Lacklustre response to nursery teacher training courses

“Youngsters have also not shown much interest in Certificate in Teaching Nursery (CT Nursery) and Diploma in Physical Education (DPEd) courses for which applications were invited,” officials said.

Against 1,500 seats on offer, a meagre 542 candidates have expressed interest to pursue diploma in nursery teacher training (NTT), officials said. The last date that Exam Regulatory Authority (ERA), headquartered in Prayagraj, had set to apply for the course was December 8.

Applications for CT (Nursery) were invited from women candidates to fill 61 seats. Only 219 candidates have applied for it.

“Youngsters have also not shown much interest in Certificate in Teaching Nursery (CT Nursery) and Diploma in Physical Education (DPEd) courses for which applications were invited,” the officials added.

Meanwhile, ERA records showed that two-thirds of the total seats for the NTT course that were on offer will remain vacant this year. “Just 10 out of the total 21 institutions had taken affiliation from the body to offer NTT courses from 2016. There were just three institutions that offered NTT course before 2016,” a senior ERA official said.

ERA secretary Anil Bhushan Chaturvedi said the process of accepting applications was over now.

Likewise, applications for CT (Nursery) were invited from women candidates to fill 61 seats. Only 219 candidates have applied for it. For Diploma in Physical Education (DPEd), applications were invited from both male and female candidates but here too only 365 candidates applied for 130 seats on offer.

“The lack of interest among institutions to offer these courses and among candidates to pursue these fields stem from the fact that these three courses of teacher training are not valid for teacher recruitment drives for government-run schools. Opportunities are available in private schools, but most prefer to pursue BEd as it offers more employment opportunities,” the officials shared.