Unaided B.Ed Colleges Approach High Court
The Association of Maharashtra Unaided B.Ed College Managements
has approached the Bombay high court, challenging the norms set by the National
Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and the state government for the bachelor of
education (B.Ed) programme. The association has urged the court to direct these
authorities to implement the Supreme Court directives that enable private institutions
to decide the eligibility criteria for the common entrance test for B Ed admissions.
The association has sought to quash the NCTE norm of 50% marks as the eligibility
criteria for CET for admission to B.Ed institutions, association’s lawyer Anandsing
Bayas said. The hearing on the petition has been scheduled for July 25, he added.
The petition was filed by association secretary Shaikh Ramzan.The petitioner has
cited the Supreme Court judgment in the case TMA Pai Foundation v/s the State of
Karnataka in support of the association’s request, Bayas said on Wednesday, 20th
July 2011.
Bayas pointed out that, in para No.40 of the judgment, the apex court has stated
that any system of student selection would be unreasonable if it deprives the private
unaided institutions of the right of rational selection, which it devised for itself,
subject to the minimum qualification that may be prescribed to some system of computing
the equivalence between different kinds of qualification like a common entrance
test. Such a system of selection can involve both written and oral tests for selection
based on principle of fairness.
In this judgment, the SC has laid down laws of minimum qualification for CET. So,
imposing any condition of marks in regard to the minimum qualifications is contrary
to the court ruling, Bayas said.
He said the apex court has not imposed any condition on percentage of marks; hence
the government and the NCTE do not have the power to impose conditions of 50% marks
as eligibility for the CET for B.Ed admissions to these educational institutions.
The association represents about 300 unaided private B.Ed and M.Ed colleges
and has been allowed to conduct CET for the past seven years.
Courtesy: Times of India
