NCTE decided to withdraw the recognition of 295 BEd colleges in the state

The fate of thousands of Bachelor in Education (BEd) hopefuls of the state hangs in the balance after the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) cancelled the recognition of 295 BEd colleges of the state. It is part of a national inspection of teacher training institutes. It may result in cutting down over 16,000 seats in Maharashtra and seriously affecting admissions for the year 2025–26.

The NCTE had begun a process of scrutiny last month amid complaints about the functioning and quality of BEd colleges in the country. Numerous institutions allegedly did not file the mandatory evaluation reports within the deadline of May 31. Consequently, they have lost recognition and cannot admit students from the next academic year.

The Higher and Technical Education Department had raised an eyebrow over how this would affect students, who are currently confused because the admission season is coming up as there will be a rush for fewer seats in the remaining colleges.

The head of a city BEd college said, "This year, lots of changes are being proposed in the BEd education, which causes confusion among colleges and students.". Early this year, the NCTE also revised the design of teacher education programs. It had initially declared that the current four-year integrated BA/BSc-BEd course would be phased out from the 2025–26 academic year and introduced a new four-year Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) in its place. After this announcement, the State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell halted registration for the current integrated course on March 9.

After receiving protests from different stakeholders, the NCTE changed its decision and suspended the discontinuation of the integrated BEd courses to 2026–27. The Higher and Technical Education Department then directed the CET Cell to reopen the admission process for the 2025–26 academic year.

As per the new directive, the registration window of the CET Cell for the integrated course was reopened on June 2. Applications are allowed until June 15, and the entrance exam will be conducted on July 20.

"Though the resumption of the integrated course admission process provides temporary relief, the bigger problem of cancelled college recognitions still hangs over the future of B.Ed aspirants of the state," said another principal. Officials in the Higher and Technical Education Department said the government will step in and talk to NCTE officials within two days.