Professional Standards and Quality Concern in Teacher Education

: The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) of India aims to revamp the education system and lay a roadmap for a progressive educated country. The policy recommends moving the teacher education system into multidisciplinary colleges and universities, with a four-year integrated B.Ed. program becoming the minimum degree qualification for school teachers by 2030. A common guiding set of National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by 2022. The National Education Policy 2020 in India aims to improve the quality of teacher education by addressing quality concerns such as outdated curriculum, lack of subject-specific training, and ineffective teaching methods. Key provisions include a four-year integrated teacher education program, standardized teacher eligibility tests, and technology integration. To successfully implement the policy, collaboration between the government, teacher education institutions, and stakeholders is essential. Key reforms include ongoing continuing professional development, strengthening accreditation processes, developing mentorship programs, and promoting global exposure.


Introduction to NEP 2020:
The first NEP was implemented by India in 1968 and next after a long gap in 1986 and a recent one under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2020.The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) of India was approved on 29 July 2020.It is formulated with the vision to revamp the education system and lay down a road map for a progressive educated country.The committee that prepared the policy document of the NEP 2020; was headed by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan.In its election manifesto of 2014 parliament elections; the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has promised to bring revolutionary reform to the Indian education system (Saha Mushkan, 2020).They fulfilled their promise to the nation with NEP 2020 (Kumar, 2021).New Education Policy 2020 is a large step in the field of Education focusing on the elementary level of education to higher education in India.The policy is focusing on transforming the Indian Education System by 2021.Thus, it is very much required to review all the aspects of the Indian education system in its reference.This research paper aims to discuss the various domains of education under NEP 2020.

Teacher education in NEP 2020
Government of India, as part of the adoption of the fourth Sustainable Development GoalSDG4-• Email: editor@ijfmr.com

IJFMR240114304
Volume 6, Issue 1, January-February 2024 2 Education-out of the seventeen Goals adopted by all UN Member States in 2015.The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommends major changes in the Teacher Education scenario.The recommendation on teacher education is given in chapter-15 of the NEP-2020 under Part II which details the policy changes in Higher Education.It has divided into eleven sub points.
The main objectives of NEP is to "ensure that teachers are given the highest quality training in content, pedagogy, and practice, by moving the teacher education system into multidisciplinary colleges and universities, and establishing the 4-year integrated B.Ed. offered by such multidisciplinary HEIs will, by 2030, become the minimal degree qualification for school teachers" (NEP2020 -Page 42: 15.5).While analyzing the NEP 2020 more deeply, it is a curious combination of opportunities and at the same time challenges for Teacher education scenario."Teacher education for all levels -Foundational, Preparatory, Middle, and Secondary -will take place within the university/higher education system as a stage-specific, four-year integrated B.Ed. programme, combining content, pedagogy, and practical training".

Professional Standards for Teachers
A common guiding set of National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by 2022, by the National Council for Teacher Education in its restructured new form as a Professional Standard Setting Body (PSSB) under the General Education Council (GEC), in consultation with NCERT, SCERTs, teachers from across levels and regions, expert organizations in teacher preparation and development, expert bodies in vocational education, and higher education institutions.The standards would cover expectations of the role of the teacher at different levels of expertise/stage, and the competencies required for that stage.It will also comprise standards for Preparation of professionals must involve an education in the ethics and importance of public purpose, an education in the discipline, and an education for practice.It must centrally involve critical and interdisciplinary thinking, discussion, debate, research, and innovation.For this to be achieved, professional education should not take place in the isolation of one's specialty.
Professional education thus becomes an integral part of the overall higher education system.Stand-alone agricultural universities, legal universities, health science universities, technical universities, and standalone institutions in other fields, shall aim to become multidisciplinary institutions offering holistic and multidisciplinary education.All institutions offering either professional or general education will aim to organically evolve into institutions/clusters offering both seamlessly, and in an integrated manner by 2030.
Teaching-learning e-content will continue to be developed by all States in all regional languages, as well as by the NCERT, CIET, CBSE, NIOS, and other bodies/institutions, and will be uploaded onto the DIKSHA platform.This platform may also be utilized for Teacher's Professional Development through econtent.

Quality Concerns in Teacher Education
Teachers play a vital role in the improvement of the quality of education which further one of the major roles in the development of any country.Teachers are the primary strength and are the greatest assets of any education system.They are playing a major role in imparting knowledge and skills and hence considered as backbone of education process.The National Education Policy 2020 recognises and identifies teachers and faculty as the heart of the learning process.As envisioned by Hon'ble Prime Minister, the policy will empower teachers of India with various reforms for recruitment, continuous professional development, service conditions, etc. NEP 2020 also recognises that teachers will require training in high-quality content as well as pedagogy to cater the needs of the 21st century education Quality concerns in teacher education are crucial for ensuring teachers are well-prepared to meet diverse student needs and provide high-quality education.Common issues include outdated or inadequate curriculum, lack of subject-specific training, ineffective teaching methods, limited exposure to diverse teaching strategies, insufficient practical experience, lack of mentoring and supervision, inadequate assessment and evaluation methods, lack of diversity and inclusion training, biases and discrimination, limited technology integration, lack of ongoing professional development, and insufficient support for new teachers.
The New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in India has introduced significant reforms to improve the quality of teacher education.Key provisions include a four-year integrated teacher education program (ITEP), a multidisciplinary approach, continuous professional development (CPD), standardized teacher eligibility tests (TET), revamping the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) to improve regulation and accreditation, promoting technology use in teacher education, special education and inclusion, regional language medium, and global exposure.
To successfully implement the NEP 2020, collaboration between the government, teacher education institutions, and other stakeholders is essential.The policy aims to address several quality concerns, including curriculum and content knowledge, pedagogical training, field experience, mentoring and supervision, assessment and evaluation, diversity and inclusion, technology integration, continuous professional development, teacher well-being and support, accountability and accreditation, and the use of technology in teacher education.

Reforms and Improvements
The implementation of professional development and quality concerns in teacher education is crucial for ensuring teachers are well-prepared, continuously updated, and capable of providing high-quality education to students.Key reforms include incorporating ongoing continuing professional development (CPD) as a mandatory component for all educators, strengthening accreditation processes for teacher education institutions, developing mentorship programs for experienced teachers, integrating technologyfocused pedagogies and digital literacy into teacher preparation programs, emphasizing research-based practices, prioritizing inclusive education and diversity training, promoting global exposure and international collaborations, shifting from traditional knowledge-based assessments to performance-based assessments, and ensuring government support and policy alignment.Any policy's effectiveness depends on its implementation.Such implementation will require multiple initiatives and actions, which will have to be taken by multiple bodies in a synchronized a systematic manner.Therefore, the implementation of this Policy will be led by various bodies including MHRD, CABE, Union and State Governments, education-related Ministries, State Departments of Education, Boards, NTA, the regulatory bodies of school and higher education, NCERT, SCERTs, schools, and HEIs along with timelines and a plan for review, in order to ensure that the policy is implemented in its spirit and intent, through coherence in planning and synergy across all these bodies involved in education.Implementation will be guided by the following principles.➢ First, implementation of the spirit and intent of the Policy will be the most critical matter.➢ Second, it is important to implement the policy initiatives in a phased manner, as each policy point has several steps, each of which requires the previous step to be implemented successfully.
➢ Third, prioritization will be important in ensuring optimal sequencing of policy points, and that the most critical and urgent actions are taken up first, thereby enabling a strong base.➢ Fourth, comprehensiveness in implementation will be key; as this Policy is interconnected and holistic, only a full-fledged implementation, and not a piecemeal one, will ensure that the desired objectives are achieved.➢ Fifth, since education is a concurrent subject, it will need careful planning, joint monitoring, and collaborative implementation between the Centre and States.➢ Sixth, timely infusion of requisite resources -human, infrastructural, and financial -at the Central and State levels will be crucial for the satisfactory execution of the Policy.➢ Finally, careful analysis and review of the linkages between multiple parallel implementation steps will be necessary to ensure effective dovetailing of all initiatives.This will also include early investment in some of the specific actions (such as the setting up of early childhood care and education infrastructure) that will be imperative to ensuring a strong base and a smooth progression for all subsequent programs and actions.

Role of Accreditation
Accreditation in teacher education is a crucial aspect that ensures the effectiveness and competency of educators.It evaluates and recognizes teacher preparation programs, ensuring they meet established quality standards.Accreditation promotes consistency and excellence in teacher preparation by setting a benchmark for program quality.Programs seeking accreditation must provide ongoing professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, demonstrating their ability to stay current in their fields and effective teaching strategies.Accreditation standards evolve to reflect best practices in teacher education, encouraging continuous curriculum updates and effective teaching strategies.Accreditation also involves data-driven improvement, identifying areas for improvement, such as enhanced professional development opportunities or curriculum changes.Accreditation holds institutions accountable for the quality of their programs, encouraging them to invest in professional development and address quality concerns.Accreditation serves as a benchmark for excellence in teacher education, attracting high-quality candidates and enhancing the reputation of their programs.In summary, accreditation in teacher education is closely tied to professional development and quality concerns, setting standards and expectations for teacher preparation programs, encouraging faculty development, and providing a framework for addressing quality issues.A stage-wise mechanism for granting graded autonomy to colleges, through a transparent system of graded accreditation, will be established.Colleges will be encouraged, mentored, supported, and incentivized to gradually attain the minimum benchmarks required for each level accreditation.The Accreditation System will develop and use appropriately different and relevant norms across this range of HEIs.However, the expectations of high quality of education, and of teaching-learning, across all HEIs will be the same.

Continuous Professional Development
In order to maintain uniform standards for teacher education, the admission to pre-service teacher preparation programmes shall be through suitable subject and aptitude tests conducted by the National Testing Agency, and shall be standardized keeping in view the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country.
The faculty profile in Departments of Education will necessarily aim to be diverse and but teaching/field/research experience will be highly valued.Faculty with training in areas of social sciences that are directly relevant to school education e.g., psychology, child development, linguistics, sociology, philosophy, economics, and political science as well as from science education, mathematics education, social science education, and language education programmes will be attracted and retained in teacher education institutions, to strengthen multidisciplinary education of teachers and provide rigour in conceptual development.
In-service continuous professional development for college and university teachers will continue through the existing institutional arrangements and ongoing initiatives; these will be strengthened and substantially expanded to meet the needs of enriched teaching-learning processes for quality education.The use of technology platforms such as SWAYAM/DIKSHA for online training of teachers will be encouraged, so that standardized training programmes can be administered to large numbers of teachers within a short span of time.
A National Mission for Mentoring shall be established, with a large pool of outstanding senior/retired faculty -including those with the ability to teach in Indian languages -who would be willing to provide short and long-term mentoring/professional support to university/college teachers.

Recommendations
There are several recommendations are given by NEP 2020 in different disciplines towards professional development of teacher education and their qualities.These are

A. MOVING TEACHER EDUCATION INTO THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM NEP 2020
For the vision implementation, "Teacher education for all levels -Foundational, Preparatory, Middle, and Secondary -will take place within the university/higher education system as a stage-specific, four-year integrated B.Ed. programme, combining content, pedagogy, and practical training".Hope these changes may help to maintain the integrity of teacher education system in the country.

B. DUAL-DEGREE PROVISION
The provision of Dual -degree in NEP 2020 stating that "the four-year integrated B.Ed. programme of pre-service teacher preparation for different tracks will be offered at the university level as a dual-degree (in education together with any desired specialised subject) undergraduate programme of study, and will thus include both disciplinary as well as teacher preparation courses" is a fascinating aspect and may be cautioned not to lead to drop outs from the "education" sector in the context of increased rate of unemployment in India which results in scarcity of committed professionals in the education field.

C. CLOSING DOWN SUBSTANDARD STAND-ALONE TEACHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
All stand-alone Teachers Education Institutions should convert themselves as Multidisciplinary HETs by 2030 to offer only four years integrated B.Ed. programme.Mandatory accreditation of all TEIs as multidisciplinary HEIs within the next 3-5 years.The progress of this mission will be supervised by National Higher Education Regulatory Authority [NHERA] every 3 months and by Rastriya Shiksha Aayog [RSA] every 6 months which ensures an initiative in maintaining quality teacher education.

D. SECONDARY SPECIALISATIONS FOR SUBJECT TEACHERS OR GENERALIST
TEACHERS As per NPE 2020, Teacher Education faculties include Specialised instructors for specialised subjects, generalist special educators for primary school subject areas, subject teacher in middle or high school.
"Education of children with singular interests and talents is addressed through secondary specialisations for subject teachers or generalist teachers, after initial or pre-service teacher preparation is completed and which would be offered as certificate courses, in the in-service mode, either full time or as part time / blended courses -again, necessarily, at multidisciplinary colleges or universities".More clarity is needed in the concept of Secondary specialisations in the sense that it may not result in less privileged Special Education B.Ed. course.

E. ALL TEACHER EDUCATION WILL HAPPEN IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY INSTITUTIONS
This is the major transformation in the teacher education sector.Teacher training colleges or Teacher Education Institutions which are running single-stream programmes must be phased out."All multidisciplinary universities and colleges -will aim to establish, education departments which, besides carrying out cutting-edge research in various aspects of education, will also run B.Ed. programmes, in collaboration with other departments".As a result, majority of Teacher training colleges of the State will be vanished or will be merged to multidisciplinary colleges as a department of education.This results the complete eradication of the great tradition of the prestigious concept of Training Colleges in the Country.

F. CREATION OF SUBSTANTIAL NEW TEACHER PREPARATION CAPACITY NPE
It says that "The fundamental transformation to the four-year integrated teacher preparation programme on one hand and the shutting down of dysfunctional institutions on the other hand, will require the creation of substantial new teacher preparation capacity: substantial public investment will be required for the sect.Philanthropic efforts will be encouraged in this sector through special schemes to be designed by the RSA".This model of graded autonomy may not be helpful for the universalization of educational resources and equal access to quality higher education.

G. DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES NEP
It has recommended the Department of Universities to strengthen and develop the spaces for research and innovation in education."Departments of Education in universities will need to be built up to take on the central role of anchoring education programmes in all disciplines through meaningful relationships with all other departments in education.They will cater to pre-service education and in-service Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of teachers in school education as well as faculty in higher education.They will also prepare faculty for teacher education.They must develop courses and activities for inservice CPD of teachers, and offer mentoring programmes to beginning teachers.All courses' offerings must be available in a range of formats including part time, evening, blended and online, in addition to full time programmes" Showering more responsibilities to Departments of Education in universities can be considered as opportunities to act.

H. FACULTY FOR TEACHER EDUCATION NPE 2020
It has advised to appoint "faculty with training in areas of social sciences that are directly relevant to school education e.g., psychology, child development, linguistics, sociology, philosophy, economics, and political science as well as from science education, mathematics education, social science education, and language education programmes.The faculty profile in Departments of Education will be diverse with Ph.D.'s in different areas."The faculty profile in Departments of Education will necessarily aim to be diverse, but teaching/field/research experience will be highly valued".

I. IN-SERVICE CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR COLLEGE AND
UNIVERSITY TEACHERS Existing institutional arrangements and ongoing initiatives will continue for the In-service continuous professional development for college and university teachers."The use of technology platforms such as SWAYAM/DIKSHA for online training of teachers will be encouraged" (which is most welcome and inspire teachers to be continuous learners.

J. ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL MISSION FOR MENTORING
NPE 2020 suggests "framing a pool of outstanding senior/retired faculty to provide short and long-term mentoring/professional support to university/college teachers" which is also a warm welcome supportive system for teachers.All interested senior or retired faculty will be utilized short or long term for guiding, mentoring, or professional support for research/training/innovation.A separate National Mission for Mentoring will be established.

Conclusion
Professional standards are crucial point of view in trend education and teacher education.This study tried upon how NEP 2020 major standards of various sectors of teacher education.And here also mentioned how NEP 2020 will give major importance of FDP for continuous professional development among teachers.NEP-2020 has recommended for the quality education for all by creating an educating system which is deeply rooted in Indian ethos and rebuilds India as a Global Knowledge Power.Building multidisciplinary education in all over educational system concerning CPD in teacher education.In the area of Pre-service and in-service teacher education highlighted NEP 2020 in the context of professional standards.