205 B.Ed colleges in Bengal barred from admitting students for 2026-28 session

If you are planning to join a B.Ed course in West Bengal, check your college’s name before you pay any fee. The state government has barred 205 B.Ed colleges from admitting students for the 2026-28 session after they failed a second round of inspections. At the same time, 237 colleges cleared the re-check and can start admissions from November 4.

Higher Education Minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay shared the details of the inspection drive on November 5. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Education University (BSAEU), the affiliating authority for B.Ed colleges in the state, has published the lists of colleges found eligible and ineligible for renewal of affiliation for the 2026-27 academic year. Students can check both lists on the official BSAEU website before they apply.

Two rounds of checks, 393 colleges cleared in all

The state inspected B.Ed colleges in two rounds. In the first round, 156 colleges met the prescribed standards and were allowed to admit students for the 2026-28 session. The other 451 colleges fell short and were given 21 days to fix the gaps.

Nine of those colleges did not return for the second inspection. The rest were checked again by a fresh set of inspectors, different from the team that carried out the first round. This time, 237 colleges met the norms. That takes the total number of colleges cleared for this session to 393.

The remaining 205 colleges failed the second check as well. The university has directed them not to admit any fresh students to their B.Ed courses for the 2026-28 session.

“205 colleges failed to meet the prescribed infrastructure and academic standards.”

— Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Higher Education Minister, West Bengal

205 colleges get time till December to fix the gaps

The government has not de-affiliated the 205 colleges for now. Instead, it has asked them to improve their infrastructure, faculty strength, student facilities and teaching-learning standards by the end of December 2026. Colleges that meet the norms after that may be allowed to admit students in the next academic session.

The minister said the government was not taking punitive action against the institutions. The aim, he said, was to keep the quality of education intact and to make sure academic institutions did not function like commercial establishments. The inspection drive followed a direction from Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari to protect academic standards.

Pharmacy colleges and ITIs also hit

The same inspection drive covered industrial training institutes, polytechnic institutions and pharmacy colleges offering Diploma in Pharmacy (DPharm) and Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) courses. The action there was just as sharp.

Of the 265 ITIs inspected, 14 have been de-affiliated because they did not have basic infrastructure. Admissions have been stopped at 38 of the 134 pharmacy colleges inspected for the current academic year. One of the 74 polytechnic institutions inspected has also been barred from admitting students.

An earlier briefing by the minister had flagged how deep the problem ran. Only five of the 134 pharmacy colleges inspected met full operational standards, and 14 of the 265 ITIs were found to exist only on paper.

What B.Ed aspirants should do now

If you plan to take admission to a B.Ed course in West Bengal this year, take these steps before you pay anything:

• Check the BSAEU eligible list on the official BSAEU website and confirm your college’s name is on it.
• Do not pay a fee or take admission in a college named on the non-eligible list, even if the college claims the matter will be sorted soon.
• Ask the college for its affiliation renewal letter for 2026-27 and keep a copy.
• Visit the campus if you can. Check that classes are actually running, teachers are present, and the building matches the address in the admission notice.

The crackdown comes at a time when teacher training rules are changing across India. The National Council for Teacher Education has set up panels to open CTET and STET to graduates of the four-year integrated teacher training course, so more routes into school teaching are opening up. But the West Bengal action is a warning too. A B.Ed seat counts only if the college holds a valid affiliation, so the name on the BSAEU list matters more than any promise in an admission brochure.

Why the state ordered the inspections

This is not the first time BSAEU has acted against private teacher training colleges. In November 2023, the university withheld affiliation from 253 institutions over alleged violations of National Council for Teacher Education regulations. A 2024 investigation had also flagged alleged gaps in admissions, student attendance, faculty availability and infrastructure at private B.Ed colleges in Murshidabad.

The state government says the latest drive is meant to fix that record. For students, the message is simple. A college that cannot show working classrooms, enough teachers and a valid affiliation is not a safe place to spend two years and a full fee. We will track the BSAEU lists and the next round of inspections in our education news section.