Teacher training institutes close
In past two years, several institutes closed down as it was no longer profitable
Chennai: With fewer aspirants joining the Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) programme, over 200 teacher training institutes (TTI) in Tamil Nadu have closed in the last two years.
This year, there are 40 more TTIs that have so far applied to the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), seeking permission to close.
Confirming this, S. Kannappan, director, Tamil Nadu State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), said that in the past two years, several institutes had pulled down their shutters as it was no longer profitable for them to run them.
The administrator of a teacher training institute said that with the inclination for teacher education dropping in the recent past, “It became economically unviable for us to run it. Running a teacher training institute is no longer a lucrative business.”
T.Sumathi, an aspirant teacher, feels that as the State government had filled all vacancies in its schools in the past five years and private schools paying meagre salary, it made no sense for a person to pursue teaching as a career option.
“Already teaching has become the last priority on a student’s list of career options and if this situation continues one will not be able to find a qualified teacher in the near future,” she said.