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Unit 30: NCF for Teacher Education (2009)

there is a need for a longer duration programme, either a four-year integrated model at the Notes
Bachelor’s degree level or a two-year second Bachelor’s degree model. A transition to the new
models will need to be done within a definite time frame – say, five years – keeping in mind the
time required for preparation of teacher educators as well. However, the current two-year D.Ed.
model after twelve years of schooling may continue in the interim, attempting to modify and
intensify the programme with the vision and elements presented elaborately in chapter 2 of this
document.
Another instance of neglect of elementary teacher education is the non-recognition of the need for specially
qualified teacher educators in elementary education. It has been taken for granted that the existing
arrangements for teacher preparation at different stages would do as well for teacher educators:
B.Ed for elementary teacher educators and M.Ed for secondary teacher educators. The logic that
seems to operate here is that one’s higher position in the educational hierarchy would entitle one
to train others working at the lower levels, irrespective of whether one is equipped with relevant
repertoires. Other than the activity of teaching children in elementary school, all other functions
related to this sector of education are attended to by people who have been trained for and
taught only at the secondary level due to lack of appropriately trained personnel in elementary
education. The difficulty is exacerbated by the absence of degree and post-degree programmes in primary/
elementary teacher education. At present, elementary teacher educators in their bid to upgrade their
professional qualifications pursue M.Ed. The IASE brief includes the training of elementary teacher
educators which they do by running M.Ed programmes. However, it is evident that the M.Ed.
programme in its current form cannot meet the requirements of elementary teacher education as
it is designed primarily on the requirements of secondary education. The preparation of teacher
educators for the elementary stage needs the inclusion of a variety of scholarship from the
sciences, social sciences, mathematics and the languages.
Education as an area of interdisciplinary knowledge is not merely an application of a few core
disciplines, but a praxis and a context where theories and practical wisdom are generated
continuously. It is important to facilitate development of a discourse in education through more
purposive and deliberate focus in creating explanatory terms and vocabulary. And this process
has to inform and be informed by teacher education. Since traditionally, it was secondary teacher
education institutions that developed into university departments of education, elementary
education and early childhood education have been neglected as distinct areas of knowledge
with their own distinct concerns, concepts and methodological perspectives. It is important to
strengthen all areas within education as distinct but integrated discourses through research as
well as through documenting praxis in school settings as well as field-level educational initiatives.
This scattered corpus of experience and knowledge needs to be brought together to evolve a
coherent vocabulary, researched and documented knowledgebase and informed perspectives for
all areas of education as well as education in its entirety.
30.5.2 Secondary Teacher Education
There is also a dire need to critically review the secondary teacher education system. The one-
year second Bachelor’s degree (B.Ed.) model seems to have outlived its relevance. With the
proliferation of B.Ed. colleges, particularly with privatization and commercialization, B.Ed.
programmes have become weak both in theory and practice. Even the few institutions, which
keep struggling to make this programme meaningful, find it difficult to overcome the structural
constraints that the short duration of the programme poses. While the second Bachelor’s degree
model may still be relevant, it is imperative that this needs strengthening in terms of intensity,
rigour and duration.
Secondary teacher education institutes continue to exist as insular organisations even within the
university system where many are located. This precludes the larger academic debates on equity,
gender and community to enter the day-to-day discourse of teacher educators. Institutes of teacher
education have become breeding grounds of academic stagnation and resistance to change. The
training of teachers happens in insular, intellectually impoverished environments that are severed

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