– Mita Mukherjee

Out of 602 B.Ed colleges in West Bengal, 265 are not in a position to operate as teacher training institutes, 53 colleges do not exist and 17 colleges are operating from multiple centres violating norms laid down by National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), according to the findings of an inspection survey conducted by the state, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Bengal higher education department minister said.

Nearly 450 teacher training colleges have not “passed” the inspection and all of them have been served with shaw-cause notices. They will have to reply within 21 days and they will face “severe consequences” if their response is not found satisfactory, the minister said.

“Out of the total 602 colleges, 265 are not in a position to run. The inspection showed 53 colleges do not exist. We have issued show-cause notices to around 450 to 500 BEd colleges on the basis of the inspection report,” Chattopadhyay said. The inspection was carried out in July-August.

He said that the government was disappointed with the deplorable condition of the colleges and it is determined to not allow the teacher training colleges to turn to teaching shops, the minister said.

“We want teacher training institutions to produce quality teachers. They cannot function like shops selling degrees,” the minister said.

During the inspection, the government examined the colleges on the basis of a 100-mark scale.

Overall infrastructure and academic standard, students teacher ratio, enrolment and examinations were the main parameters on which the institutions were evaluated.

“As many as 114 scored below 30 percent as per our matrix.The average score was approximately 51.50 percent”, the minister said. He wondered how these colleges were given the no objection certificates by the previous Trinamool Congress government.

According to Chattopadhyay, the government was surprised to find that excepting for a few, the medium of instruction is Bengali in most of the institutions. But names of large number of students from Goa and North-Eastern states were seen in the enrolment lists of the institutes.

“I wonder how these students manage to follow the classes. It shows that these colleges are running not to offer quality training to aspiring teachers. But they are selling degrees. This cannot be allowed,” the minister said.

As many as 151 colleges have fulfilled the criteria set by the state government. The B.Ed admission process for the 2026-27 academic session is scheduled to start from September 7. Only these 151 colleges will be allowed to participate in the admission process.

Also read: SC Sets May 31 Deadline for Bengal Teacher Recruitment