No admissions at four Patna University institutions this year
3 min readPATNA: Sounds unbelievable, but the courses offered by as many as four premier institutions of Patna University (PU) stand derecognized and none of these institutions would be able to admit students in the coming session.
All the four institutions — Patna Law College, Patna Training College, Women’s Training College and the Directorate of Distance Education — are supposed to be the oldest institutions of their type in the eastern region. But, with the passage of time, these institutions have failed to maintain even the minimum standards of education owing to callous neglect by the authorities concerned.
While the BEd course of Patna Training College (PTC) and Women’s Training College (WTC) has been derecognized by the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) due to acute dearth of teachers, the LLB course offered by Patna Law College has also been derecognized by the Bar Council of India (BCI) on the same ground (lack of teachers). The Directorate of Distance Education (DDE) has also stopped taking admissions to its various courses from the last academic session (2017-18) itself as all its courses stand derecognized by the Distance Education Bureau.
The 109-year-old Patna Law College, which has produced Chief Justices of India B P Sinha and L M Sharma, besides the first attorney general of India (from Bihar) Lal Narain Sinha and a galaxy of legal luminaries, will not take admissions to the LLB course this year unless BCI restores its recognition to the course. And the process of restoration of recognition will start only when the college gets sufficient number of teachers.
The 110-year-old Patna Training College is also on the verge of closure as its BEd course has been derecognized. Even 67-year-old Women’s Training College, the only constituent girls’ college for teacher education in the state, is facing the same fate. Both these training colleges under PU are not having a single full-time teacher except the principal even though the NCTE regulations provide for at least 15 regular teachers.
It is really surprising to note that even though PU has been authorized to conduct common entrance test for admission to the BEd course in all the teacher training colleges in the state, its own two colleges would not be entitled to admit students to the same course. PU authorities are seized of this problem and have reportedly urged the chancellor to expedite appointment of regular teachers in both these colleges. The chancellor’s office may take a decision in the matter on April 5, said PU education faculty dean Khagendra Kumar.
The 43-year-old DDE stopped taking admissions after its courses were derecognized by the DEB of the UGC during the 2016-17 session. “The delay in submission of an application for renewal and certain shortcomings in its course materials were major reasons for derecognition of the DDE courses,” said a source.
Soon after taking over as PU vice-chancellor, Rash Bihari Prasad Singh had tried his best to get DEB’s recognition to the DDE courses restored, but he could not succeed. According to the new DEB guidelines, only NAAC accredited universities will be allowed to run distance education courses and PU is yet to be accreditated by NAAC.
Courtesy: TNN
