The Supreme Court rules B.Ed. is insufficient qualification for elementary school teachers
News Mania Desk/Piyal Chatterjee/6th September 2024
The Supreme Court of India has upheld the long-standing ruling that a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree is ineligible as a teaching credential for elementary school teachers. The court affirmed that a Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed.) is a prerequisite for these kinds of jobs.
The Chhattisgarh High Court’s earlier decision, which had invalidated the employment of B.Ed. degree holders as primary school teachers, was affirmed by the Supreme Court at the time of the verdict. The bench, which included Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia, stressed that both free and compulsory education as well as high-quality education are part of India’s fundamental right to primary education, which is protected by Article 21A of the Indian Constitution and the Right to Education Act, 2009.
The court observed that holders of a B.Ed. degree do not satisfy the fundamental pedagogical qualifications required to instruct elementary school students, hence failing to deliver the high-quality education required by law. This result is in line with the court’s earlier ruling in the Devesh Sharma v. Union of India (2023) case, where it was decided that the National Council for Teacher Education’s 2018 announcement, which permitted B.Ed. candidates to be eligible to teach in elementary schools, was unlawful.
The Supreme Court did, however, make it clear that its ruling would be effective going forward. Teachers of B.Ed. who were hired prior to August 11, 2023, will not be impacted by this decision.
The nationwide primary school teacher recruiting process will be significantly impacted by this decision. As part of a bigger drive to hire 27,197 teachers in the state, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi announced the recruitment of 16,010 junior teachers over the next three weeks in response to the ruling.
The ruling by the Supreme Court emphasizes how crucial it is for primary school instructors to complete specialized training in order to guarantee that young kids receive the best education possible from the beginning of their academic careers.
