11% drop in BEd admission numbers in Maharashtra

Lack of employment opportunities for teachers, uncertainty over the structure of the BEd programme, and delay in the admission process has resulted in a slide in demand, experts opine.

Demand for seats in the bachelor of education (BEd) programme in Maharashtra has dipped by 11% after rising by 15% last year.

The delay in the BEd admission process is one of the reasons for the dwindling demand. (HT File / Representative Image)

Data from the state Common Entrance Test (CET) cell shows that 32,477 students registered for the teacher-training course, down from 36,564 registrations last year, but similar to the 31,783 registrations in 2017.

Lack of employment opportunities for teachers, uncertainty over the structure of the BEd programme, and delay in the admission process has resulted in a slide in demand, experts opine.

“There are no jobs available for teachers in state government-aided schools. On the contrary, the government is looking to cut down the grants given to these schools. Privately-run schools, which offer meagre salaries, employ non-BEd teachers,” said Rauf Pathan, chairman, Universal Society for Quality Education and Research, which runs two teacher-training colleges in the state. Pathan also blamed the delay in the admission process for the dwindling demand.

This year, fewer students took the entrance test for BEd. As many as 51,641 teaching aspirants registered for the BEd CET 2019, conducted by the state government, of which 46,313 took the test on June 8 and 9. Last year, the cell had recorded 53,692 registrations.

“University of Mumbai and its colleges refuse to issue conversion certificates - documents depicting equivalent marks in percentage,” said a cell official.

“MU is the culprit here. The university and its colleges refuse to issue conversion certificates - documents depicting equivalent marks in percentage,” said an official from the cell.

Ramzan Shaikh, secretary, Maharashtra Vinaanudanit Adhyapak Mahavidyalaya Sansthachalk Association (MVAMSA), an umbrella body of unaided teacher-training colleges, said that the CET cell doesn’t publicise its entrance test sufficiently. “Many students remain unaware of the admission process, as the government doesn’t issue advertisements for the test more than once,” he said.

Till the academic year 2015-16, students were admitted to 450 unaided colleges on the basis of scores in a CET conducted by MVAMSA, while the state held a separate CET for admissions to around 50 government-aided colleges. For the last three years, all the admissions were done through the government CET.