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About the College:

Established by the National Council of Education, Bengal in 1969, Jadavpur Vidyapith College of Education has a glorious heritage. For a rapid retrospect of Tagore's perception of "the Golden Foundation on which the National Council of Education, Bengal has been built", let us go back to the first decade of the twentieth century. The nineteenth century had visioned a new India pulsating with energy fuelled by the first strong feeling of nationhood. Although Bengal had already lost some of her noblest sons, Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra, Vivekananda, a new generation of leaders in thought and action emerged to sustain and spur the new spirit of nationalism.

To curb the growth of this spirit, a potential threat to the British imperial rule then at its zenith in India, the Government under Lord Curzon took a number of repressive measures : the Indian Universities Act (1904), the Carlyle Circular (1905) and the Partition of Bengal.
Bengal accepted the challenge, and the magic mantra was "Swadeshi". The patriotic songs composed by Rabindra Nath Tagore fostered and kept up the fire of the anti-partition agitation. On the economic front, the revolt addressed itself to the boycotting of British goods in favour of Swadeshi products. On the cultural front, the upsurge triggered, among other things, a demand for a National University. Militant nationalism, which slowly but steadily developed in Bengal was essentially caused by a spirit of defiance among the foreign administration. The British education policy came to be looked upon as a design to produce educated Indians blindly allegiant to the foreign rulers. Naturally, there was a general glamour for National Education - a system of education rooted in the soil, respectful of our national heritage and alive, at the same time, to modern requirements.
November, 1905 was vibrant with memorable events - countless meeting, historic assemblies and impassioned speeches and writings. Satis Chandra Mukherjee's article "The Birth of the National Idea", in the magazine DAWN, crystallized the close relation between national education and national consciousness. On 9th November, at a public meeting Subodh Chandra Mallick promised a personal gift of one lakh of rupees for establishing a national university. On 12th November Sister Nivedita delivered at the Dawn Society an illuminating speech entitled "The Present Crisis and the Need of a National University". On 14th November Ashutosh Chaudhury issued a historic manifesto asking the leading men of the country to assemble at the Bengal Land Holders' Association. The Conference, which was held on 16th November, resolved to establish "a National Council of Education to organize a system of education - Literary, Scientific and Technical - on National Lines and under National Control". Finally, on 11th March, 1906, a formal resolution was adopted at a conference at the Bengal Land Holders' Association. The foundation stone of the Council was laid. On 14th August, 1906 another historic meeting at the Town Hall witnessed the inauguration of the Council's first academic institute, the Bengal National College and School.

To give practical shape to its aims and objects/objectives, the Council opened the Bengal National College and several national schools. Aurobindo Ghose (later Sri Aurobindo) was the first Principal and Satis Chandra Mukherjee, the first Superintendent of the College.
Satis Chandra Mukherjee who had inspired the concept of national education as the spearhead of the Dawn Society, now devoted all his energies to help the National Council organize and execute a three-phase plan of education - literary, scientific and technical. The Council's broad-based scheme of studies was to be imparted in three stages : Primary, Secondary and collegiate.

In 1910 the National Council gained in strength when it merged with the Society for Promotion of Technical Education, which had established the Bengal Technical Institute under the initiative of Tarak Nath Palit. In 1928 the Bengal Technical Institute, moved at Jadavpur, was renamed College of Engineering and Technology. In 1944 Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy became the president of the National Council and remained in office till his death in 1962. With independence, the academic excellence of the Council's College finally gained official recognition. On 16th September, 1955 the Jadavpur University Bill, elevating the Council's College to the status of a University. Moving the Bill, Dr. B.C. Roy, the President of the National Council as well as Chief Minister of the state, said :
"The purpose for which the National Council of Education was started in 1906 was to impart education - literary and scientific as well as technical and professional - on national lines and exclusively under national control, attaching special importance to knowledge of the country, its literature, its history and philosophy and designed to incorporate the best oriental ideals of life and thought with the best assimilable ideals of the West in order to inspire students with a genuine love for and earnest desire to serve the country".
Moving through ups and downs, for fifty years, the National Council grew from dream to dream, from activity to activity till one of its great dreams was fulfilled in 1955 when the Council's College of Engineering and Technology emerged as the Jadavpur University. It was possible only through the untiring efforts of Dr. Triguna Sen and Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy.

Jadavpur University became a reality on 24th December, 1955. Dr. Triguna Sen, a student, teacher and an active member of the Council all his life, became Rector, later Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University.

The Council did not stop dreaming. Relieved of the responsibility of running the College of Engineering and Technology (Jadavpur University), the National Council of Education, Bengal went into a spell of hybernation just for a year. Reviving itself, it decided to undertake another journey. Education, instrumental to social changes and changes in the quality of life, remained the prime concern, and in the next three decades, the Council set up three institutes. Jadavpur Vidyapith (using Bengali as medium of instruction) was established in 1957. Jadavpur Vidyapith College of Education was established in 1969.

As the only evening college of education in the Country, it extends to in-service teacher training for secondary schools providing an opportunity for career improvement. The Jadavpur Vidyapith College of Education was founded formally on September 15, 1969.

The college was affiliated to Jadavpur University in the same year. UGC recognition 2(f) & 12B came in the year . Govt. of West Bengal which recognised the college in 1978 (with retrospective effect) started funding the college in and from 1988-89.

As the only evening College of Education in the country at that time, JVCE soon became very popular, offering training to in-service teachers of secondary schools thus providing an opportunity for career improvement. In 1975 a new wing of Physical Education was attached to the College. But in 1990 it was detached from the JVCE and became a Department of the Jadavpur University.