AGENCIES OF TEACHER EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION

The development of a democratic country depends on the status of teachers. Teaching

has been acknowledged as the noblest of profession. The society is indebted to the teachers

for shaping the destiny of the nation through the education of young minds. It is universally

accepted that a teacher’s personality and professional competence has a direct bearing on the

growing mind of the pupils. In a nutshell, it can be stated that professional competence of a

teacher is an important pre- requisite without which even the best curriculum, syllabi and

teaching learning materials cannot ensure desired learning outcome. The main aim of various

agencies at national and state level is to equip prospective teachers with necessary

knowledge, skills and attitudes for taking up the responsibility of moulding the behaviour of

young generation in tune with the demands of the ever changing socio- cultural environment.

NATIONAL LEVEL AGENCIES OF TEACHER EDUCATION

 NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHER EDUCATION (NCTE)

Kothari commission Report (1964-66) criticized Teacher Education Programme being

conventional, rigid and away from reality. The commission expressed the need of

establishing National council of Teacher Education in order to improve the standard of

Teacher Education. In September 1972, Central Advisory Board in Education accepted the

said proposal which was supported by fifth National plan. Thereafter by law, Indian

Education Ministry established NCTE on 21st May 1973. NCTE has got independent

constitutional status since 1993. NCTE has its headquarters at New Delhi and four Regional

Committees at Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar and Jaipur to look after its statutory

responsibilities. The NCTE headquarters is headed by the chairperson, while each regional

committee is headed by a Regional director.

 According to the Act 1993, NCTE performs the following Functions

o To make recommendations to the centre and State government Universities, the

U.G.C and other institutions in the preparation of plans and programme’s in the field

of teacher education.

o To supervise the teacher education programmes and to provide financial assistance.

o To coordinate and monitor teacher education and its development in the country.

o To prepare a guideline with regard to minimum qualifications for the candidates to be

employed as teacher at different levels.

o To develop norms for any specified category of courses or training in teacher

education, including minimum eligibility criterion for admission.

o To advise central government on matters like teacher education, evaluation of the

curriculum for teacher education and periodical review with respect to revision of

curriculum.

o To advise the government to ensure adequate standards in teacher education.

o To give approval to teacher education institutions.

o To enforce accountability of teacher development programmes in the country.

o To promote innovations and research studies and organize them annually or

periodically.

o To prepare a programme for in-service teacher education for orientation of teachers

for latest development.

 NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING

(NCERT)
 Ministry of Education, Government of India established NCERT in 1961. NCERT is

an autonomous organization, working as an academic wing of the Ministry of Education.

NCERT assists the ministry in the implementation and formulation of its policies and

programmes in the field of Education. It is expected to encourage student and teacher to

conduct educational research. In order to fulfill these main objectives, it has established

National Institute of Education (NIE) at Delhi and 4 regional educational colleges at Ajmer,

Bhopal, Bhubaneswar and Mysore. It also works in collaboration with the departments in the

states, the institutes and universities. It also maintains close contact with similar national and

international institutions throughout the world and communicates results of its researches to a

common man by publishing books and journals.

Functions of NCERT

o Monitoring the administration of Regional colleges of Education.

o Undertaking aid, co- ordinate and promote and research in all branches of education

for improving school education.

o Organizing pre-service and in-service education programmes for teachers.

o Preparing and publishing study material for students and related teacher.

o Searching talented students for the award of scholarship in science, social science and

technology.

o Undertaking functions assigned by the Ministry of education for improving school

education.

o Organizing various programmes with respect to Research, Training, Research,

Development, Extension services, evaluation and publishing study - material.

o Qualitative improvement of school – education rather than quantitative expansion.

o Making our education relevant to national objectives and social needs.

 o Offering financial aid to research projects of the teachers.

o Also organizes summer Institutes to school teachers for attaining their

professional growth. Through these measures NCERT wants to achieve

qualitative improvement in Education.

UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION (UGC)

The University Grants Commission (UGC) the statutory apex body in the field of

University Education in India. It came into existence on 28th December, 1953, at New Delhi.

UGC was given autonomy by govt. of India in 1956. It serves as a coordinating body between

the union and state governments and the institutions of higher learning. Its headquarters is

located at New Delhi, having six regional centres at Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Guwahati,

Bhopal and Bangalore. The major objective of UGC is the promotion and coordination of

university education and the maintenance of standards in teaching, examination and research.

Functions of UGC

o To provide financial assistance to colleges and universities to meet their requirement.

o To provide a guide-line to Centre and State Govt. for giving grant to a University.

o To extend the financial aid for the development of Universities and maintenance.

o To provide the grants for five years to start new department or any academic

programme in the University but now state concurrence is essential.

o To provide the grants for five years to establish as new University in the state.

o To provide the fellowship for teachers and project work for University and college

teachers.

o To encourage higher level research work and teaching activities by providing

financial assistance.
 o To provide the grants to the Universities and colleges for higher education and new
programmes.

Teacher Education Committees:

o To upgrade the standard of education Teacher-education committees were formed

consisting of seven members for two years duration.

o It provides awareness of new innovations and research in teacher-education

o The national fellowship and teacher fellowship are granted for encouraging research

and teaching work.

o UGC provides travel grants to the university lecturers for attending international

conferences and seminars.

o Visiting professors are appointed from among the University professors for inter

change programmes and delivering lectures.

o Residential facilities for university and college teachers are also provided.

o Research associates are appointed for post doctor work.

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION:

(NUEPA)

The national university of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA),

established by the government of India, is a premier organization dealing with capacity

building and research in planning and management of education. Its mission is to become a

centre of excellence in educational policy, planning and management by promoting advanced

level teaching, research and capacity building in national and global context.

Functions

o To provide training facilities in educational planning and administration at state level

and regional level.

 o To integrate educational studies and researches under the area of educational planning

and administration.

o To encourage the teachers to solve the problems of educational planning and

administration by organizing workshops and seminars.

o To provide guidance at National and State levels in the area of administration and

planning.

o Review of administration and planning of other countries- used to develop our

educational system and solve educational problems.

o To organize orientation programs for educational administrators- provide awareness

of new developments in this area.

o Training Institutions for special fields for school and colleges-these provide

elementary in special fields like computers, educational technology and fine arts.

o The publication unit established the coordination between theory and practice for

research report publication.

o The results of seminars and workshop discussions are published.

REGIONAL INSTITUTES OF EDUCATION (RIE)

The Regional Institute of Education (RIE, formerly known as Regional College of

Education), is a constituent unit of the National Council of Educational Research and

Training (NCERT), New Delhi. The RIEs are set up in 1963 by Government of India in

different parts covering various regions. The Regional Institutes were started with the

objective of qualitative improvement of school education through innovative pre-service and

in-service teacher education programs and relevant research, development and extension

activities. The Regional Institutes of Education have established themselves as institutes of

repute in the area of school and teacher education. The institutes have endeavored to shoulder
the responsibilities and challenges generated by changes in the educational scenario of the

country.

o NCERT established model institutes of education in different regions of the country.

o Besides Teacher Education programme (4 years integrated B.Ed Course), these

college conduct programme with respect to extension services, in-service training and

Research.

o Education is a professional subject like engineering, medicine and B.Ed. student

should be trained in the content and methodology simultaneously, due to this reason

they run 4 years B.ED. course.

o This course offers B.Sc. B.Ed. (Science) and BA, B. Ed (languages) degree.

o These colleges also conduct one-year B.Ed. courses especially in science, commerce,

agriculture and languages.

o They also run M.Ed course.

o These Colleges are situated at Ajmer, Bhopal, Mysore and Bhubaneswar as centers of

excellence for the four regions of India.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION (NIE)

NIE is located at New Delhi., it consists of several departments, viz, curriculum

teacher, preparation of instructional material, evaluation and extension etc. The council has

launched a large number of projects pertaining to basic areas of research in the field of

teacher training and secondary education: Among them are:

o To test the methods and technology of the development of curriculum and make it up-

to-date.

o To develop teachers-guide, student work-books and audio- visual material aids as the

systematic material for text-books

o To expand extension and field services for improving the quality of teacher education

in the area.

o To suggest suitable reforms in the examination system and bring about an element of

objectivity in it.

o To provide in -service training in various subject areas.

o To prepare a detailed programme of the education of science and mathematics and it

may help in the development of an industry at economy in the country.

CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDIES OF EDUCATION (CASE)

The centre of Advanced Studies in Education (CASE) was established at M.S.

University Baroda (Gujarat). The UGC granted centres of CASE in UP at university

of Lucknow and Rohilkhand University. The CASE has been granted for the

Kurukshetra University, Haryana. The centres function under the guidance of UGC.

The CASE performs the following main functions:

o Encouraging cooperative research work in the discipline of education and teacher-

education.

o Providing valuable information to teacher educators, planners and administrators by

publishing booklets and journals.

o Providing scholarships and financial assistance to scholars and teachers.

o Encouraging different types of programmes for the social development.

o Encouraging teacher education for the research work by providing teacher –

fellowships and grants.

o Organising extension programmes with collaboration of NCERT, NCTE and UGC.

NATIONAL KNOWLEDE COMMISSION (NKC)

 The 21st Century has been acknowledged worldwide as the 'Knowledge Century'.

Every nation now finds itself operating in an increasingly competitive and globalised

international environment where the information infrastructure, research and innovation

systems, education and lifelong learning, and regulatory frameworks are crucial variables.

It is with this broad task in mind that the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) was

established on 13th June 2005 and given a timeframe of three years from 2nd October 2005

to 2nd October 2008 to achieve its objectives.

As per Government Notification of 13th June 2005, the following are the Terms of

Reference of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC).

o Build excellence in the educational system to meet the knowledge challenges of the

21st century and increase India’s competitive advantage in fields of knowledge.

o Promote creation of knowledge in S&T laboratories.

o Improve the management of institutions engaged in intellectual property rights.

o Promote knowledge applications in agriculture and industry.

o Promote the use of knowledge capabilities in making government an effective,

transparent and accountable service provider to the citizen and promote widespread

sharing of knowledge to maximize public benefit.

Objectives
The overall task before the National Knowledge Commission is to take steps that will

give India the ‘knowledge edge’ in the coming decades, i.e. to ensure that our country

becomes a leader in the creation, application and dissemination of knowledge.

Creation of new knowledge principally depends on strengthening the education system,

Promoting domestic research and innovation in laboratories as well as at the grassroots level,

and tapping foreign sources of knowledge through more open trading regimes, foreign

investment and technology licensing.

Application of knowledge will primarily target the sectors of health, agriculture, government

and Industry. This involves diverse priorities like using traditional knowledge in agriculture,

encouraging innovation in industry and agriculture, and building a strong e-governance

framework for public services.

Dissemination of knowledge focuses on ensuring universal elementary education, especially

for girls and other traditionally disadvantaged groups; creating a culture of lifelong learning,

especially for skilled workers; taking steps to boost literacy levels; and using Information and

Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance standards in education and widely disseminate

easily accessible knowledge that is useful to the public.

Organisation

CONCLUSION:

There is a spread of education not only in India, but all over the world due to

explosion of knowledge. So the social needs are changed accordingly. A teacher is expected

to face the new changes by undergoing through training for new technics in education. Such

training needs are satisfied by different agencies at different levels.

 SEMINAR
EDU 905: THEORETICAL BASES OF TEACHER EDUCATION

ROLE AND FUNCTIONS OF NATIONAL LEVEL AGENCIES OF

TEACHER EDUCATION
Submitted To Submitted By

Mrs. Mary K.J Jins Maria Jacob

Asst. Professor Ist year M.Ed.