Disenchantment among the students for a Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree has forced the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) to review the new pattern of the course for teacher education. The NCTE which is the regulatory body of teacher education in India had enforced the new pattern in BEd courses across the country last year.
In a recent meeting at Jaipur recently the NCTE had constituted a review committee which would review all aspects of new pattern.
The four member committee is chaired by former Chairman of NCTE, M A Siddiqui and would submit its report within a time period of six months.
The President of Association of Self Financed Institutes of Uttarakhand Sunil Agarwal said that the term of the BEd course under the new pattern is made two years from one year and has so many provisions which are not practical.
Agarwal and General Secretary of the association G S Varna were invited by the NCTE along with representatives of States like UP, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Punjab in the meeting.
Agarwal said that all the representatives were unanimous in their opinion that the new pattern has created disillusionment among the students due to which large numbers of seats are vacant in the BEd colleges this year. He listed the proposals like minimum sixteen teachers in a college and increasing the tenure of practice teaching to 20 weeks from 40 days.
"The NCTE demands that at least 10 schools should be enrolled by a college for practice teaching. The students are now not interested in BEd degree. In Uttarakhand more than 60 percent seats in the colleges offering BEd courses are vacant. We requested the NCTE to review its decision so that the students are attracted again towards the course," he said.
Agarwal said that the students who have enrolled themselves in the B.Ed. courses this year are also facing problems as the textbook according to the new syllabus have not yet arrived and the old ones have become obsolete.