NCTE withdraws 7MEd colleges recognition in K'taka

National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has withdrawn the recognition of M.Ed programmes in Vijaya Teachers College and 7 M.Ed colleges affiliated to Bangalore University (BU).

The decision was taken during the 241st meeting of the NCTE Southern Regional Committee held on March 29, March 31 and April 1. The apex body has withdrawn recognition of M.Ed programmes at Vijaya Teachers College, Gold Field College of Education (Kolar), St Paul's MEd College, Smt Mehra's College of Education, Bangalore City College of Education and KIET College of Education.

The council also withdrew the recognition of M.Ed. courses offered at Vijaya Teachers College, Gold Field College of Education (Kolar), St. Paul's M.Ed. College, Smt. Mehra's College of Education, Bangalore City College of Education and KIET College of Education.

In November 2012, NCTE had sent a show cause notice to these 7 M.Ed colleges under BU seeking an explanation after the Bu task force interim report highlighted several academic and infrastructural shortcomings in the colleges.

Management quota admissions for the year 2012-13 in these colleges were suspended, a decision unanimously taken by the Academic Council in August last year. It was resolved to accommodate government quota students within the university.

Around 53 B.Ed colleges are under the radar for exam irregularities.

"We don't understand why the NCTE has taken this decision," said D Hemalatha, principal, Vijaya Teachers College.

"We were given time to fulfill the shortcomings and we achieved 100 per cent compliance. We submitted our compliance reports to BU and NCTE. We want to know from NCTE why this decision was taken and in what areas we still lack," she said.

Established in 1960, Vijaya Teachers College started its M.Ed programme in 2009. However, as per the Task Force report, the college has "no separate teaching faculty recruited for the M.Ed course."

The college was found to have full time B.Ed teachers also teaching M.Ed students, which the report calls "a serious academic lapse". Attendance registers of students and faculty were not maintained properly and there was no evidence of conducting B.Ed and M.Ed programmes as separate units, the report stated.