The reducing interest of the students for Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree is weighing heavily on the private colleges offering this degree. The B.Ed. degree once a hot favourite among the university pass outs has lost much of its sheen in recent times due which many private colleges have opted closure than continuing with losses.
There are more than 100 private colleges in Uttarakhand which are offering B.Ed. courses to the students and as many as half of their seats remained vacant last year. It is learnt that six B.Ed. colleges affiliated with HNB Garhwal University have closed and many others many follow suit soon. Another fallout of this trend is that the colleges are planning to reduce the number of B.Ed. seats offered by them so that their expenditure on faculty is reduced.
The experts are blaming two year B.Ed. course started last year by the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) as one of the main reason for lukewarm response of the students in the degree.
The other reason for this loss of interest among the students is that the apex body of teacher education NCTE has given clear instructions to the centre and states that only candidates having Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) should be considered eligible for being primary teachers.
It is worth mentioning here that primary teachers constitute the major chunk of vacancies and students are now making a beeline for D.El.Ed and B.Ed. degree has lost much of its earlier interest.
The President of Association of Self financed institutes of Uttarakhand; Sunil Agarwal accepted that things are difficult for the private colleges.
He said the State Government should allow the private colleges to offer D.El.Ed courses so that both the students and colleges are benefitted.
In Uttrakhand the State Government has given permission to 13 District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) to offer D.El.Ed. course.
The private colleges of state contend that since hundreds of private colleges in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana offer this diploma course the decision to deprive private colleges of Uttarakhand is bad for both the students and state.