Secondary teacher education institutions of West Bengal: Distribution and present scenario

From the ancient period through the British era to the post-independent periods, the system of teacher education in India has undergone various advancements. During these periods, especially in the last decade, a number of Teacher Education Institutions were established throughout the country. The state of West Bengal also witnessed this expansion where a sudden increase in the number of Teacher Education Institutions can be seen in the last decade. The focus of this paper is on the nature of distribution of Government-financed and Self-financed Secondary Teacher Education Institutions in different districts of West Bengal. This paper may provide us a contemporary database of all the Secondary Teacher Education Institutions located in different districts of West Bengal under different affiliating Universities. It is observed that there are 633 Secondary Teacher Education Institutions in West Bengal (NCTE, 2018) of which 47 are Government-financed and 586 are Self-financed. The district Murshidabad has the highest number (103) of Self-financed Secondary Teacher Education Institutions whereas Kolkata district has the highest number (12) of Government-financed Secondary Teacher Education Institutions. However, there is a chance that this rapid increase in the quantity may not match the quality. Therefore a balance between the quality and quantity concern of Teacher Education Institutions is an urgent need.