National seminar on ‘Issues and challenges in teacher edu’ held

Resource persons and others during the two-day national seminar organized by Unity College of Teacher Education, Dimapur on August 23 and 24. (Photo Courtesy: UCTE)

Dimapur, August 24 (MExN): Unity College of Teacher Education (UCTE), Dimapur organized a two-day national seminar on ‘Issues and challenges in teacher education’ on August 23 and 24 with a view to address the issues and challenges before teacher education institutions and agencies. 

The objective of the seminar was to bring scholars, faculties and institution on a common platform to share their ideas, information and experiences on various aspects of education, stated a press release issued by UCTE Principa, Dr. T. Yolila Sangtam. 

Prof. Gayatree Goswami, Department of Education, Guwahati University, in her inaugural address brought out the essence of teaching, which should be a passion and not just a job for the teachers. 

The special guest for the inaugural function was Prof N Das, Dean, School of Humanities and Education and Head In charge, Department of Teacher Education, Nagaland University, Kohima Campus. Das called for the need of more colleges of teacher education in Nagaland to solve the problem of about fourteen thousand untrained teachers serving in the state.

Dr. Vijaykumar R, Regional Director, Northern Regional Committee, National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) New Delhi, in his keynote address discussed some of the ongoing issues and challenges in Teacher Education, namely - lack of proper infrastructure and facilities, lack of internship motivation, lack of quality teacher educators which is the hallmark of teacher education, and lapses on the part of the institution to strictly administer as per the norms and regulation of NCTE.

He also stated on the various programmes implemented to enhance the quality of teacher education. However, he added that these programmes can be successfully implemented only when the respective State Council of Teacher Education and various colleges of Teacher Education collaborate and work effectively.

Dr. Vijaykumar stated that in near future, the diplomas course is likely to be removed and B.A with B.Ed will become mandatory qualification for a teacher. The speaker also pointed the draw back in the Indian Education system which gives more weightage on examination process, while citing the examples of the Education system in Finland where the learners go through 6 hours of examination to display maximum learning. 

The seminar culminated with the valedictory programme and presentation to the 28 paper presenters followed by feedback from the participants.