TEACHER EDUCATION

        An educational institution performs a significant function of providing learning experiences to lead their students from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge. As stated by NCTE (1998) in Quality Concerns in Secondary Teacher Education, ―The teacher is the most important element in any educational program. It is the teacher who is mainly responsible for implementation of the educational process at any stage. The National Council for Teacher Education has defined teacher education as A programme of education, research and training of persons to teach from pre-primary to higher education level.

                          

                     According to Goods Dictionary of Education Teacher education means, ―all the formal and non -formal activities and experiences that help to qualify a person to assume responsibilities of a member of the educational profession or to discharge his

responsibilities more effectively.    Teacher education is a continuous process and its pre - service and in - service components are complimentary to each other. According to the International Encyclopedia of Teachin g and Teacher education (1987), ―Teacher education can be considered in three phases , Pre -service, Induction and In -service. 

The American Commission on Teacher Education rightly observes, “The quality of a nation depends upon the quality of its citizens. The quality of its citizens depends not exclusively, but in critical

measure upon the quality of their education, the quality of their education depends more than upon any single factor, upon the quality of their teacher.” 

Teacher education reaches teachers at all levels of education, namely Pre -primary, Primary, Elementary, Secondary, Higher Secondary and the Tertiary.

The needs and requirements of students and education vary at each level. Hence level and stage -specific teacher preparation is essential. Teacher education also helps in the development of teaching skills in teachers of professional institutions. The teachers in professional institu tions have only the theoretical and practical

knowledge of their respective subjects . They require specialized teacher training inputs to deal with students entering their professions. Teacher education also reaches special education and physical education . Thus where there are teachers, there would be

teacher education