The Supreme Court has set aside a decision allowing BEd-qualified persons to be appointed as teachers in the primary section (Class I to V), pointing out that the government had acted contrary to the provisions of the Constitution and law by thrusting its directions on a regulatory body that is mandated to function independently.

The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), the teacher education regulator, had in June 2018 followed a direction by the then human resource development (HRD) ministry to allow BEd as an additional qualification for primary-level teachers.

Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia said on August 11: “By including BEd as a qualification for teachers for primary school, the Central Government has acted against the provisions of the Constitution and the laws.”

“The material which has been placed before this Court in the form of official communications and meetings at the highest level makes it clear that in the present case, the decision taken by the NCTE is not an independent decision of an expert body which is created by the statute and mandated to take independent decisions,” the judgment said.

“But as we have seen the decision to include BEd as a qualification is not an independent decision of the NCTE, but it was the decision of the Central Government and the NCTE was simply directed to carry it out... a direction the NCTE followed,” the court added.

It ruled that the entire exercise was procedurally flawed since the decision was not independently taken by the NCTE after due deliberations.

“A policy decision which is totally arbitrary; contrary to the law, or a decision which has been taken without proper application of mind, or in total disregard of relevant factors is liable to be interfered with, as that also is the mandate of law and the Constitution. This aspect has been reiterated by this Court time and again,” the Supreme Court said while quashing the NCTE’s notification.

BEd is not a qualification meant for primary teachers because the pedagogical skills and training required at this level are different.

According to a 2010 NCTE notification, a candidate seeking a job as a primary or upper primary (Class VI to VIII) teacher needs to possess a two-year diploma in elementary education after Class XII or a four-year Bachelor of Elementary Education (BElEd) and Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) qualification.

The Rajasthan government in 2021 did not allow BEd candidates to appear in the TET meant for primary class teachers. Some BEd-qualified candidates challenged this in Rajasthan High Court, contending that the state government had violated the NCTE’s policy. The high court quashed the NCTE policy, after which the matter came to the apex court.

A meeting was held on May 28, 2018, by the HRD ministry where it was decided BEd would be recognised as an additional eligibility criterion for the appointment of primary teachers in Kendriya Vidyalayas. This was followed by a note which said that since BEd-qualified candidates were eligible to be appointed as primary teachers in KVS schools, there should be no objection to extend this direction to other schools. The HRD ministry issued a letter dated May 30, 2018, in the form of a direction which required the NCTE to amend the eligibility criteria to include BEd-qualified candidates for primary teachers' posts.