REDEFINING QUALITY IN TEACHER EDUCATION

"If you want to think one year ahead, plant rice If you want to think 10 years ahead, plant trees But if you want to think 100 years ahead, give education to people." The process of teaching learning is as old as human beings on the earth. It has been from informal learning to formal learning with the passage of time. Teaching is a profession and teacher education is a process of professional preparation of teachers. The main challenge faced by the teaching profession today is both one of numbers and quality. Achieving quality education for all, calls for more and be tter trained teachers, as pedagogical processes lie at the heart of quality education. Teachers make the highest impact on quality in the classroom. They are at the heart of education, but the status of overall teacher education in India is pathetic, to put it mildly, there is a need for high quality teacher educators. The vicious cycle of poor quality in-service teacher development begins with the absence of high quality teacher educators. Education functionaries need to be well equipped. The challenge of providing democratic, accessible and equitable education at each level continues to be a major task before the policy makers, along with changes/improvements in terms of access, equity, infrastructure, preparation, motivation and deployment of teachers, and provision of quality textbooks etc. This paper discusses about some of the issues and challenges to be implemented in education for achieving quality in teaching and learning.