A state-aided university to which private BEd colleges are affiliated has asked the colleges to fill the vacancies in teaching posts, in compliance with the regulations of the National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE), before the start of the new session in September.
University officials said the notice had to be issued as many of the colleges lack an adequate number of teachers.
In a notice issued on July 19, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Education University said: “The university wants all the teaching posts to be filled up so that excellence in imparting education in the colleges can be maintained.”
The NCTE regulations state a college must have at least eight teachers for 50 students and a minimum of 15 teachers for a batch of 100 students.
Soma Bandyopadhyay, vice-chancellor of the university, said they are reminding the colleges to fill the vacancies in teaching posts before renewing their affiliation.
About 600 private BEd colleges are affiliated to the university.
Last year, the university had barred 253 BEd colleges from admitting students and cancelled their affiliation because they failed to abide by the NCTE regulations.
“One of the reasons why the colleges were barred from admitting students was that they did not have enough teachers,” said an official at the university.
The July 19 notice, signed by the acting registrar, says: “It has also been observed that a sizeable number of colleges are yet to update their ERC (Eastern Regional Council of NCTE) faculty list as was notified earlier.”
In the updated faculty list, the colleges must mention the teachers’ names and provide their photographs and academic qualifications.
“We are asking the colleges to fill all the posts because we cannot afford to compromise with the quality of education. Last year, we had to act strictly and cancel the affiliation of many colleges after it emerged that they did not have adequate numbers of teachers. The NCTE rules have to be complied with,” said VC Bandyopadhyay.
A university official said they had earlier asked the colleges to recruit an adequate number of teachers. “As many of the colleges have yet to comply, the university was forced to issue the notice last week,” he said.
The two-year BEd programme has become crucial because the state school service commission (SSC) has mandated that candidates applying for teaching jobs in government-aided secondary and higher secondary schools must have a BEd degree to be eligible to write the selection test.
