KOLKATA: West Bengal has cleared 337 B.Ed colleges to begin admissions for the 2026-28 academic session after a second round of state inspections, in the outcome of a statewide quality drive covering teacher-training, pharmacy, polytechnic and industrial training institutions. The details of the inspection exercise were shared on Thursday, November 5.

Source: Careers360

According to Jaganath Chattopadhyay, 156 B.Ed colleges were permitted to admit students after the first phase of inspections, while 451 colleges failed to meet the prescribed standards and were given 21 days to improve. Nine of those colleges did not return for the subsequent inspection. The second round was conducted by a different set of inspectors from those who carried out the first.

Based on the second-round reports, 337 colleges were found to have met the required standards and were allowed to begin admissions from November 4 for the 2026-28 session. The remaining 205 colleges failed to meet the standards again, but the government does not intend to de-affiliate them at this stage. They have instead been asked to improve by the end of 2026, covering infrastructure, faculty strength, student-related facilities and teaching-learning standards, and may be permitted to admit students in the next academic session if they fulfil the requirements.

The drive also covered other institutions. Of the 265 ITIs inspected, 14 were de-affiliated because they did not have basic infrastructure. Of the 134 pharmacy colleges offering DPharm and BPharm courses, 38 have been directed not to admit students during the current academic year. Among polytechnic institutions, one of the 74 inspected has been asked to stop admitting students.

Source: Nation Press

Chattopadhyay said the Higher Education Department and the Technical Education Department decided to inspect the institutions following Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's direction to ensure that education was not treated as a commercial activity and that academic standards were maintained. He clarified that the government was not taking punitive action, and that institutions which failed have been given an opportunity to improve their infrastructure and educational quality.

The latest drive follows earlier action by Baba Saheb Ambedkar Education University (BSAEU), which had withheld affiliation from 253 private teacher-training institutions over alleged violations of NCTE regulations in November 2023.