The Draft NCTE Regulations 2025 persecutes NEP 2020
The draft NCTE (Recognition Norms and Procedure) Regulations, 2025 is in the public domain to get feedback for its improvement. The release of this draft policy has warned lakhs of M.A. in Education degree holders about their uncertain future in teacher education institutions (TEIs). It has also depressed thousands of faculty members (having M.A.in Education background) working in self-financing TEIs about their employment uncertainty. The students in thousands are sending their requests to NCTE and other concerned authorities to include M.A. in Education with B.Ed. as an equivalent degree to M.Ed. (Master of Education). The present article is an analysis based on the essence of NEP 2020 to the conflict between M.A. in Education and M.Ed. (Master of Education) in the NCTE draft regulations 2025.
The history of conflict of M.A. in Education and M.Ed. (Master of Education) is more than two decades and has been verdict in the Hon’ble High Courts and Supreme Court. The so-called debate that M.A. in Education program is more theoretical and research-oriented is liberal and not professional. It prepares professionals for research and other educational programs. Whereas M. Ed. degree are more practical and skills-oriented. It is a professional course and prepares teaching professionals for teacher education institutions. All such myths should be closed as we have a national policy of multi-disciplinary teacher education for high-quality content as well as pedagogy,
M.A. in Education course has its presence in more than 15 states in regular, open, and online mode. Whereas the M.Ed. courses are offered only in regular mode in NCTE recognised institutions in all the states but their number is very less. NCTE has the provision to offer the M.Ed. in part time mode also.Thus.it can be concluded that students having M.A. in Education have a larger strength than students having M.Ed. in our country. if we look into the curriculum design we will find foundation papers like philosophy of education, educational sociology, educational psychology, modern trends and issues in education, learning assessments, research methodology and curriculum development are being studied in both the courses.. There are field works related to school management, community participation in education, and classroom teaching. The NEFTE 2009 recommends the subjects in teacher education as perspective building, curriculum and pedagogy, and fieldwork. Both the programs are master degree programs and have three components but their priorities within the curriculum little vary. But that variation needs to be treated as strength to teacher education. NEP says that HEIs offering teacher education programmes will ensure the availability of a range of experts in education and related disciplines as well as specialized subjects. (NEP, Page-43)
The M.A.in Education students do their dissertation work related to policy issues of education, curriculum and assessment of learning, classroom teaching, teachers job satisfaction, innovations in teaching and school management etc. whereas the M.Ed. dissertations are also address those issues. Here the question arises eliminating M.A. in Education from the eligibility criteria for faculty positions in all teacher education programs closes the door for a teams of faculty having varied orientations/ qualifications in all teacher education program. The reality is in many universities and colleges we find both courses and anyone with a bachelor degree of teacher education program. Practically the faculty members of varied specialisations contribute better in students’ learning in both the programs. The draft regulation has neglected the team spirit that exists in any multi-disciplinary teacher education institutions at present. It has created boundaries which hurt the essence of NEP 2020 and breaks harmony exist in Department of Education or Teacher Education.
The faculty or candidates having M.A in Education with B.Ed. and Ph.D. in Education are also not eligible to work in TEIs due to lack of M.Ed. degree. The regulation has neglects the credibility of SWAYAM, NIOS and IGNOU courses related to pedagogical practices, designing curriculum, credible evaluation systems, communication, and so on. It has made teacher education as a separate entity and driven by M.Ed. degree certification. NEP 2020 says exposure to pedagogical practices, designing curriculum, credible evaluation systems, communication, and so on will be ensured since many research scholars will go on to become faculty or public representatives/communicators of their chosen disciplines (NEP 2020, Page No.43).Here how come a Ph.D. in Education candidate will be denied to teacher education due to lack of M.Ed. degree. The NEP 2020 says HEIs will have the flexibility to offer different designs of Master’s programs. It means to cater to the needs of the students coming from varied degrees. The unfortunate situation is that there is B.A. in Education students having Education as a Major or Honours courses and after that they join M.A. Education programme. Those students have spent five years in perspective building, curriculum and pedagogy, learning assessment and field works related to school and community; they are also neglected just introducing the nomenclature of M.Ed. in the draft policy. The draft regulations have overlooked the perspective of a multi-disciplinary approach and adopted a discipline oriented and intended frame in the qualification of faculty members. The regulation has approved one single entry i.e. M.Ed. and M.Ed. is not compared or supported to any of the degrees recognised by UGC and other platforms. If we look into the draft policy of UGC 2025 it has focused on the type of work accomplishments by the candidates instead of nomenclature of degree or certification. Here experiences in seven criteria’s have been regarded. But the NCTE drat regulations is completely based on certification, does not allow the persons having long and varied experiences in teacher education to opt teaching as career. The most interesting fact is the National Eligibility Test of M.A in Education and M.Ed. conducted with same test papers. Thus how come M.A. in Education will be denied to TEIs? Apart from the few states all states appointing faculty members of both the degree holders for Education Discipline, there is no variations. This symmetric relationship is not only related to NET exam only, the teacher education is the progressive development of Education Discipline. It should be treated as an allied subject. The NCTE draft regulation does not recognise any allied subjects of teacher education.It treated teacher education has separated knowledge and skill, no sister concern.
Again many of the innovations of teacher education come from developmental organisations in our country; they hardly differentiate M.A.Education or M.Ed. in their recruitment process. The progressive HEIs like Ajim Premji University, TATA Institute of Social Science and other reputed institutions follow the nomenclature of M.A. in Education.
The Ph.D. degree in Education is offered to both M.Ed. and M.A.in Education candidates. Thus the differences are in nomenclature not in knowledge and skill base. The so called professionals having M.Ed. degrees said M.Ed. has its own place in pedagogical learning. It has been seen that a great majority of students having M.A.in Education are doing B.Ed. degree to fulfil this gaps. Thus if NCTE feel M.A. in Education students are pedagogically weak then it’s a great opportunity for SWAYAM ,NIOS and IGNOU courses of pedagogy to fulfil the gap instead of rejecting the degree from the eligibility criteria. NEP2020 is visualizing that engineering institutions, such as IITs, will move towards more holistic and multidisciplinary education with more arts and humanities. Students of arts and humanities will aim to learn more science and all will make an effort to incorporate more vocational subjects and soft skills. In this direction, NCTE draft regulations 2025 is completely fail to address the need of varied aspirants and lacking the linkage with available knowledge platforms and progressive modalities of teacher education and institutions. The policy does not invite varied pool of experts to teacher education as it does not specify the work accomplishments. It will stand as a barrier for the faculty members working in self- financing institutions for their car eerier advancement. It also deviates from previous NCTE regulations where M.A in Education incorporated as an eligibility criteria for all levels of teaching positions of M.Ed program and other bachelor degree teacher education program.
(The author is Assistant Professor at department of education, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, Odisha)
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