Mysuru: To strengthen the knowledge base of teacher education, the Department of Higher Education and Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, New Delhi have set up an Inter University Centre for Teacher Education (IUCTE) at the Regional Institute of Education, Mysuru, which happens to be one of the constituent units of the NCERT, New Delhi.
The IUCTE aims to strengthen the knowledge base of teacher education by facilitating professional development, networking, new knowledge creation and empowerment of teachers of academic institutions and central and state universities in Southern India region. Proposed strategies, approaches and action plan of IUCTE are introducing education as one of the electives at undergraduate and post graduate levels in order to provide a wider scope and flexibility in the professional choice to the students. Besides the existing teacher education programmes offered by RIEM, innovative teacher education programmes, which are interdisciplinary and integrated in nature will be planned at RIE. Teacher education programmes would be extended to other professional disciplines such as engineering, medicine, commerce, agriculture, industry and technology in order to develop pedagogical and andragogic competencies in those fields.
Speaking to Newskarnataka, Y Sreekanth, Principal, RIE Mysuru said, “The new centre will help to develop networking and co-ordination between the teacher education institutions and university departments of education through collaborative research projects and consultative services, handholding of state universities in designing and structuring their teacher education programmes. The in-service training programmes will focus not only on enrichment of content and pedagogic competencies but also empower the teachers with the skills and competencies of designing curriculum, textbook writing and in conducting action research projects.”
He also mentioned that the centre will be functional at the existing RIE building till completion of the new building in three acre land at RIE campus. “We are going to have a new building for the centre which will be part of RIE. Sanctions have been made for the construction of the building, plans for which too have been submitted and approved. The new building will be constructed in 3-acres of land at RIE premise. Already activities in this regard have been initiated and letters written to all vice chancellors, including the education departments and schools but the actual programme will be functional from next month”, added Sreekanth.
The other measures that have been envisaged to achieve the objectives of IUCTE need assessment–through surveys and interviews, short-term orientation and refresher courses, training programmes of 21 to 45 days, duration with field experience and on the job training following teleconferencing, online transaction, face-to-face interaction modes.
The proposed IUCTE will strengthen the quality and the standards of teacher education and the professional requirements of teachers through multiple programmes of teacher education. It will cater to the management and administrative requirements of school leaders and focus on thrust areas like education of children with special needs, inclusive education, ICT-based pedagogy, education for sustainable development, education of socially disadvantaged groups, skill development courses, value and peace education, education for gender equality and equity, life skills education, school leadership, policy planning and implementation and so on. The research insights will provide ground realities in the teacher education field that will lead to newer decisions, shift in the curriculum frameworks and teacher education practices.
