COIMBATORE: The Directorate of Collegiate Education will conduct online admissions for B Ed colleges this academic year. It has decided to do away with the offline process that entailed travel to Chennai for counselling, inconveniencing several applicants from distant places.
Top official sources say B Ed courses are offered at seven government colleges and 14 aided colleges across the state. Currently, admissions for B Ed courses in both government and aided colleges are conducted offline. Colleges issue the admission form directly to students, who will submit it after filling it out. The respective colleges will then release the rank list. Later, students must go to Lady Willingdon Institute of Advanced Study in Education in Chennai to attend the counselling and select their B Ed course and college.
This offline mode poses practical difficulties as several applicants, especially females, find it inconvenient to travel all the way to Chennai for BEd admission.
Considering these difficulties, DCE officers decided to conduct admissions online this academic year, similar to government arts and science colleges. This would make it easy for students to complete the admission process from home.
Recently, DCE officers discussed the online B Ed admission process with college principals. The latter also suggested conducting admissions online. The work is underway, and an announcement will be released soon, sources added.
An assistant professor from a government B Ed college, who welcomed this move, told TNIE that faculty had been urging the conversion of B Ed college admission process to an online format as the Higher Education Department already conducts online admissions for government arts and science colleges and engineering colleges successfully.
If admissions were held online, students who belong to economically weaker sections from faraway districts need not visit the college and travel to Chennai for the counselling, thus saving money and time, he noted.
Moreover, students can apply for admission directly, know the rank list, and attend counselling from their locations. He added that this would be much more convenient, and they need not get tense about admission.