Present Scenario of Teacher Education in India

This article attempts to examine the present scenario of teacher education and quality of teachers. India has one of the largest systems of teacher education in the world. Besides the university departments of education and their affiliated colleges, government and government aided institutions; private and self-financing colleges and open universities are also engaged in teacher education. Though most teacher education programmes are nearly identical yet their standard varies across institutions and universities. Education of teachers not only facilitates improvement of school education by preparing competent, committed and professionally well qualified teachers who can meet the demand of the system, but also functions as a bridge between schooling and higher education. In certain areas, the supply of teachers far exceeds the demand while in others there are acute shortages as qualified teachers which results in the appointment of under-qualified and unqualified persons. The role of teacher education as a process of nation building is universally recognized. But teacher education in India, because of its history and also due to various factors beyond its control, has by and large been confined to school education only. Evidently the quality of education is a direct consequence and outcome of the quality of teachers and teacher education system.