DElEd course in Uttar Pradesh to be open to Pan-India students

The Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd) course in Uttar Pradesh will be open to students from all over the country if all goes according to plan. The candidates seeking admission to this two-year diploma programme for primary and upper primary school teachers are currently required to possess a residence certificate from UP.

This new move, once implemented, will benefit private DElEd colleges of UP, which were in trouble owing to thousands of seats remaining vacant every year for the past few years.

The state basic education department officials have inquired with state government officials about if any hurdles exist in the rules regarding admission of candidates from other states, informed a senior official aware of the development on Tuesday.

The Prayagraj-based headquarters of the Examination Regulatory Authority, UP that conducts the entrance and semester exams of DElEd in UP in its reply has not reported any obstacle in giving admission to candidates from outside the state, the official said.

One reason for this is that there is no longer a requirement to be a resident of UP to become a teacher in the schools running under UP Basic Education Council across the state, he added.

It is to be recalled that in a case of 69000 assistant teacher recruitment, the Allahabad High Court had abolished the compulsion for aspirants to be a resident of UP. In such a situation, when there is no compulsion to be a resident of Uttar Pradesh to become a teacher, then this rule has no meaning for imparting training to an aspiring teacher, officials point out.

The admission guidelines for DElEd 2024 training are expected to be released soon by the state government.

The changed rules once implemented would greatly benefit candidates from neighbouring states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Haryana etc.

The craze for DElEd has increased after the Supreme Court rejected the notification of National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) dated June 28, 2018 and on August 11, 2023 ruled that only DElEd trained candidates can participate in primary teachers’ recruitment process and not the BEd degree holders. The decision has witnessed the craze for DElEd starting to rise again among aspiring teachers.

As a direct result of this, even the colleges in Uttar Pradesh which had started showing a disinterest in running the course amidst dwindling applicants have now again started showing a renewed interest in running the course on their campus.

However, despite these developments, 70,100 seats of DElEd remained vacant last year in UP. A total of 3,36,187 candidates applied for admission against 2,33,350 seats on offer including 10,600 seats in 67 District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) and 2,22,750 seats in 2,974 private colleges. Out of these, only 1,63,250 candidates took admission last year.