NEP leaves future of teacher education institutions uncertain

Managements of teacher education institutions are uncertain about the future role of Tamil Nadu Teacher Education University (TNTEU) in the wake of the National Education Policy 2020’s thrust on a four-year integrated B.Ed. programme.

As per official statistics, there are 731 affiliated colleges of education including government, government-aided and self-financing institutions in the fold of TNTEU, which came into being in 2008 to promote excellence in teachers education.

The NEP 2020 has tasked National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) to develop a National Professional Standard for Teachers (NPST), aimed to be introduced by 2022. The new standard will establish a four-year integrated B.Ed degree as a new minimum qualification for teaching and gradually move teacher education into multidisciplinary colleges and universities by 2030.

“We are curious to know if B.Ed colleges will be permitted to offer the integrated degree programmes and whether the TNTEU will continue to affiliate the four-year programmes,” a functionary of a private teacher education college here said.

According to a senior professor of Education, the concept of four-year full-time undergraduate programme is not entirely new. The Regional Institute of Education, Mysore, offers four-year full-time undergraduate course, B.Sc.B.Ed., approved by NCTE, under affiliation of University of Mysore. There has been no hitch for the institution in offering the unique course since Mysore university is the affiliating authority for both B.Ed and UG programmes in science and humanities.

“But, in Tamil Nadu, there is no clarity. Only one university, for sure, can affiliate a programme. It has to be either the general universities or TNTEU. Since it has been specified in NEP 2020 that teacher education will move into multidisciplinary colleges and universities by 2030, the permanence of TNTEU seems to be at stake,” he said.

A sense of discomfort for private managements of B.Ed. colleges is that the Ministry of Human Resource Development has given enough indications in recent months that the new policy introducing the four-year integrated B.Ed. degree programme will imply doing away with individual teacher education institutions.