently, there are 166 IB schools in India, and Cambridge International's website indicates 733 Cambridge curriculum schools to date, and the number is increasing. There is, therefore, a need for more teachers who can teach not only in CBSE schools but also ICSE, IGCSE, and IB board schools, where the focus is on inquiry-based learning, collaboration, and international mindedness. While many professions will likely be hit by the arrival of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the demand for teachers wouldn't face a slump. The latest report on the Future of Jobs 2025 by the World Economic Forum predicted the largest growth in jobs in the care sector, including teaching professionals. Do the draft regulations meet the pressing needs of the changing school education landscape in India by bringing back old programmes to produce more teachers in the same timespan? The two programmes will add to the existing repertoire of choices for aspiring teachers and teacher educators who either cannot afford the two-year fee due to a lack of resources or decide to become a teacher later in professional life. The revival of old teacher education programmes suggests that discontinuing a much sought-after four-year programme is unwarranted. Instead, the NCTE should widen the scope of the programme by encouraging multidisciplinary co-educational institutions to offer it so that male candidates can pursue this course. Every year, many male students inquire about the programme and show willingness to become elementary school teachers. Furthermore, the programme is in sync with the NEP (2020) and fits well into the 5+3+3+4 structure as they are prepared to cater to the learning needs of early years till the grade eight level. A fine blend of teacher education and subject expertise, this programme equips participants to understand the nuances of how children learn. The curriculum, grounded in the national ethos, begins with an introduction to the Indian Constitution that serves as a moral compass for every teacher. New schools mostly start with elementary levels and the graduates with their subject expertise and leadership acumen can fulfil the demands of the ever-increasing need for teachers. Hence, the NCTE should revisit its decision and allow multidisciplinary institutions to not only continue with the programme but also encourage interested higher education institutions to start it from the 2026-2027 academic session, so that there is no scarcity of well-trained teachers. With the draft Regulations 2025, the NCTE has taken upon itself the responsibility to develop a curriculum, and all the teacher education programmes will have to adhere to that. They will have the freedom to determine up to 30 per cent of the curriculum to cater to local and institutional requirements. Through this, NCTE's accountability to train effective teachers has increased. Instead of proposing a one-size-fits-all curriculum, the NCTE should encourage teacher education institutions to come up with their own curriculum. After all, the teacher educators are experts in their field and well acquainted with the latest developments and needs of their discipline. The NCTE should continue to dispense its primary role as a Professional Standard Setting Body, a role assigned to it by the NEP-2020. Moreover, AI is shaping the contemporary world, and teacher education should not be oblivious to it. The draft regulations, though, should be the first to discuss the role of AI in teacher education, but there is no mention of it anywhere in the document. The NCTE must ensure that teachers who come out of the teacher education programmes are equipped with distinct competencies and dispositions needed in the age of AI. A teacher imbued with critical thinking can think for herself, engage with multiple ideas, understand the perspectives of others, weigh the evidence before reaching a conclusion, respectfully communicate her logical disagreement with others, and collaborate with colleagues, students, and AI. In conclusion, the future teacher must be firmly grounded in the reality that is articulated in the introduction of NEP 2020: 'Providing universal access to quality education is the key to India's continued ascent, and leadership on the global stage in terms of economic growth, social justice and equality, scientific advancement, national integration, and cultural preservation'.
