The Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission (HP-PERC) organised a day long workshop on ‘Building a Vision for Quality Teacher Education in Himachal Pradesh’ at Himachal Institute of Public Administration, Fair Lawn Shimla today.
Additional Chief Secretary (Education) P.C. Dhiman presided over the workshop, which was attended by Chairperson of the Regulatory Commission Sarojini Ganju Thakur, Regional Director, National Council for Teacher Education Dr. S. K. Chauhan, Sunil Sharma, Member (HP-PERC), Dinkar Burathoki, Director (Higher Education), prominent academicians and representatives of the Private institutions of the State.
P.C. Dhiman said that the objective of the workshop was to build a vision and suggest measures for improving the quality of teachers’ education and creating good benchmarks for private higher education in the State.
Chairperson of the Regulatory Commission Sarojini Ganju Thakur described challenges in quality teacher education in the State.
Regional Director of the National Council for Teacher Education Dr. S. K. Chauhan highlighted the provisions of new Regulations. He said that on-line applications for recognition of courses from the institutions including integrated courses would be received up to 30th May 2015 for the academic session 2015-16 and No Objection Certificate of the Affiliating body/University was mandatory before submitting application to the NCTE.
The extending duration of teacher education programs (B. Ed., M.Ed. and B.P.Ed.) from 1 year to 2 years, the NCTE has also included three new programs i.e B. Ed. (part time), BA-B.Ed/B.Sc-B.Ed 4 years Integrated program and B.Ed.-M.Ed. 3 years Integrated program from academic session 2015-16. It is for the first time that B.E./B.Tech qualification has also been included in the eligibility criteria of admission to the B. Ed. program.
The Regional Director informed that in the new Regulation provision of issuing deficiency letter stands omitted and now the non-complying institution would get show cause notice directly.
Chauhan also expressed concern for repeated relaxation in prescribed norms and criteria by the affiliating University and insisted upon establishing a level playing field both in public and private institutions.
The other issues deliberated during the workshop include streamlining of admission processes, issues relating to inspections, affiliation and governance, low level of accreditation of educational institutions imparting teachers’ education.
The representatives of the Private Colleges of Education emphasized that given the time constraints to switchover to revised pattern, the affiliating University i.e. Himachal Pradesh University should organize a workshop for framing of new syllabus within the broad framework laid down by the NCTE and to streamline admission process and other academic aspects in consultation with the stakeholder institutions.
