Sri Sarada College of Education was established in the year 1968-69 by the dynamic effort of Mrs.Seetha Lakshmi Ramaswamy (Yatiswari Sarada Priya) under the presidentship of Srimath Swami Chidbhavananda of Sri Ramakrishna Tapovanam, Tirupparaithurai. With the aim of moulding the future teachers with intellectual, moral and spiritual values, Sri Sarada College Educational Trust, Salem propels the institution in the promising path. The founder President Swami Chidbhavananaji and the founder Secretary Yatiswari Saradapriya formed the highest ideal and noble values of the Holy Trinity Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda as the guiding principles of the College.
Sri Sarada College of Education, Salem was started with the aim to provide more trained women teachers for the several new High Schools in the State and meet the shortage of trained teacher personnel. This college is striving her best for the intellectual, spiritual, moral and cultural advancement of the country in general and Tamil Nadu in particular. It hopes to train teachers who will imbibe the culture and spiritual treasures of the land, so that they may become masters of themselves and servants of mankind. The college offers courses leading to B.Ed., M.Ed., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Education. It is housed in its own multi-storeyed building with adequate infrastructure.
Sri Sarada College of Education is a Government aided college and it was affiliated to the University of Madras from its inception to 1998. Autonomy status was conferred in the year 1988-89. It was an affiliated college of Periyar University from 1998-2008. Since 2008, Sri Sarada College of Education has been affiliated to Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University, Chennai.
The college has been recognized by the NCTE to conduct B.Ed. and M.Ed. programmes. The B.Ed. course consists of two semesters. Credit system in B.Ed is being followed from the academic year 1997-98 and in M.Ed credit system was introduced from 2007-2008. B.Ed. intake varied over the years from the beginning. At present the intake is 50 full-time women students.
M.Ed. course was started during the academic year 1979-80 with eight students. From 2005-06 onwards, a unit of 25 full-time women students are admitted. Now the intake is increased to 50.
M.Phil. Education was started from the academic year 1990-91 as part-time as well as full-time course for only women candidates. M.Phil in Education is offered as full time course under Autonomous status form 2009-10 onwards. From 2011-12 the trimester system has been introduced.
Ph.D. Education was started from the academic year 1980-81 as part-time as well as full-time course. So far 17 candidates were awarded Doctorates. Nine have submitted their theses and six scholars are awaiting viva voce examination.
The College was bestowed with Autonomous status in 1988. The college was accredited by the NAAC with three stars and scored in the range of 65-70 in 1999. The NAAC has reaccredited with “A” Grade and scored in the range of 85-90 in March 2007. The College successfully retained the “A” grade in the III cycle with CGPA of 3.02 on 4 point scale in September 2014.
The College is strictly adhering to all regulations of UGC and NCTE notified from time to time.
