With the delay in completion of the academic year of B.Ed (Bachelor of Education) course in Andhra Pradesh by the state universities, over 60,000 B.Ed students in the state are deprived of an opportunity to get admission to the M.Ed course in the prestigious Regional Institute of Education-Mysore (RIEM) which is meant exclusively for students from southern states.
RIEs were set up by the Centre in 1963 at five places _ Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Mysore and Shillong _ to cater to the needs of teachers and teacher educators in the states under their jurisdiction. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry fall under RIEM and the seats of various courses being offered by the institution are meant only for students from the respective states and UTs. The 40 seats in MEd course in RIEM are also reserved for these states and UTs depending on their population.
The seats will be filled on the basis of marks scored in the qualifying examination. That means, if a candidate wants to take admission to MEd course he has to complete BEd before applying for the course, but no university in the state has completed the one-year BEd annual examination so far for various reasons, though the last date for applying to the RIEM is July 1 and the allotment of seats will be completed by July 8. And the total admission process will be completed by July 23, but by then no university in the state is going to complete the total examination process with regard to BEd course.
The BEd admission process was delayed ten years ago due to a court case. There was delay again in the conduct of the examination because the clearances for setting up new colleges were delayed by the National Council for Teacher Training. Though it is not a great task to hold the examinations on time, the delay is continuing because no one attaches great importance to BEd examinations.
Speaking to Express, V Ramesh, a BEd student at Osmania University, said that that he taken a demand draft for applying for MEd at RIEM but, after thoroughly checking the prospectus of the RIEM, he found that he was not going to complete his BEd course here in time to apply to RIEM. Stating that he had cancelled the DD he purchased, he said many candidates desirous of studying MEd at RIEM were disappointed. “If they are intent on studying MEd at RIEM, they have to wait till the next academic year,’’ he said. But the MEd course offered by universities in the state has a huge demand. Osmania University, which has 200 seats, received over 6,000 applications and the Kakatiya University at Warangal received 2,300 for 145 seats. The huge demand for MEd course is on account of postgraduates in education having very good opportunities of getting teaching jobs in the state. The state has over 600 BEd colleges and an equal number of DEd colleges.