PANJIM: National Council of Teachers Education (NCTE) has approved the request of Directorate of Higher Education (DHE) to retain the number of BEd seats in Goa at 300.
“NCTE has approved 50 seats each for Nirmala Institute of Education and GVM College of Education,” DHS Director Bhaskar Nayak said.
Until last academic year the three BEd institutes – Nirmala Institute of Education, GVM College of Education and PES College of Education – had 100 seats each totalling 300. However at the end of the last academic year, Nirmala and GVM requested NCTE to limit the seats to 50 in each institute, which would have created a shortfall of 100 seats.
“Two of colleges inadvertently requested only one unit of 50 students for the academic year 2015-16. NCTE based on their request had permitted them to have one unit each of 50 students. Both these colleges did not take the view of the State government on this vital issue as a result of which there is tremendous unrest among those who wish to seek admission in BEd,” Nayak said.
For the current academic year, 1200 students applied for the BEd course. However, the due to the reduction in seats, only 200 could be accommodated, which resulted in chaos among students.
Speaking further, Nayak said, “Due to this mess, we immediately approached NCTE and due to our tireless efforts we have managed to get these 100 seats back in a very short period of time.”
Briefing on the change in admission procedure for the course, Nayak said “Previously we used to take a written test, followed by oral interview and based on that we used to select the candidates. Admitting student on merit list will be transparent and faster.”
Queried about the change in marks in the last couple of years, he said, “We do not consider the marks, but calculate the percentage of the applicant and then shortlist the students who appear for counselling and admission. For example in some places the maximum marks for BA (History) is shown as 1300 and at others it was shown as 700. This is because the applicants have not passed out in the same year. Some applicants have cleared their graduation in 2012, so therefore there is variation in totals marks due to change in syllabus in the last few years.”
