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| Former Union minister demands scrapping of NCTE |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jul 16, 2009, 12:38 IST |
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Alleging that National Council for Teachers' Education was involved in "worst scandals" in sanctioning thousands of B.Ed colleges, former Union minister and senior Congress leader Ram Niwas Mirdha has demanded scrapping of the agency.
In a letter to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Mirdha has questioned the transparency in the functioning of the NCTE, and said the government should bring a legislation to repeal the NCTE Act to abolish the institution.
"One of the worst scandals, on par with sanctioning of large number of deemed universities by the University Grants Commission (UGC), was sanctioning of thousands of private B.Ed colleges during the last few years by the NCTE.
"These sanctions were given without considering whether it was the felt need of a particular state and without consultation with the state governments," he said.
Social activist Anna Hazare had shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year alleging that many "dubious" institutes were granted permission by the council's western region office in Bhopal.
The government-appointed committee on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education, headed by Prof Yashpal, has recommended that NCTE should be subsumed into the proposed National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER).
According to sources in HRD Ministry, the Council is "on a spree" to give recognition to institutes. While it had given recognition to 4,550 institutes till 2005, over 5,000 institutes were sanctioned from 2005 to 2008.
Incidentally, the sharp rise in the number of recognised institutes has been witnessed in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan.
In Maharastra, there were 645 institutions in 2005 which rose 1,280 in 2008. Similarly in Tamil Nadu, the number increased from 325 to 1,400 during this period while in Karanatak it rose from 771 to 1,435. In Rajasthan, the number of institutes has gone up to 607 in 2008 from 125 in 2005.
Mirdha, in his letter, has said that many states have protested this "unnecessary" expansion of private B.Ed colleges.
The government had earlier set up a committee headed by former education secretary Sudeep Banerjee to find out the relevance of NCTE. The committee had suggested repealing the body.
Mirdha said the legislation to repeal the NCTE Act could be introduced in the current session of Parliament.
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