The increase in number of certified, primary/elementary teachers after independence had not been achieved by rigorous, long-term plans for teacher education, but through various short-term training programmes organized on an ad-hoc basis by State Governments in response to the rapid expansion of school education. National Policy on Education 1986 (NPE86) envisaged that the system of teacher education would be overhauled and stated that the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) be established as one pillar of decentralized planning to achieve Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE). The 1990s saw a lot of projects for UEE like District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) which also involved district-based teacher preparation. Primary/elementary teacher education in India is now facing a new phase that requires not only quantitative expansion, but also qualitative re-arrangement so that teachers can be catalysts for achieving UEE.