Maharashtra govt ahead of Jaitley’s Budget regarding BEd programme

NAGPUR: Even before the finance minister Arun Jaitley made the announcement in Thursday’s Budget regarding an integrated BEd programme for improving quality of teachers, the Maharashtra government had finalized the curriculum for common entrance test (CET) and is likely to start the course from the upcoming academic session. This would be the first ever CET for the integrated BEd programme.

While presenting the Union Budget Jaitley had said, “Improvement in quality of teachers can improve the quality of education in the country. We will initiate an integrated BEd programme for teachers.”

In its schedule, the state common entrance test cell (CET), Mumbai has included BA BEd/ BSc BEd (4 years) and BEd/MEd (3 years) which would be held on June 21.

The Centre has been pushing to initiate the integrated courses for the last couple of years. In 2014, the National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) had also taken an affidavit from every education college to start the integrated programme by 2016-17. However, only a few colleges, mostly government-run, have been able to fulfil the undertaking in Maharashtra.

Education colleges affiliated to Nagpur and nearby universities are yet to start the course.

The course is running at the five regional centres — Bhopal, Ajmer, Bhubaneshwar, Shillong and Mysuru — of National Council of Education, Research and Training and a few Teacher Education Institutes (TEIs) in Maharashtra.

The Centre is likely to make the course compulsory from the academic year 2019-20. According to BEd teachers, the Maharashtra state department of higher and technical education has already conducted a feasibility study and roll out the course in government colleges this year.

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Officially, the department is yet to announce its decision following the study. But, the teachers feel the message is loud and clear.

“The fact that the CET would be held for integrated programme makes it amply clear that the department would be starting the course in all government colleges. The draft curriculum too must have been finalized. The study was conducted to also find out the requirements as it will require hiring of teachers for BA, BCom or BSc,” they said.

So far, direct admissions to the integrated course at the few places were being given. This year on, aspirants would have to appear in the CET exam.

The entrance would be of 100 marks comprising 100 multiple choice questions which will have to be completed in 90 minutes. There is no negative marking and the exam would be held online. Candidates with non-zero score would be eligible for admission.

CET details

Name of the course | Name of the entrance test (CET) | CET date | Mode of exam

Integrated course (4 years) | MAH BA B.Ed. / BSc B. Ed CET-2018 | June 21 | Online

Integrated course (3 years) | B.Ed/M.Ed CET-2018 | June 21 | Online

BA B. Ed / BSc B.Ed (Integrated) CET

| A| NQ | MPQ | M

1 | General Knowledge | 40 | 1 | 40

2 | Mental Ability | 30 | 1 | 30

3 | Teaching Aptitude | 30 | 1 | 30

4 | Total | 100 | 1 | 100

Note: A: Area; NQ: Number of questions; MPT: Marks per question; M: Marks