The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has decided to bring back the one-year B.Ed. and M.Ed. programmes after a decade. The reintroduction of the B.Ed. programme is a major shift, and the change is going to take place after 10 years since the programme was made for 2 years. This initiative has been taken under the National Education Policy (NEP) and the UGC’s National Higher Education Qualifications Framework.
New B.Ed and M.Ed Programme Structure
This policy is going to help a lot of aspiring teachers, as they will need less time to complete the course. It will benefit the government also, as they will have more teachers and will help balance the teacher-student ratios in both government and private schools. The one-year M.Ed. programme will be a full-time course, but the working professional will also have the option of two years to complete their course. The new curriculum is proposed to begin from the upcoming academic year, which is 2026-27.
Another reason for reintroducing the one-year M.Ed. is that not many candidates were pursuing the M.Ed. due to its longer duration. A lot of seats in the colleges were vacant, as the students were not taking admissions.
Eligibility for 1 Year B.Ed Course
Candidates must possess either a postgraduate qualification or a four-year undergraduate degree in order to be eligible for enrolment in the one-year Bachelor of Education program. For those with a three-year undergraduate degree, the existing two-year B.Ed. program will remain available.
The reintroduction of the one-year Bachelor of Education and Master of Education programs does not mean that the two-year programs will be discontinued. The one-year M.Ed. programme will be full-time, while a two-year part-time course will be offered to those who are working, like teachers and education administrators, as per Pankaj Arora, Chairman, NCTE.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the University Grants Commission (UGC) have been the light under which these 1-year programmes have been revived. The UGC came up with the National Higher Education Qualifications Framework, at level 6.5 one year master’s degree will be completed.
After completing either a four-year Integrated Teacher Education Program (ITEP) or four years of a bachelor’s degree and one year of B.Ed, our students will have achieved a level of 6.5 in their education, according to Arora.
