4,000 colleges looking at show-cause notice from NCTE for failing to furnish affidavits

Kolkata: The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), a regulatory body for school level teacher training is issuing show-cause notices to as many as 4,000 B.ED and D.El. ED colleges across the country for failing to provide requisite data about their colleges through affidavits.

"A thousand of these colleges have already been slapped with show-cause notices by NCTE for failing to provide requisite documents," Anil Swarup, Secretary, department of School Education and Literacy, MHRD, said on the sidelines of an interactive session on 'Changing Face of Indian School Education' organised by Merchant Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"Teacher training in an important aspect of school education. If the teacher is not trained properly before he joins school then there is surely a problem. The NCTE had asked for affidavits from as many as 16,000 B.ED and D.El. ED colleges and only 12,000 among them filed it. 4,000 colleges could not furnish that even as they were handing out degrees already. They have been fleecing a number of students on the pretext of training," Swarup said. It has been learnt that around 67 such colleges are from Bengal. The Union Secretary also said that these training institutions are being ranked by the Quality Council of India (QCI) and will be marked on various sectors like subject knowledge, infrastructure and teacher quality among other parameters. He had earlier said that all the registered B ED colleges will be evaluated on five sets of ratings.

Principal of Ram Krishna Mission, Narendrapur, Swami Vedapurushananda who addressed the conclave said: "Private tuition is a menace of our society. Parents want students to attend these coaching classes more than schools."

Swarup added: "On the government's part, the issue of private tuitions cannot be sorted out by Legislature. It should come from the guardians."