HECI Bill 2025 to bring standalone teacher training institutes under accreditation framework: NCTE chief

The standalone teacher training institutes, which have not been part of the accreditation process, will now be accredited with the establishment of the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), said Pankaj Arora, chief of National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) chairperson.

The HECI Bill 2025, now called Viksit Bharat Sikhsha Adhikshan bill, is scheduled to be tabled in the parliament during the winter session. The union cabinet cleared the bill on Friday. If enacted into law, it will set up a single higher education regulator, replacing the University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and NCTE. The UGC regulates higher education in the general disciplines; AICTE oversees technical education and the NCTE, teacher training.

The draft bill is yet to be made public. However, as reported earlier, the new body will not have the funding powers of UGC and AICTE. It will have three broad functions – regulation, accreditation and setting learning standards.

Accreditation for teacher training institutes

Arora said, “It was always a challenge that the standalone teacher training institutes did not have accreditation. It was not within the ambit of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). With HECI coming, there will be a single regulator.”

As per the mandate of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the standalone teacher training institutes – usually referred to as “B.Ed colleges” – will have to transition into multidisciplinary institutions with the introduction of Integrated Teachers Education Programme (ITEP).

The institutions have been given time till 2030 to complete the process.

“With the HECI coming in it will also be easier for institutions as there will be a single benchmark for regulation and will bring in uniformity. As it is believed that regulation should be light and tight,” Arora told Academia360.

He added that there will be a chairperson heading the commission. Medical and legal education are outside the ambit of HECI.

Earlier, the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on education Digvijaya Singh has written to education minister Dharmendra Pradhan asking that the bill be sent to the panel for review first. Singh has also marked the copy of the letter to the minister parliamentary affairs Kiren Rijiju.