In a big dispute in Madhya Pradesh, a report has come to light about the private B.Ed and teacher training colleges exist only on paper. Shriram College in Bhopal’s neighbourhood of Mugalia Kot gets registered on Khasra numbers 148 and 149, but the area is just an empty field, with another college’s signboard nearby.
The investigation also revealed that some colleges are functioning from small halls of school buildings or even from a single room in buildings where they lack the library facilities, laboratories, regular student presence, etc. These weaknesses did not deter the colleges to resume their admission for the last ten years, and reportedly all along, they held examinations and have appointed degrees.
Under Barkatullah University (BU), 127 private B.Ed colleges underwent on-site verification. 25 colleges were reportedly found to have major deficiencies, five serious irregularities, two colleges were not located and three colleges operated from incorrect addresses.
In the light of these results, on June 24 the university’s Executive Council decided to grant the conditional affiliation of 125 colleges based on the receipt of affidavits confirming compliance with all the requirements. Future inspections were warned on, with the possibility for the colleges to lose their affiliation for any violations.
The anger escalated further and it was reported that profiles for 82 colleges were disapproved on the site before the Executive Council’s formal approval by a note from the Higher Education Minister Inder Singh Parmar. The University Registrar explained his actions, but some Council members wondered if this action affected the autonomy of the university. The minister said that this was done to ensure that admissions would not be affected and that students’ academic future would not be compromised.