News Desk: A big change is coming in education. After almost ten years, the BEd course is going to be back in one year as before. As per the recommendations of the new education policy, the one-year BEd course is going to be reinstated after a decade-long hiatus.
The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) is planning to reintroduce the one-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) course this year after a decade-long hiatus as per the recommendations of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Council Chairman Pankaj Arora said on Monday. The course will be offered to candidates who have completed a four-year bachelor's degree or a master's degree.
On Monday, the commission also constituted an eight-member committee to finalize the curriculum structure of various courses, including the one-year BEd programme, in line with the NEP provisions. The governing body of the Teacher Education Regulator, held on January 11, approved several decisions related to teacher training courses, including the one-year BEd course. The commission is discussing the decisions with the Ministry of Education and plans to make the draft NCTE Regulations 2025 public to replace the existing 2014 regulations once they become law.
Pankaj Arora said, "The one-year B.Ed program will be for four-year undergraduate (UG) students and two-year postgraduate students. It will not be offered to those who have completed the three-year UG program and they will have to take admission in the two-year B.Ed program." Institutions offering two-year B.Ed programmes will have to become multidisciplinary institutes by 2028."
The NCTE had been running a one-year B.Ed programme since it started functioning in 1995. However, in 2014, the course was discontinued following the recommendations of two expert panels -- one headed by Justice J.S. Verma and the other by Professor Poonam Batra -- which highlighted the poor quality of teacher training. The NCTE (Recognition Norms and Procedure) Regulations, 2014 extended the duration of B.Ed to two years with a mandatory internship of 20 weeks in a school regulated by the Teacher Education Regulatory Authority.
Arora said that through the one-year B.Ed, the NCTE is trying to ensure parity in all teacher education programmes. "We are also concerned about the training and education of teachers and have constituted a committee to ensure that quality is not compromised under the one-year B.Ed programme. We will continue to provide practical training like internships in schools to the students."
Arora said NCTE is planning to launch specialized four-year Integrated Teachers Education Programme (ITEP) courses on Yoga, Sanskrit, Art and Physical Education from this year. Launched by NCTE in 2023-24, ITEP is being offered by 64 institutions. NCTE will start one-year Masters in Education (Mead) and two-year Mead (part-time) from this year, he said.
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