B.Ed course to get longer

Aspiring teachers might have to study twice as long as the duration of the BEd (Bachelor of Education) and DEd (Diploma in Education) programmes will be doubled.

Aspiring teachers might have to study twice as long as the duration of the BEd (Bachelor of Education) and DEd (Diploma in Education) programmes will be doubled.

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The change will be made in the new curriculum framework, which the National Council of Teacher Training (NCTE) will bring out in February. However, it will take at least four years for all instititutions to adopt the new formula.

“This is the first time we are taking such a bold step,” said Mohammad Akhtar Siddiqui, the council chairperson. “We think professional preparation requires prolonged and intense training and the current duration of one (for BEd) and two years ( for DEd) is not enough.”

The NCTE is a statutory body responsible for the development of the teacher education system. The council brought out the last curriculum framework for teacher training in 1998.

“We understand changing over to a new format takes time. But we want all institutions to compulsorily adopt this in the next four to five years or face de-recognition,” Siddiqui said.

The intensive training, said the chairperson, will help teachers cope with the added pressure that comes with the new Right To Education Bill and continuous comprehensive evaluation in classrooms, which requires continuous evaluation of students throughout the year.

However, concerns were raised that the move would make the shortage of trained teachers more acute. “A longer course should not discourage youngsters from entering this profession because by the time this change is implemented, the next pay commission would have made teaching more lucrative,” Siddiqui said.

Currently, there is a shortage of 5 lakh elementary schoolteachers.