The decision of the State Government to accept candidates with B.E. and B.Ed. qualification for teaching Mathematics at levels VI to VIII has apparently given a lifeline to colleges of education that had been pushed to the situation of closing down due to lack of enrolment over the years.
"It is now common to find candidates with B.E./B.Tech qualification enrolling themselves for the B.Ed regular programme in colleges," a senior official of School Education Department said.
The increase effected by National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in the duration of study from one to two years from 2014 had taken the charm out of the B.Ed. programme, be it in distance or regular mode, according to a correspondent of a self-financed college of education.
As per the NCTE guidelines, the duration of the course should be 24 months exclusive of the time taken for completing admission formalities. "The rate of enrolment dropped drastically after the increase in duration of the programme," he said.
Due to the shrinking patronage for B.Ed. programmes, several colleges had to close down.
There are still colleges that function with only double digit admissions, according to a senior official of a State University. Since the Ministry of Human Resource Development has favoured scrapping of regular B.Ed. in favour of a four-year integrated programme along with undergraduation (B.A., B.Sc., and B.Com) in a chosen subject of study, with effect from 2020, their very existence is at stake.
Even the State universities are now finding it tough to enrol candidates for the B.Ed. programmes they offer in the distance education mode, due to the policy that only working teachers in government primary schools who hold an undergraduate degree and diploma in teacher education are eligible to pursue B.Ed through correspondence, as a pre-requisite for upward career mobility. A State university that had obtained NCTE approval can admit a maximum of 500 candidates for the B.Ed. programme under distance mode. However, during this academic year, 100 to 200 seats could not be filled.
"Perhaps, this could be the impact of acquisition of B.Ed. qualification through correspondence by most of the primary level teachers in government schools intending to move to the position of graduate teachers," K. Parthasarathy, Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Open University said.
The State universities are learnt to have approached the NCTE to permit any working teacher in a government-recognised school to pursue B.Ed. through correspondence, and not to insist on graduation along with diploma in teacher education as a requirement.
In such a situation, the private schools will be better placed to conduct campus interviews in arts and science or engineering colleges to identify potential teachers and facilitate them to obtain B.Ed through correspondence subsequently while in job, a school principal said.
