Srinagar: The Union Ministry of Education (MoE) has notified a four-year integrated teacher education programme (ITEP) under which the bachelor’s degree offered by the degree colleges in any stream would be integrated with the BEd course.
The ITEP has been launched by the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) which would help develop a new generation of teachers and play a major role in making the youth future-ready.
“The four-year ITEP is a dual major holistic bachelor’s degree, offering BA B Ed, BSc B Ed, B Com B Ed covering one of the major mandates of NEP 2020,” a top official said.
The official said that the MoE had started working out modalities to introduce the course in some higher educational institutions (degree colleges) on a pilot basis from the 2022-2023 academic session.
As per the NEP, the teachers would require training in high-quality content as well as pedagogy, and teacher education would gradually be moved by 2030 into multidisciplinary colleges and universities.
“As colleges and universities all move towards becoming multidisciplinary, they will also aim to house outstanding education departments that offer B Ed, M Ed, and PhD degrees in education,” read the contents of the NEP-2020.
The NEP-2020 also states that the minimum degree qualification for teaching would be a four-year integrated B Ed (ITEP) degree that teaches a range of knowledge content and pedagogy and includes strong workshop training in the form of student-teaching at local schools.
“The 2-year B Ed programmes will also be offered by the same multidisciplinary institutions offering the 4-year integrated B Ed and will be intended only for those who have already obtained Bachelor’s degrees in other specialised subjects,” it reads.
It said that these B Ed programmes may also be suitably adapted as 1-year B Ed programmes and will be offered only to those who have completed the equivalent of 4-year multidisciplinary bachelor’s degrees or who have obtained a Master’s degree in a specialty and wish to become a subject teacher in that specialty.
“All such B Ed degrees will be offered only by accredited multidisciplinary higher education institutions offering four-year integrated B Ed programmes,” it reads.
The NEP-2020 states that the multidisciplinary higher education institutions offering the four-year in-class integrated B Ed programme and having accreditation for open distance learning (ODL) may also offer high-quality B Ed programmes in blended or ODL mode to students in remote or difficult-to-access locations.
“The programme can be availed by the in-service teachers who are aiming to enhance their qualification with suitable robust arrangements for mentoring and for the practicum training and student-teaching components of the programme,” the NEP-2020 reads.