BEd aspirants started applying for admissions from Tuesday.

The Jharkhand Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board started seeking online applications on http://jceceb.jharkhand.gov.in/ from Tuesday. Candidates can apply till March 31.

The BEd academic session is expected to start in August.

Those with at least 50 per cent marks in graduation, post-graduate in science, social science, humanities, commerce, and bachelor’s in engineering or technology with specialisation in science and mathematics with at least 55 per cent marks are eligible to apply.

Students who will graduate in 2020 are also eligible to apply.

Last year, the state government launched a centralised BEd admission to make the admission process transparent. The state department of higher, technical education and skill development also scrapped the “college quota” that allegedly facilitated backdoor entry and bribing one’s way to the coveted course.

The centralised process covers around 12,500 BEd seats across 126 colleges of the state, including government, government-aided, unaided and self-financed colleges.

Last year, Ranchi University was entrusted for counselling BEd aspirants. This year so far no university has been given the responsibility.

Asked why, JCECEB administrative officer Om Prakash said they wanted to let students apply first and then decide on an entrance examination date. “The selection of the university for counselling successful students will be done later,” he said.

The centralised selection system is also not without glitches. Last year, Ranchi University had withdrawn the first selection list of candidates owing to “technical errors”. Students had also reported erroneous allotment of colleges in the first round of counselling. “We welcome a centralised system but it should be smooth without errors. It’s a question of our careers,” said Deeptesh Prasad, a BEd aspirant from Jamshedpur.