Pedagogue valley

The figures speak for themselves. Excluding institutions that offer computer courses and coaching centres, private institutions that offer professional courses report an annual turnover of Rs 35 crore.

Of this, Rs 24 crore is generated by about 50 B Ed colleges in the state, 34 of them in Jammu province alone.

Some 40 applications to open B.Ed colleges are pending with the state education department. Five or six years ago, the state had only a dozen of them.

What explains the explosion in the number of colleges to train teachers? Some years ago, the state government, which had till then wanted to curb what it regarded as private educational shops, did a somersault and decided "to encourage private players to deliver the goods in education," explains Vidhi S Singh, an educationist and chairman of the Jamwal group of educational institutions.

Secondly, the demand for admissions is huge "" and comes primarily from outside the state.

According to a senior faculty member of the Model Institute of Education and Research (MIER), one of the oldest educational institutions in Jammu, local students occupy only 20-25 per cent of the seats.

Students from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Rajasthan occupy the rest of them.

Thirdly, explains Singh, who runs two polytechnics, a management institution and a B Ed college: "It has something to do with the admission norms which are usually laid down by governments. While neighbouring Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan have stringent norms for admission to B Ed institutions, the norms here are slightly flexible and thus it is easier to seek admission to B Ed colleges in Jammu and Kashmir than in any of the neighbouring states."

Some like Adit Gupta, promoter of MIER, fret that lowering the admission bars could lead to colleges producing poor quality teachers, even if education standards are good in the state.

"NCTE should extend its ambit to this state also or the state government should tighten the norms," he argues.

But state education minister Harash Dev Singh sees it differently. He says: "Perhaps students find the quality better here and don't, therefore, seek admission in their states and come to J&K."

Fourthly, Singh cuts to the heart of the matter when he explains that the National Council for Teaching Education (NCTE), which oversees admissions to B. Ed colleges in other states, insists on two-year B.Ed courses in other states but has allowed a one-year course in Jammu and Kashmir.

Finally, B.Ed colleges bring in bigger bucks for their promoters. These have revenues of about Rs. 14 crore annually in Jammu and Rs 10 crore in Kashmir.

In contrast, engineering degree colleges rake in Rs 10 crore a year from both the regions, polytechnics about Re 1 crore and management institutes Rs 40 lakh.

Praneesh Mahajan, who owns the NSM College of Education, says setting up a B Ed college calls for an investment of Rs 60-70 lakh.

The government has fixed a student to teacher ratio of 1:15 for private B Ed colleges. They have eight to 16 teachers, with salaries ranging from Rs 8,000 a month to Rs 23,000 a month. Private B.Ed colleges don't get government aid.

But on an average, a college with 80 to 100 seats earns a profit of Rs 15-16 lakh annually while a college with 300 seats earns about Rs 50 lakh per annum.

Still, B Ed colleges in the state fear that they will lose students to institutes elsewhere because of Jammu University's delay in finalising the guidelines for admissions to private B Ed colleges following a Supreme Court ruling asking universities around the country to frame these for colleges of education in their jurisdictions.

"Admissions are usually over by now and classes would start from the first week of September. But this year the process is yet to begin," Singhsays.

More significantly, many college promoters worry about the growing competition from the many B Ed colleges that are sprouting in Chattisgarh and Uttranchal and that that they'll have to offer their students more value.

Such worries are only to be welcomed "" and suggest that that's one lesson they've learned.