Calcutta, Oct. 30: The Centre today promised to find a way to help the thousands left in the lurch after Calcutta High Court declared 138-odd primary teachers’ training institutes in Bengal illegal.

State school education minister Partha De met Union human resource development minister Arjun Singh in the capital today.

The high court order, which came last month, said the 138 institutes could not be allowed to run as they did not have accreditation from the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).

The ruling has put a question mark on the future of about 76,000 students of the institutes, of which 80 are private.

According to education department sources, De proposed to Singh that “a realistic solution” be found within the framework of the NCTE act.

“The school education minister requested Arjun Singh to amend the act if it is not possible to find a solution within its framework,” an official said.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told a Left Front meeting in Calcutta today that he had requested foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee to help resolve the row.

Front chairman Biman Bose admitted that the government had been “caught unawares” by the legal “complications” of the case.

“Primary teachers’ training institutes have mushroomed over the years and the future of 76,000 students is at stake. The government has to take initiatives to end the impasse,’’ he said.