The Department of Higher Education is understood to have transferred 31 lecturers from DIETs (District Institute of Education and Training) to government colleges of teacher education without the official sanction of National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
The National Council for Teacher Education has, so far, not given any written consent to the request made to that effect by the Higher Education Department of Tamil Nadu, official sources said.
The Higher Education Department had effected the transfers earlier this year to ensure continuity of student admissions in the government colleges of teacher education during this academic year, after the NCTE barred admissions citing faculty shortage.
The Principal Secretary of Higher Education had, in a letter addressed to the Chairperson of NCTE last November, requested for relaxation of the number of faculty in government colleges saying the recruitment process was underway. Later, a request was made seeking permission to proceed with admission process in government run colleges of education.
Against the backdrop of the Model Code of Conduct for the Assembly elections, the transfer of teachers from DIETs to the government colleges was depicted as a stop-gap arrangement.
“In the first place, the idea to transfer teachers from DIETs to government colleges is ill-conceived,” Jitendra Sharma, a former teacher in a government B.Ed. College in Rajasthan, who had sought a response from the National Council for Teacher Education on the issue through an RTI (Right to Information) petition, said.
“he DIETs that were established with funds from the Centre after the adoption of National Education Policy 1986 function as nodal agency for providing academic and resource support for universalising education and catering particularly to elementary level education. Also, there is the issue of whether teachers of DIETs have been posted to the colleges with the approval of the affiliating Universities concerned,” Mr. Jitendra said.
"No formal letter has been issued by the office of Regional Director of Southern Regional Council, NCTE, permitting the colleges to admit students in B.Ed. course after posting teachers of DIETs in the colleges,” Mr. Jitendra said.
He added: “The NCTE must consider this whole issue in its entirety, and must not allow anything which is not as per its regulations. Else, it will set a bad precedent in other States.”
