Dr Ravinder Kaur is the Dean,Faculty of Education,Panjab University,and the principal of Malwa Central College of Education for Women,the oldest education college in the district. With a career in teaching spanning over 30 years,Dr Ravinder has been part of the evolution of teachers education in the state. Showing concern over the diluting standards of teachers as a plethora of colleges have come into being with a little focus on the quality of the teachers training,she talks to Sameer Kumar Sharma about issues and challenges that teachers education faces at present. How do you rate the present standard of teachers education in the state?With the number of BEd colleges increasing manifold in the state,the quality of teachers being churned out has suffered a loss. Since there is more supply of teachers than its demand,many up and coming teachers would not get jobs in the competitive world. Moreover,this will lead to frustration. Consequently,the teachers would be available at cheaper rates. What challenge is the teachers education facing at present?Opening of umpteen number of BEd colleges in the state over the last few years has posed some serious challenges. There are a fewer applicants and more seats in the colleges today and many of them remained vacant this time. What is the scenario of teachers education in the state as compared to the previous years?There are over 8,000 seats in 58 colleges of education affiliated with the Panjab University alone. Consequently,the number of applicants becomes less than the number of seats available. However,a decade ago,we would get about 45,000 applications to the course being run in just 11 PU-affiliated colleges and therefore the quality of teachers produced by the colleges was also high. How many seats were left vacant in this session?As many as 8,500 seats in the BEd course of all the universities of the state combined together,were left vacant in this session. That is why the High Court had to intervene by allowing admission of even those candidates who had not even applied to the course or taken the exam. What corrective steps should be taken to improve the standard of teachers education?For maintaining high standards,curriculum and skills required to become a skilful teacher need to properly executed by colleges. In a nutshell,whatever that can be done should be done. What do you have to say about the increasing number of colleges?Only those colleges which are working to provide the required skills will stand the test of time and will remain others will gradually lose their identity. Moreover,the number of students in BA and BSc is already waning down. Since these are students who join BEd colleges,the gap created due to fewer applicants and more seats in the near future will widen further.
