Four-Year Integrated BEd For Future Teachers Launched Under New NEP

By EB Bureau On Oct 28, 2021

New Delhi: The government has notified a four-year integrated teacher education programme in line with the New Education Policy (NEP). Now, the BEd course will be integrated and will be of four-year duration. Students who pursue a four-year BEd degree will get BA and BEd or BSc and BEd or BCom and BEd degrees together. Usually, it takes students five years to complete these two degrees. The integrated degree will offer both degrees and save a year for students, said an official statement.

The new integrated course will help create teachers who are in sync with the new education policy. As the education policy introduces several changes in the curriculum including teaching in regional language, teaching coding to school kids among others, the new degrees will prepare teachers accordingly and will have a new curriculum.

The government aims at making the four-year integrated BEd the minimum degree required for teaching by 2030. National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) under the Ministry of Education has devised the curriculum of this course in such a way that it enables a student-teacher to get a degree in education as well as a specialised discipline such as history, mathematics, science, arts, economics, or commerce. The new BEd courses will allow specialisation in the education of ‘gifted children.’

The four-year ITEP will begin from the academic session 2022-23. NTA will carry out the admission through the National Common Entrance Test (NCET). This course will be offered by multidisciplinary institutions and will become the minimal degree qualification for schoolteachers.

“The course will contribute substantially to the revitalization of the whole teacher education sector. The prospective teachers passing out of this course through a multi-disciplinary environment, grounded in Indian values and traditions will be instilled with the needs of 21st century on global standards, and hence will be largely helpful in shaping the future of New India,” the Ministry of Education said in an official statement.

One and two-year BEd options will also be available. Two-year-BEd will be for candidates having a Bachelor’s degree, and one-year BEd programmes will be offered only to those who have completed the equivalent of a four-year multidisciplinary Bachelor’s degree or who have obtained a Master’s degree. These candidates will be later hired as subject teachers in the area of speciality (or the subject pursued at UG or PG level), the NEP 2020 states.