In a decision which could create problems for thousands of teachers of Government primary schools, the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) has refused to approve the Special Basic Training Certificate (BTC) of Uttarakhand.
There are more than 13,000 serving teachers in Uttarakhand who are Special BTC (termed Vishisht BTC). These teachers are Bachelor of Education (BEd) qualified but to make them eligible to teach in the primary classes the Education Department imparted them an in service training of Special BTC in different District Institutes of Teachers Training (DIET). Such teachers were appointed in the primary teacher cadre of State Education Department during different periods after the creation of a separate State. As per the new guidelines of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, only the Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd) qualified candidates are eligible to teach the primary students.
It had made it clear that after March 2019, all primary teachers who don’t have a DElEd degree or BTC certificate would be removed from primary teaching. For non Bed qualified primary teachers registration process for DElEd course with National School of Open Schooling (NIOS) ended on September 30. The BEd qualified candidates who are teaching primary candidates are required to register for a six months bridge course offered by the National Institute of Open Schooling. The NCTE’s refusal to acknowledge the special BTC course of Uttarakhand has meant that more than 13,000 primary teachers in the State are technically not eligible to teach. The State Government would now have to request the NCTE to reconsider its decision and give approval for Special BTC course.
If the NCTE refuses to budge than these 13000 teachers would have no option but to register for the bridge course of NIOS.
The President of district unit of Prathemik Shikshak Sangh (PSS), Pauri, Manoj Jugran said that thousands of special BTC qualified teachers of the state are now being termed untrained which is unfortunate as it the fault of officials if the approval from NCTE was not taken for Special BTC course. He said that teachers would first hold discussions with the department officials on the issue and if nothing positive emerges out from them then the teachers would be forced to approach the High Court (HC).