India, April 22 -- Fifteen eminent professors of education from across the world have urged union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to scrap plans to discontinue the B.El.Ed. (Bachelor of Elementary Education) programme, a four-year degree programme in elementary teacher education.

The letter, sent on Monday, has come a month after the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) released draft regulations in February 2025 which outline new norms and standards for teacher education programmes.

The draft rules propose discontinuing the B.El.Ed. course from the 2026-27 academic session and requiring institutions currently offering the course to transition to the new Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) before the start of th...