Reforms In Regulatory Framework
The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) was constituted under the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993 for achieving planning and coordinated development of teacher education in the country, for regulation and proper maintenance of norms and standards in the teacher education system. In the recent past the NCTE has undertaken various steps for systemic improvements in its functioning and in improving the teacher education system, as under :
Based on the study of demand and supply of teachers and teacher educators of the various states, the NCTE has decided not to receive further applications for several teacher education courses in respect of 13 States. This has led to substantial rationalisation in the demand-supply situation across States;
The Regulations for grant of recognition and norms and standards for various teacher education courses were revised and notified on 31st August, 2009. The applications for grant of recognition are now processed strictly in chronological order. The new Regulations make the system more transparent, expedient and time bound, with reduction in discretionary powers of the Regional Committees;
e-Governance system has been introduced by way of providing online facility for furnishing of applications and online payment of fees. MIS has been developed to streamline the process of recognition;
The National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education has been developed keeping in view NCF, 2005;
Academic support is being provided through preparation of Manual for the teacher education institutions and publication and dissemination of Thematic Papers on Teacher Education.
Various quality control mechanisms have been developed, including re-composition of the Visiting Teams, periodical monitoring of the teacher education institutions and de-recognition of institutions not conforming to the Norms and Standards prescribed by the NCTE.