Summary
Vice-chancellor Bandyopadhyay said these colleges gave undertakings to the university that they would improve their infrastructure and remove their deficiencies
The VC of a state-aided university, which affiliates the private BEd colleges, said they would welcome any probe to find out why the university barred 253 private BEd colleges from enrolling students on grounds of not complying with the NCTE guidelines.
The vice-chancellor’s comment came days after state education minister Bratya Basu said they would investigate why the affiliation of the colleges was withdrawn by the university to disallow enrollment of students.
West Bengal University of Teachers’ Training, Education Planning and Administration last Friday barred 253 private institutions from admitting students on the grounds that they don’t abide by the National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE) regulations on teacher-student ratio and don’t pay their teachers in accordance with the pay scale set by the UGC.
There are 600-odd private BEd colleges across the state.
On Saturday, education minister Bratya Basu said: “BEd is a must qualification for getting the job of a school teacher (in government-aided schools). I don’t know why the affiliation was withdrawn. We will conduct a formal inquiry into this”.
When asked about the inquiry, vice-chancellor Soma Bandyopadhyay said on Monday: “Let there be an inquiry. The department can always seek to know from the university why the decision was taken”.
The university announced its decision on de-affiliating the rights of the colleges
on admitting the students after a division bench of the Supreme Court in an order on November 6 said: “We see no reason to pass any other order in this special leave petition but to reiterate that the renewal of affiliation of the respondent No.1 will be subject to their satisfying the applicable norms for affiliation of tthe Teachers’ Training College. With the above order, the Special Leave Petition is disposed of”.
Vice-chancellor Bandyopadhyay said these colleges gave undertakings
to the university that they would improve their infrastructure and remove their deficiencies.
“But many of the colleges did not fulfil the terms of their undertakings. Instead, they moved the Supreme Court. They have lost in Court. The university has every
right to go for this (de-affiliation of admission right),” vice-chancellor Bandyopadhyay said.
An official of the university said the NCTE stipulated regulations state a college
is required to have eight teachers for a batch of 50 students.
“These colleges are not abiding by the prescribed teacher-student ratio set for them. They don’t pay their teachers following the pay scale fixed by the UGC,” he said.
Calls and text messages to the education minister Bratya Basu failed to elicit any response.
Vice-chancllor Bandyopadhyay said they communicated to the department on August 3 about a decision of the university’s executive council, which stated that a section of the self-financed colleges is not abiding by the NCTE-prescribed regulations.
Last updated on 14 Nov 2023
