HYDERABAD:A division bench of the High Court has recently extended the time till March 15 this year to the Telangana government to conduct the Language Pandit Common Entrance Test (LPCET).
The bench, comprising acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice K Vijaya Lakshmi, was dismissing an appeal filed by the principal secretary to school education and LPCET chairman challenging an order of a single judge who had earlier directed them to conduct LPCET for Telugu, Hindi and other languages such as Urdu within six weeks.
The government counsel told the court that the existing Telugu Pandit training course offered by various private colleges was of nine-month duration. With a view to ensuring excellence in educational standards, the government has requested the NCTE (National Council for Teacher Education) to increase the duration of the course from nine months to two years. As the NCTE is yet to frame the norms for the purpose, the authorities have chosen not to conduct the test. Till new norms are framed by NCTE.
Not satisfied with the submissions of the government counsel, the bench pointed out that the colleges concerned recognised by the NCTE continued to remain in force even as on date and the courses offered by them were for a period of nine months. While the endeavour of the state government to improve the existing educational standards was no doubt laudable, the proposed norms of a training course of two year duration, would come into force only on its being included in the regulations of the NCTE. Till the matter was examined and the regulations were suitably amended by the NCTE, the existing courses would continue, the bench noted.