NCTE declares DElEd courses of eight institutes invalid

DEHRADUN: The National Council of Teachers Training (NCTE) has stated that two year Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) courses from eight District Institutes Education and Training (DIET) of Uttarakhand will not be considered valid putting fates of hundreds of students taking these courses in jeopardy.
The President of Association of Self-Financed Institutes of Uttarakhand, Sunil Agarwal on Tuesday said, “ NCTE in a reply to a RTI query filed by Roorkee resident Vinay Verma last month stated that courses without its approval are invalid under section 17(4) of NCTE act 1993 and courses offered by unrecognized institutes would not be considered for appointments in any central institutes, state bodies, universities, any institute funded by union or state government or even in schools or colleges.”
The NCTE reply clarifies that the D.El.Ed courses offered by DIETs of Bhimtal Nainital, Roorkee Haridwar, Almora, Rudrapur Udham Singh Nagar, Kandoli Dehradun, Badkot Uttarkashi, Srinagar Pauri and Lohaghat Champawat are not recognized leaving future of 400 students enrolled here to stake.
It is learnt that all the 13 DIETs of state had applied for recognition to NCTE for D.El.Ed courses in the year 2012 but on inspection of these colleges, NCTE refused to give its clearance to above mentioned eight colleges.
Agarwal added, “The state government refused to give permission of offering D.El.Ed courses to the private colleges of the state citing that the DIETs of state are capable enough for running these courses. The capability of the DIETs is exposed by the NCTE’s response to the RTI query now. I don’t understand why the state government is not interested to give permission of offering D.EL.Ed courses to the private colleges which have adequate infrastructure,” Agarwal emphasized that government’s stand on the issue would ensure migration of the students to neighboring states where hundreds of private institutes offer D.El.Ed courses. Intriguingly, the inclination of students for D.El.Ed course is on the increase as NCTE has directed that now only this course is valid for being eligible to teach in the primary schools.
In Uttarakhand state, more than 50,000 candidates had appeared for 1350 seats in the 13 DIETs last year.