Authorities at the University of Calicut are trying to get back National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) approval for their physical education courses.
Senior officials at the university told The Hindu on Monday that an application for the purpose had already been submitted online. A list of teachers and their professional details as required by the NCTE too had been sent. The university had enough infrastructure and staff to run the courses. The council was expected to consider those factors at its next meeting, the officials added. An NCTE team may visit the university to verify its claim.
The Kerala High Court had recently ordered the university not to admit students to the MPEd and BPEd courses which were not approved by the NCTE. This was after Sharul Banu, Resmin Bai and Sharanya, former students, approached the court seeking compensation from the university. They alleged that they had been cheated by the institution by running unrecognised courses. The court observed that it was recently informed by the NCTE that a direction had been issued to the university not to admit students to the courses. The court, however, clarified that it would not prevent the university from taking steps to get approval for the courses.
The petitioners pointed out that the university had been running BPEd and MPEd courses without approval for 15 years despite the NCTE informing that it was not authorised to do so. It was claimed that the university’s application for approval with retrospective effect had been rejected in 2017 itself. The petitioners also alleged that the university’s other teacher education courses too were not recognised.
University sources, however, claimed that they could not send application for approval online because the NCTE portal had not been opened for uploading it.
