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HRD Ministry rethink on NCTE closure?

Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI: After circulating a Cabinet note for shutting down the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and getting a favourable response, the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has now advertised for the post of Chairman and Vice-Chairman, signalling a change of mind.

Though the note has not been withdrawn till date and the official line of the Ministry is that it is waiting for the Legislative Department of the Ministry of Law & Justice to draft the Bill to repeal the NCTE Act, sources say there is a rethink; particularly in the wake of renewed efforts to draft a legislation to operationalise the Fundamental Right to Education (RTE).

Acting on the recommendations of a three-member committee set up to review the working of the NCTE, the HRD Ministry drafted the note in mid-2007 to close down the Council and have teacher training institutions under it linked directly to university departments.

The proposal got the nod from a number of ministries, including Finance, and had been with the Legislative Department for the past several months. But, the HRD Ministry made no effort to expedite the matter.

Recently, the Ministry advertised for the two top-most posts in the Council taking the plea that they cannot be kept vacant indefinitely.

However, insiders say the recent efforts to resurrect the central legislation to operationalise the RTE have forced the Ministry to take a fresh look at the issue. Should the central legislation become a reality, there would be a need for more teachers with nursery teaching skills or Diploma in Education (D.Ed) – NCTE’s main preserve. What’s more, the proposed law as of now mandates that only those who have qualified from NCTE-recognised teacher training institutions would be billed as teachers under RTE unlike in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which allows para-teachers.

Given this scenario, the new thinking within the Ministry is to step up efforts to streamline NCTE and address the numerous complaints about its functioning instead of wrapping it up. The three-member committee had found that the NCTE was paying little attention to the quality of training and curriculum, while fostering privatisation in teacher education. State Governments have also complained that they were rarely consulted by the Council while sanctioning teacher training institutions.

Another charge against the NCTE was that it presided over a lop-sided development of teacher training institutions as a result of which States such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra were crowded with such establishments while Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand had very few. In Maharashtra 250 institutions offering D. Ed were opened in 2006-07 alone.

Set up in 1973 as an advisory body for the Central and State Governments on all matters pertaining to teacher education, the NCTE became a statutory body in 1995 following the enactment of the NCTE Act, 1993. It was elevated to a statutory body as per the National Policy on Education, 1986, to perform essentially regulatory functions, ensure maintenance of standards in teacher education and prevent the proliferation of sub-standard teacher education institutions.

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