Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday inaugurated the Delhi Teachers University which would offer programmes such as BA-BEd and BSc-BEd and focus on fundamental and applied research in education. The campus is located in Outram Lane in Mukherjee Nagar area of the national capital. "It gives me great pleasure to inaugurate the 'Delhi Teachers University.' This is Delhi's first of its kind university that aims to prepare well-trained and highly qualified teachers. Govt aims to inspire today's students to become tomorrow's teachers," Sisodia said in a series of tweets. "The university will offer a new age, integrated teacher education programme after Class 12. It will also emphasize on fundamental and applied research in education by collaborating with national and international organizations," he added. Sisodia, who is also the Education Minister of Delhi, further said, "A teacher touches all 360 degree aspects of our life. That's why it was easier to establish IITs, IIMs, AIIMS but we couldn't establish a top level teachers' university till date."
The Delhi Assembly in January passed a bill for setting up a world-class teachers’ training university. The university will offer teacher education programmes such as BA-BEd and BSc-BEd to create a new generation of teachers. "Teachers play an important role in the overall building of any nation. According to the National Policy of Education 1986, the teachers have been defined as nation builders and that is what the teachers university aims to produce," Sisodia said at the inauguration. He expressed the hope that the university will emerge as a brand and set new standards for education of teachers in the world. "It will offer a new age integrated teacher education programme after Class 12 and will also emphasize on fundamental and applied research in education by collaborating with national and international organizations. "It will also be ensured that trainees spend 30 to 50 pc of their time in schools and get hands-on learning experience from the very first month of their course. Along with this, a unique cell will also be set up in Delhi Teachers University which will visit schools of Delhi and motivate students to opt for teaching profession," he added.
High quality pre-service and in-service programme, new age BEd, MEd, PhD, and certificate programme, focus on fundamental and applied research in the field of education, national and international collaboration for exchange of new ideas and best practices and partnerships with schools to provide hands-on-experience, are among the features of the teachers university. "Today, it is easy to prepare a good engineer, doctor and other professionals because they work only on specific areas of life but it is not easy to prepare a good teacher because their work is to cover all aspects of life for students and offer a 360 degree approach. This is the reason why IITs were established in the country in 1951, premium institutes like IIMs and AIIMS started decades ago but till date no teacher university of this level has been started in the country," the minister reasoned. He said the Delhi Teachers University will work to bridge this gap and "emerge as a brand in the field of teacher education not only in India but all over the world". "These days it is common in Indian families that if a child is good at mathematics, then parents encourage them to prepare for IIT, if a child is better in history then they will be asked to prepare for UPSC. But children are never encouraged to become teachers," Sisodia said.
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