Contrary to the education department’s repeated claims that deliberations with National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) are on for recognition of Special Basic Teacher Certificate (BTC) course, more than 13000 Government school primary teachers are left with no option but to register for six month bridge course with the National Institute of the Open Schooling (NIOS).
It is learnt that the NCTE officials have clearly told the officers of the education department that there is no possibility of grant of recognition to special BTC course in retrospection. The NCTE has cited its act in which it is clearly mentioned that recognition for courses of past cannot be given. The stand of the NCTE clearly means that without its recognition, the Special BTC course conducted in different District Institutes of Teachers Training (DIET) after creation of state of Uttarakhand is of no use now. Moreover it also renders more than 13000 teachers as ineligible to teach primary classes. It is worth mentioning here that the NCTE has set up a deadline of March, 2019 by which all untrained primary teachers should complete the Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd). However Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree holders would be eligible to teach in primary classes after doing a six month bridge course.
On Monday, a team of senior officers from the state education department discussed the possibilities of granting recognition for special BTC course with NCTE’s officers in Delhi.
Under pressure from the teacher organizations, the state education minister Arvind Pandey has directed the secretary education, Bhupinder Kaur Olakh to pursue the matter and ensure that the NCTE changes its unrelenting stand. Sensing the gravity of the situation Pandey is expected to take up the issue with the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry. The experts however belive that HRD ministry cannot help the state government as the provisions of NCTE are governed by an act of the parliament. “The change in act of NCTE is needed to be made for any grant of recognition in retrospection, which is very difficult,’’ said a senior officer of education department on condition of anonymity.
When contacted, the Director Academic Research and Training Seema Jaunsari merely said that the matter is being pursued with the agencies concerned.
The Prathemik Shikshak Sangh (PSS), the association of government school primary teachers is however in a mood of confrontation with the government on the issue. The President of the Dehradun unit of the association Virendra Singh Krishali said that teachers should not pay the price of fault and negligence of the officers of the education department. He said that the Special BTC qualified primary teachers would not register in the bridge course offered by the NIOS.
In the whole issue it is clear that the negligence of senior officers of the education department is proving costly for the teachers who were imparted in service training by the department. For these courses the Government Orders (GOs) were released from time to time but approval from the NCTE for them was not taken. It is true that the education department sent many requests to the NCTE from the year 2005 onwards and on one occasion a special officer was also designated by the state government but at that time the matter got shuttled due to some technical glitches.