Degree of futility

By Yogesh Avasthi | Jul 20, 2016, http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/ahmedabad/cover-story/Degree-of-futility/articleshow/53290246.cms  (Ahmedabad Mirror Cover story)

Four years after it started the integrated BA-BEd and BSc-BEd courses, Indian Institute of Teacher Education (IITE) finally got the much-awaited recognition from National Council for Teacher Education last year. But this recognition is valid only for degrees issued after November 2015. Around 320 students who enrolled in the four-year integrated courses (from 2011 to 2014) in the state-funded university fear being left in the lurch as their degrees are not recognised yet.
They now want retrospective approval of their course by NCTE. For the benefit of the first batch (2011- 12), the state government issued a special notification stating that it was eligible for teachers' posts in state board schools. The state government, however, did not issue any such notification for 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 batches. This means, the students of these four batches cannot even apply to state board schools, forget CBSE, ICSE boards or a teaching career abroad. Around 90 students of 2012- 13 batch passed out this year and are jobless because their degree is of no value. They cannot even apply to state-board schools.

NOTIFICATION ISSUED ONLY FOR FIRST BATCH "In absence of a notification by the state government for the earlier batches (before NCTE recognition), the degrees issued to the students are useless. They cannot even apply to state board schools, forget other boards," said a student. Washing its hands off the matter, IITE attributed its inability to obtain recognition for the aforementioned batches to the absence of norms. Astudent told Mirror on condition of anonymity, "We are around 90 students who passed out in 2015 and around 89 students will pass out this year. As per our knowledge, IITE was established in 2010. The first batch got enrolled in 2011-12, and the second in 2012-13.
The state government and IITE started the course without permission from NCTE." An IITE official said, "The process of seeking approval was initiated later. "As there were no norms for a four-year integrated course, IITE was asked to formulate the course and then seek necessary permissions." He added, "Finally, the NCTE team visited IITE campus and recognized the course after fifth year of its initiation. Till now, there have been five batches of this course, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015. "However, the permission granted by NCTE in 2015 does not have retrospective effect and so the future of students of the earlier batches is at a stake."

'AWAITING RECOGNITION FOR PREVIOUS BATCHES'
The IITE official said, "NCTE had earlier said it cannot grant retrospective permission. An NCTE committee found 15 institutes facing the same problem and recommended that retrospective permission should be given for the sake of students." IITE Vice Chancellor Shashi Ranjan Yadav said, "The recognition issue has already been solved by NCTE council in its 45th meeting in November 2015. "So, the degrees given after 2015 will be recognized. Besides the council has also approached the HRD ministry for a gazette notification. We are in touch with the ministry and soon, the previous years' batches too would be recognized."

IITE SAYS IT IS NOT AT FAULT
Asked why no permission was taken for the course in 2011, he said, "It is not our fault, there were no norms in 2011. Regional Institute of Education (RIE) has been running the fouryear integrated courses BSc-BEd and BA-BEd for a long time. Surprisingly, NCTE had defined no norms for such a course. These were introduced for the four-year integrated courses for the first time in 2014." He confirmed, "State government had issued a notification for 2011-12 batch which passed out in 2015, stating they could teach in state board schools."
Reliable sources told Mirror that NCTE must have used its Power to Relax clause (to relax provisions of its regulations) before giving recognition to IITE in 2015. The formation of IITE, a statefunded university, was announced by the then CM Narendra Modi in 2010 to bring about a change in the existing education system. The IITE syllabus was formulated by known experts from across the country and they have formulated an integrated BSc- BEd course which is equivalent to BSc and BEd individually.