With Union Government refusing to bail out the beleaguered education department of Uttarakhand on special Basic Teacher Certificate (BTC) issue, more than 13000 Government school primary teachers of the State have no option but to enroll for the bridge course offered by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).
The State Government has received a communication from the union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry in which it has made clear that it cannot ask the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) to issue recognition to the Special BTC course conducted by the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) in retrospection. To offer any relief to the Special BTC holders of the state , an amendment in the act of the NCTE has to be done which can only be initiated by the parliament. It means that the Special BTC course conducted in DIETs 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.