Teaching As a Career in India

There are five categories of programmes for the education of teachers: 1. Pre-school/Nursery Teacher Education; 2. Elementary Teacher Education; 3. Secondary Teacher Education; 4. Education for Physical Education Teachers; 5. Education for teaching the Disabled. While the first four categories are regulated by the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) (Hans Bhawan Wing II, 1 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 001 – website: www.ncte-in.org), the fifth category is under the control of Rehabilitation Council of India. The NCTE was established under the NCTE Act, 1993. Teacher education is offered at certificate, diploma, degree, and post graduation levels. Qualifications acquired from institution not recognized by the NCTE are not valid for employment in schools, colleges, universities and other  educational institutions governed or aided by central and state governments.

Degrees and diploma in special education are the required qualifications for teaching students with various disabilities. The Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) in respect of five categories disabilities, viz., Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment, Mental Retardation, Learning Disability, and Neuromuscular Disabilities. Courses at diploma level includes, Visual Impairment, Cerebral Palsy, Autism and Spectrum Disorder, and Mental Retardation.

IIT-JEE, NIT, AIEEE: Best options for a Candidate

The best option for a candidate with 60% marks in 10+2 and the aptitude for this line is to clear the IIT-JEE to get admission in any one of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology located at Mumbai, New Delhi, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Chennai, Roorkee and Gawahati as also Banaras Hindu University and Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad.

The next best option is admission in any one of the 18 National Institutes of Technology(NIT) located in different States( Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkand, Karnatka, Kerla, Madhya Pradesh, Maharahtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal).

There is yet another opening for 10+2 students with Physics, Chemistry, Maths & English to try their luck in the All India Engineering Entrance Examination conducted by CBSE in April/May every year for admission to B.E/B.Tech/B.Arch/B. Planning programmes for admission to various participating universities and institutions.

Since the 10+2 conducted by CBSE is held in March, the candidates aspiring to clear AIEEE ( All India Engineering/ Architecture Entrance Examination) have to send their form provisionally in February itself, subject to their fulfilling the eligibility conditions at the time of appearing for counselling. Candidates opting for BE/B.Tech have to appear in Physics, Chemistry & Mathematics, while those opting for B.Arch/B. Planning have to clear Aptitude Test & Mathematics.

Engineering and Technology

The most sought-after profession of the day, education and training is engineering and technology at different levels ( diploma, degree and post graduation), is regulated by the All India Council for Technical Education(AICTE). Established under the AICTE ACT, 1987, AICTE is the largest regulatory authority in the country which looks after wide range of subjects, viz., all branches of engineering, information technology and computer applications (MCA), architecture and planning, pharmacy, fine arts and crafts, management (both MBA and postgraduate diploma), and hotel management and catering technology.  Two other regulatory functions are:

(1).  accreditation of courses offered by recognised engineering and technology institutions. For this purpose, it has set up the National Board of Accredition (NBA) and has made it mandatory for the institutions to get each course accredited after two batches have passed out of it; and

(2).  regulating the entry and operation of foreign universities and institutions imparting technical education in India.

The AICTE is not just a regulatory agency. It also performs several functions of which the most important one is the creation of a pool of competent teachers for engineering and technical institutions through several programmes, such as career award scheme, visiting professorship scheme, visiting professorship scheme, quality improvement program for polytechnic to teachers. In order to attract qualified persons for the teaching profession, the AICTE has also framed salary structures for different grades of teachers.