Start admissions to elementary education course in Haryana, SCERT told

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, September 22

The Directorate of Elementary Education has directed the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to initiate the admission process for Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd) course for the academic session 2021-23.

The development has come after the Haryana Self Finance Private Colleges’ Association moved the High Court, urging that either the state carries out centralised admissions to the course or private colleges be permitted to admit students on their own just on the lines of institutes in adjoining states such as Punjab, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The state government has also submitted a proposed admission schedule in the court during the hearing of the case on Tuesday.

As per the schedule, the admission process will start from October 1 and complete by November 6 while the candidates will be able to apply online. First list of the admitted candidates will be published on October 19 and regular/online class for first-year students will start from October 25.

Significantly, the directorate has also sought an explanation from the SCERT Director within a week for not initiating the admission process for this academic year.

Notably, the state was seriously contemplating over discontinuing the course, pleading that it is not needed in the New Education Policy. Moreover, the number of the diploma holders in the state is already in surplus.

“There are 21,000 seats for DElEd courses in 342 private colleges across the state. The development has protected not only the colleges from closure but also 5,100 teaching and non-teaching staffers employed there from losing their jobs. We had to approach the HC after not getting any positive response from the Education Minister and the SCERT Director, despite submitting separate representations regarding the commencement of the admission process for the course as it was already too late,” said Satish Khola, president of the association.

Khola said the DElEd course was governed by the National Council for Teachers Education (NCET) thus not initiating the admissions process for it was also against the Act and regulations.

Meanwhile, SCERT Director Rishi Goyal said the admission schedule had been sent to the higher authorities for approval. “It will be released as soon as it gets the nod,” he added.

PROPOSED SCHEDULE

• As per the proposed schedule, the admission process will start from Oct 1 and complete by Nov 6 while the candidates will be able to apply online
• First list of the admitted candidates will be published on Oct 19 and regular/online classes for first-year students will start from Oct 25