Kolkata, Nov 10 (IANS): The accreditation of 253 Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) and Diploma of Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) colleges in West Bengal has been cancelled, sources in the state Education Department said on Friday.

With this, the total number of B.Ed and D.El.Ed colleges in the state has come down from 624 to 371.

Sources said that the accreditation of these 253 institutes have been cancelled since they did not have adequate infrastructure for conducting such courses, which are crucial for grooming and training future teachers.

It is learnt that besides not having adequate infrastructure to conduct such courses, these colleges also did not have adequate number of teachers required as per rules.

The development follows a recent notification from the Baba Saheb Ambedkar Education University (BSAEU), the nodal university in West Bengal controlling the functioning of all B.Ed and D.El.Ed colleges, cautioning against institutes operating without the necessary affiliation or accreditation.

“It has been brought to the notice of BSAEU that some ill-motivated persons engaged in jeopardising the interest of students, colleges and the university in particular are using social media as a means to malign them. News of getting affiliation against monetary consideration is being spread by these dishonest persons to create a negative perception and to stall normal academic activities,” the notification from BSAEU read.

BSAEU also made it clear that fulfilling all the norms set by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) is the only criteria for granting affiliation.

To recall, during the course of investigation into the multi-crore cash for school jobs case in West Bengal, the central agencies too had detected the involvement of multiple D.El.Ed and B.Ed institutes in the matter, especially in the recruitment of primary teachers.