New Delhi, July 26: A new four-year integrated course for B.Ed. has been formulated and will start from this session itself, the government informed the Rajya Sabha, for which a notification has been issued. Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said that through this integrated course, students will be able to save one year. Its syllabus has been finalised and institutions that are interested in introducing the programme can do so soon.
“All preparations for introducing the four-year integrated B Ed course have been done and a notification has been issued. The course will start from this session itself,” the minister has been quoted while he informed the house.
3 types of course
He said that the course will be of three types, and students can pursue either BA-B.Ed., B.Sc.-B.Ed. or B.Com.-B.Ed. courses.
All teachers required to have training
Institutes willing to commence the course can do so and admissions will be done from this session itself, Mr. Pokhriyal said. He also informed that after amendments in the Right to Education Act, guaranteeing the training of teachers, all teachers left out can avail the training till October 31, 2019. He said that as many as seven lakh teachers have been given training till 2015, but a lot of them still remain untrained. As per the RTE Act, it is mandatory for all teachers to have training.
The minister said that there are a total of 19,542 teacher training institutions imparting 25,876 courses for teacher training. Fifteen lakh students are being trained.
According to Section 23(1) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has been notified as an academic authority to lay down minimum qualifications for appointment of a teacher, the minister stated in his written reply.
Guidelines have been issued accordingly by NCTE for the conduct of Teacher Eligibility Test (TET). The prescribed guidelines state that a TET should be conducted at least once every year by the appropriate government. This suitable government will decide the validity period of TET qualifying certificate for appointment subject to a maximum of seven years for all categories.
A proposal to amend TET guidelines has been received from NCTE, Mr. Pokhriyal said.