Hazare warns HRD Ministry of NCTE graft

The National Council for Teacher Education is under fire again and this time it is social activist Anna Hazare who has shot off letters...

The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) is under fire again and this time it is social activist Anna Hazare who has shot off letters to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, Prime Minister’s Office and to Sonia Gandhi alleging “largescale corruption in NCTE”. The HRD Ministry has now been asked why no substantive action has been taken against NCTE and on Hazare’s complaint, say top government officials.

Hazare has alleged that the body’s western regional centre at Bhopal is steeped in corruption and is allowing dubious private institutions to proliferate. Officials also believe that the NCTE — a statutory body that regulates teachers’ education — has resulted in unnecessary control and centralisation of affiliation/recognition of educational institutes that has brought in the associated problem of corruption.

“There is massive corruption in NCTE and I wrote about this to HRD Minister Arjun Singh, the PM and Sonia Gandhi last month, substantiating it with document-based evidence. The Bhopal regional centre of NCTE handles teacher-training institutes in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. All these states have a surplus of D Ed/B Ed teachers, yet more and more such private institutes, even with very poor facilities, are being constantly permitted by NCTE,” Anna Hazare told The Indian Express.

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“When I first complained on the issue some six months ago to the HRD Minister, the Bhopal centre was closed on his directions for a while. However, it’s back to business now and so I wrote to the PM this time. If no action is taken against NCTE, which by engaging in corruption is weakening the very foundation of education in the country, we will bring a movement straight to the capital in protest,” Hazare added.

In addition to Hazare, complaints against NCTE’s alleged corrupt ways have also come from former Rajya Sabha Congress MP Ram Niwas Mirdha. HRD Ministry officials also confirmed that there were several complaints against the body.

Incidentally, the HRD Ministry had constituted a committee led by former education secretary Sudeep Banerjee to examine the relevance of NCTE. Suggesting that the body be repealed, the committee had recommended that Diploma in Education (D Ed) and Bachelor of Education (B Ed) courses could easily be conducted by universities and there was no need for an additional body like NCTE. The HRD Ministry had even circulated a Cabinet note on the same in May 2007 but then the matter was suddenly buried. With Hazare’s complaint, the NCTE repeal issue has been revived and even the PMO is said to have asked the HRD Ministry to re-examine the issue.

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