Guwahati, May 9: A central review team has expressed dissatisfaction about the current status of the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT), Assam, and recommended its restructuring.

The six-member team of the Union ministry of human resource development-constituted joint review mission on teacher education in Assam visited the state in response to a restructuring proposal sent by the council to the ministry.

Post-visit, the team is of the opinion that the proposal should be implemented immediately. “The mission was not satisfied with the existing SCERT set-up and recommended that the state government should restructure it by making it as an apex academic authority,” a source said.

The council is a government body responsible for the formation, implementation and management of the elementary teacher education curriculum in the state. Teacher education institutes like District Institutes of Education and Training (Diet), College of Teacher Education (CTE) and Institutes of Advanced Study in Education (IASE) are under its administrative control. It also prepares textbooks for elementary and secondary classes of all government schools in the state.

The mission said most faculty members of SCERT had only the minimum qualifications required under state norms. Lack of appointment in faculty positions, delay in obtaining sanctions and approvals, slow decision-making process and lack of institutional vision were some of the constraints faced by the council according to the mission.

Expressing concern over an “apparently” complex procedure the council had to go through to receive central funding, the mission said, “Though the HRD ministry has released Rs 97.92 lakh, including Rs 32.44 lakh for recurring and Rs 65.70 lakh for non-recurring expenses, the SCERT has not received it yet. Apparently the process of accessing the funds from the state government is a complex process involving various departments.”

“The positions of director, joint director and deputy directors (in SCERT) should be treated as academic positions. The state may also consider raising the status of SCERT to a higher level system which will help in integrating all levels of teacher education institutes — IASEs, CTEs, Diets and BEd colleges — within the state under one umbrella, both academically and administratively,” it said.