Uttarakhand is facing under acute shortage of teachers in the primary schools as more than 7,000 posts of teachers are lying vacant in these schools. The State Government can appoint the BEd degree holders in the primary schools only up to March 31; after this date, only Diploma in Elementary Education (D El Ed) of Bachelor in Elementary Education (B El Ed) holders and Teacher's Eligibility Test (TET) first level qualified candidates would be eligible to teach in the primary schools as per the Ministry of HRD directive.
Ironically, the State of Uttarakhand has no institution which offers the diploma or degree in elementary education. The D.El.Ed and B.El.Ed are two-year training programmes designed specifically to train teachers for primary students. Twelve private colleges and two Government institutions have applied for recognition to start the diploma course in Elementary education but National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) is yet to give its approval for recognition.
The youths of the State hoping to become primary teachers now will have to travel to States like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana as these States have large number of institutions who offer such courses. RK Uniyal, Principal of District institute of education and training (DIET) Dehradun, told The Pioneer that the college has capacity to start diploma course in elementary education for 100 students and the process of approval form the NCTE is in progress. The DIET Dehradun and Champawat have applied in the NCTE for starting this course, but the approval is still awaited.