MP: Confusion over B.Ed courses leaves 72% of seats vacant

The confusion surrounding colleges and other details resulted in 72% seats of BEd courses lying vacant after two rounds of admissions in Madhya Pradesh.

The confusion surrounding colleges and other details resulted in 72% seats of BEd courses lying vacant after two rounds of admissions in Madhya Pradesh.

Twenty-one institutions are offering three integrated B.Ed courses to students.(Mujeeb Faruqui/HT file)

Questions are now being raised over the purpose of holding B.Ed entrance test, which was conducted by Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board for Department of Higher Education (DHE) in April. As many as 44,000 candidates had appeared for the exam for 57,000 seats.

In the first round, 12,500 aspirants took admission. The second round saw only 3,500 of the total 8,000 registered candidates take admission.

Three new integrated courses – BA-BEd, BSc-BEd and BEd-MEd – will be introduced from this academic session. But students were not given information on the fees structure.

“When the examination was held we were not aware about fees structure and name of colleges which are offering new courses. All are private colleges and National Council for Teacher’s Education has given them approval,” a DHE official said.

There are a total of 21 institutions where the three integrated courses will be offered to students.

The DHE requested the Admission and Fee regulatory Committee (AFRC) to announce the fees for students. Subsequently, the fees were declared: `18,500 for BA-BEd course, `20,500 for BSc-BEd course and `24,500 for BEd-MEd integrated course.

Some students found the fees expensive.

“When I filled the form, I didn’t know that it will be so expensive for a course like BSc and BA. Why will a student pay Rs 30,000 extra for traditional course?” a student asked.

Loopholes in programme

Due to holidays and server problems, the dates of filling and reporting were changed many times in both the rounds.

“The department didn’t follow the schedule of admission process. In both rounds, candidates were given only one day to take admission, to issue demand draft and to take transfer certificate. How is it possible for a student to get all things done in a day?” MP Private Colleges Association vice-president Jitendra Rawat said.

The college owners are now demanding postpone the admission dates.

“I agree that small number of candidates have taken admissions. We are trying to review the whole process. The issue of announcement of fees was resolved by AFRC on our request,” DHE commissioner Umakant Umrao said.

“Some private college owners met and discussed their problems. We held a meeting and possibly in the next round, a number of seats will be filled.”