NEW DELHI: The government might soon set up a university dedicated to teachers’ education with a view to improve the quality of teaching specially at the school level.
According to senior officials of the Human Resources Development Ministry, the National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) is preparing a concept note on the establishment of a Teachers’ University.
Since such institutions existed abroad, it was felt that having a specialised university dealing holistically with aspects related to teachers’ education could help improve teaching standards, the officials said.
“A panel of experts in the NCERT is already working on the concept note which would examine the requirement of such a University and how it could be established,” they said. It will now be examined whether a new institution is required or one of the existing ones can be converted into a university.
For instance, there are regional institutes of the NCERT, it may be more feasible to convert one of them into a Teachers’ University. These possibilities would be explored, the sources said.
The HRD ministry may also ask the NCERT to create educational content for one of the 32 DTH channels it is planning to launch in a couple of months. The National Council for Education Research and Training content on education will be beamed right into homes across the country through these DTH channels.
Apart from this, the Ministry is also working on a slew of measures to try and raise the standards of school education including a ‘Vidyanjali’ scheme under which retired defence personnel, people from Indian diaspora and women homemakers can volunteer for co-scholastic activities.