Citing NEP 2020, elementary education course discontinued in Haryana
Ravinder Saini
Rohtak, November 25
The state government has decided to discontinue the diploma in elementary education (DEEd) course in all Block Institutes of Teachers Education (BITEs), Government Elementary Teachers Training Institutes (GETTIs) and private self-financed colleges in the state from the academic session 2023-25.
21K seats in state colleges
The course has 21K seats in 374 private colleges across state. Around 9K seats are lying vacant in the current academic session.
The government has stated that the decision has been taken in consonance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The Haryana Self Finance Private College Association (HSFPCA) has termed it as ‘unlawful’ claiming that the government cannot take the decision of discontinuing the course as the recognition/approval for it is given by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
The DEEd course with a total intake of 21,050 is, at present, being run in 374 self-financing colleges across the state. The admissions are given by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Gurugram, through counselling. “Over 9,000 seats are still lying vacant in the current academic session following the least interest of students towards the course. The situation was similar in the previous session as well, in which 9,200 seats remained vacant,” said Sunil Bajaj, Deputy Director, SCERT.
Satish Khola, president, HSFPCA, said since the NCERT was the apex body in terms of running the DEEd course hence, the state government had no powers to discontinue it on its level. The state authorities were only confined to giving admissions and conducting exams, said Khola.
“The NCERT is the only authority, which can disapprove or discontinue the course across the nation. It is astonishing that the course is being run in other states as usual while the Haryana Government has discontinued it without citing any logical reason,” Khola added.
