Classroom management is widely recognised as one of the strongest school level influences on student learning, yet it remains a persistent source of difficulty for beginning teachers. The present study assessed the classroom management skills of prospective teachers in Tripura, India, and examined whether these skills differ across gender, academic year and academic stream. A descriptive survey design was adopted. Data were collected from 119 prospective teachers of The ICFAI University Tripura through the Classroom Management Skills Inventory (CMSI, Tripura Context), a 42 item five point Likert scale covering six dimensions, namely motivation, instructional communication, behaviour management, positive interactions, physical environment and time management (Cronbach's alpha = .96). The results revealed that most prospective teachers (69.7 per cent) possessed a moderate level of classroom management skills, while 17.6 per cent reported a high level and 12.6 per cent a low level. Motivation and positive interactions emerged as the strongest dimensions and time management as the weakest. No significant difference was found with respect to gender or academic stream. However, second year prospective teachers scored significantly higher than first year prospective teachers (t = 2.44, p = .016, d = 0.46). The findings underline the need to strengthen practicum based preparation in classroom management, particularly time management, within teacher education programmes.