NCTE Launches 4 Year Integrated B.Ed Programme

BEd is a professional course that prepares candidates for the teaching profession in upper primary, higher secondary and senior secondary schools in India. BEd degree is approved by the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE). BEd course duration is generally two years, and the course curriculum is divided into four semesters. In India, more than 6400 institutions offer BEd course programmes.

From 2023, NCTE has introduced ITEP (Integrated Teacher Education Programme), which is offered by 42 top institutes in India. Among the top institutes, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bhubaneswar, NIT Agartala, NIT Calicut, NIT Warangal and NIT Puducherry are the major ones. These institutes offer BA-BEd, BSc-BEd and BCom-BEd courses. Both courses generally take five years to complete separately however in this integrated programme it will take four years to complete.

Details on ITEP

ITEP is offered by teachers’ training institutes as well as the top technical institutes in India. The Education Ministry has asked IITs and NITs to offer these courses besides their core expertise. Admission to these integrated programmes is offered based on National Common Entrance Test (NCET) results which are conducted in 13 languages including Bengali. Students who have completed their 10+2 in any specialisation, such as Science, Arts, Commerce can apply for ITEP course.

National Testing Agency (NTA) conducts the NCET entrance exam in languages like English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Candidates who want to appear for the NCET need to opt for at least two language papers, three papers for domain-specific subjects, one paper on teaching aptitude and one on general studies. ITEP offers different levels of specialisation, such as;

• Foundation (pre-primary and Classes I and II)
• Preparatory (Classes III to V)
• Middle (Classes VI to VIII)
• Secondary (Classes IX to XII).

Relaxation for ITEP

ITEP requires two types of teachers, one who can provide knowledge on the undergraduate subject and another one who can teach the pedagogy and general teacher training subjects. NCTE has offered relaxation for the faculties of NITs and IITs, which means they are not required to have a BEd degree programme. They will primarily teach students undergraduate subjects alongside their core technical subjects.

The teachers of IITs and NITs need to have an MSc, MTech, MA or PhD degree in their preferred field. They could also have cleared the CSIR UGC NET or UGC NET exam to become a professor in these premier institutes. However, the teachers who teach general subjects and pedagogy require a BEd and MEd degree programme.

ITEP Credit Points

Students of the ITEP course need to have credit points of at least 160 to get both degrees, namely BSc-BEd, BCom-BEd or BA-BEd. Candidates can pursue a master's degree programme based on their undergraduate degree programme and the specialisation they have opted for the major subject in ITEP course.

Candidates can also quit the course midway after pursuing one or two years however they can also complete three three-year undergraduate degree programmes in their major disciplines. Students who will quit the course and receive the bachelor's degree certificate need to have at least 120 credit points which also includes 48 points in the undergraduate course.