Common test likely for integrated BEd course

The Centre is planning to conduct a common entrance test for admissions to four-year integrated degree programmes in education offered by many universities and teachers’ training institutes.

The proposed common entrance test would be conducted for admissions to government and private educational institutions offering BEd (BA and BSc) programmes.

“We can conduct an all-India entrance test to enrol the best of the students in the teachers’ training institutes after Class XII,” School Education Secretary Subhash Chandra Khuntia said here on Thursday.

He also urged the state governments to hold entrance tests for admissions to various teachers’ training and education programmes being offered by the institutions functioning within their respective jurisdictions.

Khuntia was addressing an event organised to launch “Prashikshak”, a web portal to monitor the activities of over 18,000 teachers’ training and education institutes operating in the country and formulate policy interventions to improve their performance. More than half of the 18,839 teachers’ training and education institutions are run by private entities.

Last year, the HRD ministry  introduced the four-year programme in education to attract young students to the teaching profession in view of the acute shortage of teachers.

The programme offers students, moving on to pursue higher education in the science and arts streams after clearing Class XII board examinations, a BA BEd or BSc BEd degree on completion of their course.  

Khuntia said the ministry had plans to overhaul the current scenario of teachers’ training and education through several new measures. “We are conducting a demand and supply analysis of teachers for the next 10 to 20 years,” he said.

Many bright students were not considering teaching as a career in absence of signals from the job market, Khuntia said. “We will project and publicise it so that good students plan for a career in teaching...This can be combined with the four-year integrated programme that we introduced last year,” he added. Khuntia also urged the state governments to create a separate cadre of teachers and fill vacant posts annually, instead of once in four years, so that bright candidates interested in teaching will wait for their turn. “We have large number of vacancies. As many as 6,083 faculty positions (38%) in District Institutes of Education and Training (Diets), out of a total 15,900 sanctioned strength, are vacant. It is affecting quality of Diets,” he added.