State universities, including Bharathidasan University, are learnt to have evinced interest in starting four-year integrated B.Sc. B.Ed. and B.A. programmes.
The inspection by a team of National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has been carried out in Alagappa University, Karaikudi, and Madurai Kamaraj University, according to sources.
Since the New Education Policy 2020 encourages higher educational institutions to start integrated four-year teacher education programmes in multi-disciplinary environment, affiliated colleges are likely to follow in the footsteps of the universities, I. Muthuchamy, Chair, School of Education, and Professor and Head Department of Educational Technology, Bharathidasan University, said.
The start of integrated teacher education programme by the Central University of Tamil Nadu, Tiruvarur, will provide an impetus for State Universities to follow suit. Some of the deemed to be universities have also started the integrated programme following the model of the Regional College of Education, Mysore.
CBSE schools have been according importance for candidates who have completed the four-year integrated teacher education programme, according to school heads.
Though the NCTE had announced its consent to permit arts and science colleges to offer the four-year integrated programmes, by sharing the existing physical resources, the college managements have apparently not taken any steps in the absence of clarity.
The equivalence of the four-year programme with the three-year degree programme for the purpose of pursuing post-graduation in the particular subject is one such.
“It is possible for candidates completing the integrated four-year teacher education programme to decide on getting into the profession after completing post-graduation. The colleges look for more clarity on this issue," a senior professor said.
Currently, the B.Ed. is offered as a two-year programme for students after graduation. The integrated programme will pave way for those with the aptitude for teaching to get into the profession a year earlier.
The colleges will, in all likelihood, offer the three-year undergraduation and four-year integrated programme parallelly. There has to be more clarity on the part of NCTE with respect to the modalities of sharing of infrastructure, a principal said.
