Education Department is very much in news these days in our State. Only recently a somewhat disturbing matter regarding the Elementary Teacher Training institutes in the State ultimately revealed that scams and corrupt practices were galore in the system. A number of private colleges running ETT courses were involved in the scam. In a recent editorial, we brought to the public gaze the grave irregularities in almost 400 private ETT colleges opened in the entire State. It was alleged that a nexus of sorts had come to be formed between these colleges and some functionaries of the Board of School Education who were accomplices in the scam.
A new issue that has cropped up is that the Education Minister alleges he is being pressurised by party leaders not to lift the moratorium imposed by the Government on opening fresh private B.Ed Colleges in the State. The fact is that many MLAs or MLCs and senior political leaders are associated with the management bodies of most of private B.Ed Colleges. These professional colleges are reported to be making good deal of money by charging heavy fees from the student community especially candidates from outside the State. At the same time, the colleges are not providing all the facilities they are supposed to provide under agreement they have signed with the Government. The Education Minister is planning to lift the moratorium with the result that there will be more prospective entrepreneurs who would like to open B.Ed Colleges, obtain affiliation and churn out B.Ed candidates for whom job hunting would become easier with the degree in hand. This is to break the monopoly these entrepreneurs have created. Just for their vested interests they want to obstruct the Government in executing its well-considered plan of lifting the ban.