BANGALORE: Students shifting colleges is common. But at least four D.Ed. colleges are now under fire for shifting their entire campuses, in alleged misuse of the no-objection certificate (NoC) issued by the authorities concerned. The Government discovered the violation during an inspection, but the National Council for Teachers' Education (NCTE) that approved these colleges is still in the dark.

A routine inspection spilled the beans. Teams from the Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) and the Department of Public Instruction found none of the institutions functioning from the premises, which had earlier been inspected and approved by the NCTE. All the colleges had set up shop somewhere else. When contacted by The Hindu, NCTE officials had no clue of the violations. They put the onus on the Government to continuously monitor such developments. But the council was ready to initiate action if any violation of the approval condition came to its notice.

The approval condition had a provision which the colleges could use to shift their campuses. The officials explained, "The institutions can even start from rented buildings. But they have to shift to a permanent campus within three years, with our approval. Institutions don't risk any violation because without recognition, they would incur huge losses."

The Government had permitted one of the colleges to start a D.Ed. course in Kannada and English on a campus in Mahadevapura extension here. After NCTE's inspection, the State issued an NoC. But to their shock, the DSERT team found that the college had shifted to a new campus on Ring Road, Nagadevanahalli. And in the process, Tamil was introduced as a new medium of instruction!

Another D.Ed. college, approved with a campus near Sirsi Circle on Mysore Road had shifted to a new address: No. 40, Ring Road, Nagadevanahalli. Zeroing in on the place, the DSERT officers were in for more shock: four other D.Ed. institutions were operating from the same location. During their inspection on October 17, the Public Instruction Department officials stumbled upon another violation: a D.Ed. college operated from Vidyapeetha Circle, although it was originally permitted to start an institution in Bidadi, Ramanagaram taluk. Refused permission to take the examinations, harried students of these colleges were in a spot. The colleges then moved the High Court, seeking a direction to the Education Department to allow the students to take the D.Ed. examination. Subsequently, the permission was granted, and the petitions withdrawn.

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