Quality Concerns in Pre-Service Teacher Education Programmes

Abstract

Teacher education refers to the policies and procedures designed to equip teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the school and classroom. The demand for qualified and quality teachers has been continuously on the increase the world over. Maintenance and promotion of quality in teacher education in India has been a matter of great concern as it is in peril. Competent, committed and dedicated teachers are the greatest assets for any educational institution. Quality teaching has a measurable impact on students’ outcomes. An educational institution performs a significant function of providing learning experiences to lead their students from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge. Rising societal expectations, sky rocketing parental aspirations and rapid changes in technology have put tremendous pressure on contemporary education. There needs to be an alignment of teacher education programs at pre-service level with the tasks needed to create a positive student learning environment. It is a pertinent expectation that the teacher education programmes reveal vibrancy adequate for responding to the emerging paradigms of school education and the teachers’ roles thereof. Thus, it has become imperative that the efforts and resources mobilized towards pre-service teacher education programmes should be effective. Hence, it is necessary that quality concerns should be explicit in every aspect of pre-service teacher education programmes. The paper disseminates knowledge by throwing light on quality concerns and ends up by giving succinct suggestions for enhancing the quality of pre-service teacher education programmes.