UGC to set-up Inter-university centre to boost up Quality of Teachers

After observing that the country is facing shortage of quality teachers, both in schools and colleges/universities, the UGC (University Grants Commission) is all set to improve the quality of teachers.

For this, the centre is contemplating setting up an Inter-university centre (IUC) for teacher's education.

This centre will provide international-quality resource support for carrying out research on topics related to teacher education, in order to achieve "qualitative" transformation in teachers education across the country.

The UGC has given approval for the establishment of the new centre i.e. IUC. The HRD Ministry is yet to take a final view on this proposal.

Moreover, UGC has so far established 6 such centres across India. It includes Inter-university Accelerator centre in New Delhi and Inter-university centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune.

It is believed that, the proposed centre may help to redesign the teacher education curriculum in order to bring them in synchronisation with the other contemporary requirements for changing the global scenario.

According to a study, it was revealed that more than 6 lakh untrained teachers are employed in schools across India. Also, a large number of faculty positions remain vacant. These tend to be the main drawbacks for lack of quality teachers.

An official from the University Grants Commission said, "The preparation of teachers for early-childhood education, primary and upper-primary education is "largely" dealt by the department of education in the states."

The preparation of teachers for secondary and higher-secondary classes falls under the domain of higher education, and degrees such as B.Ed and M.Ed are offered by universities.

"But there has been as yet no articulated framework for the nature of training which teachers of the higher-education system may be required to undergo. The IUC can play a significant role here," he added.