The protest at Regional Institute of Education (RIE) in Mysuru entered the third day, with students continuing to boycott classes.

Students have been demanding recognition from National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and University Grants Commission, for three courses, BA(Ed), BSc(Ed) and MSc(Ed), offered at RIE.

The courses have been affiliated to the University of Mysore, but has not been recognised yet by the bodies concerned.

The students alleged that authorities of the Institute had kept students in the dark over non-recognition to the courses offered, which has put their futures in jeopardy.

“The first batch of 30 students  of MSc(Ed) passed out last year. However, they could not find employment as the course was not recognised by NCTE and UGC. They could not pursue higher education for the same reason,” one of MSc(Ed) students said.

With second PUC being the minimum qualification, MSc(Ed) is a six year course.

However, with no recognition, our only qualification will be second PUC, despite studying for seven years. Noting these issues, we had submitted memorandums to RIE authorities to ensure NCTE recognition. Yet, nothing has been done, the student said.

D G Rao, Principal of RIE, said that recognition for BA(Ed) and BSc(Ed) would be sorted out soon, as the issue was only about the “nomenclature” of the course.

“We are making all efforts to ensure that MSc(Ed) programme too gets recognition from NCTE,” he said. A meeting has been arranged with the chairmen of National Council of Educational Research and Training and NCTE on January 13 and 14, he said.

On complaints by students, he said that even though RIE has been trying to get recognition for MSc(Ed) during the course of the year, there had been “delays”.

“Recognition procedure should have been completed as soon as affiliation for the course by a University was complete,” he noted and added that the issues would be sorted out.