Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that the national capital would soon have the “country’s first” university dedicated to training teachers. However, his claim falls flat as states like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal already have universities dedicated to educating teachers, which were established back in 2008-2015.
On 9 March, the CM tweeted in Hindi, “The Delhi government will establish the country’s first teachers university this year. Where the best teachers of the country and the world will be produced.”
This comes after the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced a budget of Rs16,377 crore towards education. Along with a new education board called the Delhi Board of School Education, he also announced plans for a new university for teacher training in line with the National Education Policy.
Contrary to Kejriwal’s claims, Delhi’s teacher training university would not be the first one of its kind in the country.
The Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University was established by the state government exclusively for teachers’ education. It was established under the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University Act or ‘Act No 33’ of 2008 to “provide for the establishment and incorporation of Teachers Education University” in the state.
Currently, the university offers Bachelor of Education (B. Ed), Master of Education (M. Ed) and Master of Philosophy (M. Phil) degrees and is affiliated with 668 colleges. West Bengal started its teachers’ training institute on January 16, 2015. It is named as The West Bengal University of Teachers’ Training, Education Planning and Administration and came into existence 12 by virtue of the Act of the West Bengal Legislature, having been assented by the Governor. The institute offers bachelors, masters, PhD and M.Phil courses in Education. Similarly, an institute for training teachers was established by the Gujarat government in 2010. The institute is named the Indian Institute of Teacher Education (IITE). The institute offers undergraduate, postgraduate, (Ph. D. and M. Phil) courses in Education. Another teachers training university was established by the Tamil Nadu government in 2008, named Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University, for promoting excellence in Teachers Education.
As there is a list of teachers’ training institutes and universities in India. Hence, Kejriwal’s claim of building India’s first training university for teachers is not true.
