HYDERABAD: The draft policy put out by National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) on grading of teacher training institutions which offer courses like B.Ed and M.Ed is being hailed by teaching community. According to the draft policy, the grading agency, named ‘TechR’, will grade the institutions into A, B, C and D categories.
Those in D category are likely to be fraudulent ones and will be asked to shut down with immediate effect. Institutions that fail to achieve the required aggregate score will be placed under C category and will be given a year’s time to improve. “This move will impact the quality of teachers and students that the system produces,” said Sheik Shabbir Ali from Telangana Private Teachers Forum.
“There are institutions where one can pay `30,000 to 40,000 and to just take examinations. After clearing the exam, such students become qualified teachers although they would not have been trained in topics like child psychology, teaching methodology or pedagogy,” he remarked. Another significant change that the NCTE aims to bring about through the TeachR policy is that emphasis will now be given to factors like teaching transactions (30 pc) and to students’ learning outcome (40 pc). Only 10 pc and 20 pc weightage will be given to physical infrastructure and academic assets respectively.
“Be it government school students or those in lower-rung private schools, the knowledge that they acquire is poor as quality of teachers is sub-standard,” said P Sunita Swaroopa, a school teacher. The Geeta Bhukkal Committee found that 50 pc of Class V students were unable to read Class II textbooks.
South ignored
“Hyderabad, Channai and Bengaluru centres were ignored during consultation process over the draft policy,” said N Narayana, national vice-president, School Teachers Federation of India.
NCTE website info on TS, AP colleges
1,237 institutions from the two Telugu-speaking states have applied for accreditation
78 institutions of the applicants are from Hyderabad
Three colleges in Hyderabad have been de-recognised