New Delhi, May 24 (IANS) The teachers’ organisations of Delhi University have discussed the impact of the Integrated Programme for Teacher Education (ITEP), notified by the NCTE that is on the agenda of the DU Academic Council in its forthcoming meeting on May 26.
Nandita Narain, president of the Democratic Teachers Front said, “The Academic Council meeting of the University of Delhi scheduled for 26th May 2023 includes in its agenda the introduction, in ‘pilot mode’ of an Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) – a ‘dual degree major holistic Bachelors’ degree’. The agenda mentions that ITEP will be implemented in all 8 colleges that offer the BElEd programme. The agenda does not indicate that the decision to implement ITEP in 3 colleges from academic year 2023-24 and in all 8 colleges from academic year 2024-25 has the approval of the concerned college governing bodies, the Committee of Courses (professional) and Faculty of Education as per the University’s statutory procedure.”
If the ITEP is to commence in pilot mode, it can be offered in any college of Delhi University. Why is it being imposed in colleges that are conducting the BElEd? The real reason for coercing BElEd colleges to start the ITEP is the UGC and DU’s unwillingness to appoint new faculty required to teach ITEP, she added.
The BElEd is the first and the only four-year professional degree programme that prepares teachers for elementary classes. With its interdisciplinary and integrated approach, the BElEd has successfully trained close to 10,000 teachers, in consonance with the constitutionally mandated RTE Act. In contrast, the ITEP program provides only a one-year professional training following 3 years of general education (BA/BSc/BCom) which is inadequate to equip teachers with the necessary knowledge and capacities for teaching diverse levels and classrooms.
The current qualification for faculty teaching the BElEd and BEd stipulate two post-graduate degrees: one in education and the other in a parent discipline related to the foundation discipline or a school subject.
The essential qualification for the bulk of the ITEP faculty on the other hand, as stated in the NCTE norms, includes a post-graduate degree in liberal disciplines along with an undergraduate degree in education (BEd) to teach liberal disciplinary courses or a post-graduate degree in education (MEd) to teach Foundations of Education that include sociology, psychology and philosophy of education without PG in the concerned discipline.
Abha Dev Habib, Secretary, DTF, said “this dilution of faculty qualification and a standardised homogenised curriculum indicates deep dilution of the standards required to prepare school teachers. A common curriculum to educate teachers across diverse cultures, communities and languages of India will not prepare them to teach in diverse classrooms and hence will make them ineffective.”
There are close to 50 vacancies in the education faculty teaching the BElEd. After a very long time, DU has advertised these vacancies. The imposition of ITEP will seriously impact adhoc and temporary faculty teaching in substantive posts for several years, she added.
Since ITEP is a dual-degree programme, the exit system applicable to ITEP is stated to be ‘finalised in the National Higher Education Qualification Framework by UGC’. This too violates Delhi University statutes.
Abha Dev Habib said that closing down a well reputed program such as the BElEd is not only illegal, it is also, academically and professionally irrational. The University should come clear on why it is coercing colleges to replace the BElEd with ITEP?
–IANS
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