Prakasam B Ed colleges most sought after

Ongole: Gokul Mitra, aged 29 and a native of Hasnabad in West Bengal, travelled for 30 hours to cover more than 1,500 kilometres to reach his college in Bestavari Peta in Prakasam district for writing his B.Ed exams. He now teaches students of third standard. After successful completion of the course from Acharya Nagarjuna University, Gokul is going to be promoted to teach tenth class students of Sarada Niketan, a well-known school in his area.

Pratap Yadav is from Bihar. His brother-in-law is a teacher. He also aspires to become a government teacher for which recruitments are scheduled for 2017. Since he could not land in a job after his graduation, his in-laws made Pratap join a B.Ed college in Cumbum.

There are thousands like Gokul and Pratap from West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand who are pursuing B.Ed as regular students, without attending the college. In fact, some of them do not even know where exactly their college is.

There are nearly 50 B.Ed colleges in Prakasam district with over 5,400 students. Out these, 3,000 of them have not even seen their college for more than couple of times. Even worse, some of the colleges have not opened their gates on more than two occasions.

But all these students are recorded as regulars with adequate attendance, according to records of the university. Also, internal exam marks reach the university in time as per the academic calendar from the offices of the B.Ed colleges.

Why this rush for B.Ed courses? Explaining the modus operandi of these colleges, a principal on anonymity said, “Some of the colleges in remote areas did not have their seats filled for the past few years. For the last two years, the colleges made agreements with some educational consultants and distance education centres in West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and other states to promise B.Ed. certificate in regular course mode than the distance mode.

Since the regular certificate gives more chances of employability, the students are willing to pay about Rs 1 lakh per year as fees. These colleges provide study material to them and are making a pact with the exam centre college to leak the question paper as well. The exam centres allow the students of those colleges to mass copy.

This helps both the colleges earn lakhs of rupees in just a month.” The students from other states do not know Telugu, but have a guide to take care of their needs and travel with them. They book rooms in Bestavaripet, Darsi, Kandkur or Giddalur. Students pay a month’s rent for 10-day stay to write their exams. Some of the landlords provide food at extra cost.

Many students are from poor families who struggle to manage to pay fee hoping for a better life. Though their medium of instruction is English, it is very hard for them to read a paragraph. Without learning the pedagogy of the subjects, methods of teaching and assessment, perspectives of child development and philosophical and sociological foundations of education these would-be teachers are going to mould the future of children.

After a lot of persuasion, Basanthi, a student from Bihar said, “Our sir at the study centre in our village said that we need not worry about anything. If I have the B.Ed. certificate, I would have better chances in getting a teacher job. I prefer teaching primary schoolchildren as their syllabus would be lighter.”

The flying squad deputed by the Acharya Nagarjuna University is very much busy in visiting the colleges around Ongole, but unable to travel for 3 to 4 hours to reach the far-off places like Bestavaripet and Cumbum. If this trend continues to exist, the certificates of Acharya Nagarjuna University may be blacklisted in other states and affect the employability options of the genuine students of Andhra Pradesh.

By:Naresh Nandam