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New Delhi : Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on May 15, 2020, announced that MHRD brought out two Gazette Notifications dated May 12, 2020, to regularise retrospectively certain Teacher Education Programmes being conducted by some Central and State Govt Institutions. These programmes were being conducted without any formal recognition from National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). The Minister said that the decision was taken in the interest of students who were likely to suffer due to it.
Background: NCTE legally grants formal recognition to academic institutions for conducting any of the NCTE recognised courses meant for pre-service teacher education. It is only after qualifying any of these NCTE recognised courses that a person becomes legally eligible for appointment as a school teacher in India.
It was brought to the notice of MHRD that some of the Central and State Govt institutions had inadvertently admitted students in teacher education courses which were not recognised by NCTE. This rendered invalid the qualification acquired by these students for the purposes of employment as school teachers in India.
Retrospective recognition to courses: An amendment to the NCTE Act, 1993, was initiated by MHRD to enable retrospective recognition to such courses. The amendment was notified on January 11, 2019, after being passed by both Houses of Parliament. Notably this amendment only allows retrospective recognition up to Academic Session 2017-2018, thereby only regularising the qualifications acquired by students in the past. It does not propose to leave it open for institutions to run unrecognised courses in future and thereafter approach for ex-post facto regularisation.
In all, 23 institutions of the Central and State Govt have benefitted involving about 13,000 students and around 17,000 in-service teachers. As a result of these notifications, the qualifications acquired by affected students and in-service teachers now stands legally validated.