India.s independence in 1947 and the promulgation of its Constitution in 1950 were expected to be the impetus for realizing universalization of elementary education (UEE). The Constitution stated that India would endeavor to provide free, compulsory elementary education within 10 years from the commencement of the Constitution. However, India took almost 40 years to announce a national system for teacher education. This paper examines the progress in education of elementary teachers in India and attempts to understand the problems involved in development of teacher-training policies after 1947 to the National Policy on Education 1968. In the pre-independence period, there was an acute shortage of trained school teachers and institutions for teacher education had qualitative problems. However, the teacher education in India after independence had two contradictory trends. The first trend was adapting short-term courses for teacher training for quantitative improvement. The second trend was suggesting higher qualifications for admission for teacher training institutions and emphasizing the importance of teacher training. There was a wide variety and disparity in the condition of school education and teacher education in India, and these factors prevented the Central Government to take definite measures to reform teacher education. Consequently, the NPE68 mentioned in-service education for school teachers, but didn.t advocate any particular plan for pre-service teacher education.