Alarmed over the declining standards of education in the BEd (Bachelors of Education) colleges across the country, the Centre is in the process of crack down on the “shops” being run in the name of BEd colleges.
For the purpose, the Centre has asked these colleges to furnish affidavits with the information on course structure, number of teachers and the like,” shared the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday.
Javedkar, addressing the concluding day of a workshop on ‘Innovative and Best Practices in School Education organised by the HRD Ministry and Punjab’s Department of School Education, pointed that around 7,000 colleges across the country have sent the affidavits and many more are in the pipeline.
“The Centre has sought affidavits from BEd colleges with complete information about their courses, structures and criteria for admissions,” Javadekar said while noting that many colleges were being run as “shops” in the name of providing BEd course to the students.
The Centre has already cautioned that around 40 to 50 per cent of such institutes may lose affiliation or recognition in the coming months.
To improve the dropping standards of teacher training institutions, the Centre has already barred the creation of new BEd colleges declaring ‘2017’ as a “zero year” for new colleges in the field, while the existing one will undergo a quality audit.
The Union Minister also made it clear that the States had been given the authority to decide whether or not to detain students failing in Class V and VIII exams conducted in March and June.
He highlighted the need to impart education in native languages besides English, accountability of teachers, students as well as parents in shaping the future of the students.
“The inculcation of the humanitarian values, gender sensitivity and dignity of labour is also a significant aim of the education besides subject knowledge and skill development,” he said.
Herculean efforts were needed, he said, to carry out a revamp of the education system and ensure that every child is imparted quality education.
The Minister also batted for improvement in the infrastructure of the government schools, while citing Navodaya Vidyalayas and Kendriya Vidyalayas as good examples of quality education “which are worth emulating”.