On July 23, 2018, the lower house of the Parliament, i.e., Lok Sabha passed a bill to amend the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) Act 2017. The HRD Ministry sought an amendment to provide post-fact approval to those institutes funded by state and central governments, but do not have recognition under the 1993 law.
About NCTE Amendment Act 2017:
In November 2017, the Union Cabinet has given its approval for introducing a Bill in the Parliament that will amend NCTE (National Council for Teacher Education) Act, 1993, namely the NCTE Act (Amendment), 2017. The amendment Act will grant retrospective recognition to Non-NCTE approved teacher education courses offered by universities (both central and state) across the country.
However, the retrospective recognition will be granted only to those universities that have been conducting non-NCTE approved teacher education courses until the academic session 2017-18.
The retrospective recognition can be termed as a one-time measure as the government does not want to put the future of students at stake. Many students might have enrolled or completed these courses and cancelling the recognition might affect their career.
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According to the amendment, the students who have passed or are currently pursuing non-NCTE recognised teacher education course in universities till the academic session 2017-18 are eligible to become teachers.
As per Section 14 of the NCTE Act, all the educational institutes offering teacher education courses such as B.Ed or D.EI.Ed must obtain recognition from NCTE. Further, the teacher education courses offered by the universities or institutes have to get approval under Section 15 of the NCTE Act.
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In an official circular issued by NCTE, the council urged all the institutes and universities offering non-NCTE recognised teacher education courses to apply for retrospective recognition. The deadline for recognition application ended on March 31, 2018, and no further applications were accepted after this.