CHENNAI: A Government Order stipulating November 30, 2006 as the last date for admission of students in self-financing private teacher training institutes (TTIs) for 2006-07 is perfectly justified, the Madras High Court ruled on Tuesday.

The court also directed the Government to issue a compendium of guidelines prescribing the calendar of activities for the TTIs.

These include the date for commencement of the course, cut-off dates for approval of staff members, admission of students and holding single window admission of students under Government quota, besides the method of recruitment of teaching, administrative and technical staff members.

The guidelines shall be issued in two months and shall take effect from the next academic year.

Justice V. Ramasubramanian, disposing of a batch of about 85 writ petitions, said: "The GO dated November 4, 2006, prescribing November 30, 2006 as the last date for admission of students for the academic year 2006-07 is upheld as perfectly valid and it is binding on all teacher training institutes."

Besides laying down a cut-off date for student admissions, the impugned order stipulated that November 20, 2006 would be the last date for approval of the list of faculty members in the newly recognised TTIs. However, the date was later extended to March 9, 2007.

Pointing out that the only issue before the court was the validity of the cut-off date for admission of students, Mr. Justice Ramasubramanian said the Preamble to Norms and Standards for Elementary Teacher Education Programme made it clear that the State Government had a leverage both in respect of the duration of the training and the entry qualification of students.

As the norms had mandated "at least 200 instructional days," the State Government order prescribing November 30 as the last date and stipulating 220 working days was right, the Judge said, adding, "otherwise, the course cannot be commenced and completed within a time frame so as to provide 220 instructional days."

Extension of deadline

Any extension of deadline would eventually destroy the concept of academic year and postpone examinations for subsequent years, the Judge said, adding: "If the academic year adopted by the TTIs does not coincide (or at least closely follow) the academic year of the schools, the internship may turn out to be a farce." It will benefit neither the student community nor the maintenance of higher standards. Mr. Justice Ramasubramnian also flayed the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) for issuing recognition orders to new TTIs throughout the year, "completely oblivious of the existence of a concept called academic year."

No self-discipline

Accusing the TTIs of lacking in self-discipline, the Judge said the Government was perfectly justified in prescribing the cut-off date.

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