HRD Ministry grants retrospective recognition to teacher-education courses run without approval from NCTE

New Delhi, May 15

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In a relief to over 13,000 students and 17,000 in-service teachers, the HRD Ministry has granted retrospective recognition to teacher-education courses conducted without the approval from the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE), Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said on Friday.

“We have brought out a gazette notification to regularise retrospectively certain teacher-education programmes being conducted by some central and state government institutions. These programmes were being conducted without any formal recognition from the NCTE,” the Union Minister said.

“It was brought to my notice that some institutions had inadvertently admitted students in the teacher-education courses which were not recognised by the NCTE. This rendered invalid the qualification acquired by these students for the purposes of employment as school teachers,” it added.

The Ministry clarified that amendment only allowed retrospective recognition up to the 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,” an official said.

The NCTE legally grants formal recognition to academic institutions for conducting any of the 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. PTI