India’s 20,500 private teacher education/training colleges constituting 93% of the total school teachers training capacity available in the country are up in arms as announcement of the new National Policy on Education is round the corner. Their apprehension is that if recommendations contained in the draft NEP are in reality reflected in the new policy, it will spell a death knell for these colleges.
At a national conference of the Association of NCTE Approved Colleges Trust (ANACT) held in New Delhi on January 30, about 500 delegates from these colleges coming from 20 states across the country raised demands for a realistic policy framework while spelling out their fears over recommended policy changes in the draft NEP. The forum principally raised three major concerns.
First, each college has developed infrastructure to the tune of Rs 20-40Cr and cumulatively it comes to about Rs 57,000 Cr by these colleges taken together and as per draft NEP, all standalone colleges will disappear and make way for consolidated multidisciplinary universities after 2030. Only a four-year ITEP (Integrated Teacher Education Program) will run after this year. One-year of two-year refresher courses or B.Ed. or D.E.L.D. will not be available for standalone colleges, so, will the Rs 57,000 Cr investment and livelihood of thousands of go down the drain?
Second, there are only 42,000 Ph D and UGC-NET graduates on the subject of Education in the country, where as private teaching colleges alone need about 65,6000 (@ 32 professors/Asst Profesors per college) of them for compliance with NCTE regulations. As per PTR norms, the requirement for B Ed/ D El Ed ratio is of 1: 12.5 and 1: 10 ratio in M.Ed. The association said that the total building area is also sought in NCTE Regulation 2014 besides all labs, classrooms, halls as sought therein are absolutely unscientific in proportion.
Thirdly, whereas the Endowment Fund that has been raised from earlier 8 lakhs to 12 lakhs, it is wrongly being managed as the NCTE wants 50% of interest earned every year. The unfilled vacancy due to stringent eligibility criteria for admission, non-uniform fee structure nationally is also added to the woes of these colleges.
Therefore ANACT has demanded that government should reconsider the Education Policy 2019 as also abolish unfriendly regulations like approval by affiliating body (NCTE) for appointment of academic staff and grants for professors.
According to ANACT national president, Dr S.V. Arya, about 14 lakh new teachers are required all over the country as against four lakhs being prepared because of the unfavorable policy environment. Among those who attended included national senior vice presidenst of the Association Dr Rajendra Rastogi and Roshanlal Gupta, national vice presidents—D Dr A.R. Khan and Vikram Singh, national secretaries Subhash Gurjar and Praveen Chhillar, Himachal Pradesh president- Surajkant, Jharkhand State president-Krishna Kumar Kejriwal, Karnataka president- Akil Ahmed MG, Madhya pradesh President- Dr Yogendra S. Yadav, Maharashtra president-Sudarshan Kadam, Rajasthan president- Sandeep Dhatarwal, Uttar Pradesh-president- Ankit Garg, Uttarakhand president -Dr VK Sharma, Arunachal state president= Adng Tyang along with other officials and members.
