HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today stressed the need for improving service condition of teachers to attract best minds into the profession and ensure quality education to students. He also sought to expand the role and scope of National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE).Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the 15th foundation day celebration of NCTE, he said, there is a shortage of 1.2 million teachers at the elementary level alone while at the class XI and X level, the shortage is over two lakh.Sibal underlined the need for enhanced participation of universities as active partners of NCTE and asked the latter to reach out to academic bodies like NCERT and CBSE.