Punjabi University, Patiala on behalf of the state higher education department shall be conducting the Punjab B.Ed Common Entrance Test (CET) 2021. The entrance test shall be held for admission to 23,000 course seats across 214 educational institutes across the state. Last year, institutions offering the B.Ed course in Punjab faced a crisis-like situation after more than 45 percent seats remained vacant due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation may get worse today more seats going vacant owing to the second wave of coronavirus. The uncertainty of the current circumstances is worrying the university authorities.
A total of 101 colleges offering the B.Ed undergraduate course are associated with the Panjabi University. These colleges constitute approximately 11,650 B.Ed course seats out of the total 23,000 seats. Similarly, 62 colleges are affiliated with the Panjab University, comprising of 7460 course seats. Lastly, 51 colleges associated with the Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar. These colleges offer 5,100 seats for the undergraduate course.
The country was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic last year resulting in a significant chunk of seats going vacant in government-affiliated B.Ed colleges. Not only private universities but also government universities were affected by the pandemic.
According to reports, five government colleges faced issues owing to more than 25 percent seats remaining vacant in 2020. The same was reiterated by the secretary, higher education, VK Meena. According to Meena, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has granted the given number of seats for the teaching course.
University authorities are yet to announce the official paper pattern for the Punjab B.Ed. CET 2021 examination. However, according to last year’s paper pattern, the entrance exam shall comprise 150 questions for a total of 150 marks. Hence, each multiple-choice question shall be allotted 1 mark. Last year, the paper was conducted through offline mode. The same format is likely to be followed this year.
Last year, the paper was divided into five sections – General Awareness, Teaching Aptitude, General Mental Ability, English and Punjabi or Hindi. The last section was dependent on the subjects which were present during the candidate’s matriculation. Each section comprised of 30 questions amounting to a total of 30 marks.
Similar to Punjab, authorities in Bihar shall be conducting the B.Ed CET 2021 in the state on June 15, 2021. The entrance test shall be conducted by the Lalit Narayan Mithila University (LNMU) on behalf of the state education department. Authorities issued a public notice yesterday, May 07, 2021, announcing the revised schedule for the entrance exam. According to the public notice, registration deadline for the Bihar B.Ed CET 2021 examination has been extended to May 25, 2021.
