A tin shed varsity for training teachers

Chennai: There is no imposing fa­cade, no ornamental pillars, and no high ceili­ngs to set apart this university. All that it boasts of are an asbestos roof and tin shed walls.

Welcome to the Tamil Nadu Teachers Edu­cation University (TN­TEU) that is responsible for churning out teachers who mould the mi­nds and lives of hundr­eds of children. A visit to the university’s campus at Lady Willingdon College Campus on Kam­arajar Salai in the city revealed that it lacked infrastructure.

An administrator of a private teacher-training institute lamented that if the university, which regulates over 600 colleges itself lacked proper infrastructure then how could it question the infrastructure of colleges.

Professor C. Pichandy, vice-president of the Association of Univ­er­sity Teachers, blamed the previous DMK government for the sorry state of affairs as they failed to provide adequate infrastructure for the universities, which they started.

“We appeal to chief minister J. Jayalalithaa to intervene and restore the colleges back to the  universities concerned as the university has become redundant. Wh­en other universities can run all other courses why not they teacher education courses too?,” he asked.

Professor G. Visva­na­than, vice chancellor of TNTEU, said that the university had identified 20 acres of land in Kar­apakkam on  Old Ma­h­a­balipuram Road and the Kancheepuram district collector would approach the state government for providing the land to the university.

“Once we get the land we will have all buildings with good infrastructure and we hope to have the new facility by next year,” he said.

Next: curriculum revamped to woo aspirants

curriculum revamped to woo aspirants

Chennai: With less than five per cent of teacher aspira­nts clearing the Tea­cher Eligibility Test (TET) this year, the Ta­mil Na­du Teachers Edu­cation University (TN­TEU) has revamped its existing curriculum to enh­ance the pass percentage of teacher aspirants in the future.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle on Wed­nes­day, Professor G. Visva­nathan, vice-chancellor of TNTEU, said that the university had recently started six departments including pedagogical sciences, value education, educational psychology, educational technology, curriculum planning and evaluation and educational planning and administration, to provide value addition to teacher education.

“As we have started these six departments and revamp of our exis­ting curriculum, we are certain that more teacher aspirants will  be able to clear teacher eligibility test (TET). This year we have filled up almost 68,000 seats in over 600 teacher education colleges in the state, which shows that more students are interested in becoming tea­chers at present,” he said.

Pointing out that the university had constituted a committee to conduct surprise inspe­ctions in colleges to check their infrastructure, the vice-chancellor said that the committee had found errant colleges during inspections and they had rectified their deficiencies when pointed out.

“With state government’s scheme to reimburse fee charged for SC/ST student in private colleges we were able to admit more students from the community who aspire to become teachers for their career. We have co­n­stituted a committee to check whether the sch­eme is implemented in letter and spirit in colleges,” he added.