BEd task force suggests monitoring board

 The Bangalore University Task Force on BEd colleges has recommended to the State government to constitute a monitoring and supervisory board to supervise teacher education colleges.

The proposed supervisory board comprising representatives from the Department of Collegiate Education (DCE), Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT), Education Department and universities in the State, would co-ordinate with all the universities and with the Southern Regional Committee of National Council for Teachers' Education (NCTE).

A high-power committee involving experts from teacher education and retired IAS officers, to exclusively look into the status of teacher education in the State, has also been recommended.

The Task Force submitted its final report to Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor Prof B Thimme Gowda on Monday.

The body had submitted an interim report November last year recommending disaffiliation of BEd colleges where irregularities were reported. Even though Bangalore University Academic Council and the Syndicate had accepted the report, colleges were not disaffiliated.

The university recently permitted several of the colleges where irregularities were found to conduct the exam this year (in June), on “humanitarian grounds”.

The Task Force had taken objection to the measure, saying these blacklisted colleges had a large number of  “off campus” students who never attended the classes.

“The university seems to have ignored the fact that some of these colleges are being investigated by CID, Government of Karnataka,” it pointed out. Moreover, after having accepted its interim report in toto, this action of the university is in violation of its own decision.

As per the reports of the expert committee headed by Prof V Sudhakar and the Task Force interim report submitted in November last year, the university will have to disaffiliate all colleges listed in Category III of the report. 

Cap on colleges

Further, the report recommended the government to limit the number of teacher education colleges to about 130 and ensure these colleges comply with the NCTE norms.
“In the previous academic year, out of the total available 17,400 seats in 349 unaided private colleges, only 8,381 seats were filled.

Not more than 1,100 teachers are required for these colleges and the monitoring and supervisory board should take care of the appointment of faculty to these colleges,” the report observed. All irregular, malfunctioning and defunct colleges under the university should be closed down from 2012-13, it added.

In addition, the Task Force has recommended for a court commission to deal with the irregularities in teacher education colleges not only under BU, but all varsities in the State. The report notes that the last revision of BEd syllabus by the Bangalore University was in 2002, while the guidelines specify that the syllabus has to be revised once every five years.

The Task Force was headed by Academic Council member H Karan Kumar. The other members included M B Keerthi Narayana Swamy, Reader, Dept of Physical Education; Haseen Taj, Reader, Department of Education; R Nagarajaiah, retired Professor of Education and Rajashekara Murthy, AFO, Bangalore University.