A state-aided university, which last year barred 253 BEd colleges from admitting students on the ground that they did not abide by the National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE) regulations, has announced that such colleges will have to address all the “deficiencies” and then apply for renewal with proof.
The West Bengal University of Teachers’ Training, Education Planning and Administration (now known as Baba Saheb Ambedkar Education University) issued a notice on Tuesday listing the regulations that the colleges have to comply with before the start of the ensuing admission process.
The university affiliates about 600 private BEd colleges and 24 DElEd colleges.
The regulations say the colleges have to upload their faculty list following what
the NCTE has prescribed and the bank statements showing direct bank transfer of their salary for three months preceding the faculty list publication.
The NCTE stipulated regulations state a college is required to have eight teachers for a batch of 50 students.
Soma Bandyopadhyay, vice-chancellor of the university, said in November last year that as 253 colleges were not abiding by the teacher-student ratio. Hence, they had to revoke the affiliation.
The colleges also stood accused of not bank transferring the salaries.
A notice signed by the university’s acting registrar says: “Link of renewal of affiliation will be given to colleges by mail on and from July 12.... The colleges who did not get affiliation for 2023 for various deficiencies will have to first meet various deficiencies and then with proof will apply before the registrar for link. Their application will be positively considered till the date of the initiation of the admission process.”
The notice says: “Colleges should not apply for method subjects in which they do not have any teacher as per the current NCTE ERC faculty list submitted. It has been observed that some colleges in spite of not having the teacher in a method subject, admit students there and subsequently apply for change of method subject. This will not be entertained.”
The other documents which need to be uploaded at the time application for affiliation are a valid fire safety certificate with present status and a resolution showing the constitution of the current governing body.
The two-year BEd programme has become crucial because the state school service commission (SSC) has mandated that candidates for secondary and higher secondary teaching jobs in government-aided schools must have a BEd degree to be eligible the selection test.
When the university revoked the affiliations last year, it faced fierce protests from some of the college authorities.
The university had to suspend operations in the face of the protest in early December 2023. It resumed work after police ensured protection.
“But the university has made it clear that the colleges have to comply with the conditions. We are not going to compromise fearing protests,” VC Bandyopadhyay told Metro.
He said a BEd college must submit documents about the number of teachers, infrastructure (academic area, curriculum laboratory, science laboratory, resource centre and space for workshop), fire licence and other credentials to the university each year to renew their affiliation.