Siliguri, Aug. 7: Seven of the eight BEd colleges under North Bengal University (NBU), which had been declared illegal by Calcutta High Court earlier this year, have been recognised by the National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE).
“Barring Raiganj BEd college, the NCTE has recognised all other seven teachers’ training colleges, subject to certain conditions,” said Dilip Kumar Sarkar, the controller of examinations of the university. “Raiganj College got its premises inspected by the NCTE team only in January this year. This is why the clearance has still not come in. The others had their premises inspected in 2003-04,” he said.
The newly-recognised colleges — Satish Chandra BEd College in Malda, Gangarampur BEd College in South Dinajpur, Raiganj BEd College, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad BEd College in Itahar, Eastern Dooars BEd College in Alipurduar, Falakata BEd College, Ananda Chandra Training College in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar BEd College — will have to comply with certain conditions, like having whole-time teachers and up-grading the overall infrastructure.
On April 19, a division bench of Calcutta High Court declared that eight BEd Colleges affiliated to North Bengal University were illegally running courses as these institutions had not been recognised by the NCTE and restrained NBU from conducting examinations in these colleges.
Under the National Council for Teachers’ Act, 1993, it is mandatory for institutions to obtain recognition from NCTE before starting training courses for teachers.
Students of these colleges, barring Raiganj College, however, will have to get themselves readmitted, which means they will lose a year. Sarkar said the varsity has instructed the colleges to give preference to these students during admissions. “They will not have to pay any fresh admission fee,” he added.
Balurghat College, which earlier received the NCTE recognition from the 2006-07 academic year, has now been granted the affiliation from the 2005-2006 session.
“Due to the delay in the no-objection certificate from the government, the recognition of this college was delayed,” Sarkar said.
The controller also told reporters that the university would soon conduct examinations for the students of Balurghat College. “We will discuss the date of the examinations at the Executive Council meeting on August 17. We will try to conduct the exams as early as possible, probably before the pujas,” he said.
“I don't know how to react,” said Abdus Sattar, a student of Malda Satish Chandra College. “We have to lose an entire year for no fault of ours. We trusted the university authorities and enrolled ourselves for the course. We will never get back the lost year and no compensation can make up for that.”
“Life has to move on,” said Payel Paul, a student of Jalpaiguri Ananda Chandra College. “But we are hopeful that the government will arrange a separate exam for us, as it has promised,” she added.
Welcoming the development senior state leader of the SFI Sudeep Roy Choudhurysaid: “We sympathise with those who have lost a year, but we are happy with the development. At least the students will be able to take their exams and obtain valid certificates.”
