PANAJI
In a major academic overhaul, the Directorate of Education (DoE) has announced to discontinue the two-year Diploma in Elementary Education (D El Ed) course, which trains teachers for primary education, from the current academic year 2025-26 onwards.
The change is in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which supports new integrated teacher education programmes. While Haryana was the first State to discontinue the course, this year, Maharashtra government decided not to go ahead with four-year BA/BSc-BEd (Integrated) course.
Speaking to The Goan, Director Education Shailesh Zingade said that as recommended in the NEP, the government has decided to discontinue with D El Ed course from this year onwards and the same will be transitioned into new integrated teacher education programme (ITEP) shortly.
The D El ED course is a two-year programme designed to train individuals for elementary school teaching. The District Institute of Education and Training, Goa offers a D Ed programme with a capacity of 100 students, while private institutes like St Joseph Vaz Institute of Education also offers a 2-year D Ed course with 50 seats, Nirmala Institute another 50 seats and Vetal Institute had another 50 .
According to the National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE), the Centre-approved NEP required holistic and transformational shifts in the country’s education system at all levels. The policy advocates revolutionary structural changes even in teacher education to provide the students with high-quality content.
The NEP policy makes a four-year ITEP the minimum qualification for being a teacher. It wants teachers at all levels of a 5+3+3+4 system to be passionate, motivated, qualified, well-equipped, and trained professionally.
The candidates aspiring to enrol in the ITEP course will have to appear for the National Common Entrance Test conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
