Bhubaneswar, June 15: Members from renowned teachers' organisations have urged the Centre to reconsider its decision of closing down the National Council for Teacher Education's regional office in the city.

"The closure of this statutory body will have far-reaching adverse impact on the education system," said the World Federation of Teachers' Unions' general secretary Amiya Kumar Mohanty and the All India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisations vice-president Manas Behera, in a joint statement.

They also sought the state government's intervention to ensure that the regional office was not closed or shifted from Bhubaneswar.

The members said the council's general meeting, which was held in January, had decided to close down the regional offices.

Officials in the Bhubaneswar office declined comment. "We have no information. The head office in New Delhi will take a call," said an official requesting anonymity.

As many as 2,015 teacher training institutions are working under the control of the council's eastern region office based in Bhubaneswar. Of them, 148 hail from Odisha alone, said the members.

"If the office is closed, 15,114 untrained teachers working in Odisha under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan will be deprived from getting proper training," they said in the statement.

The council had come into existence in pursuance of the National Council for Teacher Education Act in August 1995.

Its main objective was to achieve planned and co-ordinated development of the teacher education system throughout the country as well as the regulation and proper maintenance of norms and standards in the teacher education system.

The country was divided into four regions and regional offices were set up in Bhubaneswar (eastern region), Bhopal (western region), Jaipur (northern region) and Bangalore (southern region).

The Bhubaneswar regional office covers 12 states, including Odisha and neighbouring Bihar and Bengal.

As the Bhubaneswar regional office did not have its own land and building, the state government on November 7, 2015, decided to allot one acre in the city.

Accordingly, a plot had been allotted at Samatapuri in the city and a sum of Rs 42.18 lakh got sanctioned by the council head office in August last year for construction of its boundary wall.

Educators feel that the closure of the regional office in Bhubaneswar would badly affect teacher education in Odisha - which is an educationally backward state.

"The state urgently needs good, trained teachers. Closure of the council's regional office in Odisha will deal a death blow to the ailing primary and secondary education sector, which is already plagued by high dropout rates and huge vacancies in teacher posts," said educator Chitta Ranjan Mishra.