No of seats down as over 70 B.Ed colleges derecognised in state

Apart from the availability of 20 government and government-aided institutions, at present there are about 700 private colleges providing B.Ed. and M.Ed. education to lakhs of students, who want to become teachers. All the colleges are in the control of the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University (TTEU). The TTEU’s decision to withdraw recognition to as many as 71 private colleges across the State came against the backdrop of the National Council for Teachers Education’s (NCTE) recent order to put on hold the admissions for these institutions this year since they failed to fulfil the required norms.

“Of the total 71 colleges, a total of 13 institutions did not apply for the continuation of provisional affiliation for the academic year 2020-21”, NCTE Registrar V Balakrishnan said.

Stating that the government has issued a warning to the 71 colleges not to carry out new admissions this year, he said “the university will not be responsible if students join these institutions against the rule”.

A senior official from the School Education Department, which monitors TTEU activities, told DT Next that “as each of these de-recognized colleges were allocated 100 B. Ed seats respectively every year and therefore, about 7,000 seats will not be available for the students this academic session, which is about 10% less than the regular quota”.

Stating that of the total 71 derecognised institutions, as many as 13 colleges were also allowed to admit 50 students each to pursue M.Ed. course every year, he said “about 650 M.Ed. seats will not be available”.

He also said since about 25 percent of the seats in all private colleges have been reserved for candidates from outside the State, the opportunity for students here would remain reduced further. However, the official said that the de-recognised colleges could resume new admission only next year after getting proper approval from NCTE.

Incidentally, despite the recognition to these 71 colleges withdrawn, TTEU is yet to upload the list of the institutions either on its website or has issued any public notice for the benefit of the students.