BEd curriculum criteria relaxed

New Delhi: The Union human resource ministry has decided to dilute the mandatory requirement of adhering to the proposed curriculum for institutes seeking recognition under the proposed four-year Bachelor in Education course, set to be implemented from the next academic year.

Instead, the implementation of the proposed curriculum — by the institutes seeking recognition — has been confined to being a “model for emulation by the teacher education institution.”

It is learnt that the move to relax the requirement of mandatory adherence to the proposed curriculum has been made as the ministry is fearful that most institutes applying for conducting the proposed four-year BEd programme would be unable to fulfil the requirements and hence not qualify for rec-ognition under the norms.

Sources stated that HRD minister Prakash Javadekar was of the opinion that the curriculum prepared for the four-year integrated teacher education programme should not be made mandatory for the institutions seeking recognition for the programme. The minister is also learnt to have opined that, “at best the proposed curriculum could be a model for emulation by the teacher education institution.”  

Sources stated that the move comes days after the Narendra Modi government’s decision to introduce the integrated teacher education programme, a four-year Bachelor in Education in the country, from the next academic year. This newspaper had first, on October 30, reported that the proposal has been cleared for implementation by the HRD ministry.

The National Council for Teacher Education had developed the proposed syllabus for the new four-year integrated BEd courses. The NCTE is the statutory body that works towards regulating teaching courses in India.

The HRD ministry had put forth the proposal for a four-year degree is expected to save one year of students as they can pursue the course immediately after their class XII examination. Currently, a student needs to complete a Bachelor’s degree before embarking on a degree in education. As per the new integrated BEd programme, the educational institutes imparting the course would need to have better training facilities as well as better infrastructure for the students.

As per the proposal, candidates can apply for the four-year integrated teacher-training programme right after completing their Class 12.

The new programme is expected to be formulated on the lines of other professional degree courses.