FYUP model: Govt to roll out 4-yr teachers’ training course

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is going to revive four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP) for students albeit through a circuitous route. The Ministry, which had put Delhi University (DU) vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh on notice over FYUP, is all set to introduce a four-year teachers’ training course for undergraduate students from this academic session, beginning July.

According to an Human Resource Development Ministry official, the four-year programme aims at attracting students towards teaching as after completing Class 12 most opt for either engineering or medical courses. The course will also provide an opportunity to students, who choose teaching as profession after graduation, the official said.

Explaining the course contents, a senior official of the National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE) said: “The contents of the programme have been almost finalised and are ready to be rolled out from this academic session. The course will be of two types – BA B.Ed for Arts students and B.Sc B.Ed for science students.”

After completing the four-year course, the students will be eligible to become teachers. Under the programme, every student will be required to undergo a mandatory six-month internship, which will be divided into two parts – government schools in rural and urban areas. 

The students will also be taught about uses of information and technology in education, apart from subjects such as moral science, utilisation of vocational courses and most importantly yoga – the pet subject of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to the official, the course will be totally different from the conventional BA, B.Sc and B.Ed programmes. In the present system, it takes five years to become a teacher, which includes a three-year Bachelor’s degree and then a two-year B.Ed course.  States have also agreed to roll out the programme, which will be on the lines of FYUP.

Drawing attention towards the shortage of teachers, the official said that there is an acute crunch of quality teachers in the country as there are only 14.15 lakh faculty members against the total requirement of 19 lakh. “Given that students choose teaching as profession after they fail to make it into other central and state services, so the objective of this programme is to attract young minds into the profession. Unless talented students join this profession, it won’t be possible to improve the quality of education,” the official said.

According to the official, around 1,000 colleges have given their approval for starting the course and the admission process will start from July this year.