With the increased focus on quality teachers for schools as well as the criticism of the one-year-Bachelor in Education (B.Ed) course that is on offer across the country, steps are being taken to provide better training.
To weed out fake institutions that offer B.Ed courses and those without proper infrastructure, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has come out with measures. Colleges will first undergo a scrutiny by the Tamil Nadu Teacher’s Education University and have to obtain a No Objection Certificate before applying to NCTE.
“Many colleges do not have the requisite infrastructure. The ‘re-recognition’ process will identify these colleges,” G. Viswanathan, vice-chancellor of TNTEU said.
There are currently 689 B.Ed colleges in the State, but some of them are no longer viable, according to Santosh Panda, Chairperson NCTE. “Soon, B. Ed colleges will also be asked to take up accreditation with NCTE, signing an MoU with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council,” he said. These moves are part of the Education Reforms 2014, which will come in to place by July 2015, he added. Another proposal is to move to two-year courses.
While educators feel the move to a two-year syllabus is a step in the right direction, they add that much more has to be done to strengthen pedagogy. K.R. Maalathi, CEO Auuro Services, said: “There is little training for the teacher trainers,” and added that the B.Ed programme does not deal with assessment of students or new teaching methods including Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation.
There is also no monitoring what happens inside the classroom. “Often, B.Ed students only attend examinations,” she pointed out. Speaking of the lacuna in the system, P. Udaya Kumar from Jayanthi B. Ed College said people who study the course are not trained in inclusive education or student psychology.
Technology is also an issue. “Today, all schools employ some amount of technology, whether it is multimedia presentations or smart classrooms. The B. Ed professors, however, do not know much about them, so even colleges that have the infrastructure do not provide training,” he said.
Colleges will have to obtain an NOC from the Tamil Nadu Teacher’s Education University
