Page 290 - DEDU505_TEACHER_EDUCATION_ENGLISH

Teacher Education

Notes • First Curriculum Framework developed by non-statutory NCTE in 1978, its revised version
by the NCERT in 1988, the first Curriculum Framework for Quality Teacher Education by
NCTE in 1998 and a Discussion Paper on Curriculum Framework jointly prepared by NCTE
and NCERT in 2006.
• A teacher education curriculum framework needs to be in consonance with the curriculum
framework for school education. A teacher needs to be prepared in relation to the needs and
demands arising in the school context, to engage with questions of school knowledge, the
learner and the learning process.
• The unprecedented expansion of teacher education institutions and programmes during the
past few years characterizes the teacher education scenario of today. With increasing school
enrolments and the launch of pan-Indian primary education development programmes
such as the SSA (2002) to achieve UEE, the Operation Blackboard (OB) 1986, and the District
Primary Education Programme (DPEP) 1995, there was an increase in the demand for teachers.
• The number of courses offered at different stages – pre-primary, elementary and secondary
– face-to-face and distance modes of teacher education; programmes of M.Ed, face-to-face
and distance modes, C.P.Ed., B.P.Ed. and M.P. Ed. have increased from 3,489 courses in 3,199
institutions in March, 2004 to a whopping 14,428 courses in 11,861 institutions in March
2009.
• Teacher education as a whole needs urgent and comprehensive reform. There is need to
bring greater convergence between professional preparation and continuing professional
development of teachers at all stages of schooling in terms of level, duration and structure.
• There is a grave need to upgrade initial teacher education by enhancing the entry qualification
and duration of training making it equivalent to a degree programme and locating the
management and control of elementary teacher education within Universities.
• Another instance of neglect of elementary teacher education is the non-recognition of the
need for specially qualified teacher educators in elementary education.
• The difficulty is exacerbated by the absence of degree and post-degree programmes in
primary/elementary 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.
• Secondary teacher education institutes continue to exist as insular organisations even within
the university system where many are located.
• We have seen two kinds of exclusion prevalent in schools largely because of an inadequate
preparation of teachers to address diversity in the classroom. The first is the exclusion of the
children with disabilities of different kinds and learning difficulties.
• The second and more insidious pattern of exclusion is the social exclusion of children who
come from socially and economically deprived backgrounds Scheduled Castes (SCs),
Scheduled Tribes (STs), minority and other communities, girls and children with diverse
learning needs.
• It is important for the development of concepts in children as well as the application of
school knowledge in real life that formal school knowledge is linked with community
knowledge.
• With the onset and proliferation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT),
there is a growing demand that it be included in school education.
• Teaching is a profession and teacher education is a process of professional preparation of
teachers. Preparing one for a profession is an arduous task and it involves action from
multiple fronts and perspectives.

284 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY