Towards quality teacher education

Updated on: Thursday, August 06, 2009

To improve the teacher education system in the country, National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), which sets norms and standards for quality

teacher education and ensure planned and coordinated development of teacher education, is conducting a nationwide study on the demand and supply of teachers and teacher educators at the school level, for the years 2007-08 to 2016-17. Also, to upgrade the BEd curriculum and other teacher-training programmes, a revised National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE) in synchronisation with the NCF 2005 is being finalised by the NCTE.

Mohd Akhtar Siddiqui, chairperson, NCTE, said: "Though NCTE was formed in 1973 and given a statutory status in 1993, there was no groundwork done to identify the demand of teachers in the country. Only once we have the data, can we address the problem of shortage of teachers." The study, which started last year, is being conducted in all states and UTs and scheduled to be completed in a few months. The trends, as reflected in the study, already indicate over supply of teachers in several states and under supply in eastern states. Steps are being taken to correct this unbalanced growth.

According to the Council, institutions not following regulations and norms of teacher education programmes are being shut down. Further sharing NCTE's plans, Siddiqui added: "We are planning to prepare model curricula for different teachertraining programmes and detailed syllabi and quality study material once the NCFTE is approved by the Council. Also, we have set up a committee to evaluate the material available on teacher education as part of our aim to continuously monitor and upgrade."

An online teacher education portal with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC ) is also on the cards. "The portal would address all stakeholders involved in teacher education, for example, teachers, aspirants, teacher-educators , among others. It would provide comprehensive data on teacher education including courses, institutional data, skill update, etc," he added.

Siddiqui emphasised the need for continuous professional development and skill upgradation among teachers and teacher educators. The NCF that is being prepared also contains a full chapter on Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of teachers. "There should be a chain of professional development centres , supported by the government, devoted to CPD. What we need essentially is a cumulative model for teacher education and development and not just a one-off workshop for teachers or a short-term course," said Siddiqui.

Further, he proposed a 'national test for employment' for teachers. Students, having completed BEd or DEd would be eligible for the test. Further, there are plans to advise state governments to conduct 'standardised aptitude tests' for aspirant teachers.
On ICT in education for teachers, NCTE recently launched a project to integrate technology in teacher education — X-elerated Professional Development in the Integration of Technology in Teacher Education (XPDITTE) in collaboration with Intel Teach Program. The programme aims to help teacher educators learn how to integrate technology to improve teaching and learning and to make student teachers ICT savvy in their own classrooms.

Timesofindia.indiatimes

Towards quality teacher education

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