Context: India is estimated to have the largest workforce within the next decade. This means that a population bulge is on the cusp of entering the higher education ecosystem now. 

The pressing need of the hour is to focus on providing the best quality teacher education to those who aspire to build the future of this country.

Learning Crisis in India 

• Almost half of the children in grade 5 in rural India cannot solve a simple two-digit subtraction problem
• 67 % of children in grade 8 in public schools score less than 50 per cent in competency-based assessments in mathematics.

Present Status of Teacher Education

• Currently, there are about 94 lakh teachers across all schools in India.
• Teacher vacancies are to the tune of almost 60-70% in some states 
• On the other hand, there are 17,000-odd Teacher Education Institutes (TEIs) that are responsible for preparing teachers through programmes such as the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed), and Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed).
• These TEIs could generate over 19 lakh freshly trained teachers every year as against the estimated annual requirement of 3 lakh teachers.  
• In other words, these institutes could therefore be producing one-fifth of the total number of school teachers.
• Poor Quality of TEIs: The pass-percentage in central teacher eligibility tests that stipulate eligibility for appointments as teachers has not exceeded 25% in recent years. This indicates that teacher education system is producing poor-quality teachers.

Reasons for the Present Poor Status of Teacher Education

Inadequacies of planning, regulation, policy and organisational structures have been responsible for poor teacher education eco-system. Major factors which has contributed to this sorry state of affairs are:

1. Toothless NCTE

• The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and its four regional committees (north, south, east and west), established by statute, are responsible for teacher education in India. 
• However, the Act assigns disproportionate power to the regional committees which grant programme affiliation while the Council has been rendered toothless.
• The decade between 2004 and 2014 saw a five-fold increase in the number of programmes recognised by these regional committees

2. Dominated by Private Sector: 

• About 90% of these institutes are privately owned and majority of them are standalone institutes, running single programmes with as few as 50 students.
• Commercialisation combined with perverted incentives and widespread corruption have resulted in a massive proliferation of sub-standard private TEIs. 
• Most of these TEIs are financially unviable, some function out of tiny rooms with duplicate addresses, and a few could even be selling degrees at a fixed price. 

3. Lack of effective Assessment

• These institutes function in isolation from the rest of the higher education system, and there is no system to assess and accredit them. 
• Consequently, there is no systemic sieve to ensure the entry of only motivated and meritorious individuals into the teacher education space.

4. Poor Planning

• Regional Disparity: Almost half of the total TEIs are in the northern region and one-third of the total TEIs are concentrated in Uttar Pradesh
• Disproportionate Focus on Select few Programmes: While there are about 17 recognised teacher education programmes, a majority of TEIs offer only B.Ed and D.El.Ed programmes. Master of Education (M.Ed) is offered in less than 10% of the TEIs
• As a result the country is actually facing a shortage of subject-teachers in secondary schools and teacher-educators for whom a M.Ed degree is a requisite 

5. Outdated teacher preparation curriculum

• The curriculum was updated over a decade ago which Is not in sync with modern needs where technological advancements can be leveraged

Way Ahead:

• Preparation of Credible Comprehensive Data: Till date, there is no accurate real-time database of the number and details of teacher education institutes, students enrolled and programmes offered. Such data can be used for proper planning and reforming the organisational structure.
• An accurate system of assessment and accreditation must be developed to ensure high-quality teacher education. The National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) has only covered 30% of all institutes since its establishment back in 1994. Therefore, multiple accreditation agencies be empanelled to cover the extensive landscape of the teacher education sector 
• Teacher education curriculum must be regularly revamped and revised to ensure that our teacher education system is aligned to global standards.
• Tap the export potential of Teachers: Experts have advocated for a shift towards integrated four-year subject-specific programmes to be housed in multidisciplinary colleges and universities. This could potentially serve as an avenue for India to outsource its surplus high-quality teachers to over 70 countries that face a teacher shortage.

• Strengthening governance mechanism which clearly establishes ownership and accountability for set work streams across multiple agencies.

Conclusion

The draft National Education Policy presents a ray of hope. Its vision to restore integrity and credibility to the teacher education system needs to be translated into effective action.