Last year’s results dumped, MEd test to be held again

The higher education department has asked the Rajasthan University (RU) to conduct the Pre BEd MEd Entrance Test (PBMET) for admission to the three-year integrated postgraduate course, though counselling after last year’s test results was not conducted.

Admissions on the basis of last year’s results were not held as none of the colleges in the state had approval to run the course.

This year, too, RU is not sure whether the colleges have the approval for the course. “To run the course a college needs approval from three bodies – National Council for Teacher Education, the university the college is affiliated to, and the state government. No college in the state had permission to run the course last year,” said prof AVS Madnawat of RU’s psychology department, who is the coordinator for PBMET-2017.

“This year too, the university has not received official information about any college having approval ,” he said. “The government tells us to conduct the test and we conduct it.”

Nathu Lal Suman, joint secretary, department of higher education, said he’ll have to check the records before commenting .

“I travelled 450 kilometres to give the test as Jaipur was the only centre. I got a good score. I was hopeful for a seat but the counseling never happened,” a candidate from Sri Ganganagar, who appeared for the test, said requesting anonymity. “For several months I kept calling the university to know about counselling. They would hang up the moment they would hear I was a candidate for PBMET. It was a waste and now I’m hearing that they are re-conducting the exam,” the candidate said.