Erring teacher training institutes won't be penalised

CHENNAI: National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE), which has come out with drastic changes in teacher training courses, including duration, student intake and eligibility criteria, has said it will not take coercive action against institutes failing to comply with new norms within the deadline set by it.
An undertaking to this effect was given by counsel or NCTE in the Madras high court on Tuesday, when a batch of writ petitions assailling the new regulations came up for hearing.Recording the undertaking, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh said: “Counsel for the respondents (NCTE and Tamil Nadu Teacher Education University) state that no coercive steps would be taken to implement the rigours of the aforesaid provisions till a final decision is taken. This statement is taken on record.“
The Tamil Nadu Self-Financing College of Education Management Association, which represents most of 670 teacher training institutes and several individual institutions, moved the high court challenging `drastic changes' introduced by NCTE by Regulations 2014. The new norms increased duration of B.Ed and M.Ed courses from one year to two years each, reduced minimum intake from 100 to 50, and tightened eligibility of an institution or teacher education programme in future. Standalone institutions offering teacher training courses alone will have to become composite' institutions, of ering UG and PG program mes in liberal arts and humanity or social science or science or commerce.
Assailing the norms. R Suresh Kumar, counsel for the association, said they were sought to be thrust upon the institutions, as they had been asked to sign an undertaking affidavit within 21 days as a condition precedent for revised recognition. A student intending to do M.Ed would have to study continuously for 26 years if heshe were to become teacher in a higher secondary school, he said. Besides, they have to clear the mandatory Teacher Eligible Test (TET) as well, he said.
Not challenging the validity of the amendments, counsel for the petitioner-managements told the bench that since NCTE itself had constituted a panel to go into specific aspects of the new norms, some provisions need not be given effect till the exercise was over. NCTE, on its part, did admit that the exercise was on. It also offered not to act against managements for not complying with new norms.