Mgmts sold off seats in DEd colleges?

• Govt drags its feet over online system
• Results likely in June third week

It appears that sale of seats has become quite common from LKG to professional courses in all private institutions. Latest entrant in this list is D Ed colleges. Allegations mount on most of the private colleges that they have already been selling off seats under their quota, well before the release of results. Another factor in this sordid saga was that the government does know about the sale of seats but takes no measures to halt this. As a result, hundreds of meritorious students, who have been aspiring to become teachers, will have no choice but to solely rely on convener quota. Sailajanath, Minister for Primary Education, dodged reply when media men grilled him over the issue a few days back. "There are some legal problems which need to be addressed before online system for management quota seats is implemented" he said. But he refused to divulge the problems specifically. When asked when the government could make arrangements for online system for 685 private engineering colleges, why not for D Ed colleges, he replied- the system of D Ed institutions should be streamlined first. In fact, Sailajanath announced that online system would be introduced for owner quota seats last year itself. Government failed to implement it for two academic years so far. A top official looking after the affairs of D Ed colleges told The Hans India that the academic year has to be set right first. "Last year, the admission process went even till late December and early January. Syllabus was not completed in several colleges forcing the students to continue for another six months or so. This shall not recur this year. We are on a corrective course" the official explained. There were more than 34,000 seats in over 520 D Ed colleges in the state. 80 percent of seats will have to be filled up through convener quota and the remaining 20 per cent through management quota. This means, managements can fill up to 6,800 seats in all. Each seat is being sold off for Rs 1.20 lakh to Rs 1.50 lakh, it was alleged. Some managements have admitted on condition of anonymity that they had to 'manage' the inspecting teams heavily when they conducted raids on their institutions last year. 'To compensate it, we have to collect some amount from interested candidates. What's wrong in it? Government cannot impose online system for just 20 per cent quota of seats that are in our pocket. We should have freedom to fill them up' a representative of a College Board said. Government has accorded permission (renewal) for 440 colleges last year. Had the NCTE not imposed ban on setting up of new colleges, the situation could have been even worse. The Diploma in Education course has got huge demand after the announcements of DSC last year and SGT posts were filled up mostly with D Ed certificate holders. As another DSC for filling up of 20,500 posts is in the offing this October, there is a craving for D Ed certificate from thousands of aspirants. D Ed exam was held on May 31 and results are likely to be declared in the third week of June.