Sibal moots new institutional framework

Updated on: Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource and Development (HRD), has mooted the framework for an institution that will be set up constituting the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and the State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs).

This framework could include the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE) and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) as invitees, and would be a mechanism for coordination, continuous flow of information and dialogue.

Speaking at a meeting of the Central and State Regulatory Institutions for School Education, the minister said that the focus of the framework institution would be on improving the quality of education throughout the country. He also stated that the effort of the educational administrators and curriculum developers should be to maximise standards rather than settling for minimum standards.

The minister stated that as per the NCTE teacher qualification norms under the Right to Education Act, Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) will be an essential qualification. He also added that while the NCTE is developing the standards and benchmarks for this Teacher Eligibility Test, state governments would be responsible for administering these tests and it is the responsibility of the state governments to ensure that these tests conform to high standards.

He further said that the institutional mechanism between NCERT and SCERTs should work towards developing question banks which could be used by states for their Teacher Eligibility Test.

The minister also spoke about the development of the National Vocational Qualification Framework (NVQF) and called upon the state governments to identify skills specific to their states and develop curriculum for these skills.

Sibal moots new institutional framework

More Education news